A local film industry first appeared in Korea under
Japanese colonial rule in the Twenties. Despite the hardships
and oppression of that era, a steady output of films
were produced up until the late 1930s, at which time the
industry was subsumed by the Japanese propaganda
effort in the buildup to World War II. Unfortunately none of
these early films still exist in complete form. Neglect and
the destruction brought on by war have erased all of
Korea’s early film history.
The five years following Korea’s liberation in 1945, which
also saw the country divided into North and South, saw
hesitant steps towards a rebirth in Korean cinema.
Nonetheless, the onset of civil war from 1950-53 left the
capital of Seoul reduced to rubble and the film industry in
tatters. A sustained rebuilding, making use of film equipment
donated by the U.S., only began to take place in the
mid-Fifties. Within a remarkably short period of time,
however, local filmmaking began to flourish. Helped along
by blockbuster hits The Tale of Chunhyang (1955) and A
Free Woman (1955), film companies began to multiply
and production increased until Korea was making 108
films a year by 1959.
This year’s “Golden Age of Korean Cinema: Seven
Directors” programme focuses on the Sixties, which from
a commercial standpoint remains unparalleled by any
other era in Korean film history. With television still in its
infancy, moviegoing formed the primary means of entertainment
for young and old alike, with the average Korean
watching six films per year by 1968. This decade also
saw the emergence of a new generation of directors,
who as a group would produce some of Korea’s most
diverse and exciting films, despite the highly restrictive
policies of the military government.
Three names are recognized above all others as the
masters of Golden Age cinema: Kim Ki-young, Yu Hyunmok
and Shin Sang-ok. Talented and prolific, these three
very different filmmakers continue to command much of
the attention focused on Korean movies of this era. Kim
Ki-young, nicknamed “Mr. Monster,” stands out as the
most unconventional and bizarre of the trio. His 1960
masterpiece The Housemaid, about a diabolical maid who
seduces her master and rips apart the Confucian order of
his family, is considered by many to be the best Korean
film ever made. After years of neglect, the work of Kim
Ki-young was finally re-habilitated at the third Pusan
International Film Festival, after which his films have slowly
begun to circulate worldwide in festivals and special
screenings.
Yu Hyun-mok is often described as the most intellectual of
Golden Age filmmakers. His anguished and brooding
Obaltan (1961), heavily influenced by the Italian
Neorealists, also ranks at the top of many best-ever lists
in Korea. Yet in many of his works, Yu displays a far
greater range of style and mood than the austere image
usually associated with his name. Guests Who Came By
The Last Train (1967) is a colorful and multifaceted portrait
of young adults struggling with love, art, and ambition
in Sixties Korea.
Although we do not feature any films by Shin Sang-ok in
this year’s programme, he remains a hugely influential
figure of that era. He stands out not only for his extensive
and accomplished filmography, but also for his powerful
company Shin Film, which with its own shooting studio,
acting school, distribution chain and 300+ employees
towered over the industry much as Cinema Service
and CJ Entertainment do today.
Yet beyond the “big three” Korean masters, a large number
of filmmaking talents remain unknown abroad and
mostly forgotten in Korea. The works of these directors
express an energy and experimental spirit that, while
rooted more firmly in commercial traditions, provide many
of the artistic highlights of the decade.
Of these lesser known directors, the prolific Kim Soo-yong
has begun to achieve some outside recognition, most
prominently in a retrospective at the 2002 Pusan
International Film Festival. His Mist (1967) is a melancholy,
impressionistic account of a man’s trip to his hometown,
where he is overpowered with memories and the
attentions of an attractive young schoolteacher.
Meanwhile, another immensely talented director who may
be on the verge of an international re-discovery is Lee
Man-hee. After setting off a boom in war films with one of
his early works The Marines Who Never Returned (1962),
Lee went on to become one of the industry’s most
respected directors. His untimely death in 1975 at the
age of 45 is considered to have robbed Korea of one of
its greatest filmmakers. Lee’s The Evil Stairs (1964)
remains a masterpiece of the thriller genre, with its
supremely accomplished film technique driving the story
of a doctor who kills in pursuit of his ambitions.
Other lesser known directors include Jeong Jin-woo,
whose youth dramas display gaudy images and an impulsive
energy which borders on self-parody; Kim Ki-deok
(no relation to the contemporary director of the same
name), a versatile filmmaker who shot the monster film
Grand Evil Master Yonggary (1967) as well as Barefooted
Youth (1964), the quintessential Korean youth film; and
Kwon Chul-hwi, a director and screenwriter whose Public
Cemetery Under The Moon broke new ground in the aesthetics
of the horror genre.
Of course, the films of the Sixties were profoundly influenced
by the political and social environment of the time.
One of the defining events of this era was a series of
student-led protests on April 19, 1960 which toppled the
authoritarian government of Syngman Rhee. The movement’s
success profoundly influenced the attitudes and perceptions of younger Koreans, who had grown up during
and just after the war. The “4.19 generation” ultimately
took a far more active role in society than young
people had in previous decades, and the resulting generation
gap can be seen in many films of the time such as
Barefooted Youth.
