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Contemporary Korean Cinema: Culture, Identity and Politics

Contemporary Korean Cinema: Culture, Identity and Politics
By Hyangjin Lee

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Product Description

This comprehensive book defines the significance of film-making and film viewing in Korea. Covering the introduction of motion pictures in 1903, Korean cinema during the Japanese colonial period (1910-45), and the development of North and South Korean cinema up to the 1990s, Lee introduces the works of Korea's major directors, and analyzes the Korean film industry in terms of production, distribution, and reception.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #165086 in Books
  • Published on: 2001-06-23
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 256 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lee's book does an excellent job of clearly organizing the films so that they reflect how Koreans have seen themselves..." -- Korean Quarterly

About the Author

Hyangjin Lee is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield.

Customer Reviews

contemporary korean cinema: a rosetta stone for decoding north korea5
Hyangjin Lee's "Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture, Politics" has a main text less than 200 pages in length and devotes only 50 percent of its space to North Korea. Even so, the book is one of the most valuable studies available on North Korea, for Lee demonstrates throughout the book how "film is essentially a construct....a creation reflecting salient aspects of a prevailing ideology." That this is especially important in the case of North Korea is due to the fact that all movies in this tightly-controlled state are prdouced and scripted by the government and that the guiding hand behind cinema since the late 1960s has been none other than Kim Chong-il's.

It is clear from the introduction to "Contemporary Korean Cinema" that Lee has been classically trained in the theory of cinematic studies. The chapters that follow, meanwhile, indicate that she has a superb ability to analyze the aesthetics and symbolism of individual films. At the same time, she traces, with a most laudable economy, changing trends in North Korean ideology. This last feature, in particular, makes this book a must-read for all those tracking the arcana of P'yongyang politics.

"Contemporary Korean Cinema" is also a welcome introduction to the film of South Korea, with which audiences in the West, Asia, and the Middle East are more familiar. As South Korean film and television gain ever greater popularity overseas, Lee's book itself should merit increasing consideration and study.