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Korean Films
The cinema of Korea encompasses the film industries of North Korea and South Korea, as well as the historical film industries of Korea as the kingdom of Joseon and under Japanese occupation. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films typically portray Juche ideology or revolutionary themes. South Korean films enjoyed a "golden age" during the late 1950s and 1960s, but by the 1970s had become generally considered to be of low quality. Nonetheless, by 2005 South Korea became a nation that watched more domestic than imported films in theatres. This was partially a result of laws placing limits on the number of foreign films able to be shown per theatre per year, but this was mostly due to the growth of the Korean entertainment industry, which quadrupled in size during this period. It has been noted that Korean movies have consistently outperformed foreign with very few except ...
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North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen River, Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like South Korea, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and List of islands of North Korea, adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. The Korean Peninsula was first inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its Gojoseon, first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Unified Silla, Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, Korea was ruled by the G ...
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Yonhap News Agency
Yonhap News Agency (; ) is a major news agency in South Korea. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures, and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea. History Yonhap was established on 19 December 1980, through the merger of Hapdong News Agency and Orient Press. The Hapdong News Agency itself emerged in late 1945 out of the short-lived Kukje News, which had operated for two months out of the office of the Domei, the former Japanese news agency that had functioned in Korea during the Japanese Japanese colonial era. In 1999, Yonhap took over the Naewoe News Agency. Naewoe was a South Korea government-affiliated organization, created in the mid 1970s, tasked with publishing information and analysis on North Korea from a South Korean perspective through books and journals. Naewoe was known to have close links with South Korea's intelligence agency, and according to the British academic and historian James Hoar ...
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Benshi
were Japanese performers who provided live narrator, narration for silent films (both Japanese films and Western world, Western films). ''Benshi'' are sometimes called or . Role The earliest films available for public display were produced by Western studios, portraying brief scenes of everyday life, often less than a minute long. The first were thus hired to provide added value, greater value for the high ticket prices charged by theaters relative to other public entertainment, while also giving technical and cultural context to the audience. The operation of the projector itself would be described before the showing, and then explanations of Western culture would accompany the film with the standing to the side of the screen. This commentary was as much part of the theater-going experience as the film itself. In one instance, a was able to avoid government censorship of The Kiss (1896 film), ''The Kiss'' by describing kissing in Western culture to be as casual a greeting as ...
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Arirang (1926 Film)
''Arirang'' () is a 1926 Korean silent film directed by Na Woon-gyu, who is also one of the main cast. It is regarded as one of the most influential films in Korean cinema history, as well as the first Korean nationalist film and a critique of the Japanese rule of Korea. It is named after the traditional song " Arirang," which audiences were said to sing at the conclusion of the film. ''Arirang'' is considered a lost film, but a written record of the plot still exists. Plot Yeong-jin is a student who has become mentally ill after being imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese for his involvement in the 1 March 1919 protest against the Japanese occupation of Korea. After his release, he returns home to live with his father and sister, Yeong-hui, in their village home. His old friend Hyeon-gu is now in love with Yeong-hui. While the villagers are preoccupied with a harvest festival, O Gi-ho, a collaborator with the Japanese police, attempts to rape Yeong-hui. Hyeon-gu fights G ...
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Na Woon-gyu
Na Woon-gyu (; October 27, 1902 – August 9, 1937) was a Korean actor, screenwriter and director. He is widely considered the most important filmmaker in early Korean cinema, and possibly Korea's first true movie star. Since he often wrote, directed and acted in his films, he has even been said to have started the auteur film-making tradition in Korea. Early life Na Woon-gyu was the third son of Na Hyong-gwon, a military officer during the final days of the Joseon period who had returned to his hometown of Hoeryong, Hamgyongbuk-do to teach. As a high-school student, Na was involved in theater and acting, but also in anti-Japanese activities including the March 1, 1919 protest against the occupation. To avoid imprisonment, he spent two years crossing and re-crossing the Duman River, which separates Korea from Manchuria. He traveled as far as Siberia, joining with Korean Liberation fighters in anti-occupation work. In 1921, he returned to Seoul, and enrolled in Yonhui (no ...
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Nongjungjo
''NongJungJo'' () is a 1926 Korean film. Future writing/directing/acting star Na Woon-gyu appeared in this film just before his breakthrough in Arirang (1926). Kato Kyohei served as director of photography both for this and other well-known Korean movies of the 1920s.Dong Hoon Kim, ''Eclipsed Cinema: The Film Culture of Colonial Korea'', Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, 265. Plot summary The story is a Melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ... concerning two lovers who are kept apart by the woman's strict parents, who lock her in her house. References Pre-1948 Korean films Korean black-and-white films Korean silent films {{Korea-film-stub ...
