For the past decade, the Korean film industry has enjoyed a renaissance. With innovative storytelling and visceral effects, Korean films not only have been commercially viable in the domestic and regional markets but also have appealed to cinephiles everywhere on the international festival circuit. This book provides both an industrial and an aesthetic account of how the Korean film industry managed to turn an economic crisis—triggered in part by globalizing processes in the world film industry—into a fiscal and cultural boom. Jinhee Choi examines the ways in which Korean film production companies, backed by affluent corporations and venture capitalists, concocted a variety of winning production trends. Through close analyses of key films, Choi demonstrates how contemporary Korean cinema portrays issues immediate to its own Korean audiences while incorporating the transnational aesthetics of Hollywood and other national cinemas such as Hong Kong and Japan. Appendices include data on box office rankings, numbers of films produced and released, market shares, and film festival showings.

Examining the theoretical, historical, and contemporary impact of South Korea's Golden Age of cinema.

Hollywood films may dominate the world’s box offices today, but in Korea it’s the homegrown product that has been capturing the public’s attention. Korean films industry today and look inside of directors and stars. Korean film directors were getting major press at the world’s different film festivals. Exports were booming, and the films that reached overseas audiences found a warm reception there Contents Prologue Chapter One A Look Inside Korean Cinema The Korean Film Industry Today A Foreign Perspective Fostering New Talent Chapter Two Going Global Hallyu and Korean Film Working Internationally: Co-Productions Acclaimed Directors K-Movie Stars Chapter Three How Korean Film Got Here The Early Years (1920–1939) Golden Age: The 1960s and the ‘Literary Film’ Out of the Quicksand (1970–1989) Renaissance: 'Planned Movies' and Government Support (1990 to today) Chapter Four Film Festivals Busan International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul Jecheon International Music & Film Festival Other Festivals Chapter Five Ten Korean Films with Overseas Followings Appendix Further Reading Award-winning Korean Films at Overseas Festivals Park Chan-wook,Hong Sang-soo,Kim Ki-duk,Lee Chang-dong,Bong Joon-ho,Kim Jee-woon, Im Sang-soo, Byun Young-joo, Choi Dong-hoon, Na Hong-jin, Yang Ik-june, Yun Seong-hyeon, Yeon Sang-ho, Song Kang-ho, Jeon Do-youn, Sul Kyoung-gu, Lee Byung-hun, Jun Ji-hyun, Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), The Housemaid, The Coachman, Heavenly Homecoming to Stars, The Surrogate Woman, Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?, My Sassy Girl , Oldboy, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. . . and Spring, The Host, Poetry

South Korean cinema is a striking example of non-Western contemporary cinematic success. Thanks to the increasing numbers of moviegoers and domestic films produced, South Korea has become one of the world’s major film markets. In 2001, the South Korean film industry became the first in recent history to reclaim its domestic market from Hollywood and continues to maintain around a 50 percent market share today. High-quality South Korean films are increasingly entering global film markets and connecting with international audiences in commercial cinemas and art theatres, and at major international film festivals. Despite this growing recognition of the films themselves, Korean cinema’s rich heritage has not heretofore received significant scholarly attention in English-language publications. This groundbreaking collection of thirty-five essays by a wide range of academic specialists situates current scholarship on Korean cinema within the ongoing theoretical debates in contemporary global film studies. Chapters explore key films of Korean cinema, from Sweet Dream, Madame Freedom, The Housemaid, and The March of Fools to Oldboy, The Host, and Train to Busan, as well as major directors such as Shin Sang-ok, Kim Ki-young, Im Kwon-taek, Bong Joon-ho, Hong Sang-soo, Park Chan-wook, and Lee Chang-dong. While the chapters provide in-depth analyses of particular films, together they cohere into a detailed and multidimensional presentation of Korean cinema’s cumulative history and broader significance. With its historical and critical scope, abundance of new research, and detailed discussion of important individual films, Rediscovering Korean Cinema is at once an accessible classroom text and a deeply informative compendium for scholars of Korean and East Asian studies, cinema and media studies, and communications. It will also be an essential resource for film industry professionals and anyone interested in international cinema.

Korean film has been heralded as the “newest tiger” of Asian cinema. In the past year, South Korea became one of the only countries in the world in which local films outsold Hollywood films, and Korean director Park Chan-wook was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes. New Korean Cinema provides a comprehensive overview of the production, circulation, and reception of this vibrant cinema, which has begun to flourish again in the past decade, following the lifting of repressive government policies. In addition to providing a cultural, historical, and social context for understanding this burgeoning cinema, the book considers the political economy of South Korea's film industry, strategies of domestic and international distribution and marketing, and the consumption of Korean films throughout the world. The volume also includes a glossary of key terms and a bibliography of works on Korean cinema. New Korean Cinema gathers prominent critics from North America, Asia, and Europe to make sense of this exploding film industry. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complex roles played by national and regional cinemas in a global age.

In Cine-Mobility, Han Sang Kim argues that the force of propaganda films in Korea were derived primarily from the new mobility afforded by transportation. Kim explores the association between cinematic media and transportation mobility, and its connection with the new culture of mobility, including changes in gender dynamics, that accompanied it

The 2012 smash "Gangnam Style" by the Seoul-based rapper Psy capped the triumph of Hallyu , the Korean Wave of music, film, and other cultural forms that have become a worldwide sensation. Dal Yong Jin analyzes the social and technological trends that transformed South Korean entertainment from a mostly regional interest aimed at families into a global powerhouse geared toward tech-crazy youth. Blending analysis with insights from fans and industry insiders, Jin shows how Hallyu exploited a media landscape and dramatically changed with the 2008 emergence of smartphones and social media, designating this new Korean Wave as Hallyu 2.0. Hands-on government support, meanwhile, focused on creative industries as a significant part of the economy and turned intellectual property rights into a significant revenue source. Jin also delves into less-studied forms like animation and online games, the significance of social meaning in the development of local Korean popular culture, and the political economy of Korean popular culture and digital technologies in a global context.