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Early Korean Cinema: Lost Films From the Japanese Colonial Period from 7 – 28 February 2019

and present:
‘Early Korean Cinema: Lost Films From the Japanese Colonial Period'
from 7 – 28 February 2019

THU 7 FEB, 18:00 – SCREENING WITH LIVE PERFORMANCE + INTRO:
청춘의 십자로 / Onstage: Chung Chong-hwa, Senior Researcher (Korean Film Archive)

MON 18 FEB, 18:10 – SCREENING + DISCUSSION:
Spring of the Korean Peninsula 반도의 봄 / Onstage: Baek Moonim (Yonsei University), Lee Hwa-jin (Inha University) Chung Chong-hwa (Korean Film Archive) and season co-curator Kate Taylor-Jones

Marking the centenary of the first Korean film (made in 1919) Southbank and KCCUK will present Early Korean Cinema: Lost Films From The Japanese Colonial Period, which will feature all surviving feature-length Korean films produced before 1945. The season, which runs from Thursday 7 February – Thursday 28 February, is co-curated by University of Sheffield Senior Lecturer Kate Taylor-Jones and KCCUK's Film Curator Hyun Jin Cho and will include a diverse treasure trove of melodramas, propaganda films and newsreels from the colonial period as well as giving audiences the opportunity to learn about the stars, the directors and the politics of this complex and controversial time in Korean history.

The season opens at BFI Southbank on 7 February with Korea's oldest surviving film Crossroads of Youth 청춘의 십자로 (Ahn Jong-hwa, 1934). Audiences will have the opportunity to experience this tale of love, desire, betrayal and revenge on the streets of Seoul as it was first premiered in 1934, with live performances from musicians, a narrator and actors, bringing the work to life. The majority of the films programmed were made under Japanese occupation (1910 to 1945), and so are products of a complicated and difficult period in Korean history, however, to just reject these films as nothing more than colonial propaganda would be to dismiss the skills, desires and ambitions of the Korean filmmakers. These include 군 용열차 (Suh Kwang-je, 1938), 지 원병 (Anh Seok-young, 1941), 조선의 애국일 (Unknown, 1940), 일본실록 (Unknown, C.1943) 조선시보 제11 (Unknown, C.1943) and 수업료 (Choi In-gyu and Bang Han-joon, 1940).

The season closes on 28 February with the most recent film in the programme, which celebrates Korean independence in 1945 and was the first film made after Japan's defeat. 자 유만세 (Choi In-gyu, 1946) charts the life and death battle that Korean freedom fighters faced under Japanese occupation. Directed by Choi In-gyu who had previously made colonial propaganda films, Hurrah! For Freedom shows the complex personal and artistic decisions people had to make under colonial occupation.

BFI Southbank and KCCUK present ‘Early Korean Cinema: Lost Films From the Japanese Colonial Period' from 7 – 28 February 2019

Tickets will be available from 15th January on the BFI Southbank Website


About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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