I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Film posters explore motion picture history
This combined picture shows, from left, the film posters for “Seong Chun-hyang (1961),” “The Love Story of Chun-hyang (1961),” “Yalkae, a Joker in High School (1976),” and “Madame Freedom (1956).” / Courtesy of Yang Hae-nam
By Kang Hyun-kyung
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Box-office hits mirror how Korean society has been evolving over the past century.
In his new book “Faces of Movies: Yang Hae-nam's Collection of Korean Film Posters” published by Sakyejul or Four Seasons Publishing, author Yang shared 248 film posters with his knowledgeable interpretation of each film and its role in Korea's motion picture history.
“Faces of Movies” gives a rare snapshot of 100 years of Korean cinema history. Director Kim Do-san's 1919 film “Righteous Vomiting” is the nation's first motion picture. The movie is about a son's revenge on his wicked stepmother who took the family's fortune.
Yang says censorship and the diffusion of TV sets in the 1970s were two milestone events that prompted the decline of Korean cinema in the 1970s and 80s.
He characterizes the previous two decades, the 1950s and 60s, as the golden age of Korean cinema. Having no other media to have fun with, Koreans flocked to theaters. Several well-made films filled over 100,000 theater seats at that time.
The good old days for Korean cinema were gone with the diffusion of TV sets. Koreans were drawn into TV and spent most of their free time at home watching TV.
State intervention in film production made things worse, according to Yang.
Then the Park Chung-hee government adopted a set of guidelines filmmakers “must abide by” when making and releasing films. Some “problematic” or obscene scenes were cut and some films were not allowed to screen.
In the face of endangered freedom of expression, some filmmakers turned to sex and violence as topics of their movies. Due to limited budget, however, action movies were coarse and drew ridicule from viewers. Film lovers turned their backs on Korean cinema and Western films dominated theaters in the 1980s.
Amid dark days, the surge of movies featuring teenage stars was a noticeable trend in the 1970s. The 1976 film “Yalkae, a Joker in High School,” which revolves around the adventure of a naughty teenager, became a box-office hit.
But the presence and popularity of films starring teenagers were not strong enough to turn the tide.
“Faces of Movies: Yang Hae-nam's Collection of Korean Film Posters” by Yang Hae-nam
In the early 1980s, the Chun Doo-hwan regime strove to divert the public's attention to cinema from the legitimacy controversy that had troubled Chun from the incipience of his government. The military general-turned-president took power through a coup, causing popular uprisings calling for his resignation from the top government job.
Censorship regarding obscenity was eased dramatically and movies featuring “overly exposed” actresses got the green light to screen. Amid a tolerance of eroticism, a flurry of films which were previously seen as obscene and subject to censorship, hit local theaters. Director Jung In-yeop's 1982 film “The Ae-ma Woman,” which depicted woman's sexual desire, became a box office hit with some 300,000 ticket sales.
Film posters have improved dramatically in the mid-1980s as a group of talented photographers and visual artists joined the poster production. Previously, still cuts were used in film posters. Visual artists pulled together sophisticated film posters by editing photos taken by professional photographers.
The two decades of dark days for Korean cinema showed signs of ending in the late 1980s as a group of young, talented filmmakers challenged the domination of erotic movies. Award-winning filmmakers Im Kwon-taek, Bae Chang-ho, Jang Sun-woo and Lee Myung-se were some of them and they sought to find their own niche in the film industry.
Partly due to their endeavors, Korean cinema has been prospering since the 1990s. Currently, annual ticket sales in Korea reach over 200 million, showing Korea is one of the largest film markets in Asia.
In “Faces of Movies,” Yang says the Korean fairytale of Chung-hyang is filmmakers' favorite topic with the production of 13 films in total reinterpreting the old love story.
In January 1961, a rare competition was underway between two films dealing with the same topic of Chun-hyang ― “Seong Chung-hyang” directed by filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and “The Love Story of Chun-hyang” directed by Hong Sung-ki.
The two films have several parallels other than the topic. The two directors, Shin and Hong, cast their wives, Choi Eun-hee and Kim Ji-mee, respectively, for the lead roles in their films. Choi and Kim were the most popular actresses of their day. The two films were released in January with “The Story of Chun-hyang” on Jan. 18 and “Seong Chun-hyang” 10 days later.
Director Shin's film won the competition by attracting some 300,000 spectators. Meanwhile, the other Chun-hyang film, which lost the battle, became forgotten and this led to the breakup of the Hong-Kim couple.
Yang said the 1956 film “Madame Freedom” directed by Han Hyung-mo was a game changer in Korean cinema history. He said it was a well-made film and one of the greatest pieces of all time.
The movie is based on the namesake best-seller fiction written by Jung Bi-seok and run by Seoul Daily newspaper from January to August 1954. “Madam Freedom” revolves around an unfaithful husband and his wife who is lured by a young, handsome playboy she met at a club. Due to the plot, however, the movie became controversial, generating a heated pros-and-cons debate over its screening.