Enlightening the Other: Colonial Korean Cinema and the Question of Audience

Abstract

The Japanese colonial authorities treated Korean subjects like pupils, and further, like metaphorical children in a number of ways. They attempted to enlighten Korea, and one of the most effective tools of enlightenment for the mostly illiterate colonial population was film. It was a powerful material of propaganda and governing due to its massive popularity since its introduction in the colony. Upon the Korea Film Decree announcement by the Government General in 1940, the colony’s movie theaters became schools that only screened educational films. With this historical context in mind, this essay provides a study of the late-colonial era films released in the 1940-1945 period, including Homeless Angels, Love and Vow, Volunteer, Portrait of Youth, and Suicide Squad at the Watch Tower. My analyses focus on the intertwined issues of colonial enlightenment and propaganda, as well as the issues of ethnography, censorship, and narrative strategies of the films. The films are often packaged as melodrama through a heavy use of music, but this genre facade actually leads to the films’ narrative failure as both melodrama and propaganda. Thus I argue that the Japanese colonial authorities’ attempt at enlightenment via propaganda films ultimately failed. In lieu of a conclusion, this essay ends with a consideration of postcolonial desire for a national cinematic tradition, and the implied ethics of film viewing in postcolonial worlds.