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

Old Masters and New picture palace Korean Film in Transition Since the late 1980s Korean motion-picture show has undergone salient changes in its industrial structure, modes of practice, and aesthetic orientation. Its remarkable work shift into a powerful cultural force in Asia has elicited sizable 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 persistence 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 fashion Home (Chibro, 2002) well illustrate this tendency.1 Amidst the unprecedented success of the new extension of Korean filmmakers in both local and global arenas, one fountainhead remains to be investigated how do old masters of Korean cinema define their art in this period of dynamic transition? My bind addresses this vital and yet somewhat neglected issue by examining thematic and stylistic changes in recent films by Pak Chlsu (Park Chulsoo) and Im Kwntaek (Im Kwon-Taek), two bounteous figures who began their directorial careers in earlier decades but have continued their search for their avouch film language to the present day. Paks Farewell My Darling (Haksaengbugunsinwi, 1996) and Kazoku picture (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 persistent dominated Korean film. Pak continues his formal experiment in his latest wo rk Pongja (Pongja, 2000) in which he blends social and virtual realities by means of a digital camera. In a similar whole step of border-crossing and hybridization, Im incorporates traditional Korean painting into the visual language of Painted brush aside (Chwihwasn, 2002). These veteran filmmakers playful attitudes toward the possibilities of the cinematic medium and especially their common irritation with reflexivity and intertextuality reveal 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 surround of todays Korean film.