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For the past 15 years, Korean cinema has aggressively placed itself in the global film spotlight by dint of a series of groundbreaking works and by always looking towards the future as the industry constantly seeks to reinvent itself. Given the national cinema’s alacritous pace, one could be forgiven for ignoring its roots. One body seeking to redress this lack of understanding concerning Korean cinema’s rich history is the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), which has engaged in a series of projects over the last few years that have steadily risen the profile of classic Korean cinema both at home and overseas.

 

KOFA began publishing books in 2003 and issued its first DVDs, Hurrah For Freedom (1946) and Yang San Province (1955), a year later. To date, KOFA has issued around 60 films on DVD. In 2012, KOFA launched its popular YouTube channel, the ‘Korean Classic Film Theater,’ which features a free collection of 83 titles, which are all available with English subtitles. Another signature KOFA project has been the live staging of Crossroads of Youth (1934), Korea’s oldest surviving feature from director AHN Jong-hwa. Restaged by director KIM Tae-yong, the film has drawn acclaim following screenings in Seoul, London, New York and Berlin among others.

 

To commemorate their 40th anniversary, earlier this year the Korean Film Archive announced a series of new projects as well as a new list of the top 100 Korean films, as voted on by 62 leading Korean film experts. There was a three-way tie in first place between KIM Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960), YU Hyun-mok’s The Aimless Bullet (1961) and HA Gil-jong’s The March of Fools (1975) and the only film from after the year 2000 to place in the top ten was Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), which came in at seventh.

 

Among the top three, both The Housemaid and The March of Fools will become the first titles to be released on Blu-ray by KOFA later this year. Meanwhile, The Aimless Bullet, which is circulated with a very poor print, is set to be restored by the archive this year as well. A total of 73 films have been earmarked for DVD release and the entire collection will eventually see the light of day on Blu-ray.

 

Also featuring in the top ten of KOFA new list was Madame Freedom (1956) at number four, A Coachman (1961) in fifth place, Heavenly Homecoming to Stars (1974) in sixth and 1980’s Good Windy Day at number seven, which tied with Memories of Murder. A four-way tie for ninth place included Mother and a Guest (1961), Yeong-ja’s Heyday (1975), Declaration of Idiot (1983) and Seopyeonje (1993).

 

KOFA’s efforts have led to a growing global interest in classic Korean cinema, as seen by the increased availability of rare Korean films at international film festivals and DVD/Blu-ray in foreign markets. Among the most notable presentations of classic Korean film abroad have been a retrospective of 1970s Korean films at the Udine Far East Film Festival in 2012, curated by Korean film critic Darcy Paquet, and the release of the timeless classic The Housemaid on the famed Criterion Collection in North America late last year.

 

 

Korean Film Archive sitting director LEE Byung-hoon kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to provide us with a little more detail concerning KOFA’s current projects and future plans.

 

 

As the digital online market has become active, DVDs and Blu-rays, as a channel to introduce Korean classic films, have fallen out of favor. Nevertheless, the advantages of package media still exist as there are people who still want to collect physical media, just like people who continue to purchase CDs and LPs after access to music became common through streaming and downloading services. Particularly where Blu-rays of classic movies are concerned, they can offer a different experience of watching timeless films in contrast to online platforms that only provide low-resolution services due to limited capacities and compression techniques. It is an important role of archives to provide classic films to a broader public. Therefore, classics should be distributed through adequate platforms for the rapidly changing film market. Archives should also be able to perform educational functions via media. That’s why classic films should continue to be provided through physical media. DVDs and Blu-rays produced by the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) are very useful as educational materials since they include subtitles in English, Japanese and other languages as well as commentaries, booklets and image data. If we steadily produce home media, massive historical sources will be accumulated, adding to the enrichment of Korean film history.

 

  

KOFA is making an effort to digitally restore classics, submit films overseas, and create physical media in addition to the global promotion of Korean classic films using online websites. As a part of our efforts, KOFA has created a good reputation with international viewers by opening the ‘Classic Korean Film Theatre‘ on Google Youtube on May 2012, offering 83 Korean classics with English subtitles for free. Also, KOFA curates an online exhibition on Google’s Cultural Institute, which launched in October last year, which currently displays noteworthy Korean film history events, arranged in 12 themes in both English and Korean. Moreover, KOFA has also put on some shows abroad, restaging Korean classic films with respect to Korea’s historical setting at the time. The oldest Korean film drama, Crossroads of Youth (1934), was invited to the Berlin International Film Festival in February of last year, where it was well received. A new type of classic film performances will be introduced in celebration of KOFA’s 40th anniversary in May of this year.

 

 

 

KOFA plans to cooperate with relevant organizations in order for Korean classics to be played in the retrospective sections of major film festivals including the Cannes International Film Festival by means of a gradual increase in the number of Korean classics on YouTube and new digital restorations. Furthermore, though not an immediate plan, we aim to enthusiastically present Korean classics in various scholarly fields in many other countries, such as manning a promotional booth at AAS (Association for Asian Studies).

 

By Pierce Conran