[Hallyu Souvenir Shop (Seoul 2013). Foto Rb]
Introduction
General considerations about
the global audio-visual industry will be followed by brief notes on some Korean
films.[1]
1. General considerations
The biggest film industries in
the 20th and 21st centuries have been the USA, India, Nigeria, Japan
and China. Hollywood still prevails for profits. Bollywood had a supremacy for
the number of films, but it was overtaken by Japan in 2010. China, since 2012,
leads the number of ticket sales. The figures of leading box office markets in
Asia in 2016 had South Korea in the 4th position after China, Japan
and India.[2]
Why have South Korean films become so popular even with audiences that do not particularly
know Korean culture?
There are various answers to
this question. Let us start with some films.
2. Some Korean Films
Korean cinema has shown
mastery of techniques and experimental tendencies that put some of its
directors in the category of world quality auteurs. Various directors pursue
diverse paths. I will mention only a few films and
four directions:
- Poetics of cruelty;
- Humanism and history;
- Reality and minimalism;
- Romance.
2.1. Poetics of Cruelty
A number of Korean films
produced in the last decades, based on local stories, are characterized by
spectacular action and graphic images within the framework of global cinema.
Three directors in this group are Park Chan Wook, Kim Ki Duk and Bong Joon Ho.
Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy (2003) and The Handmaiden (2016), among other films he directed, have been
acclaimed in the West for their unusual story lines, but also cynicism, violence
and sexuality.
Oldboy
is the story, set in modern times, of a man kidnapped in an isolated flat, his
release after fifteen years, and finally confrontation with the awkward truth
concerning his responsibility in the death of a girl from school, revenge on
him by the girl’s brother, and incest. Film critic Peter Bradshaw assigns five
stars to this film and writes:
“[…] this horrifying […]
revenge thriller from Korea’s […] dark maestro
Park Chan-wook, […] is making the British and American offerings in this genre
look pretty quaint. Oldboy has touches
of Kafka, and echoes of British paranoia thrillers […]. But it opens up a whole
new sicko frontier of exotic horror […]”.[4]
I am not sure how flattering
this comment, supposedly positive, is. Oldboy
appears to belong within the global trend of pulp fictions. I remain
perplexed about its rough nature, given my preference for humanistic cinema. I
think Oldboy shocked audiences due to
its content while impressing experts for its procedures.
The Handmaiden, a period film set during the Japanese occupation, has a different
breath and impact than Oldboy, but it
does include the themes of scheming, erotic literature, love and revenge. In
2016, when The Handmaiden was first
shown, Katie Rife described Park’s work as “combining operatic themes of
vengeance and destiny with outrageous twists and a sumptuous visual
sensibility”. In the same interview, Park himself points out that there is
humour in his work, he interweaves “many genres”, and his purpose is to make
vengeance seem a “foolish […] business”.[5]
Also praised in the West have
been Kim Ki Duc’s films.
This director observes that
his Spring, Fall, Summer, Winter… and
Spring Again (2003) is meant for “people to think about the meaning of
their life”.[6] The story is set in a small
Buddhist temple in the middle of a lake, where a hermit raised by an older monk
falls in love with a girl staying there for treatment. The young monk marries
the girl, but she betrays him. He kills her, returns to the monastery and is
arrested. After serving a prison term, and following his master’s death, he
returns to the temple where he undertakes a process of self-reconstruction,
which includes adopting as pupil a child left in the temple by a woman who,
going back to the outside world, falls into the frozen lake and dies. Buddhist
principles and risks in breaking them, symbols of samsara, the power of sutras
to heal the soul, the cycle of rebirths and the difficulty of living a moral
life are all piled up in this film. Kim Ki Duk, however, states that his
approach is rather to “traditional culture” than religion.[7] The visual impact is
noticeable, especially in scenes of nature.
