ABSTRACT
After 1916, the ‘birth’ of the film industry in Korea, and after Hasegawa Yoshimichi became governor-general, the amount of Korean culture expressed on screen declined markedly. At the same time, there was a noticeable increase in the number of Japanese, American, and European films entering the Korean market—distributed by Koreans as well as Japanese, Americans, and other foreign nationals. The numbers of documentaries and travelogue films produced by Japanese filmmakers and other films made cooperatively by Korean and Japanese production staff also increased. Filmmakers and distributors from the United States and Japan had their eyes firmly fixed on the Korean market. Between the late 1910s and the mid-1920s, Japanese exhibitors expanded their operations in the cities and reached out into rural areas by opening new cinemas or purchasing established cinemas. These included the Gyeongseong Cinema, the Gyeongryonggwan, and Junganggwan in Seoul, the Gukjegwan, Sangsaenggwan, and Yurakgwan in Busan, and the Chosungwan, Geumjwa, and Shinheunggwan in Daegu.
