Sowing seeds for Korean cinema boom in 1950s

By Kwak Yeon-soo

In Korean film history, the late 1950s are regarded as a period of revival, overcoming the post-war chaos and paving the way for the golden age of cinema in the 1960s.

Through the mid-to-late 1950s, Korean cinema witnessed significant growth, laying the foundations for the current film industry. Despite the turbulence after liberation from Japanese rule (1910-1945) and the ruins of the Korean War (1950-53), both the quality and quantity of filmmaking increased rapidly by the end of the decade.

In 1959, film production was in triple digits for the first time ever, with 111 films made in 1959, according to "A Look inside South Korean Cinema: K-Movie, The World's Spotlight on Korean Film." This is a drastic jump from the 18 films produced in 1954.

In the mid-late 1950s, Korean films adopted modern elements and there were more varied stories, with directors branching into genres such as action, melodrama, comedies, crime thrillers and period films.

Poverty and gloom were prevalent in people's lives, but at the same time, an overwhelming sense of hope emerged in the country after the Korean War. Democracy and capitalism took shape, and people started to favor individuality over collectivism. The public's craving for commercial movies enabled the film industry to flourish.

As a result, the country saw its first international film festival prize win in 1957, when director Lee Byung-il's "The Wedding Day" (1956) won a special comedy award at the 4th Asian Film Festival. The film, which centers on Master Maeing's scheme to marry his maid to his future son-in-law after hearing that he has a lame leg, was also invited for screening at the Berlin International Film Festival the same year.

Korea's first female director Park Nam-ok (1923-2017) made her debut in 1955 with the film "The Widow," which focuses on the struggles and issues facing widowed women during the Korean War. In the film, Min-ja, one of thousands of Korean War widows, refuses to obey the Confucianist dictat that she must remain faithful to her late husband.

A scene, in which she drinks with her late husband's friend and pours a beer with one hand, was a controversial subject at the time. However, the director's dedication to her work ― even strapping her infant child to her back on set ― helped open the door for female directors.

As the film industry grew, there were films made in collaboration with creators in foreign countries. Jeon Chang-geun's "Love with an Alien" (1957) was the first Korean-Hong Kong made film. It depicts the forbidden love between a Hong Kong singer and a Korean composer.

The first large-scale studio and full-scale film production system were also established in the late 1950s. In 1957, Sudo Film built Anyang Film Studio, which was modeled after the Hollywood studio system, and shot "Life" (1958), Korea's first cinemascope film. This marked the beginning of the big screen era in the Korean film industry.

Chungmuro, known for its concentration of cinemas, started to bustle with theaters under Japanese colonial rule, but it became a focus of film lovers after the Korean War.

According to the Korean Film Archive, temporary theaters were set up in Chungmuro in the 1910s for Japanese audiences. Among them were the Gyeongseong High Entertainment Theater (opened in 1910), and the Daejeong (1912) and Hwanggeum theaters (1913).

In 1912, the Wumi Theater began screening films for Joseon (Korean) citizens in Seoul and in 1918, the Danseong Theater was remodeled into a movie theater.

The success of director Lee Gyu-hwan's "Chunhyangjeon" (1955), an adaptation of the same name folk tale, encouraged aspiring filmmakers, screenwriters and actors to flock to the small district in hopes of making films.

The historic melodrama was a box office hit in Seoul, delivering a sense of comfort to Korean audiences with its romantic sentiment. By the end of the 1950s, there were over 70 film production houses.

Although many large film-related companies have left the district, Chungmuro is still considered the symbolic center of Korean cinema and is used as shorthand for the film industry in Korea.

During the Korean War, the Korean film industry mainly grew in the southern port city of Busan. Because the city was not a heavy combat zone, it was a provisional capital for 1,023 days and crowded with refugees.

With the influx of refugees, including filmmakers, cinemas played a significant role in providing comfort during the war period.

"After the Korean War broke out, film production grew stagnant in all regions but Busan because it remained as an unoccupied territory," Wee Gyeong-hae, a professor at Chonnam National University, said during a symposium hosted by Korean Film Archive, Oct. 24.

Unlike in the past, when films were often used as a tool for enlightenment, they were focused on amusing the public and experimenting with uncharted subjects and themes in the 1950s.

Melodrama, led by Han Hyeong-mo's "Madame Freedom," became the most favored genre in the 1950s. The conflict between Confucian codes and open minded neo-liberalism was the main subject of most melodramas of the time.

"Melodramas that were made between 1955 and 1957 show a tendency of setting a new relationship between men and women and portraying women as proactive beings who break free from family roles" film critic Lee Young-il wrote in his book "The History of Korean Cinema." "But ironically, the freewheeling images of a woman were portrayed as an object of admiration and punishment at the same time."

After the success of "Chunhyangjeon," there was a craze for producing period dramas, such as "King Gojong and Martyr An Jung-Geun" (1959), "The Flower of Relief" (1956) and "A Sad Story of Danjong" (1956).

Sixteen of 30 films produced in 1956 were period dramas. They often focused on the life story of characters rather than historical stories so that the audiences could turn to personal accounts rather than a collective history.

Comedy was the most notable genre that started to grow in the 1950s. Portraying everyday life of the era with satire and humor appealed to the greater public, who were unaccustomed to freely expressing their opinions without consideration of gender, generation and class. Through lighthearted comedy films, the public were able to enjoy a hopeful mood.

Crime thrillers, action movies and gangster films also appeared during this period. "The Hand of Destiny" (1954) was the first spy thriller in Korea to incorporate elements of melodrama. "The Boxes of Death" (1955) was an anti-communist film and detective drama, and "The Flower in Hell" was a combination of gangster film and melodrama.