Description
Book SynopsisA textual account of the hallyu (Korean wave) films popular internationally, especially in Asia, from the late 1990s until 200708.
Trade Review“A highly informative and imaginative account of the multifaceted powers of virtuality that make up the unique phenomenon of Korean cinema in the early twenty-first century.”—
Rey Chow, author of
Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films“Coming close on the heels of
The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema, his seminal analysis of the psychic and political foundations of the New Korean Cinema of the 1990s, Kyung Hyun Kim has now produced the essential text on hallyu, the phase of Korean cinema and related forms of popular culture that became a global sensation in the first decade of the new millennium. Bringing key Deleuzian concepts into focus with sensitive and nuanced readings of international blockbusters, including
The Host (Bong Joon-ho) and
Oldboy (Park Chan-wook), as well as the work of notable art-cinema auteurs, Kim establishes himself as not just the most important Anglophone critic of South Korean cinema but a key figure in film and cultural studies generally.”—
David E. James, author of
The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles“[A]n impressive work. The book is timely without being trite or merely fashionable and it contains a number of significant theoretical and local insights into the global present without being uselessly obscure to the general reader. Kim’s incisive close readings of widely known South Korean productions (
The Host,
Old Boy,
Secret Sunshine, etc.), as well as the potential to discover new titles, make the book a pleasure to read and to revisit for those inside, outside, or in between Korean studies.” -- Travis Workman * Journal of Asian Studies *
“[T]his is a book that needs to be read by anyone who is interested in the field [of Korean Cinema].” -- John Finch * Asian Studies Review *
" . . . Kim's book is special in that every effort was exerted to select the most relevant topics and issues for readers in a comprehensive and sophisticated way. I would recommend this book because it is a well-written and detail-oriented account of Korean movies . . . As all chapters are very informative and engage in theoretical arguments that are not just descriptive, this book will be very useful to readers who really love Korean films or are film majors in graduate programs and would like to gain a comprehensive knowledge of Korean cinema." -- Sang Yee Cheon * Korean Studies *
Table of ContentsForeword / Martin Scorsese ix
Preface xi
Introduction: Hallyu's Virtuality 1
1. Virtual Landscapes:
Sopyonje,
The Power of Kangwon Province, and
The Host 23
2. Viral Colony:
Spring of Korean Peninsula and
Epitaph 55
3. Virtual Dictatorship:
The President's Barber and
The President's Last Bang 81
4.
Mea Culpa: Reading the North Korean as an Ethnic Other 101
5. Hong Sang-soo's Death, Eroticism, and Virtual Nationalism 123
6. Virtual Trauma: Lee Chang-dong's
Oasis and
Secret Sunshine 152
7. Park Chan-wook's "Unknowable"
Oldboy 178
8. The End of History, the Beginning of Historical Films Korea's New
Sagük 200
Notes 213
Bibliography 235
Index 243
