Korean cinema was virtually unavailable to the West during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), and no film made before 1943 has been recovered even though Korea had an active film-making industry that produced at least 240 films. For a period of 40 years, after Korea was liberated from colonialism, a time where Western imports were scarce, Korean cinema became an innovative force reflecting a society whose social and cultural norms were becoming less conservative. This collection of ten essays written about Im Kwon-Taek, better known as the father of New Korean cinema, takes a critical look at the situations of filmmakers in South Korea.
Acknowledgments 7(2) Preface 9(10) David E. James Korean Cinema and Im Kwon-Taek: An Overview 19(28) Kyung Hyun Kim Im Kwon-Taek: Korean National Cinema and Buddhism 47(37) David E. James The Female Body and Enunciation in Adada and Surrogate Mother 84(23) Eunsun Cho The Politics of Gender, Aestheticism, and Cultural Nationalism in Sopyoje and The Genealogy 107(27) Chungmoo Choi Sopyonje: Its Cultural and Historical Meaning 134(23) Cho Hae Joang Sopyonje and the Inner Domain of National Culture 157(25) Julian Stringer Fly High, Run Far: Kaebyok and Tonghak Ideology 182(15) Yi Hyoin Is This How the War Is Remembered?: Deceptive Sex and the Re-masculinized Nation in The Taeback Mountains 197(26) Kyung Hyun Kim In Defense of Continuity: Discourses on Tradition and the Mother in Festival 223(24) Han Ju Kwak An Interview with Im Kwon-Taek 247(28) Appendixes Kyung Hyun Kim 1 Korea: Political and Cultural Events, 1876 to 2000 267(4) 2 Im Kwon-Taek Filmography 271(4) Selected English Language Bibliography of Korean Cinema 275(4) Contributors 279(2) Index 281
David James is a professor of cinema studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties (Princeton University Press, 1989) and Power Misses: Essays Across (Un) Popular Culture (Verso Books, 1996).
