The South Korean Film Industry

As shown by the success of Squid Game and Parasite, South Korea’s film industry is producing films and original series for streaming services, film studios, and television stations worldwide. South Korea is now arguably considered one of the few countries outside the United States to have captivated the world’s hearts and minds through pop music, TV dramas, and film. Similarly, the exponential growth in the South Korean film industry has been mirrored by a growing body of industry and film policy forums and academic conferences in both the East and the West.

The South Korean Film Industry is the first detailed scholarly overview of the South Korean film industry. The thirteen chapters discuss topics from short films to popular television series that have engaged global audiences. Contributors explore the major changes in South Korean film making, marketing, and in the international growth and popularity of South Korean films. By bringing together a wide range of academic specialists on the South Korean film industry, The South Korean Film Industry situates the current scholarship on South Korean cinema within the ongoing theoretical debates in contemporary global film studies. This volume offers invigorating discussions of the South Korean film industry, as well as its economic, political, and artistic impact on global, local, and regional film industries and cultures.

Sangjoon Lee is Associate Professor in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong.
Dal Yong Jin is Distinguished Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University and Global Professor in the School of Media & Communication at Korea University
Junhyoung Cho is Senior Researcher of the Korean Film Archive.

Source: publisher’s website

Contents

1. The South Korean Film Industry: An Introduction | Sangjoon Lee, Dal Yong Jin, and Junhyoung Cho

Part 1: History, Policy, and Structure of the Industry

2. A Brief History of the Korean Film Industry | CHO Junhyoung (Korean Film Archive)
3. South Korea’s Film Policy (1993-2020) | CHO Junhyoung (Korean Film Archive)
4. Production, Distribution, and Exhibition | Dal Yong Jin (Simon Fraser University)

Part 2: Industry Dynamics

5. The Korean Film Industry’s Ambivalent Relationship to the Studio System | Jason Bechervaise (Independent Scholar)
6. The South Korean Animation Industries: Invisible Labor, Consumer Nationalism, and Global Ambitions | Daniel Martin (KAIST)
7. The Korean Film Industry and Chinese Cinema: VFX, Dexter Studios and The Monkey King Series | Nikki J.Y. Lee (Nottingham Trent University)
8. Challenges and Changes Facing Korean Cinema in the Multi-Platform Era | Joyce Cho (Chung-Ang University)

Part 3: Film Cultures

9. Festival or Box Office? The Critical Reception of Spring in My Hometown and the debate over the future direction of South Korean Cinema 1998-1999. | Andrew David Jackson (Monash University)
10. BIFF and the City: Film, Festival, and Urban Regeneration in Busan | Simone Shu-Yeng Chung (National University of Singapore)
11. Seven Reasons to Make Short Films in South Korea | Julian Stringer (University of Nottingham)

Part 4: International Territories

12. Transnational Film Relationships Between South Korea and Europe (2005-2018) | Sonia Dueñas Mohedas (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and Luis-Miguel Machin-Martin (Universidad de La Laguna)
13. Seoul, Hong Kong, and Beijing: The South Korean Film Industry and the Chinese Film Market | Sangjoon Lee (Lingnan University)

Chronology of the Korean Film Industry | Junhyoung Cho and Sangjoon Lee