The Bloomsbury Handbook of North Korean Cinema
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing (2025), x, 344 pp.
Contains illustrations, index
Series: Bloomsbury Handbooks
ISBN 979-8-7651-0286-2 (pbk); 979-8-7651-0284-8 (pdf)
"This first handbook on North Korean cinema contests the assumption that North Korean film is “unwatchable,” in terms of both quality and accessibility, refusing to reduce North Korean cinema to political propaganda and focusing on its aesthetic forms and cultural meanings. Since its founding in 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has played diverse roles: a Cold War communist threat to the US, the other half of a divided nation to South Korea, an ally to the Soviet Union and China, one model for anti-colonialism to national liberation movements, an exotic political and cultural anomaly in the era of globalization. This handbook provides a solid and diverse foundation for the expanding scholarship on North Korean cinema. It is also a road map for connecting this field to broader issues in film and media studies: film history, affect and ideology, genre, and transnational cinema cultures. By connecting the worlds of North Korean cinema to broader questions in global cinema studies, this book explores the complexity of a national cinema too often reduced to a single image." (Publisher description)
Introduction / Travis Workman, Dong Hoon Kim and Immanuel Kim, 1
SECTION I: FILM HISTORY, HISTORY IN FILM, 13
1 Stars without Glamor: Moon Ye-bong and the Making of Socialist Stars in North Korea / Dong Hoon Kim, 15
2 Pleasure, Flexibility, Didacticism, and the Lingering Impact of Socialist Realist Narrative Trajectories on DPRK Film / Andrew David Jackson, 32
3 The Reproduction of History and the Restructuring of the Cold War in the North Korean Historical Spy Film, Red Maple Leaves / Hana Lee, 47
4 Land, Workers, and Revolutionary Culture in North Korean Cinema / Eunha Jeong Wood, 66
SECTION II: IDEOLOGY AND AFFECT, 85
5 Religion on the North Korean Screen: Different Approaches to Christianity and Buddhism in The Ch'oe Hak-sin Family and We Met at Mt. Myohyang / Roman Husarski, 87
6 A Study of the Spectatorship of North Korean Cinema: A Schoolgirl's Diary (2006) / Sunah Kim, 103
7 North Korean Cinema Intermedial: Revolutionary Opera Film / Hyunseon Lee, 120
8 Female Leaders, and the “Unawakened” Male: Gender, Power, and Persuasion in Kim Jong Il's Juche Cinema / Anna Broinowski, 139
9 Vigilant Melody: On DPRK Film Music / Adam Cathcart (University of Leeds, UK) and Alexandra Leonzini, 161
SECTION III: GENRE CONVENTIONS, 175
10 Son'gun Cinema: Portraying the Ideal Soldier in North Korea's Military Genre Film / Makayla Cherry, 177
11 Spy Films of North Korea: Classic Tropes and Conventions / Tatiana Gabroussenko, 191
12 Four Weddings and Propaganda: Satire in North Korean Comedy Films / Immanuel Kim, 208
13 North Korean Documentary Film / Seung Kim, 221
SECTION IV: TRANSNATIONAL EXCHANGES, 237
14 Cinematic Exchanges Between North Korea and China (1945-1959): Screenings of Chinese Films in North Korea / Yu Liu, 239
15 North Korean Cinema in China: The Logic of Cultural Exchange / Chris Berry, 259
16 World Cinema and Realism in 1950s and 1960s North Korean Film Criticism / Travis Workman, 275
17 Uncommon Crossroads of North Korean Film: Cinematic Dreaming with the Big Brother / Gabor Sebo, 293
SECTION V: INTERVIEWS
18 Filmmaker and film scholar Soyoung Kim, 317
19 Producer and director Nicholas Bonner, 325
SECTION I: FILM HISTORY, HISTORY IN FILM, 13
1 Stars without Glamor: Moon Ye-bong and the Making of Socialist Stars in North Korea / Dong Hoon Kim, 15
2 Pleasure, Flexibility, Didacticism, and the Lingering Impact of Socialist Realist Narrative Trajectories on DPRK Film / Andrew David Jackson, 32
3 The Reproduction of History and the Restructuring of the Cold War in the North Korean Historical Spy Film, Red Maple Leaves / Hana Lee, 47
4 Land, Workers, and Revolutionary Culture in North Korean Cinema / Eunha Jeong Wood, 66
SECTION II: IDEOLOGY AND AFFECT, 85
5 Religion on the North Korean Screen: Different Approaches to Christianity and Buddhism in The Ch'oe Hak-sin Family and We Met at Mt. Myohyang / Roman Husarski, 87
6 A Study of the Spectatorship of North Korean Cinema: A Schoolgirl's Diary (2006) / Sunah Kim, 103
7 North Korean Cinema Intermedial: Revolutionary Opera Film / Hyunseon Lee, 120
8 Female Leaders, and the “Unawakened” Male: Gender, Power, and Persuasion in Kim Jong Il's Juche Cinema / Anna Broinowski, 139
9 Vigilant Melody: On DPRK Film Music / Adam Cathcart (University of Leeds, UK) and Alexandra Leonzini, 161
SECTION III: GENRE CONVENTIONS, 175
10 Son'gun Cinema: Portraying the Ideal Soldier in North Korea's Military Genre Film / Makayla Cherry, 177
11 Spy Films of North Korea: Classic Tropes and Conventions / Tatiana Gabroussenko, 191
12 Four Weddings and Propaganda: Satire in North Korean Comedy Films / Immanuel Kim, 208
13 North Korean Documentary Film / Seung Kim, 221
SECTION IV: TRANSNATIONAL EXCHANGES, 237
14 Cinematic Exchanges Between North Korea and China (1945-1959): Screenings of Chinese Films in North Korea / Yu Liu, 239
15 North Korean Cinema in China: The Logic of Cultural Exchange / Chris Berry, 259
16 World Cinema and Realism in 1950s and 1960s North Korean Film Criticism / Travis Workman, 275
17 Uncommon Crossroads of North Korean Film: Cinematic Dreaming with the Big Brother / Gabor Sebo, 293
SECTION V: INTERVIEWS
18 Filmmaker and film scholar Soyoung Kim, 317
19 Producer and director Nicholas Bonner, 325
