Sounds of celluloid dreams: coming of the talkies to cinema in colonial Korea

Conventional reports often hint at how Koreans gained fijilm industry experience and

training in Korea and Japan during the 1920s and early 1930s under Cultural Policy

reforms. Yet, few studies consider the full range of influences that motivated their contributions

to a local vibrant popular entertainment industry and to the global transition

to sound. This article attempts to recast the story of cinema in colonial Korea by

offfering new insights into the productive and destructive characteristics of colonial

modernity. The exhibition of talkies from Japan and the West (primarily the United

States)—as early as in 1925 and more regularly after 1930—inspired Korean fijilmmakers

and technicians to experiment with sound technology in a way similar to others

around the world. Producing a small number of talkies on “locally-made” equipment

enabled them to reach out to millions of cinemagoers and to contribute to a “goldenage”

of cinema—rather than simply “collaborating” with the Japanese. In the process,

they constructed new spaces for the expression of Korean language and culture

within and despite the political and cultural boundaries of colonialism. Colonialism

involved entangled degrees of entrepreneurialism, nationalism, and modernity—particularly

for those who dreamt of bringing modernity to Korea and sought the type of

cosmopolitan lifestyle found in a fijilm production center such as Seoul,