Editor: Molly Kim
Author: Bonnie Tilland, Chung-kang Kim, Hwang Kyun-min, Kwon Jung-min, Kyu Hyun Kim, Margaret Rhee, Molly Kim, Yun-Jong Lee
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2023
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Highlights the cinematic oeuvre of Yim Soon-rye, one of the most influential Korean female filmmakers
- First comprehensive English-language book on Yim Soon-rye and her films, placing her within the larger perspectives of Korean cinematic history and women’s cinema
- First English volume on any Korean woman filmmaker, that calls for a need to address the work of other Korean women filmmakers
- Offers critical analyses of Yim’s aesthetic approach and recurring subject matter of nature, gender roles and feminism
- Contributes to the existing scholarship on Korean cinema and the global extent of Women’s cinema
Korean cinema, though currently established as one of the most successful international film industries, has never been a fair ground for women filmmakers. Amidst the heavily male dominated Korean cinema and the film industry, Yim has consistently produced critically and commercially influential films and has been recognized at numerous film festivals/awards both in and outside of Korea. Yim has produced/directed over a dozen films including shorts – the highest number that any female director has ever achieved in Korea. Also, Yim is the only female director with a blockbuster (Gyoseop, 2023) under her belt, which was always considered to be the arena for male directors.
ReFocus: The Films of Yim Soon-rye will be the very first English-language book that showcases critical readings of Yim’s work and simultaneously, this volume will address and position Yim in the larger historical context of Korean cinema and women filmmakers in the world.
Contents
Introduction: The Korean New Wave and The Single Woman – Molly Kim
- “Ugly Men Shall Prevail”: Representations of Masculinity in the Films of Yim Soon-rye – Hwang Kyun-min
- Politics of Slow: Yim Soon-rye’s Promenade in the Rain (1994) and Waikiki Brothers (2001) – Kim Chung-kang
- The Cinematic Naturecultural Turn in South Korea: Ecofeminist Pastoralism in the Works of Yim Soon-rye – Lee Yun-jong
- The Woman with A Movie Camera: Dismantling the Male Gaze in Yim Soon-rye’s The Whistleblower and The Weight of Her – Margaret Rhee
- Dropping-Out and Truth-Telling (Both Acts Rather Unpopular): Sovereignty, Biopolitics and Critique of the Nation-State in Yim Soon-rye’s Southbound (2013) and The Whistleblower (2014) – Kim Kyu-hyun
- Sensory Connections Between Food and Femininity in Yim Soon-rye’s Little Forest and Lee Seo-gun’s The Recipe – Bonnie Tilland
- “I Want to Live a Life that I Choose”: Romanticized Queer Family and Nature in Little Forest (2018) – Kwon Jung-min
- Korean Cinema and Me: An Interview with Yim Soon-rye – Molly Kim
Source: publisher’s website