Nationalism in Korean Films
This is the second in a five-part series about the Korean film industry contributed by Mary K. Evjen Olsen, executive director of corporate marketing at Dreamville Entertainment, a media corporation that produces and distributes TV documentaries and various global contents worldwide in collaboration with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC and HBO. The series features the history and development of the local movie industry, focusing on political, economic and social aspects. ― ED.
By Mary K. Evjen Olsen
Korean films, in general, have been strongly characterized with their forte that reflects the inner world of humans with plain, placid and composed descriptions, often layered with strong colors of nationalism or collective mentality.
Even when portraying personal issues, Korean films of a traditional sense rarely allow a single individual's subjectivity or autonomy. This is clearly a distinctive strength of Korean films that easily give rise to the cohesion of forces within society when necessary.
It is, however, a weakness at the same time that limits and undermines a writer-oriented aestheticism or idealism.
Where, then, is the strong tendency of traditional nationalism or collective group consciousness within Korean films coming from? It could be perhaps explained by the peculiarity of the era when the motion pictures and their production technology were first introduced in Korea.
It is a widely accepted view among Korean film professionals that the year when films, or motion pictures, were first introduced in Korea was 1903, two years before the 1905 Treaty that Korea's diplomatic sovereignty was deprived by Japan.
One advertisement, printed on June 23, 1903, in the Hwangsung Daily, is a perfect example providing evidence of the influx and paid public screening of motion pictures.
The advertisement read, ``Motion picture screening everyday at 20:00-22:00, except Sundays and rainy days, on the technical window of an electricity company in Dongdaemun, central Seoul. They are featuring spectacular views from Korea and many lively cities of Europe and America. Entrance fee is one penny."
Many film screening facilities, like Wongak Company and Motion Picture Screening House, opened throughout Seoul, showing the early cinematographs and VitaScope short films.
By 1910, the year of Japan's annexation of Korea, motion pictures became so popular that a street of film theaters grew in Seoul and theaters spread and reached the rest of Korea by 1920.
Awakened by imported films from Europe and America, average Korean film viewers developed strong anti-Japan sentiment accompanied by nationalism, learning Occidental civilization and ideology at the same time.
And, finally in October 1919, producer Kim Do-san of Shingeugjwa, or New Play Seats, put up a show called ``The Righteous Conventionalism," a play that connected the stage with screen.
Though only some parts of the story were projected to the screen in-between the intervals of stage acts, the motion picture filmed at this time was indeed the very first Korean film production, the beginning of the Korean film production history.
For the following three years, many play houses, like Hyeokshindan (Renovation Company), Munyedan (Literary Art Company) and Chewisungjwa, followed the pattern of plays combined with moving pictures.
Producer Kim, in particular, vigorously produced such works as ``Friendship Today" (1919), ``Detective's Pain" (1919) and ``A Chivalrous Robber" (1920), focusing usually on themes of humanity and morality and simply captivating the audience at the time with sad, melancholic fighting scenes on the stage and screen.
It was not until 1923, when a complete film production was finally pursued in Korea for the first time. Though the film, ``A Pledge under the Moon" directed by Yoon Baek-nam, was a Japanese colonial government-initiated project aimed to promote the spirit of saving among the average Korean people, it was a complete film production from beginning to the end.
With a simply story line of a man, who had once dissipated all his family assets through drinking and gambling but rebuilds his life thanks to his decent fiancee's frugality, the film met with grand public approval and praise, generating a first-time Korean female film star named Lee Wol-ha.
From this point on, the Korean film industry went into full-scale production, releasing ``The Story of Lady Chunhyang" (1923) by Dong-A Culture Association; ``The Story of Janghwa & Hongnyeon," (1924) by Dansung Film Company; ``Sad Songs of the Sun," (1924) by Chosun Cinema Company; ``The Story of Lady Shimcheong" (1925) by the Yoon Baek-nam Production; ``A Pioneer" (1925) by Koryeo Cinema; and finally ``Arirang" (1926) directed by Na Woon-kyu.
This, according to the Korean Film Archive, was the first period of prosperity in the Korean film industry.
While the majority of the Korean films produced during this time were featuring very traditional Korean values of promote-the-good-and-punish-the-evil depicted in the Korean traditional folk stories or allegories, the most notable and significant achievement of the Korean film industry from this time was the birth of nationalistic films.
The movie ``Arirang," by Na Woon-kyu, in particular, was a monumental piece of film work that established a major turning point for the development of Korean films, in the enormous impact the film had had on the mass of the Korean society back then by evoking self-awakening of the Koreans as a nation under the brutal Japanese colonial rule.
``Arirang," in other words, was the first Korean movie that intensively reflected the Korean people's defiant spirit against Japanese imperialism.
Overwhelmed by the movie ``Arirang" with fanaticism, the Korean populace went into nationalistic frenzy and boldly began to release their pent-up wrath and animosity against Japan, while the film's theme song ``Arirang" naturally became the people's national anthem that echoed all over the country as a powerful emotional source of the Korean independence movement among the elite.
The strong sense of defiant spirit and national awakening that began with a film produced under the harsh Japanese oppression has become a traditional flow and spirit of nationalism and collective group consciousness in many of the Korean films seen even today.