Arts: Bleak Blockbusters

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Movies Bleak Blockbusters Korean directors are making dark, cynical films about the war with the North—and audiences can't get enough of them. By Grady Hendrix Posted Wednesday, Jan 18, 2012, at 10:47 PM ET Korea has had a bad 100 years. First Japan occupied the country, then Allied forces occupied it, then a war ripped it in half, then North Korea became a dictatorship, then South Korea experienced a coup followed by a decade of military rule, followed by another decade of martial law, followed by the assassination of the president, another coup, another military regime, and, finally, in 1987, a return to constitutional government. So when Korea produces a movie about its history like the Korean War movie The Front Line, which opens in the U.S. this week, it tends not to be an inspirational story with choruses on the soundtrack and shafts of golden sunlight illuminating award-winning actors intoning words meant to stir men's souls (see: Amistad, Patton, Glory). Instead, The Front Line is a film so bleak, cynical, and anti-authoritarian that it makes Oliver Stone look like Ron Howard. And get this: Koreans flocked to cinemas and made The Front Line one of last summer's biggest hits. Under South Korea's military dictatorship, war movies were expected to be patriotic pep rallies—dissent was not tolerated. Director Lee Man-Hee was arrested in 1965 for making a movie that portrayed communists sympathetically. That same year, director Yu Hyeon-Mok spoke out on Man-Hee's behalf and found himself sentenced to over a year in prison for including six seconds of nudity in his own experimental film. Restrictions on content started loosening in the '80s, but it wasn't until 1995 ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Wikipedia's SOPA Protest: Shutting the Site Down Is a Brilliant Tactic It Should Never Repeat Obama Blames GOP Deadline for Keystone Rejection Don't Buy the Atlantic's Fear-Mongering on the "Danger" of Genetically Modified Foods	Advertisement
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