Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s
As the apparent progeny of Cold War politics in the West, espionage films witnessed unprecedented popularity around the globe in the 1960s. With the success of Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964)—along with French, Italian, and German copycats—in Asia, film industries in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, an...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156066 http://doi.org/10.1353/jks.2017.0016 |
| _version_ | 1826111070109958144 |
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| author | Lee, Sangjoon |
| author2 | Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information |
| author_facet | Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Lee, Sangjoon |
| author_sort | Lee, Sangjoon |
| collection | NTU |
| description | As the apparent progeny of Cold War politics in the West, espionage films witnessed unprecedented popularity around the globe in the 1960s. With the success of Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964)—along with French, Italian, and German copycats—in Asia, film industries in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea recognized the market potential and embarked on churning out their own James Bond-mimetic espionage films in the late 1960s. Since the regional political sphere has always been multifaceted, however, each country approached genre conventions with its own interpretation. In the US-driven Cold War political, ideological, and economic sphere, developmental states in the region, particularly South Korea and Taiwan, vigorously adopted anti-communist doctrine to guard and uphold their militant dictatorships. Under this political atmosphere in the regional sphere, cultural sectors in each nation-state, including cinema, voluntarily or compulsorily served as an apparatus to strengthen the state's ideological principles. While the Cold War politics that drive the narrative in the American and European films is conspicuously absent in Hong Kong espionage films, South Korea and Taiwan, on the other hand, explicitly promulgated the ideological principles of their apparent enemies, North Korea and the People's Republic of China (PRC), in their representative espionage films. This article casts a critical eye over South Korea–initiated inter-Asian coproduction of espionage films produced during the time, with particular reference to South Korea–Hong Kong coproduction of SOS Hong Kong (SOS Hongk'ong) and Special Agent X-7 (Sun'gan ŭnyŏngwŏnhi), both produced and released in 1966. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:44:54Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/156066 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T02:44:54Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1560662023-03-05T15:57:26Z Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s Lee, Sangjoon Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Humanities::History Cold War Korean Cinema Espionage As the apparent progeny of Cold War politics in the West, espionage films witnessed unprecedented popularity around the globe in the 1960s. With the success of Dr. No (1962) and Goldfinger (1964)—along with French, Italian, and German copycats—in Asia, film industries in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea recognized the market potential and embarked on churning out their own James Bond-mimetic espionage films in the late 1960s. Since the regional political sphere has always been multifaceted, however, each country approached genre conventions with its own interpretation. In the US-driven Cold War political, ideological, and economic sphere, developmental states in the region, particularly South Korea and Taiwan, vigorously adopted anti-communist doctrine to guard and uphold their militant dictatorships. Under this political atmosphere in the regional sphere, cultural sectors in each nation-state, including cinema, voluntarily or compulsorily served as an apparatus to strengthen the state's ideological principles. While the Cold War politics that drive the narrative in the American and European films is conspicuously absent in Hong Kong espionage films, South Korea and Taiwan, on the other hand, explicitly promulgated the ideological principles of their apparent enemies, North Korea and the People's Republic of China (PRC), in their representative espionage films. This article casts a critical eye over South Korea–initiated inter-Asian coproduction of espionage films produced during the time, with particular reference to South Korea–Hong Kong coproduction of SOS Hong Kong (SOS Hongk'ong) and Special Agent X-7 (Sun'gan ŭnyŏngwŏnhi), both produced and released in 1966. Nanyang Technological University Submitted/Accepted version This research was made possible by funding from Nanyang Technological University’s Start-Up Grant (2015–2018). 2022-04-05T01:46:28Z 2022-04-05T01:46:28Z 2017 Journal Article Lee, S. (2017). Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s. Journal of Korean Studies, 22(1), 343-364. https://dx.doi.org/10.1215/21581665-4226478 0731-1613 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156066 10.1215/21581665-4226478 http://doi.org/10.1353/jks.2017.0016 1 22 343 364 en Journal of Korean Studies © 2017 The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. All rights reserved. This paper was published by Duke University Press in Journal of Korean Studies and is made available with permission of The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::History Cold War Korean Cinema Espionage Lee, Sangjoon Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title | Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title_full | Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title_fullStr | Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title_full_unstemmed | Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title_short | Destination Hong Kong : the geopolitics of South Korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| title_sort | destination hong kong the geopolitics of south korean espionage films in the 1960s |
| topic | Humanities::History Cold War Korean Cinema Espionage |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/156066 http://doi.org/10.1353/jks.2017.0016 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT leesangjoon destinationhongkongthegeopoliticsofsouthkoreanespionagefilmsinthe1960s |