Cold War Cosmopolitanism: Period Style in 1950s Korean Cinema

by Christina Klein

Overview

South Korea in the 1950s was home to a burgeoning film culture, one of the many “Golden Age cinemas” that flourished in Asia during the postwar years. Cold War Cosmopolitanism offers a transnational cultural history of South Korean film style in this period, focusing on the works of Han Hyung-mo, director of the era’s most glamorous and popular women’s pictures, including the blockbuster Madame Freedom (1956). Christina Klein provides a unique approach to the study of film style, illuminating how Han’s films took shape within a “free world” network of aesthetic and material ties created by the legacies of Japanese colonialism, the construction of US military bases, the waging of the cultural Cold War by the CIA, the forging of regional political alliances, and the import of popular cultures from around the world. Klein combines nuanced readings of Han’s sophisticated style with careful attention to key issues of modernity—such as feminism, cosmopolitanism, and consumerism—in the first monograph devoted to this major Korean director.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520296503
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/21/2020
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Christina Klein is Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Boston College.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Video Clips xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

Part I Period

1 Postcolonial, Postwar, Cold War 13

2 Cold War Cosmopolitan Feminism 32

3 Public Culture 53

Part II Style

4 The Apres Girl: Character and Plot 85

5 Film Culture, Sound Culture: Setting, Cinematography, and Sound 108

6 Consumer Culture and the Black Market: Mise-en-Scene 144

7 A Commitment to Showmanship: Spectacle 179

Conclusion 224

Notes 231

Filmography 271

Bibliography 273

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

"With this meticulous study, Christina Klein has created a unique product that systematically and in great detail deals with changes in film culture, so I warmly recommend the book."

New Review of Film and Television Studies

"Overall, Cold War Cosmopolitanism is an exciting and welcome addition to interdisciplinary and transnational Korean studies. It is well documented, convincingly argued, and a pleasure to read."

Acta Koreana