New Wave filmmakers light up Dark Days

From left are directors Bae Chang-ho; Jang Seon-woo; Park Gwang-soo and Jung Ji-young. IN the 1980s and 90s, they produced thought-provoking films showing a departure from old-fashioned Korean movies which repeated the same old lover story tropes. The Busan International Film Festival later dubbed them “New Wave” filmmakers. / Korea Times file

This is the third in a series of articles highlighting the centennial of Korean cinema ― ED.

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Starting in the early 1980s, Korean cinema saw the rise of a group of young, innovative filmmakers. With their thought-provoking films showing a departure from “old-fashioned” Korean movies which repeated the same old love story tropes, their presence signaled that Korean cinema had entered a new phase.

Directors Bae Chang-ho, Park Gwang-soo, Jang Seon-woo and Jung Ji-young are some of the representative figures of those days.

In a 1996 publication, the Busan International Film Festival organizers called the movement the “Korean New Wave.”

Growing up watching European movies at Seoul Cinematheque or the French Culture Center in Seoul, they were self-taught filmmakers.

The New Wave continued until 1995, becoming a prelude to a Korean cinema Renaissance that began around then.

“Korean cinema showed signs of declining from the early 1970s with a sharp drop in ticket sales and film productions,” said Cho Joon-hyoung, a senior researcher at the Korean Film Archive in Seoul. “Mass production that began in the 1960s dealt a blow to Korean cinema as production houses' cookie-cutter approach resulted in plenty of low-budget films with the same old stories. From the 1970s, Korean cinema was regarded as something cheap and of poor quality. Cinemagoers turned their backs on Korean films.”

The fatigue among cinemagoers became evident in the 1970s, causing film experts to discuss the crisis in the Korean movie industry. The situation went from bad to worse in the 1980s with the surge of “erotic” films.

Movie lovers were sick and tired of such formulaic Korean films.

Yang Hae-nam, the author of “Faces of Korean Movies: Yang Hae-nam's Collections of Korean Film Posters,” said censorship, diffusion onto TV and a poor filmmaking infrastructure were the three core elements that triggered the decline of Korean films at that time.

Among those, he said TV had a very detrimental impact on the sales of movie tickets. “Facing falling ticket sales, those who were involved in the film industry were anxious and tried in vain to draw viewers back to theaters,” he said.

Movies in the 1980s were directly affected by a political upheaval.

In 1980, President Chun Doo-hwan took power through a military coup after his predecessor Park Chung-hee was assassinated in October 1979. The sudden political change prompted popular protests against the military government, and this in turn encouraged President Chun to seek to curry favor with the public.

Under his government, censorship of sexual content was drastically eased, causing some production houses to release erotic films revealing bold sexual scenes to attract the public.

The emergence of New Wave directors came as Korean cinema hit its lowest point.

Bae Chang-ho, who made his directorial debut at the age of 29 in 1982 with the film “People in the Slum,” breathed fresh air into the depressing mood of the film industry. The movie revolves around an unmarried woman having a son and their struggles after the woman marries a different man. The award-winning film gave the rookie director fame and commercial success. Following his successful debut, Bae released several box office hits, including “Whale Hunting” and “Deep Blue Night” (both in 1984). His entertaining films attracted viewers with their solid stories.

In most cases, New Wave filmmakers shared no common traits in terms of their films or genres. But what differentiated them from traditional directors was that their movies were realistic and dealt with topics that were previously regarded as taboo.

Director Park Gwang-soo broadened the horizon of Korean films by exploring various topics such as an “unconverted” long-term prisoner from the Korean War, a house boy for the U.S. military forces, and a self-immortalized labor unionist are some of the lead characters in his films.

Such topics were off-limits in the 1970s when President Park Chung-hee was in power.

After his death, cinema censorship was eased and filmmakers like Park began to address issues that were repressed during the previous military government.

The emergence of the New Wave Movement in Korean cinema is associated with people power. Popular pro-democracy protests had continued after the Chun government's brutal crackdown on the anti-government protests in Gwangju in May 1980. Time, however, was on the democracy fighters' side. The years-long protests led President Chun to back down and led to the historic June 29 Declaration in 1987.

Jung Ji-young released a set of films that were highly critical of the military government. His “White Badge” (1992) centers around a novelist in his 40s who is a Vietnam War veteran, telling the story of war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The way director Jung handled the issue differentiated him from other filmmakers in that previous war movies praised patriotism and military heroes or their sacrifices for the nation. Another of his movies, “North Korean Partisan in South Korea” (1990), is about a North Korean war correspondent who later becomes a combatant during the Korean War.

Director Jang Seon-woo boldly portrayed people's sexual desire in his films, including “The Road to Race Track,” making him one of the most controversial filmmakers of the time.