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The Korean “Cinema of Assimilation” and the Construction of Cultural Hegemony in the Final Years of Japanese Rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Richard Howson  and
Brian Yecies
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Abstract

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During the late 1930s, as Japan escalated war preparations with China, and after GovernorGeneral Minami formalized the assimilationist ideology of “Japan and Korea as One Body”, cinema in Korea experienced a fundamental transformation. Korean filmmakers had little choice but to make co-productions that aimed to draw Koreans toward Japanese ways of thinking and living, while promoting a sense of loyalty to the Japanese Empire. Within this colonial context, and especially after the 1940 Korean Film Law facilitated the absorption of the Korean film industry into the Japanese film industry, a particular type of masculine hegemony was encouraged by a comprehensive censorship process. To show how this fluid and dynamic process worked, this article draws on some key theoretical concepts of hegemony to analyze the construction of masculinity in three of the most notable of these wartime co-productions: Angels on the Streets (1941), Spring in the Korean Peninsula (1941), and Suicide Squad at the Watchtower (1943). It analyzes how the colonial authorities sought to reorient Korean audiences toward a particular worldview by means of a process that we call a “cinema of assimilation” - a cultural hegemonic exercise designed to draw Koreans closer to the social, political and economic habits and priorities of their occupiers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 25 , June 2013 , e5
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

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Select Filmmography of Colonial-era Films

(including films known to exist at the Korean Film Archive)Google Scholar
Angels on the Streets (Ie naki tenshi, aka Homeless Angel, Choi In-kyu, 1941). 2007. The Past Unearthed: Collection of Feature Films in the Japanese Colonial Period (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Children of the Sun (1944) - no known copy extant.Google Scholar
Dear Soldier (aka Mr. Soldier, Bang Han-joon, 1944). 2009. The Past Unearthed: The Third Encounter (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Fisherman's Fire (An Cheol-yeong 1938). 2008. The Past Unearthed: The Second Encounter Collection of Chosun Films in the 1930s (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
I Will Die Under My Flag (Hwa-rang, Kim, 1939). Available on DVD only at the Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Love of Their Neighbors (Renji, Okazaki, 1938). Available on film only at the Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Military Train (aka Troop Train, Seo Gwang-je, 1938). 2008. The Past Unearthed: The Second Encounter Collection of Chosun Films in the 1930s (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Portrait of Youth (Shiro, Toyota, 1943). Available on DVD only at the Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Sons of the Sky (1945) - no known copy extant.Google Scholar
Spring in the Korean Peninsula (Hanto no haru, Byeong-il, Lee, 1941). 2007. The Past Unearthed: Collection of Feature Films in the Japanese Colonial Period (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Straits of Chosun (Ki-chae, Park, 1943). 2007. The Past Unearthed: Collection of Feature Films in the Japanese Colonial Period (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Story of Sim Chung (Seok-yeong, An, 1937). VOD via the Korean Film Archive website. Available here.Google Scholar
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Sweet Dream (aka Mimong, Yang Ju-nam, 1936). 2008. The Past Unearthed: The Second Encounter Collection of Chosun Films in the 1930s (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
Tuition (aka Tuition Fee, Choi In-gyu and Baek Un-haeng) 1940 - no known copy extant.Google Scholar
Volunteer (Suk-young, Ahn, 1941). 2007. The Past Unearthed: Collection of Feature Films in the Japanese Colonial Period (DVD). Seoul: Korean Film Archive.Google Scholar
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