(IKS 316) Korean Cinema in a Global Context Fall 2016 Instructor: Jeeyoung Shin, Ph. D Email: jys1829@korea.ac.kr Class meetings: Wednesdays 2:00-4:50 p.m. (Media Hall 505) Course Description This course offers a broad overview of South Korean cinema. We will examine historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic issues, from both local and transnational perspectives. We will also investigate how changes in geo-cultural politics at the local, national, regional, and global levels have influenced the making and remaking of South Korean cinema in terms of both textual and contextual practices. Special attention will be given to the various ways in which contemporary South Korean cinema manifests the complex dynamics and processes of transnationalization and globalization through intraregional and transregional cultural interactions. The course is divided into two parts. The first is largely devoted to an exploration of Korean film history; the second will train students to analyze individual contemporary Korean films in terms of both their aesthetic qualities and the broader cultural and social issues they embody. Weekly screenings will give students 1) exposure to a representative range of film-making traditions, such as Korean Cinema during the Colonial Period, Golden Age, Im Kwon-taek, New Wave, and New Korean Cinema, and 2) a sampling of popular genres and important topics within contemporary South Korean cinema, such as melodrama, North Korea-themed blockbuster, reimagining colonial Korea, transnational auteur, transnational co-production and remake, and multiculturalism and cultural diversity. Throughout the semester, we will also consider how Korean cinema has created and sustained local specificity of culture while drawing on the widely shared consumer language of cinema. At the end of this course, students will have a better understanding of current Korean society and culture, as well as the history and characteristics of Korean cinema. Students are not expected to have any prior knowledge of Korea or of the Korean language. Classes will consist of mini-lectures, student presentations, discussions, and film screenings. Required Text Course Reader Requirements/Grading Attendance/participation (including short film responses) 30% Class presentation 10% Two position papers (1 single-spaced page each) 10% Final research paper (10-12 pages) 50% (Proposal/preliminary bibliographic project: 5%; presentation: 5%; final paper: 40%) 1
Attendance/participation (30%): Attendance at all class meetings and screenings is mandatory. More than one unexcused absence will negatively affect your grade, and four will result in a failing grade for the course. Unavoidable absences must be carefully documented, preferably in advance. Furthermore, three late arrivals, or missing more than sixty minutes of class time, will count as one absence. Students should come to class prepared to discuss all the readings and the films assigned for that week. The course will combine mini lectures, student presentations, discussions, and screenings. Although I will occasionally give short lectures to provide background information not covered in the readings, the class will focus on discussions and student presentations of course materials and students will be responsible for leading this seminar through active participation. Part of the final grade will be based on your participation, which involves not only presence and preparation, but also frequent and significant contributions to class discussions. Each week students will also post on the course s Blackboard site a short (approximately 250 to 300-word) response to the assigned film, commenting on certain aspects of the film that are related to the weekly topic and the assigned readings. Class presentation (10%): Beginning in Week 3, each student will be asked to give a presentation (20 min) on the assigned materials for the weekly seminar. Along with a brief summary of the main arguments of the assigned readings, the student presenter should identify important issues they raise and prepare 3-5 questions with which to organize and lead the seminar discussion. Discussion questions must be posted on Blackboard by 10PM on the Tuesday before the seminar meeting. Sign-up sheets for the dates of presentation will be provided during the second week. Two position papers (10%): You will write two short (400-500 words) critical essays, each responding to two of the readings for the assigned week. In these essays, you should 1) identify