Ruth Esca Bowmer
Stories (5/0)
Good Enough? - The Metaphorical Mountain
I. The Metaphorical Mountain When we are young, we lack the life experiences we will later acquire. As teenagers we have only lived less than a quarter of our lives. Therefore we do not have much to hold in comparison, and it is difficult to gain perspective. So as teenagers all problems and all joys seem to be—and feel to us—a very big deal. I think this is why as youngsters we always have big reactions, where everything is part of this huge drama called life. We don’t yet have the life experience to compare our current circumstances against anything and say, "Well at least it’s not as bad as that one time when…." Or "This is up there with the best days of my life, along with …. and …."
By Ruth Esca Bowmer6 years ago in Psyche
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society (Part 4)
Probably one of the biggest forces in cinema is from Hollywood. However, recently we have been seeing a slow death in the Hollywood formulas that have been used and worn thin for so long now. It is more visible in some genres then others—a particular area that it is most obvious in is the horror classification. If you take a look at this aspect of western films there is little change since the "slasher" films of the 1980s, with only a few exceptions such as The Blair Witch Project (1999). The issue with franchises that become horrendously overdone is the audiences are left with a sense of over-familiarity that takes all the fear out of the films by making them painfully predictable.
By Ruth Esca Bowmer6 years ago in Geeks
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society (Part 3)
Probably one of the most interesting films to come from Korea is from the North. It is well known that Kim Jong-Il is a huge movie fanatic. Kim Jong-Il is the son of Kim Il-Sung previous leader of the North, whom he succeeded in 1994 when he died. He assumed the titles of "Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," "Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army," and "General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea." Unfortunately, North Korea isn’t really known for its films, so in 1978, Kim Jong-Il arranged the kidnapping of South Korean director Shin San-Ok and his ex-wife, Choi Eun-Hie, who was a leading actress at the time. The two were forced to live under house arrest and produce several movies for Kim Jong-Il, the last movie and most interesting to look at in detail was Pulgasari (Shin 1985). Pulgasari has been likened to Godzilla (1984) in the monster movie genre, and did in fact have the same special effects team, but unlike other monster movies, this one was a strict metaphor and carried anti-capitalism and pro-communist messages to the audience.
By Ruth Esca Bowmer6 years ago in Geeks
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society (Part 2)
Because of Korea’s violent history, it is no surprise that this affects the film industry through the views of its directors as they attempt to express themselves through their art. Historian Max Hastings' theory, with regards to the reasons behind continued meddling from outside powers, is Korea’s strategic position as the meeting point between three major nations. So it may be because of this that Korea has suffered repression and feuding. The fact that Korea has been invaded several times by Japan since 1392, even with their isolationist policies, is a good testimony to this. Also, Hastings describes the populace as "fiercely nationalistic" (Hastings 1987), meaning the Koreans took great offence in the suppression of their culture and loss of self-identity. With the full effects of the Japanese occupation coming into place in 1904, when the Japanese moved a sizable army into Korea and brought the nation into a Japanese protectorate, Korean independence died. During the oppression, armed resistance came from many different groups, the biggest being the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Hastings’ description of Korea during the oppression is that, "Korea became an armed camp, in which mass executions and wholesale imprisonment were commonplace, and all dissent forbidden" (Hastings 1987). This kind of environment continued until 1943, nearly half a century later, and as the Koreans thought they may get a taste of freedom, another problem arose in the form of the United States and Russia. Historian Bruce Cumings believed this came about due to a change in circumstances. "What created 'an entirely new strategic situation in the far east,' was not that Russia was interested in Korea—it had been for decades—but that the United States was interested" (Cumings, as cited in Hastings, 1987). Korea was then divided between the two into North and South, denied independence by outside powers, and experienced a three-year American occupation to prevent the Soviets from gaining in the Japanese defeat as they, "might seize the opportunity to include Korea in their sphere of influence" (Hastings 1987). Following this was the Korean War of 1950-53, which saw 16 armies from five continents under the UN flag against China and North Korea. This divided families and brought about tragedy for the people of Korea, and it wasn’t until 1958 that the last of the Chinese troops left the North and left it to its own communist republic. A tense situation had been set up, creating a cold war in itself for the people of Korea with the communist North and capitalist South. With this intemperate history of fighting and antagonizing the Korean nationalistic feelings right at the outset of the film industry, it is fair to say that this animosity would provide a vehicle for the fledgling directors. Looking at
By Ruth Esca Bowmer6 years ago in Geeks
The Importance of Film Within Korean Society
In order to define Korean cinema as it is now, it is important to place it into some sort of context given the country's century of oppression, division, and warfare. Historically, Korean cinema seems to have been non-existent, with nothing surviving from the era of silent films (1926-1935), and according to Adriano Apra (as cited by Rist, 1998, online) only three films have survived from before 1946 and these are not considered Korean but Japanese due to the World War II occupational force at the time. It was not until the 1960s that a significant film production could be seen in Korea’s cinema industry. Now Korea is experiencing a "new wave" of film making and cinema fanaticism, which in the Korean language is called "Hal-u" and has been likened to France in the 1960s, Hollywood in the 1970s and Hong Kong in the 1980s in their leap into world cinema. The very fact that the people of Korea have their own term for this phenomenon and are therefore recognising its existence as a part of their society suggests that it has a firm place in their everyday lives. To give an idea of just how popular cinema in Korea is becoming, it has been noted that in the south the number of cinema screens has almost tripled in the last eight years and the attendance is still steadily rising all the time. With these successes within Korea itself, a further key to its expanding popularity is tapping into the international sales. Korea is now exporting at the very least ten times as many films compared with the early 90s. In an interview for Subway Cinema, Korean film director Kim Jee-Woon stated, "Looking at the Korean film industry, they are dealing with a variety of subjects and different genres, and that’s one of the strengths of the current Korean film market" (Kim Jee-Woon 2001, online). He is saying that unlike places such as Hong Kong, where their films are primarily martial arts orientated, and therefore introduced to the rest of the world as such, Korean films have a wider base. This I have learnt is largely due to the wide selection of backgrounds and origins of the directors, as mentioned by Jonathan Ross in his recent documentary series on Asian cinema, Asian Invasion shown on BBC4, January 2006. I will go into greater detail of these varied backgrounds and the reasons for them in the social political context chapter. This fully encompassing genre industry means that so far, Korean films have yet to be classified by the rest of the world, like Hong Kong films have been, and to an extent Japanese films have been classified as that of mainly the horror genre thanks largely to the many Hollywood remakes such as The Ring and Dark Water.
By Ruth Esca Bowmer6 years ago in Geeks