Table Of ContentEclipsed Cinema
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd ii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
EDINBURGH STUDIES IN EAST ASIAN FILM
Series Editor: Margaret Hillenbrand
Available and forthcoming titles
Independent Chinese Documentary
Dan Edwards
Th e Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro
Woojeong Joo
Eclipsed Cinema
Dong Hoon Kim
Memory, Subjectivity and Independent Chinese Cinema
Qi Wang
Hong Kong Neo-Noir
Edited by Esther C. M. Yau and Tony Williams
www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/eseaf
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd iiii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
Eclipsed Cinema
The Film Culture of Colonial Korea
Dong Hoon Kim
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd iiiiii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the
humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial
and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more
information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Dong Hoon Kim, 2017
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
Th e Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 10/13 Chaparral Pro by
IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 2180 5 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 2181 2 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 2182 9 (epub)
Th e right of Dong Hoon Kim to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd iivv 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introducing Joseon Cinema: the Question of Film History and the
Film Culture of Colonial Korea 1
1 Th e Beginning: Towards a Mass Entertainment 13
Film Culture Begins: the Development of Early Film Culture 19
Film Production Begins: Moving Picture Unit of the Offi ce of
the Governor General 30
2 Joseon Cinema, Cinematic Joseon: on Some Critical Questions
of Joseon Cinema 55
Desperately Seeking the Joseon Image: Arirang (1926) and the
Making of Joseon Film Aesthetics 59
Joseon Film Lyricism: Joseon Colour and Joseon Films
‘Exported’ to Japan 82
3 Migrating with the Movies: Japanese Settler Film Culture 103
Th e Formation and Characteristics of Settler Film Culture 110
‘A Film Practice Distinctly Joseon’: the Ethnic Segregation
of Movie Th eatres 129
4 Colonial Film Spectatorship: Nationalist Enough? 144
Korean Spectators, or How they Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Hollywood 147
Performing Colonial Identity: the Transcolonial Practice of
Byeonsa/Benshi 167
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd vv 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
vi Eclipsed Cinema
5 Film Spectatorship and the Tensions of Modernity 184
Modern Girls and Boys go to the Movies: Cinema, Modernity and
the Colonised Nation 190
Mobility, Movie Th eatres and Female Film Spectatorship 210
Conclusion: Integrating into the Imperial Cinema 229
Notes 236
Appendix 264
Bibliography 273
Index 284
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd vvii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
Figures
1.1 Danseongsa advertisement 15
1.2 Audiences gathered at mobile fi lm screenings 20
1.3 DeVry advertisement 40
1.4 MPU offi cers hosting a mobile screening 45
1.5 Screening of MPU fi lms at the 1922 Tokyo Peace Exposition 47
1.6 Tōyō Katsudō Shashinkan at the 1922 Tokyo Peace Exposition 48
1.7 Seeing off drafted soldiers in Joseon at the Home Front 54
2.1 Cover art for Arirang Hill 66
2.2 Musical score for the theme song of the fi lm Arirang 69
2.3 Advertisement for Arirang 79
2.4 Na Un-gyu as madman Yeong-jin in Arirang 81
2.5 Promotional still for Han River 92
2.6 Advertisement for Th e River 97
2.7 Promotional still for Th e Wayfarer 99
3.1 Young Tokunaga Kumaichirō 104
3.2 Hisagokan Th eatre in Incheon 117
3.3 Advertisement for Sakuraba Shōkai 119
3.4 Serial novel adaptation of Th e Broken Coin 125
3.5 Bandō Tsumasaburō and Makino Teruko in Seoul 128
3.6 Hon-machi in South Village 133
3.7 Japanese-language preview of Th e Four Feathers 141
3.8 Advertisement for Th e Four Feathers and Fast Company 142
4.1 Jisang yeonghwa featuring the fi lm Shoes 149
4.2 Report on Paramount’s 1923 deal with Joseon Geukjang 151
4.3 Advertisement for Gisin Yanghaeng 152
4.4 Advertisement for Peter Pan 155
4.5 Moving Picture Band of the Tongyeong Youth Association 159
4.6 A theatre listing with the photos of byeonsa 170
4.7 Early byeonsa stars 175
5.1 ‘Mimicry of Others’ 191
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd vviiii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
viii Eclipsed Cinema
5.2 ‘Th ings that crawl out when the autumn leaves are falling’ 192
5.3 Emperor Gojong (circa 1900) 195
5.4 Clara Bow, the ‘It Girl’ 197
5.5 Trends in modern girls’ hairstyles 198
5.6 ‘Modern Boy’s Stroll’ 200
5.7 ‘Th e Scenery of Late Autumn’ 201
5.8 ‘Th e Sin of Spring Day’ and ‘Th is Is How I Lost My Leg’ 215
5.9 Ae-sun in Sweet Dream 218
5.10 Gisaeng perform at the 1929 Joseon Exposition 223
C.1 Preview of Romeo and Juliet 231
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd vviiiiii 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
Acknowledgements
Th is project has time and again humbled me. When I embarked on this research
for my dissertation, I was discouraged by many who thought I had engaged in
a risky topic that could not be dissertation-length research owing to the few
surviving fi lm prints and the lack of materials I could work with. To confess,
I shared the same concern when I fi rst conceived a germinal idea for the proj-
ect. Days and months spent at archives, however, constantly proved this early
speculation wrong, making me realise that the imminent problem was not the
absence of resources but working out where to start with the mountains of
materials I excavated, how to interweave them to discover forgotten accounts
and relate new stories, and when to curb my addiction to the act of archival
research. Every time I tried to close my research, I ended up with new fi ndings
that challenged me with new sets of questions. I have to admit that this seem-
ingly closure-less process sometimes wore me out but, more often, excited me
for thoughts of new future projects that would allow me some day to draw up a
bigger picture. In this regard, this book marks not the end of one research but
the beginning of a much larger one.
Without the unfailing support of so many people, I would not have been
able to send this work off into the world. My fi rst appreciation is due to my
two mentors/friends. Th is project could have never been initiated without the
unwavering confi dence entrusted in me and my project by David James. As my
adviser, he sustained me and my project with his astute guidance and enthusias-
tic support, and he was a continuous source of encouragement throughout the
project’s evolution. Daisuke Miyao provided me with much needed mentorship
and friendship from the moment this project started taking the form of a book
to the end of the tunnel. I found a lifelong colleague and friend in him.
As this project is built on extensive archival research, I have accrued debts to
many scholars, colleagues, friends and institutions that generously supported
my visits to archives and libraries in the United States, Korea, and Japan. A
research fellowship from the Oregon Humanities Center at the University of
Oregon enabled me to focus on my research in spring 2014. I gratefully acknowl-
55229922__KKIIMM..iinndddd iixx 2200//0022//1177 44::5599 PPMM
