The fact of the matter is, outside of Korea, Korean cinema is still a very 'new' thing. Generally most people may have seen your Oldboy's and My Sassy Girl's but outside of that the earliest film that those in the West will have likely seen would probably be JSA (2000) or Shiri (1999). This puts Korean cinema in an interesting position of only being around 14 years old (15 using the Korean birthday system!). For a national cinema so young, it really has come along leaps and bounds, but the more interesting thing to me is what was it like before this point.
Does anyone know who the fuck this chick is and what she
has to do with Shiri? I still can't figure it out!
We produced a video montage in the lead up to the film festival last year (KOFFIA), which covered a short history of Korean cinema. It proved to be very popular upon release, both with local and international audiences. It was rare to see coverage of films prior to this BH date (BH: Before Hallyuwood). It was beautifully edited by Kevin Park and with an equally delightful score by Samuel Choi, both who were just beginning to ply their trades. I thought I would reproduce it here on the blog as it really deserves to get
as much exposure as possible. And yes, even it reflects the state of
Korean cinema exposure, given only 6 films featured were released before
the BH point, and 10 after it. But it gives a short glimpse into the
history and progress the Korean industry has made, and maybe one day an
extrapolated version would be produced by others fans around the world. Check it out below!
'The History of Korean Cinema', Thanks Kevin and Sam
