Recovering the past:

rare films screened in Korea

Introduction:

On 24 September 1997 the Korean Film Archive held a special screening of rare films at the Korean Press Club in Seoul with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the cable television documentary film channel - Q Channel. The four documentary films screened were shown again a month later at the second Pusan International Film Festival as part of a focus on early Asian cinema. The films were all shot by foreigners.

At first it may be difficult to understand why so much attention was paid to the screening of a few short documentaries, none of them made by Korean filmmakers. However, in few countries has the destruction of cinematic heritage been as complete as in Korea. Although Korean scholars and archivists have searched high and low, so far no Korean-made films from the period of Japanese colonisation (1910-1945) have been recovered. It is thought that the devastation of that period and especially of the Korean War (1950-53) was so total that nothing whatsoever has survived.(1)

Therefore, unlike most other cultures, Korea has no cinematic imagery of its history in the first half of this century. As a result, it is not surprising that the discovery of footage shot by foreign film makers in archives overseas generated much excitement among Korean film archivists and scholars and a determination that copies of these materials should be deposited in the Korean Film Archive and screened for the Korean public.

To commemorate this event, the Korean Film Archive published a special booklet. The following essay by Professor Cho Hee-Moon, one of Korea's leading scholars of early cinema, and the details of the films screened, have been translated for Screening the past by O Jun-Seob and edited by Chris Berry with the kind permission of the Korean Film Archive. We thank Kim Hyun-Sook for her help with the translation and editing.

(1)For those seeking background, the best recent history of Korea's encounter with modernity is widely considered to be Bruce Cumings, Korea's place in the sun: a modern history (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997). CB

The films

1. Korea, land of the morning calm

Date: circa 1910

Country: probably France

Cinematography: unknown

Source: Joseph Joy Collection (1977), British National Film and Television Archive.

Length: 4 minutes

Print: 35mm

Colour/black and white: black and white

Sound/silent: silent

Acquisition by Korean Film Archive: 14 October 1994, from the British National Film and Television Archive.

Contents:

• Scenes from a Korean town and on a country road.
• Traveller, a cart drawn by a bullock.
• Man grinding corn, a girl.
• Cobbler sewing leather.
• Men drawing water from a well.
• Street scenes in Seoul.
• Busy market
• Old couple

Acquisition circumstances:

Following an investigation into documentary films about Korea in early 1994, it was discovered that the British National Film and Television Archive held both this film and Korea's major cities and towns. After discussions, the films were acquired by the Korean Film Archive.

2. Korea's major cities and towns

Date: circa 1923

Country: USA

Cinematography: unknown

Length: 1 minute 30 seconds

Print: 35mm

Colour/black and white: black and white

Sound/silent: silent

Acquisition by Korean Film Archive: 14 October 1994, from the British National Film and Television Archive.

Contents:

• Scenes from Pusan port.
• Street scenes in Pusan, a tram.
• Street scenes in Seoul.
• Crowds in a park.
• Couple under a tree.
• Strollers in a park.
• Animals in the zoo.

3. Emperor Sunjong's state funeral (2)

Country: unknown

Cinematography: unknown

Date: 7 May 1926

Length: 7 minutes 26 seconds

Print: 35mm

Colour/black and white: black and white

Sound/silent: silent

Acquisition by Korean Film Archive: 4 April 1997

Contents:

• Arrival of foreign delegations delivering condolences
• Delegation visits the Emperor Sunjong lying in state
• The funeral procession begins from Tonhwamun Gate
• The funeral procession moves through Seoul
• A dozen palanquins carrying the royal family, and the bier carried by hundreds of pallbearers
• Foreign delegations follow the procession, mounted guards
• The funeral procession arrives at Kimgok in Namyangju county

Acquisition circumstances:

Kwak Mun-Sung asked Professor Kim Suk-Hee of Pusan University, who was his uncle, to look after his grandfather's print of the film in the 1960s. In 1994, following a single screening of the print at the Pusan City Hall, its existence became known to the Korean Film Archive. After negotiations, Kwak Mun-Sung donated the print to the Korean Film Archive with the specification that it only be used for non-commercial purposes.

4. Kyongsong (Seoul)

Country: produced by the railways administration of the Japanese colonial government of Korea.

