KOREA 80
Introduction to Korean Cinema
Description: Lecture, two hours; discussion, one hour. Broad overview of Korean film history, from beginning of 20th century into present, tracing correlation between film and major historical, political, and cultural events or shifts over same period. Focusing on how film narratives represent (rather than reflect) social reality, analysis of imagination and construction of national identity and cultural tradition (and its critique) across these films, which follows loose chronology by theme rather than production date. Students gain sense both of development of modern Korean film and its relationship with aspects of Korean society and culture. Discussion and written assignments focus both on films themselves and on related critical texts. No Korean language ability is required; no background knowledge in Korean history or culture is assumed; all films are subtitled in English. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I took KOREA 80 virtually, and even as a virtual class I found it to be very enjoyable. You will watch 1 film per week, with a total of 10 films overall. Some of the early ones (like Spring on the Peninsula and A Stray Bullet) are pretty boring, but they certainly get better as time goes on. My personal favorite was Train to Busan, which we watched in Week 9. No, you won't be watching Parasite, but for the final you just have to watch and write about any film that's not in the syllabus, so you can choose to watch that one if you'd like. Every week you have to write a one-page response paper about the film assigned that week, and those are pretty easy. I had Minseung and I got 20/20 points on nearly every response submission. The level of engagement in this class is what you choose for it to be. In the virtual setting, Professor Hanscom's lectures were recorded and posted on CCLE, so you could watch them at any time. I think he's an engaging lecturer, but the lectures tend to feel like they're a bit longer than they need to be. You don't really need the lectures at all to do well on the response papers or writing assignments, and there were a few weeks that I ended up skipping the lectures. There's also a textbook for this class, but I promise that it is absolutely not necessary at all, and you can just save your money by not buying it. I never opened it once and still got an A in the class. Overall, I would recommend this class. It's a pretty easy A and I learned a lot of interesting stuff about Korean history and the Korean film industry.
Fall 2020 - I took KOREA 80 virtually, and even as a virtual class I found it to be very enjoyable. You will watch 1 film per week, with a total of 10 films overall. Some of the early ones (like Spring on the Peninsula and A Stray Bullet) are pretty boring, but they certainly get better as time goes on. My personal favorite was Train to Busan, which we watched in Week 9. No, you won't be watching Parasite, but for the final you just have to watch and write about any film that's not in the syllabus, so you can choose to watch that one if you'd like. Every week you have to write a one-page response paper about the film assigned that week, and those are pretty easy. I had Minseung and I got 20/20 points on nearly every response submission. The level of engagement in this class is what you choose for it to be. In the virtual setting, Professor Hanscom's lectures were recorded and posted on CCLE, so you could watch them at any time. I think he's an engaging lecturer, but the lectures tend to feel like they're a bit longer than they need to be. You don't really need the lectures at all to do well on the response papers or writing assignments, and there were a few weeks that I ended up skipping the lectures. There's also a textbook for this class, but I promise that it is absolutely not necessary at all, and you can just save your money by not buying it. I never opened it once and still got an A in the class. Overall, I would recommend this class. It's a pretty easy A and I learned a lot of interesting stuff about Korean history and the Korean film industry.
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