Instructor: Kyu Hyun Kim, Department of History, College of Letters and Science
Description: This seminar examines contemporary Korean cinema in the global context. Korean cinema has been widely recognized in the global cultural market as one of the most surprising and baffling “success stories,” not only resisting the global hegemony of the Hollywood films in the domestic market, but also generating a transnational network of fans, collaborators and consumers in East Asia as well as in Europe and North America. This is a drastic turnaround from only fifteen years ago, when Korean cinema was regarded by Koreans themselves as low-rent, insignificant and unworthy of scholarly attention. It has now become one of the most important cultural media through which Korea is recognized globally. The seminar will introduce the freshmen participants to a select number of award-winning and artistically praised Korean films and explore modern Korean history and cultural identities as reflected in these works of art. It will be an appropriate course for any student with an interest in East Asian history, East Asian culture, film studies, international relations and media studies. Considering the popularity among UC Davis students I have taught who have indicated the knowledge and interest in contemporary Korean popular culture, including cinema and TV drama, I expect this course to attract a sizable number of freshmen.
Format: The students will write two five-page reflection papers and will also contribute a web-based research essay. They will attend film screenings and read assigned texts, which will be approximately 20-30 pages per week, and discuss these works during class sessions. The class will also organize two field trips to Pacific Film Archive showing of Korean films at Asian American Film Festival and San Francisco International Film Festival in April and May, respectively. Students may write field trip reports for additional points to be added to the final score. The seminar will be letter-graded. The grade will be based on three papers, online discussion participation and oral presentation during the class (optional). Grading: The grade breakdown is as follows: reflection papers: 50 points each x 2= 100; discussion evaluation: 50 points: and online essay: 50 points for a total of 150 points. Field trip reflection: 20 points each (Optional). Students also must attend bi-weekly screenings of the select Korean films, and class discussions. Failure to do so will reflect negatively on their final grades.
About the Instructor: Kyu Hyun Kim. Born in Seoul. B.A., M.A. and Ph. D in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard University in 1997. Promoted to Associate Professor of Japanese History in 2004. “The Age of Visions and Arguments: Parliamentarianism and the National Public Sphere in Early Meiji Japan” to be published in Summer 2007 from Harvard East Asia Center. Also authored many articles on modern Korean history, Japanese popular culture, and Korean cinema. Most recent publication in the topic of Korean cinema is “Horror as Critique in ‘Tell Me Something’ and ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’” in Julian Stringer, Chi-Yun Shin, eds. New Korean Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2005). I am currently the only Korean studies specialist in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UC Davis.