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The volume provides the first detailed and authoritative overview of Korean cinema history, and in so doing develops new historical and critical understandings of Korean cinema from the period of Japanese colonial rule to the present day, with two very different cinematic traditions in this divided peninsula.
The contributed chapters approach the subject from multiple and dynamic perspectives. The seven chapters in Part I, 'Historical Trajectories', provide diachronic coverage of several key areas of activity across the full breadth of Korean cinema history includinjg film policy, film style, and stars. Parts II-V provide synchronic coverage of a range of narrower topics, moving from the earliest extant silent film,
Crossroads of Youth, (1934) to post-war genres such as melodrama and comedy, and from North Korean cinema to today's complex transnational movie environment. Each chapter develops its own distinctive argument while providing the reader with a detailed and accurate account of the particular period and topic under discussion. Many of these topics have never been discussed before in English-language scholarship, making this unique publication essential reading for anyone seeking to develop their understanding of cinema in the two Koreas.
About the author
NIKKI J. Y. LEE is Lecturer in Culture and Gender Studies at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. Her article 'Salute to Mr Vengeance: The Making of a Transnational Auteur Park Chan-Wook' appears in
East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film (I.B. Tauris, 2008) and she is the author of
Branding East Asian Cinema: Orientalism and Auteurism (2011).
JULIAN STRINGER is Associate Professor in Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK, and co-editor of Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies. He is editor of
Movie Blockbusters (2003), co-editor (with Chi-Yun Shin) of
New Korean Cinema (2005) and co-editor (with Alastair Phillips) of
Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts (2007).