In Samaritan Girl (2004), high school student Jae Yeong prostitutes
herself to raise money for a trip to Europe. She dies after throwing herself
from a hotel window to avoid being arrested. To atone for her friend’s
behaviour, her school mate Yeo Jin contacts Jae Yeong’s former clients, but
instead of being paid by them she returns the money her friend received. Yeo
Jin’s policeman father discovers her activity, secretly punishes the men she
sleeps with, kills one of them and is finally arrested. Doubts are raised about
the meaning of crime, justice and rectitude.
Pietà
(2012), despite the title, is a story of horror. Kang Do works for a
money-lender. He injures insolvent debtors to obtain their insurance money. A
woman, who claims to be the mother who abandoned him several years before, is
in fact the mother of one of his victims and takes revenge by killing herself
in front of him. He punishes himself by committing suicide. The moral questions
in this film are put so crudely that it was difficult, at least for me, to
watch it. However, it won the Venice Golden Lion. Several viewers saw it as an
allegory of the hardship created by capitalism.[8]
There is a vast critical
bibliography in European languages on this author. Gombeaud inserted him,
already in 2006, “among the most prominent directors of the new movement of
contemporary cinema”.[9] Bellavita defines him as
“wild boy” for the brutality of his films.[10] Hye Seung Chung believes that
Kim Ki Duk’s insertion in Asian “extreme cinema” is a misunderstanding. She
rescues Kim’s “transnational movement across literal and figurative borders”
and his “boundlessly inventive cinema”.[11]
A few words now on Bong Joon
Ho’s science fiction Snowpiercer (2013).[12] This film, intended for those who like fast
action, is mostly in English with some Korean due to the two Korean characters.
Despite its globalized commercial aspects, Snowpiercer conveys
the dystopian message of a dark future world, frozen due to climate change.
Only a few humans survive by taking shelter in a train which constantly tours
the world. In a violent rebellion of the underprivileged, all die except two,
an adolescent and a child, who discover that the world temperature has
increased, so they will be able to live in some kind of positively
post-apocalyptic Earth.
2.2. Humanism and History
Among many in this category,
perhaps the most famous Korean director in the West is master of cinematography
Im Kwon Taek. His moving and intellectually stimulating film Seopieonje (1993) is the pitiful story of
a boy and a girl instructed by a master of pansori
(or musical storytelling).
Im’s Hanji (2011) is a complex story that interweaves the protagonist’s
private life and his attempt to revive the ancient Korean art of paper of
superior quality.[13]
Probably best-known is Chunhyang (2000), based on one of the
essential stories of classic Korean literature, in which the virtue and loyalty
of the protagonist are threatened when her lover leaves. She remains faithful
despite being persecuted by a powerful man. The story comes eventually to a
happy ending.[14]
Connor observes that, despite
a few scenes of passionate love that would not be suitable for a younger
audience, “Chunhyang is
a unique and virtually flawless introduction to Korean film and culture”.[15]
This film has a strong
meta-fictional element since it alternates pansori
on a theatrical stage to cinematic action.
This director is an auteur and
his intellectual poetics appeals to European critics. His treatment of Korean
history is informative and stimulates curiosity among audiences worldwide.
2.3. Reality and Minimalism
In this section I would like
to mention Hong Sang Soo, who has directed a number of films set in modern
Korea. He avoids the flamboyant and portrays ordinary people and their
interactions. His minimalism could be compared to French director Rohmer.[16]
One of his films is Our Sun Hee (2013), in which the protagonist
needs a recommendation to obtain a postgraduate post, and joggles between three
men who fancy her but discover only at the end that she is the same woman each
of them likes. This film is
non-sensationalist and ironic; it shows unexceptional urban details, small
restaurants, people dressed simply; and it enhances the role of conversation.[17] Set within a humane context,
it is relevant to modern globalized people by contrast to the prevalent
spectacular and blatant shows we are exposed to.
Hong Sang Soo’s most recent
film, Claire’s Camera (2017), is a
Korean/French production and stars Isabelle Huppert and Kim Min Hee.
In this case we have a
director who moves between cultures technically and intertextually while
presenting interesting Korean stories. Hence his appeal to French and other
European viewers.