major arguments in the readings, 2) speculate on the authors contributions to the field, and 3) critique the arguments by locating their limitations and problems. Research paper (50%) Proposal/preliminary bibliographic project (5%)/presentation (5%)/final paper (40%): Students will write a research paper of 3000-4000 words on a topic relevant to this course. Seven weeks before the final research paper is due, each student will submit a proposal of his/her research project, and four weeks before the due date, a bibliographic project must be submitted. You may expand on one of the lecture topics or choose your own topic. Each student will also be asked to present to the class her/his own research paper in progress, in order to get as much feedback as possible from classmates. Assignment schedules will be available in Week 2, and more detailed guidelines for each assignment will be given in class ahead of time. TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE (Subject to change as necessary) 2
Part I. Korean Film History Week 1 (9/7) Introduction Introduction to the course; Korean history timeline In-class viewing: Excerpts from Sweet Dream (Yang Joonam, 1936) and Snowpiercer (Pong Junho, 2013) Week 2 (9/14) Ch usŏk Holiday No class Week 3 (9/21) Korean Cinema during the Colonial Period Film: Spring of Korean Peninsula (Yi Pyŏngil, 1941; 87 min.) Hyangjin Lee, The Creation of National Identity: A History of Korean Cinema and The Development of South Korean Film, in Contemporary Korean Cinema: Identity, Culture, Politics (Manchester UP, 2001), 16-30, 45-62. Kyung Hyun Kim, Viral Colony in Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era (Duke UP, 2011), 55-80. Week 4 (9/28) Post-war South Korean Cinema Film: Madame Freedom (Chayu puin, Han Hyŏngmo, 1956; 125 min.) Nancy Abelmann and Kathleen McHugh, Introduction, in South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema, ed. Kathleen McHugh and Nancy Abelmann (Wayne State UP, 2005): 1-15. Kathleen McHugh, South Korean Film Melodrama: State, Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar, in South Korean Golden Age Melodrama, 17-42. Week 5 (10/5) Golden Age of South Korean Cinema I Film: The Housemaid (Hanyŏ, Kim Ki-young, 1960; 111 min.) Chris Berry, Scream and Scream Again: Korean Modernity as a House of Horrors in the Films of Kim, Ki-young, in Seoul Searching: Culture and Identity in Contemporary Korean Cinema, ed. Frances Gateward (State University of New York Press, 2007): 99-114. Ann, Minwha, Representing the Anxious Middle Class: Camera Movement, Sound, and Color in The Housemaid and Woman of Fire, (2004). Available at: http://web.archive.org/web/20040506062157/http://www.asianfilms.org/korea/kky/kky/ Stairway/AMH.htm Park, Jiye, Gothic Imagination in Carnivore and The Housemaid, (1999). Available at: http://web.archive.org/web/20040426174635/http://www.asianfilms.org/korea/kky/kky /Stairway/PJY.htm 3
Soyoung Kim, Questions of Woman s Film: The Maid, Madame Freedom, and Women, in South Korean Golden Age Melodrama, 185-200. Week 6 (10/12) Golden Age of South Korean Cinema II Film: Aimless Bullet (Obalt an, Yu Hyŏnmok, 1961; 110 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from A Coachman (Mabu, Kang Taejin, 1961) Kelly Y. Jeong, Nation Rebuilding and Postwar South Korean Cinema: The Coachman and The Stray Bullet, in Crisis of Gender and the Nation in Korean Literature and Cinema (Lexington books, 2011): 77-106. Eunsun Cho, The Stray Bullet and the Crisis of Korean Masculinity, in South Korean Golden Age Melodrama, 99-116. Hyun Seon PARK, Volatile Biopolitics: Postwar Korean Cinema s Bodily Encounter with the Cold War, The Review of Korean Studies 18.1 (2015): 103-126. Week 7 (10/19) Dictatorship and Censorship; Transition to Democracy and New Wave Film: Black Republic (Kŭdŭldo urich ŏrŏm, Pak Kwangsu, 1990; 102 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from Chilsu and Mansu (Pak Kwangsu, 1989) Isolde Standish, Korean Cinema and the New Realism, in Colonialism and Nationalism in Asian Cinema, ed. Wimal Dissanayake (Indiana UP, 1994): 65-89. Kyung Hyun KIM, Male Crisis in the Early Films of Park Kwang-Su, in The Remasculization of Korean Cinema (Duke UP, 2004): 136-151. Seung Hyun PARK, Film Censorship and Political Legitimation in South Korea, 1987-1992 Cinema Journal 42.1 (2002): 120-138. Week 8 (10/26) Im Kwon-taek and the Making of a National Cinema Film: Sopyonje (Sŏp yŏnje, Im Kwon-taek, 1993; 112 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from General s Son (Im Kwŏntaek, 1990) Andrew Higson, The Concept of National Cinema, Screen 30.4 (1989): 36-47. CHO HAN, Hae-Joang, Sopyonje: Its Cultural and Historical Meaning, in Im Kwon-Taek, 134-156. **Final Paper Proposal Due: Thursday, October 27, 5PM via Email Part II. Globalization and New Korean Cinema Week 9 (11/2) The Rise of New Korean Cinema Film: Take Care of My Cat (Koyangyi rŭl put akhae, Chŏng Chaeŭn, 2001; 112 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from Beat (Kim Sŏngsu, 1997) 4
