Customer Reviews

South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, And National Cinema (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Collecting a series of essays on gender and nationalism as presented in the golden age of Korean melodrama, this book offers unique insights into this formative period of South Korean film. The contributors are experts in their subjects. Though at times critical, they are never belittling. The tone overall is one of respect and love for the genre, despite its flaws. The authors offer useful observations about the nature of gender as presented in these early works. South Korean melodramas during the 1950s and 1960s were targeted at a predominately middle-aged, married female audience, as noted in an essay by film scholar Soyoung Kim: 'The melodramatic genre was considered an outlet for women to release their han (pent-up grief) over their experiences relating to repressive neo-Confucian patriarchy.' (p. 190) Kim's essay focuses on the intense emotive quality of Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid, which was designed specifically to appeal to these viewers. It is interesting to note that these same themes continue to appeal to modern audiences--Im Sang-soo's remake of The Housemaid was well-received at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The insights offered in this book remain relevant.

D. Bannon is a professional translator. He has subtitled many popular Korean dramas, most recently Dong Yi, The Great Queen Seondeok Vol. 1 and Time Between Dog and Wolf. He discusses subtitle translation in The Elements of Subtitles, Revised and Expanded Edition: A Practical Guide to the Art of Dialogue, Character, Context, Tone and Style in Subtitling