After April 19, for the space of a little over a year, Korean
society enjoyed a much greater freedom of expression,
during which films such as Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid
and Yu Hyun-mok’s Obaltan were shot. Nonetheless in
May 1961 a military coup led to the accession of dictator
Park Chung-hee, who would lead the country until his
assassination in 1979.
As in other sectors of society, the military government
introduced disruptive and authoritarian reforms which
severely impacted the film industry. The first manifestation
of this control came in the Motion Picture Law of 1962,
which sought to introduce massive consolidation and a
strong emphasis on commercial filmmaking. After passage
of the law, film companies were required to own their own
studios and equipment, have a minimum number of
actors and directors under contract, and to produce a
minimum of 15 films per year. That year, the number of
film companies dwindled from 71 to 16, and soon after
only 4 officially registered companies remained. Major
revisions in the law would follow almost every subsequent
year, making for chaos among the filmmaking community.
Ultimately, by the early Seventies, the initiative and vitality
of the film industry would be crushed under the heel of
government restrictions.
Directors of this era worked in an industry marked by
frenzied activity. The Motion Picture Law allowed film companies
to import one foreign feature for every three local
movies produced, so directors were under tremendous
pressure to work quickly. Movies were shot in a matter of
weeks on limited budgets, in studios that were unheated
in the winter (in many films you see clouds of steam
escaping from the actors’ lips). More popular filmmakers
often turned out 6 to 8 films per year. Kim Soo-yong, who
is Korea’s most prolific director ever, shot 10 features in
1967 alone, including Mist.
Once completed, movies faced a strict government censorship
board, which would often ban or delay films
based on either political/social content (Yu Hyun-mok’s
Obaltan), alleged pro-communist sympathies (Lee Manhee’s
Seven Women Prisoners, for which he was briefly
arrested), or sexuality (Shin Sang-ok’s Eunuch).
Most directors produced a striking range of genres
throughout their careers, in order to meet the voracious
demands of both audiences and film companies. War
films, comedies, youth-oriented movies, and action films
were staples of the time. The first animated film Hong Kildong
appeared in 1967. Literary adaptations such as
Mist and Guests Who Came By The Last Train were
encouraged by the government through a point system,
which awarded the producers of selected films the right
to import foreign movies. Nonetheless, melodrama
remained probably the most popular and influential genre
of the time, often impacting films of other genres (Public
Cemetery Under The Moon being one example).
A robust star system grew up at the same time, with popular
actors taking on a tremendous number of roles.
Leading man Shin Sung-il (Mist, The Student Boarder,
Barefooted Youth), now a representative in Korea’s
National Assembly, appeared in 536 films during his
career, and 45 in 1968 alone. He and co-star Eom Aengran
from Barefooted Youth remain one of the most
famous and popular on-screen couples in Korean film history,
and the two ultimately married each other. As for
actresses, Shin Sang-ok’s wife Choi Eun-hee and Kim Ji-mi
(The Student Boarder) received the spotlight for much of
the decade’s first half, until the debut of three superstars
dubbed by the press as “the troika” - Moon Hee (Guests
Who Arrived by the Last Train), Yoon Jung-hee (Mist), and
Nam Jung-im (also in Guests Who Arrived by the Last
Train). The enduring popularity of these three women has
led to the term “troika” being resurrected every decade
or so to describe the era’s leading actresses, most
recently in the late 1990s with Shim Eun-ha, Jeon Doyeon
and Ko So-young.
Despite the fame and visibility of Sixties actors, one
aspect of their persona often remained hidden to the
public: their voice. Virtually all films were dubbed throughout
the Sixties as part of the relentless drive to produce
films quickly and at low cost. Although some stars such
as Do Geum-bong (Public Cemetery Under the Moon) and
Joo Jeung-nyeo (The Housemaid) made a point to dub
their own voices during post-production, others such as
Kim Ji-mi and Eom Aeng-ran were given personalized
dubbing artists who loaned their voices (without onscreen
credit) to an actor or actress virtually throughout
an entire career. This practice would prove long-lived in
Korean cinema, only dying out in the Eighties.
The seven films chosen for this programme are meant to
highlight the range of styles and personalities that make
up Korean Cinema’s Golden Age. Despite the constraints
faced by Sixties filmmakers, they succeeded in capturing
the imaginations and ambitions of young and old alike
with creativity and an impressive command of the film
medium. These directors must also have shared one
thing in common with the characters in their films: a stubborn
will and relentless motivation to succeed, despite
the disadvantages and obstacles thrown in their path.
Whether driven by love or loss, it would be this will to succeed
which would power the local film industry and deliver
Korea from the abject poverty they faced after the war.
FILMS PRODUCED PER YEAR, 1960-1970
FILM PRODOTTI PER ANNO, 1960-1970
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
87 79 112 148 137 161 172 185 195 229
Source/Fonte: Lee Young-il & Choe Young-chol, The History of Korean
Cinema.
theaters/sale admissions/biglietti venduti
1962 344 96,000,000
1965 529 122,000,000
1968 597 183,000,000
Darcy Paquet