Film production by Keijo nippo in the early 1920s : a study of the film Ai no kiwami

Abstract

Korean film historians traditionally regard 1923 as the foundation year for the country's production of fictional motion pictures. In contrast, this paper argues that the movie Ai no kiwami-made earlier in 1922 by the Motion Picture Unit of the Japanese colonial government newspaper Keijo nippo-ought to be regarded as the starting point for movie production in Korea. While earlier research has tended to separate Korean film history from that of the Japanese empire, this paper claims that films made in colonial Korea should be studied as part of the history of the Japanese empire. It argues that studies of national cinema need to reflect the historical circumstances when a particular film was made.