Cinematography: Shimizu Hiroshi

Date: 1940

Length: 24 minutes

Print: 35mm

Colour/black and white: black and white

Acquisition by Korean Film Archive: March 1986

Contents:

• Busy people at dawn.
• A moving tram.
• Primary school scene, children in the playground.
• Soldiers exercising.
• An auction.
• Fountain in front of the Bank of Korea.
• Capitol Building seen from Toksu Palace.
• Busy merchants on Chongno Street.
• Old people playing chess.
• Man chopping firewood.
• Housewives washing clothes at the Chonggye River.
• Traditional Korean houses in Seoul.
• Kyonghoeru Pavilion in Kyongbok Palace.
• Seoul Station.
• Weavers.
• Housewives doing embroidery.
• Watching baseball.
• Playing golf.
• Lining up outside a movie theatre.
• Night views of Seoul.
• Clothing store window display.
• Drinking scene in a pub.

Acquisition circumstances

The former director of the Korean National Film Archive, Mr Im Byung-Ho, discovered that the Film Center of the Tokyo National Modern Art Museum held this film while he was travelling in Japan. The Korea Film Archive set about acquiring the film, and the Japanese film company Shochiku made a print for the archive.

(2) Emperor Sunjong died on 25 April 1925 amidst rumours that he had been poisoned by the Japanese. His funeral was held on 10 June of the same year. Sunjong was the retarded son of Emperor Kojong. The Japanese forced Kojong to abdicate in 1907 and replaced him with Sunjong as a figurehead, before completing colonisation in 1910. CB

The history and material existence of Korean cinema

Korean cinema history varies according to how you define it. Dated from the first public screening, it is ninety-four years old. Dated from the first production, it is seventy-four years old. In light of these facts, it certainly cannot be said that in comparison to one hundred years of world cinema, Korean film history is especially short or lacking. However, very few Korean films survive as evidence of this long history. It is very difficult to find more than a few traces of the cinema from the era of Japanese colonisation. Therefore, it is very significant for the recovery of Korean cinema that the Korean Film Archive has been able to recover these few instances of the material existence of Korean film from both inside and outside Korea itself.

1. The circumstances and character of early Korean film.

A variety of film types was established during the era of Japanese imperialism and rule in Korea. An American traveller, Elias Burton-Holmes, introduced film to the Korean royal family in 1899, and in June 1903 the first public screenings were held. These screenings were a part of entrepreneurial ventures by two American businessmen, H.R. Bostwick and Henry Collbran. A railway construction specialist, Collbran was appointed by Emperor Kojong as Manager of the Seoul Electricity Company and commissioned to introduce electricity and trams to Seoul. Emperor Kojong entrusted him with the electrification of Seoul because of local lack of experience, facilities and equipment. In order to maximise his profits, Collbran wanted to minimise the construction time. Therefore, he presented various public performances including wire-walking acts and dances of various sorts in order to encourage his workers. However, Collbran was surprised by the rapidly growing popularity of these performances. He therefore decided to make them a branch of his business, and this then led to the first public screenings.

These are the circumstances under which public screenings began. However, according to class, people held different understandings of what film and its social function were.

Both Korea's sovereignty and stability were threatened at this time when the major powers of the United States, Russia, France, China and Japan were all struggling for hegemony over the country. Japan's influence grew rapidly and became most important. This provoked the educated classes and progressive public servants to place a premium on national sovereignty and independence. The enlightenment of the people and the promotion of industry were perceived as important for the attainment of this goal, as accepting Western civilisation would make it possible to keep up with the changing times. All in all, Western civilisation and modernisation were synonymous and Western civilisation was a symbol of progress. Everyone agreed without any debate that modernisation and Westernisation were the same thing.

At that time, most films screened were short subjects from the United States, France or other foreign countries. Naturally, most of the contents consisted of big city scenes from Europe and the United States, as well as the lifestyle of the people there. For Koreans at this time, movies were the most useful source of information about and opportunity to come into contact with foreign culture.

The educated classes and progressive public servants then looked down upon pansori singing, mask dances and other forms of traditional performance as anti-social and also as running against the spirit of the times. They therefore encouraged people to go to the movies precisely because, unlike the despised traditional arts, they reflected these new ideas.

However, the general public regarded films as cheap entertainment. In June of 1903, the Hansong Electricity Company's open-air cinema had its first screening. By 1905, it had become the Dongdaemun Hwaldongsajin movie theatre, with daily screenings, which indicates that film exhibition was a successful business. (3)

After that, a number of movie theatres were established in Seoul. Screenings became more frequent and more popular. This was a natural trend that met with no resistance. The general public took to film as entertainment, whereas the ruling classes had a positive image of cinema because of its perceived information function and public effect.