2.4. Romance
A special case is that of
South Korean romantic films. Their themes of love, family, friendship, enmity
and destiny are universal, but the setting and the twists in the plots can be
recognized as specifically Korean.
An example is Kwak Jae Yeong’s
The Classic (2003),[18] a film I liked due to good
acting and its double-layered story taking place both in the present and the
past. It tells about a contemporary young woman finding out about her mother’s
first love, and partly re-experiencing the mother’s life narrative in the
present time.
One might also mention My Sassy Girl (2001),[19] another sentimental film
directed by Kwak Jae Yeong, a slapstick comedy which became successful all over
Asia due probably to its unconventional female protagonist who has a dominant
position in the relationship with her boy-friend, thus questioning traditional
male and female social roles.
Conclusion.
Coming to a conclusion, South
Korean films stand very well in the context of global audio-visual stories.
When they arrive in the West, they add something original, inventive, complex
to the stories we are used to watching.
[Roberto Bertoni]
According to Business Wire: “In 2014 South Korea
became, on a per capita basis, the highest-attending film territory in the
world. In 1998 there were 500 single screen cinemas and the industry sold 50
million tickets, just a quarter of them to domestically-produced films. By
2016, more than 2,400 multiplex screens had opened, leaving only 80 traditional
cinemas. More than half the 217 million tickets sold were to Korean movies”.
Available from:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170929005531/en/South-Korea-Cinema-Industry-Research-Report-2017.
[3]
http://www.koreatimesus.com/korean-dramas-find-new-market-in-central-south-americas/.
[4] Bradshaw, P., Oldboy, The Guardian
15-10-2004. Available from:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2004/oct/15/2.
[5] Rife, K., “Park Chan-wook on blending
genres and why revenge is meaningless”, AV
Film, 19-10-2016. Available from: https://film.avclub.com/park-chan-wook-on-blending-genres-and-why-revenge-is-me-17982
53527.
[6] This quotation is in Chung, H.S., Kim Ki-duk, University of Illinois,
2012, p. 108.
[7] Ibidem.
[8] See the comments published in Amici Cinema. Available from:
http://www.amicinema.it/2012/09/5884/.
[9] Capdeville-Zeng, C., Demir, A., Gombeaud,
A., Lagandré , C., and Rivière, D., Kim
Ki Duk, Parios, Dis Voir, 2006.
[10] “Ragazzo selvaggio” in
the original Italian. Bellavita, A., Kim
Ki Duk, Florence, Il Castoro, 2006.
[11] Chung, H.S., Kim Ki-duk, University of Illinois, 2012, p. 7.
[12] It is based on Transperceneige, (a French graphic novel 1984-2000, Tournai,
Casterman, 2013), adapted by Bong himself. The
film stars Jamie Bell, Ewen Brenner, Chris Evans, Go Ah-sung, Ed Harris, John
Hurt, Song Kang-ho, Octavia Spencer, Tilda Swinton.
[14] Corea, 2000. Original title: 춘향뎐 (Chunhyangdyeon),
2002. Starring Jo Seung Woo and Lee Hyo Jeong. Available with English subtitles
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrP_67J0iSE.
http://www.socialstudies.com/pdf/Chunhyang.pdf.
Connor is an educational K-12
inter-cultural officer who works with Korean communities in the USA.
[16] A comparison with Resnais has also been made. See
Brody, R., “Hong Sang Soo’s Brilliant Claire’s
Camera”, The New Yorker, 8-3-2018.
Available from:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/hong-sang-soos-brilliant-claires-camera-stars-isabelle-huppert-in-cannes.
[17] As Darren Hughes observes in an interview
with the Korean director: “[…] your characters barely exist outside of
conversation”. Hughes, D., “’There Are Miracles’: A Conversation with Hong Sang
Soo”, Notebook, 15-11-2017. Available
from:
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/there-are-mirarcles-a-conversation-with-hong-sang-soo.
[18] The present writer’s review is available
from:
http://cartescoperterecensionietesti.blogspot.ie/2011/05/classic.html
[19] Available from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Pc3v0j5b4.
