There’s been a big news story this week for anyone interested in classic Korean cinema: the Korean film Archive (KOFA) have announced a partnership with Google which will deliver a Video On Demand service through YouTube of seventy classic Korean films, ranging from 1949 to 1996 – seven of which will be of HD quality. The answer to the big question is – yes – all of the films will have English subtitles. Up until now classic Korean cinema has been incredibly difficult to find: DVD releases from KOFA have so far provided the best source of material, but the releases are sporadic with only a handful each year and require importing. KOFA must be congratulated in providing the films to be shown online and while no pricing has been announced – that’s if the films are on a Pay Per View basis, the announcement describes it only as ‘VOD’ – this will be by far the easiest way to access these films, many of which are incredibly rare and, up until now, incredibly difficult to source.
The channel is currently scheduled to begin streaming films in May and can be found here
Films that have been announced include:
The Flower In Hell (Shin Sang-ok, 1958)
Aimless Bullet (Yu Hyun-mok, 1961)
Mother and a Guest (Shin Sang-ok, 1961)
Coachman (Kang Dae-jin, 1961)
Barefooted Young (Kim Ki-duk,1964)
Woman of Fire (Kim Ki-young, 1971)
A Woman After a Killer Butterfly (Kim Ki-young, 1978)
People of Ko-Bang Neighbourhood (Bae Chang-ho, 1982)
Hwang Jin Yi (Bae Chang-ho, 1986)
Our Joyful Young Days (Bae Chang-ho, 1987)
General’s Son (Im Kwon-taek, 1990)
Sopyonje (Im Kwon-taek, 1993)
Sources:www.koreafilm.or.kr /
