"Korean Cinema and Transnationality" Film Series

Date: 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 (All day) to Wednesday, December 3, 2014 (All day)

Location: 

Room 212, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

Film series for Korean Cinema and Transnationality: Conference Course (East Asian Film and Media Studies 121) 
with Hyangjin Lee, Kim Koo Visiting Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

This film series explores key issues and themes in the study of Korean cinema today, including the concept of transnationality. The series constitutes three parts: first, we will examine historical transformations, as portrayed in national cinema, and transnational historicity, focusing on selected films’ views and criticisms on topics such as ethnic nationalism, colonial memories, the legacy of the Cold War, national division, and democratization. In the second part of the series, we will address issues of diaspora, migration, North Korean defectors, globalization in South Korean films. The final films of the series will investigate the rise of transnational/post-national Korean cinema in Japan and China. 

All screenings will be held in Room 212, 2 Divinity Avenue, on Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m.

Screening Schedule

PART I: NATIONAL CINEMA—HISTORY AND GENRES

September 9
Horror: Ghosts of Japanese Colonialism and Family Melodrama
The Public Cemetery under the Moon (Kwon Cheol-hui, 1967)

September 16
Historical Drama: The Politics of Sexuality and Cultural Tradition
Sopyonje (Im Kwontaek, 1993)

September 23
War Film: A Genealogy of Anticommunism
Spring in My Hometown (Yi Kwang-mo, 1998) 

September 30
Action Thriller/Neo-Noir: Breaking Taboos in a Post-Confucian Society
Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
 

PART II: IMAGINING OTHERNESS FROM A SOUTH KOREAN PERSPECTIVE 

October 7
Mixed Children at American Military Bases in Post-Colonial Film
Address Unknown (Kim Ki-dok, 2001)

October 14
North Koreans and Migrant Workers in Division Drama
The Journals of Musan (Park Jung-Bum, 2011) 

October 21
Imaginary Diaspora and Co-Produced Films
Rikidozan: A Hero Extraordinary (Song Hae-sung, 2004) 

October 28 
Myths of Homogeneity and Globalization
The Yellow Sea (Na Hong-jin, 2011) 
 

PART III: HALLYU AND KOREAN DIASPORA CINEMA 

November 4
Portrayals of Zainichi and the Korean Wave in Japanese Film 
Go (Isao Yokisada, 2002) 

November 11
Korean-Japanese Diaspora Film by Sai Yoichi
Blood and Bones (Sai Yoichi, 2005) 

November 18
Korean-Japanese Diaspora Film by Gu Su Yeon
Hard Romanticker (Gu Su Yeon, 2011) 

December 2
Korean-Chinese Diaspora Film by Zhang Lu
Dooman River (Zhang Lu, 2010) 

Co-sponsored by the Korea Institute
Supported by the Kim Koo Visiting Professorship Endowment at Harvard University