Jinhee Choi, Faces of Globalization, in The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers Global Provcateurs (Wesleyan UP, 2010), 15-30. Chi-Yun Shin, Two of a Kind: Gender and Friendship in Friend and Take Care of My Cat, Vengeance, in New Korean Cinema, 117-131. Darcy Paquet, The Korean Film Industry: 1992 to the Present, in New Korean Cinema, ed. Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Stringer (New York UP, 2005), 32-50. Week 10 (11/9) Melodrama in New Korean Cinema Film: Christmas in August (P alwŏl ŭi k ŭrisŭmasŭ, Hŏ Jinho, 1998; 97 min.) Julian Stringer, Putting Korean Cinema in its Place: Genre Classifications and the Contexts of Reception, in New Korean Cinema, 95-105. Darcy Paquet, Genrebending in Contemporary Korean Cinema, TAASA Review 9.1 (2000): 12-13. Darcy Paquet, Christmas in August and Korean Melodrama, in Seoul Searching, 37-54. Week 11 (11/16) The Theme of North Korea and Korean Blockbuster Film: Welcome to Dongmakgol (Pak Kwanghyŏn, 2005) In-class viewing: Excerpts from Taegeukgi (T aegŭkki, Kang Chegyu, 2000) Jinhee Choi, Blockbusters, Korean Style, in The South Korean Film Renaissance, 31-59. Daniel Martin, South Korean Cinema s Postwar Pain: Gender and National Division in Korean War Films from the 1950s to the 2000s, Journal of Korean Studies 19.1 (2014): 93-114. Chris Berry, What s Big about the Big Film?: De-Westernizing the Blockbuster in Korea and China, in Movie Blockbusters, ed. Julian Stringer (Routledge, 2003): 217-229. Week 12 (11/23) Reimagining Colonial Korea Film: Blue Swallow (Ch ŏngyŏn, Yun Chongch an, 2005; 133 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from Modern Boy (Modŏn poi, Chong Chiu, 2008) Michael Robinson, Contemporary Cultural Production in South Korea: Vanishing Meta- Narratives of Nation, in New Korean Cinema, 15-31. HAHM Chaibong and KIM Seog-gun, Remembering Japan and North Korea: The Politics of Memory in South Korea, Memory and History in East and Southeast Asia: Issues of Identity in International Relations, ed. Gerrit W. Gong (CSIS, 2001): 101-112. Kyung Hyun Kim, Viral Colony in Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era (Duke UP, 2011), 55-80. *Preliminary Bibliographic Project Due: November 25, at Noon (12:00 PM) via Email 5
Week 13 (11/30) Transnational Auteur: PARK Chan-wook Film: Old Boy (Oldŭ poi, Park Chan-wook, 2003; 120 min.) Nikki J. Y. Lee, Salute to Mr. Vengeance!: The Making of a Transnational Auteur, in East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film, ed. Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai (I.B. Tauris, 2008), 203-219. Chi-yun Shin, The Art of Branding: Tartan Asian Extreme Films, in Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema, ed. Jinhee Choi and Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano (Hong Kong UP, 2009), 85-100. Kyung Hyun Kim, Park Chan-wook s Unknowable Old Boy, in Virtual Hallyu, 178-199. Week 14 (12/7) Transnational Co-productions and Remakes Film: The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Ji-woon, 2008; 139 min.) In-class viewing: Excerpts from Daisy (Taeiji, Andrew Lau, 2006) Ti Wei, In the Name of Asia : Practices and Consequences of Recent International Co- Productions in East Asia, in East Asian Cinemas: Regional Flows and Global Transformations, ed. Vivian P. Y. Lee (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 189-210. Vivian P. Y. Lee, J-Horror and Kimchi Western: Mobile Genres in East Asian Cinemas, in East Asian Cinemas: Regional Flows and Global Transformations, 118-141. Gary Xu, Remaking East Asia, Outsourcing Hollywood, in East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film, 191-202. Week 15 (12/14) Screening Multicultural South Korea Film: Secret Reunion (Ŭihyŏngje, Chang Hun, 2010) Required Reading: Iain Watson, Paradoxical Multiculturalism in South Korea, Asian Politics & Policy 4.2 (2012): 233-258. *Presentation of final research paper in progress ** Final Research Paper Due: Wednesday, December 21, 4:00 PM via Blackboard 6