The Evolving Passions and Fears of Korea’s Youth Reflected in Film
With the commercial success of
YIM Soon-rye’s
Little Forest and the critical acclaim of
JEON Go-woon’s Microhabitat this year, the Korean youth film has been making a quiet but emphatic comeback. Finding new ways to appeal to viewers who may feel suffocated by the alacritous pace of Korea’s urban spaces in the modern age, these films and others are tapping into the ever-shifting concerns of those who have just entered the adult world.
More than any other genre, the youth film is prone to drastic changes as the makeup and interests of youth generations constantly change. Nowhere is this truer than in Korea, a country that has experienced starker changes than most in its modern era. Over the course of just over 50 years, the youth film has remained a staple of Korean cinema though one that has been in perpetual flux.
Classic Youth Films
The youth film got its start in the mid-1960s through seminal works such as
KIM Kee-duk’s The Barefooted Young (1964) and
JUNG Jin-woo’s
Early Rain (1966). A tale of star-crossed lovers featuring some of the biggest stars of the day,
The Barefooted Young has remained a staple of classic Korean cinema and was also adapted as a popular TV series in 1997. Meanwhile,
Early Rain is injected with the youthful vitality of its director, who was only 26 when the film was released.
As the political situation worsened over the coming years the youth film began to encompass works beyond the standard romantic mould, which included
HA Gil-jong’s classic
The March of Fools (1975) which explores the disenfranchised youth of the day, with its young characters running away in the streets of Central Seoul as the police try to catch them to cut their long hair. Echoing an uncertain future, the film ends with one of the young men sharing a bittersweet kiss with his girlfriend through the window of the train that will bring him to his military service. The other has already set off for the East Sea, in search of his own annihilation.
By the time of the late 1990s, the youth films of a newly democratized Korea revealed in style and the country’s burgeoning consumer interests, in line with the generation’s increasing disposable income. Most famous among the films of this period is
KIM Sung-soo’s youth crime drama
Beat (1997), which established
JUNG Woo-sung (
Steel Rain, 2017), playing a brooding fighter torn between his girl and a life of crime, as one of the biggest stars of his generation.
Commercial Colors of Millennial Youth Films
With the rise of Korean cinema as a whole around the turn of the millennium, youth films also saw an uptick in production, populated by the many popular new faces of the day. Many of these were romantic comedies, but several over films exploring the angst and malaise of Korea’s youth also cropped up during this period.
Volcano High
My Tutor Friend
Spirit of Jeet Keun Do - Once Upon a Time in High School
Romance of Their Own
Sunny
After his 2008 hit
Scandal Makers, director
KANG Hyoung-chul struck gold again with the biggest surprise hit of 2011, the 1980s-set high school drama
Sunny (2011). With a sensational
SHIM Eun-kyoung (
Miss Granny, 2014) in the lead, the film was one of the first films in a series of nostalgia-driven hits, colorfully brought to life with an energetic young cast and a memorable soundtrack. Several films attempted to follow in its wake, with mixed success, such as
Hot Young Bloods (2014), another 1980s narrative, this time starring
PARK Bo-young (
A Werewolf Boy, 2012) and
LEE Jong-suk (
V.I.P., 2017) playing country students with heavy dialects.
Twenty
The Independent Woman of the Youth Films of Today
Even compared to just a few years ago, today’s youth films seem to be taking a different approach in order to capture the imagination of young viewers. Addressing a lack of relatable young female protagonists, this year’s Little Forest and Microhabitat both put young women front and center. In addition to that, rather than focus on their romantic lives, these films look at their characters’ desire to be free of the strict social structures that surround them.
Little Forest
From
Forever the Moment (2008) director
YIM Soon-rye,
Little Forest features
The Handmaiden’s (2016) breakout star
KIM Tae-ri in an adaptation of a popular Japanese manga that was previously adapted into a two-part Japanese film. KIM plays a young woman who returns to the countryside to escape the frustrations she experiences in Seoul, where she was studying to be a teacher. Alone in her mother’s home, she lives off the land and cooks herself wholesome food while also enjoying time with her childhood friends, played by
RYU Jun-yeol (
Believer) and
JIN Ki-joo.
MOON So-ri (
Oasis, 2002) also features in several flashback sequences as the main character’s single mother.
Microhabitat