Im Hwa: colonial film criticism in Korea

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two articles of Im Hwa on Korean film during colonial rule, originally published in 1941 and 1942, have been translated into English and appeared in the Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema in 2019 and 2020. This article further introduces the author Im (1908–1953), who was an influential Korean socialist poet, literary and filmic critic, as well as movie actor. It illustrates Im Hwa’s itinerary as a film critic whose major interests were on the ontology of Joseon (Korean) cinema as a particular cinema that cannot be assimilated to then the Japanese state cinema. In his writings, Im advances the notions of ‘transplantation’ in order to articulate ‘artistic features of Joseon cinema’, which he sees as a key strategy for Joseon cinema to critically engage in the ‘transitional period’ of the early 1940s, during which the industrialization of Joseon film production had been longed for, but collapsed and absorbed into the state-run Joseon Motion Picture Corporation during the Greater East Asian War.