On October 30, 2020, the GW Institute for Korean Studies (GWIKS) hosted a Soh Jaipil Lecture Series with Christina Klein, the Associate Professor of English and Director of American Studies at Boston College on the “Cold War Cosmopolitanism: Period Style in 1950s Korean Cinema.” Moderated by Professor Immanuel Kim, the Korea Foundation and Kim-Renaud Associate Professor of Korean Literature and Culture Studies at the George Washington University, Prof. Klein started her lecture by introducing the movie Madame Freedom, directed by Han Hyung-mo from the 1950s. She states this modern Korean movie that had just come out three years after the Korean War caught her interest, which made her dive into Han Hyung-mo’s movies and eventually publish a book on it this year.
Prof. Klein went on introducing Director Han with his background and characteristics of his movies. Han was from a Christian family and had lived in Manchuria before he started to work in the emerging Korean film industry. He was a smart director who was able to create movies that were acceptable to a wide range of audiences both the conservative and the progressive. One of the most interesting characteristics of Han’s movies is the role of women. They are influenced by modernity, thus, challenging the traditional gender norms, being dressed in admirable fashion, and sometimes being presented as professional career holders. Expanding the variety of women’s roles, he also created movies such as My sister is a Hussy in which the main character is a judo practitioner and she beats men, and A Jealousy which portrays lesbians and their hardship in life.
According to Prof. Klien, Han’s movie style can be best understood through the concept of Cold War Cosmopolitanism. She explains how the new foreign political energy along with the idea of ‘Free World and Free Asia’ was spreading during the Cold War. Han is believed to have been affected by the ideology along with the material practice of the cultural production of the Cold War institutions. This was quite obvious as he received support from the Asia Foundation, a CIA-funded film foundation, which provided filming equipment and other filming essentials. Moreover, through the foundation’s support Han was able to collaborate with Hong Kong producers and even join European film festivals. Thus, in Han’s movies, one is able to find western elements, and yet, applied in a genuinely Korean style.
Following her presentation, the moderator moved onto a Q&A session. The audience submitted a wide range of questions, inquiring about how much the US aid had affected the Korean film industry, details of certain films, the link between the Cold War, South Korea and Russia, and more. Answering these questions, Prof. Klein used the Bu-dae-ji-gae (부대찌개), a Korean stew which was made by using US produced meat, as a metaphor and emphasized while Han had adopted western culture, fashion, ideology, filming techniques, etc. into his film, he had applied them in his own Korean manner which makes his films genuinely authentic and Korean.