(3) Dongdaemun is a district of Seoul, and Hwaldongsajin means "moving pictures." For further details of early exhibition history in Korean and English, see Lee Young-Il, "The establishment of a national cinema under colonialism: the history of early Korean cinema," in 2nd Pusan International Film Festival, The beginnings and development of early Asian film (Pusan, 1997), pp.38- 9. CB

These circumstances changed after the Japanese colonial administration began. The administration recognised both the public influence of cinema and its potential for propaganda, so they controlled it tightly. In order to maintain their rule in the colony, they censored any anti-Japanese elements in films. On the other hand, they also put films to use for educating the public. They worked to produce and screen films about saving money, the prevention of epidemics, public hygiene and fire prevention. In the early days of Korean film production, the film The plighted love under the moon (Wolha ui Maengsae) is an important early example illustrating these circumstances. It was produced by the colonial administration and was on the theme of educating people to save money.(4)

(4) According to Korean film historian Lee Young-Il, this is Korea's first "complete full-scale feature film," and was directed by Yun Baek-nam in 1923; Lee Young-Il, The history of Korean cinema: main current of Korean cinema (trans. Richard Lynn Greever), (Seoul: Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation, 1988), pp.28-9. Translating the title as Wulha's Vow and transliterating it as Ulha ui Mengse, he also discusses it in his 1997 article, pp.29-30.

Japan took Korea over completely in 1910. This also marks the end of the period during which film arrived and was popularised in Korea. Its main functions during that period were, first, public information and, second, entertainment. The latter encouraged the popularity of the cinema. After this, from 1910 to liberation in 1945, was a period of education and propaganda under Japanese control.

2. The recovery and significance of rare films

The Korean Film Archive has recovered various films. Those shown here today are all documentaries. Although they are in black and white, their depiction of scenes from decades ago seems vital and life-like. Even though many years have passed and the cityscape of Seoul is completely different from the way it is today and so are the people who were living then, these films still have a powerful effect on us. The vividness and solemnity of the scenes from Emperor Sunjong's state funeral and the variety of life in Kyongsong (Seoul) connects the past and the present across the gap of time and space regardless of the intentions of the filmmakers. (5)

Korea, land of the morning calm lasts four minutes, Korea's major cities and towns one and a half minutes, Emperor Sunjong's state funeral seven minutes, and Kyongsong (Seoul) twenty-four minutes. The silent black and white film is crude and simple when compared with the films of today, but it still demonstrates the power of cinema as a document and a means of communication across time and space.

These films are the oldest films we can see of Korea today. They are documentaries, so we have not yet recovered elements of the early feature film industry. However, although we can only see documentaries, these are still very important materials. It can be said that pre-independence Korean cinema can be divided into three categories: educational propaganda films; entertainment films; and political propaganda films. Those we are seeing this evening are from the educational propaganda category.

(5) This is presumably a reference to the fact that some of the films were made under the Japanese colonial administration for propaganda purposes. CB

Before the popularity of television, film was the main medium for the transmission of information in visual form. The vivid, on-the-spot quality that written publications cannot compete with is one of the strengths of the medium together with its entertaining quality. Hence, films combine information and entertainment functions at once. This made film a window onto foreign culture for Korean audiences and onto Korean culture and conditions for foreign audiences. The content ranged broadly from travel documentaries to deliberate propaganda.

Thus, from these films we can see scenery and culture from those times and also the ways in which films functioned to document and to transmit information during the Japanese colonial period. Just as archaeological excavations can restore history to the present, so these films bring the society and culture of the past back to life.

I have already mentioned the length and complexity of Korean film history, but before now we actually had no materials to work with from before independence. The vicissitudes of the independence period and the Korean War may well be the reason for this, and as a result all Korean films from the Japanese colonial period of all types and styles had disappeared. Among feature films, there is not even a trace of such famous films as Arirang and Ferryboat with no ferryman (Imja'omnun Narupae).(6) There is not even a trace of Korean documentaries and propaganda films from this period. As a result, it can be said that more than half of the total films constituting the Korean cinema to date have been lost.

Fortunately, the Korean Film Archive is actively pursuing the collection of films nationally and internationally. Their recovery of a small number of educational propaganda documentaries, including those showing today, is an achievement. Confirming the existence of actual material is a valuable and meaningful event in the recovery and evaluation of Korean cinema.

(6) Released in October of 1926 and produced and directed by its star, Na Un-gyu, Arirang is celebrated as Korea's first nationalist feature film. The title is that of a traditional folk song. See Lee Young-Il, pp.41-56. Ferryboat with no ferryman was directed in 1932 by Lee Gyu-hwan, and is also celebrated as a nationalist classic. Lee trained in Japan and among the directors he worked with there was Mizoguchi Kenji. See Lee Young-Il, pp.59-61. Lee also discusses this film in his 1997 article, pp.40-41. CB.