Old Masters and New Cinema: Korean Film in Transition :: Free Essays Online

Old Masters and New Cinema Korean Film in Transition Since the tardy 1980s Korean cinema has undergone salient changes in its industrial structure, modes of practice, and aesthetic orientation. Its remarkable transformation into a powerful cultural force in Asia has elicited considerable attention from both the commercial and critical sectors of the international film circuit. Recent discussions of Korean cinema have largely been centered on its grocery store expansion and generic diversification over the past two decades. Accordingly, a strong spotlight has been cast on groundbreaking newcomers in the industry as catalysts for its rapid growth. The nationwide Shiri (Shiri, 1999) syndrome brought about by Kang Chegyu and similar phenomena triggered by Pak Chanuks Joint Security Area (Kongdong kyngbi kuyk, 2000), Kwak Kyngtaeks Friends (Chingu, 2001), and Yi Chnghyangs The Way Home (Chibro, 2002) closely illustrate this tendency.1 Amidst the unprecedented suc cess of the new generation of Korean filmmakers in both local and global arenas, one question remains to be investigated how do old masters of Korean cinema define their art in this period of dynamic transition? My article addresses this vital and however somewhat omit issue by examining thematic and stylistic changes in recent films by Pak Chlsu (Park Chulsoo) and Im Kwntaek (Im Kwon-Taek), two prominent figures who began their directorial careers in earlier decades but have act their search for their own film language to the present day. Paks Farewell My Darling (Haksaengbugunsinwi, 1996) and Kazoku Cinema (Kajok sinema, 1998) and Ims Chunhyang (Chunhyangdyn, 2001), while employing the conventional mode of storytelling as a structural scaffold, often break down the wall between diegesis and nondiegesis. They thereby undermine cinematic illusionism, which has long dominated Korean film. Pak continues his formal experiment in his latest work Pongja (Pongja, 2000) in which he blen ds social and virtual realities by means of a digital camera. In a similar spirit of border-crossing and hybridization, Im incorporates traditionalistic Korean painting into the visual language of Painted Fire (Chwihwasn, 2002). These veteran filmmakers playful attitudes toward the possibilities of the cinematic medium and especially their common concern with reflexivity and intertextuality grass their changing views on life, art, and society. In light of their long contributions to the plot-driven mimetic tradition of mainstream cinema, Paks and Ims innovative styles can be seen as ironic yet earnest responses to the shifting cultural milieu of todays Korean film.