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Arirang 1957 Film
''Arirang'' ( ) is a Korean folk song. There are about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions of the song, all of which include a refrain similar to "arirang, arirang, arariyo" (""). It is estimated that the song is more than 600 years old. "Arirang" is included twice on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, having been submitted for inclusion first by South Korea in 2012 and then by North Korea in 2014. In 2015, the South Korean Cultural Heritage Administration added the song to its list of important intangible cultural assets. The song is sung today in both North and South Korea and acts as a symbol of unity between the two nations, which are divided by the Korean War. History Origin and ethnomusicology It is believed that "Arirang" originated in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province. "Arirang" as a term today is ambiguous in meaning, but some linguists have hypothesized that "ari" () meant "beautiful" and "rang" () referred to a "beloved one" or "bridegroom" in the anc ...
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Kpop Herald
''The Korea Herald'' () is a South Korean English-language daily newspaper founded in August 1953 and published in Seoul. The editorial staff is composed of Korean and international writers and editors, with additional news coverage drawn from international news agencies such as the Associated Press. ''The Korea Herald'' is operated by Herald Corporation. Herald Corporation also publishes ''The Herald Business'', a Korean-language business daily, ''The Junior Herald'', an English weekly for teens, ''The Campus Herald'', a Korean-language weekly for university students. Herald Media is also active in the country's booming English as a foreign language sector, operating a chain of hagwon as well as an English village. ''The Korea Herald'' is a member of the Asia News Network. History ''The Korean Republic'' ''The Korea Herald'' was first published on August 13, 1953, as ''The Korean Republic''. It was a four-page, tabloid-sized, English-language daily. In 1958, ''The Korean Repu ...
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Hankook Ilbo
''Hankook Ilbo'' () is a Korean-language daily newspaper in Seoul, South Korea. As of 2017, it had a daily circulation of about 213,200. It was previously published by the Hankook Ilbo Media Group, however following an embezzlement scandal in 2013–2014 it was sold to Dongwha Enterprise, which also owns ''The Korea Times''. Political position ''Hankook Ilbo'' tends to be economically centre-right and socially centre-left. ''Hankook Ilbo'' is a " liberal" media, but this is different from the meaning of " liberal" in the American political context. ''Hankook Ilbo'' officially doesn't put forward ideology other than "centrism". However, ''Hankook Ilbo'' has basically shown a fiscal conservative tone that values "fiscal responsibility". The newspaper has often criticized the Moon Jae-in government's fiscal policy for its lack of awareness of "financial soundness" (). This newspaper also supports "liberal economy". In contrast to the somewhat conservative tendency financiall ...
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Korean Film Archive
The Korean Film Archive (KOFA; ), or the Korean Federation of Film Archives, is the sole film archive in South Korea with nationwide coverage. It was founded in Seoul in 1974 as a non-profit organization. In 1976 KOFA joined the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) as an observer, and gained its full membership of FIAF in 1985. KOFA's main duties are to collect, preserve and categorize films and film-related materials, as well as to foster accessibility to its collections. Most of remaining originals and copies of Korean films are preserved in KOFA. Its main center is in Sangam-dong, Seoul, with two local branch centers in Busan and Bucheon, and a secondary preservation center in Seongnam. Its main center has several public facilities, including Cinematheque KOFA, Korean Film Museum, and a reference library. Recently KOFA has concentrated on digitization of Korean films, and has published several features of the Classic Korean Cinema DVD Collections. It also operates ...
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Norbert Weber
Norbert Weber, O.S.B. (20 December 1870 – 3 April 1956) was a German Catholic priest. He was a monk of the Benedictine Order and an archabbot of St. Ottilien Archabbey. He is remembered in South Korea for his role in starting the first male monastic order in the peninsula, as well as for his extensive photos and videos of Korean culture and civilization. Biography Weber was born on 20 December 1870 in Langweid am Lech, Kingdom of Bavaria. Korea In 1909, Weber dispatched two missionaries to Korea in order to establish a monastic community there. Weber himself visited the peninsula twice, once in 1911 and once in 1925, for a total of eight months. Weber extensively photographed and filmed Korea on his second trip to the peninsula. Prior to his films, video had been taken on the peninsula, but only in short fragments. Weber uniquely filmed enough footage for not only a feature-length film, but also five other short films, with of 35 mm film with unused footage left over. ...
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Pansori
' () is a Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a singer and a drummer. The term ' is a compounds of the Korean words and , the latter of which means "sound." However, ''pan'' has multiple meanings, and scholars disagree on which was the intended meaning when the term was coined. One meaning is "a situation where many people are gathered." Another meaning is "a song composed of varying tones." In music, Gugwangdae describes a long story that takes as little as three hours and as much as eight hours or more. It is one of the traditional forms of Korean music that mixes body movements and songs to the accompaniment of a buk drum played by a gosu. The dramatic content of the drama is changed according to various rhythms based on the melody of Korea's local music. Pansori was originally called the "sori", and it was called Taryeong, Japga (), Clown Song, and Geukga (). It was also commonly used in terms such as Changgeukjo (). In the late 20th century, the sorrowful ...
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