Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Korean 185: PICTURING KOREA
FALL 2012
History and Memory in South Korean Cinema
TTh 3:30-5PM 79 Dwinelle, (LECTURE AND DISCUSSION)
Th 6-8:30PM, 79 Dwinelle, (FILM SCREENING)
Instructor:
Jinsoo An
anjinsoo@berkeley.edu
Office Hours: Tues. 1:30-3:30pm (and by appointment)
3409 Dwinelle
This undergraduate course examines representation of history and memory in
contemporary South Korean cinema. South Korean films have recently shown a
thematic preoccupation with the nation’s tumultuous history by presenting
diverse stories of past event and experience. They have also rendered different
and unique ways to project, address and thematize the issues related to important
social developments and cultural phenomena. We will pay close attention to
ways in which popular narrative films make the idea of history and memory
meaningful and pertinent to contemporary Korean film viewers. Our goal is to
develop critical understanding of diverse temporalities and problematics that
constitute historical imagination of South Korean cinema.
The themes that we deal with are not structured chronologically but thematically.
We will cover such topics as remembrance of Korean War, democratic movement,
cultural tradition, trauma and amnesia, colonialism, modernization,
authoritarian politics, spectral haunting, marginal times, generational conflict,
etc. Film author, genre and movement are also related subjects to explore along
the way. How South Korean films have functioned as a particular cultural
medium to construct and disseminate the various ideas and ideals of Korean-ness
is given special consideration as well. It is not necessary for students to have
prior knowledge of South Korea, and all films have English subtitles.
The course consists of 1) lecture and film discussion and 2) film screening. It is
mandatory for students to attend Thursday film screening; students are also
expected to participate in film discussion actively.
Grade Percentage
Attendance:
Participation:
Film Reviews*:
Mid-Term Paper:
Final Paper:
10%
10%
20% (1-2 pages: Due at 5PM on Mon.)
20% (5-7 pages)
40% (10-12 pages)
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*Film Reviews: A weekly essay should be 1 to 2 page in length and due on
Monday at 3 pm after film screening. Questions for review will be distributed
prior to each screening. Post your review on bSpace AND submit hardcopy. It is
indispensable that I get a hold of hardcopy of your review in order to evaluate
your work properly and attentively. Failure to submit hardcopy may affect your
grade negatively.
Required Texts:
1. Course Reader (will be available on the third week)
(at University Copy Services: 2425 Channing Way, 510-549-2335)
2. Bruce Cumings, 1997. Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History
Week 1:
Introduction & Syllabus
Week 2:
Nexus of History and Cinema
Robert A. Rosenstone, “History in Images/History in Words”
Hayden White, “Historiography and Historiophoty,”
The American Historical Review 93-5.
Piagol (Yi Kangch’on, 1955) 108 min.
Film (8/30)
Week 3:
Readings:
Film (9/6)
Week 4:
Readings:
Film (9/13)
Week 5:
Readings:
Film (9/20)
Picturing Korean War I
Cumings, “The Passion,” Korea’s Place in the Sun
Michael Robinson, “Contemporary Cultural Production in South
Korea: Vanishing Meta-Narratives of Nation, New Korean Cinema
Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War (Kang Jegyu, 2004) 140 min.
Picturing Korean War II
Cumings, “Collision,” Korea’s Place in the Sun
Darcy Paquet, “The Korean Film Industry: 1992 to the Present,”
New Korean Cinema
Sopyonje (Im Kwon-Taek, 1993) 112 min.
Making of Cultural Tradition
Chungmoo Choi, “The politics of gender, aestheticism and cultural
nationalism in Sopyonje and the Genealogy,” Im Kwon-Taek: the
Making of a Korean National Cinema
Cho Hae Joang, “Sopyonje: Its Cultural and Historical Meaning,”
Im Kwon-Taek
Peppermint Candy (Yi Changdong, 2000) 129 min.
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Week 6:
Readings:
Film (9/27)
Week 7:
Readings:
Film (10/4)
Week 8:
Readings:
Trauma and Survival
Cumings, “The Democratic Movement,” Korea’s Place in the Sun
Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, “Peppermint Candy: The Will not
to Forget,” New Korean Cinema
Kim Soyoung, “Do Not Include Me in Your “US””
Christmas in August (Huh Jinho, 1998)
Time To Love, Time To Die
Sigmund Freud, “Mourning and Melancholia”
Darcy Paquet, “Christmas in August and Korean melodrama,”
Seoul Searching
Old Boy (Park Chanwook, 2003) 120 min.
Film (10/11)
Mnemonic Struggle
Ian Buruma, “Mr. Vengeance”
Kyung Hyun Kim, “Tell the Kitchen that There’s too much Boochu
in the Dumpling: Reading Park Chanwook’s ‘Unknowable’ Old
Boy”
YMCA Baseball Team (Kim Hyunsuk, 2002) 104 min.
Week 9:
Readings:
Film (10/18)
Nostalgia for the Colonial Past
Koen De Ceuster, “Wholesale Education and Sound Leisure”
Memories of Murder (Bong Joonho, 2003) 127 min
Midterm Paper Due (Oct. 16th in class)
Week 10:
Readings:
Film (10/25)
Week 11
Readings:
Film (11/1)
Peripheral Time
Seungsook Moon, “The Historical Roots and the Rise of
Militarized Modernity,” Militarized Modernity and Gendered
Citizenship in South Korea
Joseph Jonghyun Jeon, “Memories of Memories”
Epitaph (Chung Brothers, 2007) 102 min.
Specter from the Past
Bliss Cua Lim, “Spectral Times: The Ghost Film as Historical
Allegory”
My Mother, the Mermaid (Park Hungsik, 2004) 107 min.
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Week 12:
Readings:
Film (11/8)
Week 13:
Readings:
Film (11/15)
Week 14:
Readings:
Compressed Modernity, Decompressed Memories
Nancy Abelmann, “Melodramatic Texts and Contexts: Women’s
Lives, Movies and Men”
The Spirit of Jeet Kune Do (Yu Ha, 2004) 116 min.
Cruel Stories of Youth
Meaghan Morris, “Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema:
Hong Kong and the Making of a Global Popular Culture”
King and the Clown (Yi Junik, 2006), 120 min.
New Historical Drama
JaHyun Kim Haboush, “Confucian Kingship and Royal Authority
in Yi Monarchy,” The Confucian Kingship in Korea
Vivian Sobchack, “Surge and Splendor”
No Class or Film Screening on Nov. 22 due to academic holiday
Week 15:
Readings:
Film (11/27)
New Documentary & Recapitulation
TBA
Two Doors (Kim Ilran & Hong Chiyu, 2011) 99 min.
In-class screening
Week 16:
Reading Week
Final Paper Due (Dec. 11th)
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