Seoul searching : culture and identity in contemporary Korean cinema / Frances Gateward, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gateward, Frances K.

Series:

SUNY series, horizons of cinema

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Korea (South).

Motion pictures.

Korea (South).

Culture in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

xiii, 314 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2007]

Summary:

Seoul Searching is a collection of Fourteen provocative essays about contemporary South Korean cinema, the most productive and dynamic cinema in Asia. Examining the three dominant genres that have led Korean film to international acclaim-melodramas, big-budget action blockbusters, and youth films-the contributors look at Korean cinema as industry, art form, and cultural product, and engage cinema's role in the formation of Korean identities.

Committed to approaching Korean cinema within its cultural contexts, the contributors analyze feature-length films and documentaries as well as industry structures and governmental policies in relation to transnational reception, marketing, modes of production, aesthetics, and other forms of popular culture. An interdisciplinary text, Seoul Searching provides an original contribution to film studies and expands the developing area of Korean studies.

Contents:

Part 1 Industry Trends and Popular Genres 13

1 Korean Cinema after Liberation: Production, Industry, and Regulatory Trends / Seung Hyun Park 15

2 Christmas in August and Korean Melodrama / Darcy Paquet 37

3 Storming the Big Screen: The Shiri Syndrome / Chi-Yun Shin, Julian Stringer 55

4 Timeless, Bottomless Bad Movies: Or, Consuming Youth in the New Korean Cinema / David Desser 73

Part 2 Directing New Korean Cinema 97

5 Scream and Scream Again: Korean Modernity as a House of Horrors in the Films of Kim Ki-young / Chris Berry 99

6 Forgetting to Remember, Remembering to Forget: The Politics of Memory and Modernity in the Fractured Films of Lee Chang-dong and Hong Sang-soo / Hye Seung Chung, David Scott Diffrient 115

7 Reflexivity and Identity Crisis in Park Chul-soo's Farewell, My Darling / Hyangsoon Yi 141

8 Nowhere to Hide: The Tumultuous Materialism of Lee Myung-se / Anne Rutherford 157

9 Closing the Circle: Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East? / Linda C. Ehrlich 175

Part 3 Narratives of the National 189

10 Waiting to Exhale: The Colonial Experience and the Trouble with My Own Breathing / Frances Gateward 191

11 Crossing the Border to the "Other" Side: Dynamics of Interaction between North and South Koreans in Spy Li Cheol-jin and Joint Security Area / Suk-Young Kim 219

12 Race, Gender, and Postcolonial Identity in Kim Ki-duk's Address Unknown / Myung Ja Kim 243

13 Transgressing Boundaries: From Sexual Abuse to Eating Disorders in 301/302 / Diane Carson 265

14 Taking the Plunge: Representing Queer Desire in Contemporary South Korean Cinema / Robert L. Cagle 283.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780791472255

0791472256

9780791472262

0791472264

OCLC:

76898082