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Film Studies: National Cinemas

This guide highlights selected resources for various national cinemas.

Introduction to Korean cinema

North Korea

Early film screenings took place in pre-partition Korea in the late 1890s, and the first public exhibition is dated to 1903. Korea did not develop a film industry of its own until around the mid 1910s; and the first sound film appeared in 1935, when the cinemagoing public was estimated to comprise about a third of the population. At this time, Korean cinema screens were dominated by imports from the West and from Japan (Korea was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945). The colonial government had established a motion picture section in 1920, and over 200 propaganda films were made between that date and 1945. However, only about 160 feature films were made in Korea during the entire colonial period: most of these were shinpa, or contemporary dramas and melodramas. Cinema in Korea has been subject to government censorship from the beginning: in colonial times, censorship of scripts and films was undertaken by the police, and regulation of domestically-made films was especially strict. Despite censorship, however, a few nationalistic films were made, and between the 1920s and 1960s, the KAPF (Korean Art Proletarian Federation) produced a number of ‘tendency’, or socialist-realist, films, though those made before 1945 were rarely screened in public.   ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). North Korea, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 Aug. 2022

South Korea

While there is some disagreement about the date of the earliest film screening in pre-partition Korea, it appears to have taken place between 1897 and 1899, with the first public exhibition dated to 1903. Korea did not develop a film industry of its own until around the mid 1910s, and accounts of Korean silent cinema mention the films Eurijok Kutu/Righteous Revenge (Kim To-san, 1919) and Weolha-eui maengse/Plighted Love (Yun Paeng-nam, 1923). Korea’s first sound film, a Japanese-financed historical drama called Chun-hyang Jeon/The Story of Chunhyang (Lee Myeong-wu), appeared in 1935, when the cinemagoing public was estimated to comprise about a third of the population and Korean cinema screens were dominated by imports from the West and Japan. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945, and the colonial government had established a motion picture section in 1920: over 200 propaganda films were made between that date and 1945. However, only about 160 feature films were made in Korea during the colonial period: most of these were shinpa, or contemporary dramas and melodramas (for example Sangonghu/Jade Tears (Lee Ku-yeong, 1925)). Cinema in Korea has been subject to government censorship from the beginning: in colonial times, censorship of scripts and films was undertaken by the police, with regulation of domestically-made films especially strict: in 1942 all such films were banned. Despite the censorship, a few nationalistic films were made, including Na Un-gyu’s Arirang (1924); and between the 1920s and 1960s, the KAPF (Korean Art Proletarian Federation) produced a number of ‘tendency’, or socialist-realist, films, though those made before 1945 (like Chahachon/The Underground Village (1931)) were rarely screened in public (see socialist realism).   ...

Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). South Korea, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 Aug. 2022

Searching the online catalog

There may be several subject headings you can use to find resources in the online catalog. The most direct subject heading is listed below. The call number range is also included. Our collection for Korean film is a mixture of English, Korean and other languages. While the majority of resources focus on South Korea, our collections do include works on North Korean film. The following searches will lead you to resources for both Koreas.

Introductory reading(s)

Selected book titles

Finding scholarly journal articles for Korean cinema

Articles and other writings about Korean language film can be found in many publications. Our collection includes short runs of journals which looks exclusively at Korean language film. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.

Selected film titles

Find more Korean film titles in the library's online catalog.

Keeping up with the journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for a national or regional cinema? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.