ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the question of whether Korean cinema is invisible in American film and media studies because its success takes place in the 21st century, when cinema itself is predicated on ideas and values flouted during the 20th century. It argues that it is possible to have an interesting and dynamic national cinema that complements and mutually strengthen the new media. One of the advertisement lines for commercials of Hyundai Capital, which is a South Korean consumer finance company that deals primarily with credit card and automobile loans and home mortgage products, acknowledges that consumer finance companies usually have trouble finding success beyond domestic borders. The partnership forged between Korea and its neighbor certainly allow for a better forecast for Korean cinema, which merely several years ago could afford to shoot only B-comedies, introspective melodramas, and horrors – in no language other than Korean.
