A Commitment to Showmanship: Spectacle
Christina Klein
Chapter from the book: Klein, C. 2020. Cold War Cosmopolitanism: Period Style in 1950s Korean Cinema.
Part of
Chapter from the book: Klein, C. 2020. Cold War Cosmopolitanism: Period Style in 1950s Korean Cinema.
This chapter explores spectacle as an element of Han’s film style. It looks at how Han Hyung-mo drew on contemporary public culture to fill his films with sights and sounds that appealed to viewers via a presentational mode of address. It focuses on four films and types of spectacle, each of which had a cosmopolitan dimension: Japanese judo in My Sister is a Hussy, Latin mambo in Madame Freedom, fashion designer Nora Noh’s European-inspired costumes in A Female Boss, and traditional Korean dance performed in Southeast Asia in Because I Love You. This chapter, like the previous one, traces the historical dimensions of these spectacles, showing how they are rooted in the flows of people into and out of Korea.
Klein, C. 2020. A Commitment to Showmanship: Spectacle. In: Klein, C, Cold War Cosmopolitanism. California: University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.85.h
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Published on Jan. 21, 2020