Political Moods: Film Melodrama and the Cold War in the Two Koreas

Melodrama films were dominant in the North and South Korean industries between 1945 and the 1970s, reflecting Cold War and Korean War political ideologies and national historical experiences. Political Moods develops a comparative analysis across the Cold War divide, analyzing how films in both North and South Korea convey political and moral ideas through the sentimentality of the melodramatic mode. It reveals that melancholic moods express the somatic and social conflicts between political ideologies and excesses of affect, meaning, and historical references, dramatizing the tension between Cold War politics and the negative affects that connect cinema to what it cannot fully represent.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 24 October 2023
Publisher: University of California Press

Between the years of 1945, when the two Koreas were liberated from Japanese colonial rule, and the 1970s, when dictatorship took hold, melodrama films played a significant role in the film industries of both North and South Korea. These films are often seen as direct reflections of the political ideologies and national historical experiences of the Cold War and the Korean War, which led to a significant aesthetic and political opposition between the two regions. However, Political Moods takes a different approach by conducting a comparative analysis across the Cold War divide. It explores how melodrama films in both North and South Korea convey political and moral ideas through the sentimentality of the melodramatic mode.

Travis Workman, the author of Political Moods, reveals that the melancholic moods of film melodrama express the somatic and social conflicts between political ideologies and the excesses of affect, meaning, and historical references. These moods dramatize the tension between the language of Cold War politics and the negative affects that connect cinema to what it cannot fully represent. The result of this analysis is a new way of historicizing the cinema of the two Koreas in relation to colonialism, postcolonialism, war, and nation building.

In conclusion, melodrama films played a crucial role in the film industries of both North and South Korea during the period between liberation and the hardening of dictatorship. While these films were often seen as opposing each other due to their political ideologies and national historical experiences, Political Moods offers a comparative analysis that reveals the ways in which they convey political and moral ideas through the sentimentality of the melodramatic mode. This analysis provides a new perspective on the cinema of the two Koreas and its relationship to colonialism, postcolonialism, war, and nation building.

Weight: 376g
Dimension: 228 x 153 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520395695