Description: In this ground-breaking investigation into the seldom-studied film culture of colonial Korea (1910-1945), Dong Hoon Kim brings new perspectives to the associations between colonialism, modernity, film historiography and national cinema. By reconstructing the lost intricacies of colonial film history, Eclipsed Cinema explores under-investigated aspects of colonial film culture, such as the representational politics of colonial cinema, the film unit of the colonial government, the social reception of Hollywood cinema, and Japanese settlers' film culture. Filling a significant void in Asian film history, Eclipsed Cinema greatly expands the critical and historical scopes of early cinema and Korean and Japanese film histories, as well as modern Asian culture, and colonial and postcolonial studies.
Brief description: Dong Hoon Kim is Assistant Professor in East Asian Languages and Literatures and a member of the committee on Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon.
Review Quotes: Innovative! Dong Hoon Kim goes beyond the national cinema approach by using both Japanese and Korean texts and examining the multicultural/multiethnic formation of the Korean film culture during the colonial period. Eclipsed Cinema is a must read for all who are interested in the history of East Asian cinemas.--Professor Daisuke Miyao, University of California, San Diego