[KOREA: BURTON HOLMES TRAVELOGUES] (US, 1901-1914)
regia/dir, photog: [Elias] Burton Holmes. copia/copy: 35mm, 351 ft., 5′ (18 fps); senza did./no titles. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

These motion pictures were recorded by the American traveler and lecturer Burton Holmes (1870-1958; full name Elias Burton Holmes), who is believed to have introduced the medium of film to Korea for the first time. He documented Korean landscapes and people, and presented a show on his film apparatus at the court of the Emperor Gojong. Among the subjects are a smiling man putting on a Western-style hat; the streets in front of the Namdaemun (Great South Gate); rickshaw drivers; people carrying large umbrellas; women doing washing; a man with a topknot putting on a headband and then donning a gat (a partially transparent traditional Korean horsehair hat); men shooting bows and arrows; two young children eating; young women performing traditional dancing; and a group of men hurling dirt in unison with shovels tied with ropes. According to the multi-volume work The Burton Holmes Lectures, it combines documents from his first and second visits in 1901 and 1914 respectively: Seoul, Capital of Korea (1901-1902) and Japan and Korea (1913-1914). – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

AU PAYS DU MATIN CALME: LA CORÉE [Nel paese della quiete mattutina: la Corea/Land of the Morning Calm] (FR 1908)
regia/dir, photog: ?. prod: Pathé Frères. copia/copy: 35mm, 436 ft., 6’27” (18 fps); did./titles: GER. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

At least since 1885, Korea was dubbed in English “The land of the morning calm”, and the phrase was subsequently picked up in other languages and frequently used to poetically describe the peninsula. This Pathé Frères travelogue shows a variety of images of daily life, including pig breeding, pedestrians on a country road, buffalo carrying loads, a man grinding corn with a small millstone, an itinerant cobbler at work, a palace with a lotus garden, men at a well, the Namdaemun market in Seoul, children running, and ends with a couple smiling at the camera. The KOFA obtained this film from the BFI National Film and Television Archive (NFTVA) in London. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

IMPORTANT TOWNS IN KOREA (US 1923?)
regia/dir: ?. photog: ?. copia/copy: 35mm, 177 ft., 2′ (24 fps); did./titles: ENG. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

Acquired from the BFI NFTVA in 1994, this short film shows the Port of Busan, a tram running between Busan and Choryang, the “South Gate Street” shopping district in Seoul, the Bank of Joseon (described as the “Chosen Bank, the national bank of Korea, managed by Japan”),  Changgyeonggung Palace, and Changdeokgung Palace. It culminates with images of crowds strolling and a picnic among the cherry blossoms, and shots of animals at the Zoological Gardens, and the Palace of Prince Yi, the former ruler of Korea. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

SUNJONGHWANGJAE INSANSEUPUI [Esequie funebri nazionali per l’imperatore Sunjong/National Funeral of Emperor Sunjong] (?, 1926)
regia/dir: ?. photog: ?. copia/copy: 35mm, 648 ft., 7’38” (22 fps); did./titles: KOR. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

The producer of this film is unknown. It contains scenes from the funeral rehearsals for Sunjong, the last Emperor of Korea (1874-1926; ruled 1907-1910), who was demoted to king after the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1907. Discovered in the Press Office film studio, the film shows rehearsals that took place on 7 May 1926, ahead of Emperor Sunjong’s funeral on 10 June. One of several films showing Sunjong’s funeral in 1926, this film was re-produced in 1958 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean government by distributor Bul-yi Trading. With added music and commentary, it was used to enhance the legitimacy of the post-war administration’s governing system.
As the only existing film of a Korean royal funeral, National Funeral of Emperor Sunjong contains historically important images of the procession, urban scenery, and people. The recurring aerial view of the funeral procession shot from a high-rise building creates a particularly spectacular image. According to a newspaper article published on 19 August 1926, the motion picture of Emperor Sunjong’s funeral was screened in theatres to packed audiences. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

AUF DEM KOREANISCHEN MISSIONSFELDE [Sul campo di missione in Corea/On the Korean Mission Field] (DE 1927)
regia/dir, photog, mont/ed: Norbert Weber. copia/copy: DCP, 8’14”; did./titles: GER. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

Norbert Weber O.S.B. (1870‒1956), First Archabbot of the Archabbey of the Congregation of Saint Ottilien in Bavaria, sent Benedictine missionaries to Korea from 1909 to engage in educational and social activities. During his own visit to Korea, he shot films with the aim of introducing their missionary work and Korean culture to Germany. For 126 days, starting in May 1925, he went around Korea and filmed Im Lande der Morgenstille. He then edited the remaining footage to create this film. The result is an ethnographic record that provides a glimpse into the lives of Koreans and early missionaries during the 1920s. Unlike the fragmentary travelogues that had come before, the production of this film involved pre-planning and preparation. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

EINE KOREANISCHE HOCHZEITSFEIER [Un matrimonio coreano/A Korean Wedding] (DE 1927)
regia/dir, photog, mont/ed: Norbert Weber. copia/copy: DCP, 31’19” (da/from 35mm, imbibito/tinted); did./titles: GER. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

Acquired by the KOFA, Norbert Weber’s A Korean Wedding consists of two chapters. In Chapter 1, Kim proposes to Marra, gains consent, and preparations for their wedding get under way. In Chapter 2, the wedding takes place. Shot in Naepyeong, 12-13 June 1925, it depicts the process of a Korean wedding in the form of a narrative film.
After receiving official deliberations permitting both films, In the Land of the Morning Calm and A Korean Wedding, Weber gave lectures on missionary work and ethnographic documentation in Germany. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler

HOKUSEN NO HITSUJI WA KATARU [Parlano le pecore della Corea settentrionale/The Sheep of North Korea Speak]
(JP 1934)
regia/dir: ?. photog: ?. copia/copy: 35mm, 1362 ft., 22’42” (16 fps); did./titles: JPN. fonte/source: Korean Film Archive, Seoul.

Discovered and acquired by Gosfilmofond of Russia in 2010, this footage provides an important glimpse into Japan’s exploitation policy on sheep and raw cotton in the 1930s. In order to amass industrial materials, Japan implemented a colonial policy in Korea in this period which forced cotton cultivation in the south and sheep-raising in the north. The camera observes the transport of 2,969 sheep from Sydney, Australia, to Gyeongwon, North Hamgyong Province, in April-May 1934. The fascinating subtitled narration considers the colonial policy from the sheep’s perspective. The images of Koreans spinning thread from wool for making clothes add to the film’s significance as a documentary. – Sungji Oh, Stefan Droessler