Korean Films From The Japanese Colonial Period January 28, 2009

THE KOREA SOCIETY AND THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART PRESENT RARE KOREAN FILMS FROM THE JAPANESE COLONIAL PERIOD

January 12, 2009—New York, NY—The Japanese colonial era—one of the most difficult and complex periods in modern Korean history—will come to light for American audiences as The Korea Society and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) present Korean Films Made During Japanese Occupation, a program of seven recently re-discovered Korean films from the 1930s and ‘40s. The films will be screened from January 28 through February 1 at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at MoMA.
Discovered in China in 2003 and 2004 and restored in new 35mm prints by The Korean Film Archive, the films represent the earliest extant works of Korean cinema. Made under Japanese occupation, the dramatic content of the films is shaped by the censorship of their era, and several are uncomfortably pro-Japanese. Yet simultaneously, their rich aesthetics and formal experimentation reach beyond imperial Japanese ideology to express transcendent themes of longing, loss and duty.
Korean Films Made During Japanese Occupation marks the first time that these films have been screened outside of Korea, and the only time they will be screened before being returned to Korean archives.
Screening Schedule

Korean Films Made During Japanese Occupation

Wednesday, January 28

6:00 PM Spring in the Korean Peninsula (1941)
Directed by Lee Byeong-Il
Starring Kim Il-Hae, Seo Wol-Young and Kim So-Young
84 minutes
 
A film adaptation of a traditional Korean tale, Spring in the Korean Peninsula is a backstage romance between a director and an actress that falls into crisis when the director is jailed.

8:00 PM Straits of Chosun (1943)
Directed by Park Ki-Chae
Starring Nam Seung-Min, Moon Yae-Bong and Kim Shin-Jae
75 minutes
 
Made at the height of World War II, when Japanese censorship was at its tightest, Straits of Chosun is a domestic melodrama about a marriage torn apart.

Thursday, January 29

8:00 PM Fisherman's Fire (1939)
Directed by Ahn Chul-Yeong
Starring Park Hak, Nah Woong and Park Jung-Kyeong
52 minutes

Fallen on hard times, a fisherman is forced to make difficult choices about his daughter’s future.

Volunteer (1941)
Directed by Ahn Seok-Young
Starring Choi Woon-Bong, Moon Yae-Bong and Lee Keum-Ryong
55 minutes
 
A simple Korean farmer's son who aches to leave the countryside behind and fight for Imperial Japan finally gets his chance when colonial authorities enact a draft.

Friday, January 30

6:00 PM Angels on the Street (1941)
Directed by Choi In-Kyu
Starring Kim Il-Hae, Moon Yae-Bong and Kim Shin-Jae
73 minutes
 
Notably realistic for its era in depicting the gritty poverty of contemporary Seoul, Angels on the Street is the story of a man struggling to set up an orphanage for the city's street children.

8:00 PM Sweet Dream (1936)
Directed by Yang Ju-Nam
Starring Cho Taek-Won, Moon Yae-Bong and Yoo Sun-Ok
46 minutes
 
Korean cinema's first talkie, Sweet Dream nearly left audiences speechless with its scandalous melodrama about a wife who abandons her family to live with another man.

Military Train (1938)
Directed by Seo Kwang-Jae
Starring Wang Pyeong and Moon Yae-Bong
66 minutes
 
As a woman is forced into prostitution, her brother who works on a Japanese military train is faced with a choice between his duty to his family and his duty to Japanese authorities.

Saturday, January 31
 
1:00 PM           Spring in the Korean Peninsula
 
3:00 PM          Straits of Chosun
 
5:00 PM          Angels on the Street
 
Sunday, February 1
 
1:00 PM          Fisherman’s Fire and Volunteer
 
3:30 PM          Sweet Dream and Military Train

* For more information, please visit out website www.koreasociety.org or www.moma.org

Official Website: http://www.moma.org