Extra or Ordinary? : Cinematic Style and the Long Take in Korean Independent Films

Abstract

This paper examines the style of the Korean independent film over the past decade, arguing that it is within this category that the most stylistic variation in Korean cinema can currently be found. Over the last two decades, South Korean cinema has grown significantly, creating a popular cinema that has been able to compete with Hollywood within the domestic market along with producing several international art house auteurs. But with this greater success has come a certain homogeneity, not only in terms of content but also in cinematic style. However, during this same period, the two largest domestic festivals, the Busan International Film Festival and the Jeonju International Film Festival, premiered dozens of independent films each year, many of which were able to enjoy brief theatrical runs and some of which gained a relatively substantial viewership, and it is within this area of independent cinema that a greater stylistic diversity can be found. This paper gives an overview of some of this variation and situates these films within South Korean cinema more broadly, while also providing detailed analysis of specific films and sequences from the biggest of the crossover box office successes, such as So-gong-nyeo (Microhabitat) (Jeon Go-woon, 2017), Beol-sae (House of Hummingbird) (Kim Bo-ra, 2018), and Nam-mae-ui Yeo-reum-bam (Moving On) (Yoon Da-bin, 2019), particularly sequences from those films employing long takes and staging variations from the mainstream stylistic norms.