Korean Horror Cinema Editors: Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin 'From avenging ghost stories to the gory violence of Asian "Extreme", andfrom folkloric fox women to haunted high schools, this remarkable volume is an indispensable contribution to the expanding field of global horror film studies. Editors Peirse and Martin and their collected authors explore the history, national contexts, and global interactions of the Korean horror film. Fans, critics, and scholars alike will find this volume a useful introduction to a little-explored area of global film culture.' Harry M. Benshoff, University of North Texas As the first detailed English-language book on the subject, Korean Horror Cinema introduces the cultural specificity of the genre to an international audience, from the iconic monsters of gothic horror, such as the wonhon (vengeful female ghost) and the gumiho (shapeshifting fox), to the avenging killers of Oldboy and Death Bell. Beginning in the 1960s with The Housemaid, it traces a path through the history of Korean horror, offering new interpretations of classic films, demarcating the shifting patterns of production and consumption across the decades, and introducing readers to films rarely seen and discussed outside of Korea. It explores the importance of folklore and myth on horror film narratives, discusses the impact of political and social change upon the genre, and accounts for the transnational triumph of some of Korea's contemporary horror films. While covering some of the most successful recent films such as Thirst, A Tale of Two Sisters, and Phone, the collection also explores the obscure, the arcane and the little-known outside Korea, including detailed analyses of The Devil's Stairway, Woman's Wail and The Fox With Nine Tails. Its exploration and definition of the canon makes it an engaging and essential read for students and scholars in horror film studies and Korean Studies alike. Alison Peirse is Programme Leader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Northumbria. Daniel Martin is Assasstant Professor of Film Studies at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). Cover image: Thirst, 2009 (c) Focus Features / The Kobal Collection. Cover design: Barrie Tullett
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Acknowledgements
Foreword, Julian Stringer
Contributors
Introduction, Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin
Part I: Classic Korean Horror
1. Family, Death and the Wonhon in Three Films of the 1960s, Hyangjin Lee
2. Creepy Liver-Eating Fox Ladies: The Thousand Year Old Fox and Korea's Gumiho, Alison Peirse and James Byrne
3. War Horror and Anti-Communism: From Piagol to Rainy Days, Mark Morris
4. Mother's Grudge and Woman's Wail: The Monster-Mother and Korean Horror Film, Eunha Oh
Part II: Contemporary 'Domestic' Horror
5. Heritage of Horrors: Reclaiming the Female Ghost in Shadows in the Palace, Yun Mi Hwang
6. From Acacia to Uninvited: Adoption Anxiety in Korean Horror Cinema, Hye Seung Chung
7. Apartment Horror: Sorum and Possessed, Nikki J. Y. Lee
8. The Face(s) of Korean Horror Film: Toward a Cinematic Physiognomy of Affective Extremes, David Scott Diffrient
9. Death Bell and High School Horror, Chi-Yun Shin
Part III: Contemporary 'International' Horror
10. Between the Local and the Global: 'Asian Horror' in Ahn Byung-ki's Phone and Bunshinsaba, Daniel Martin
11. Diary of a Lost Girl: Victoriana, Intertextuality and A Tale of Two Sisters, Robert L. Cagle
12. From A Tale of Two Sisters to The Uninvited: A Tale of Two Texts, Leung Wing-Fai
13. Oldboy goes to Bollywood: Zinda and the Transnational Appropriation of South Korean 'Extreme' Cinema, Iain Robert Smith
14. Park Chan-wook's Thirst: Passion, Guilt and Exsanguination, Kyu Hyun Kim
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
