For quite a some time, a film had been taken advantage by a nation, used as a
mean of propaganda. At the end of the Japanese colonial period of Chosun, a
controlled film company through which the government-general could control all
productions and distributions was founded. Propaganda films of this company
delivered the pro-war ideology of Japan to audiences of Chosun. For Colonial
Chosun was regarded as a crucial source of war resources as the war was
being escalated, it was needed that inculcation the ideology upon people of
Chosun to mobilize the human and material resources.
Cho Young, the controlled film company, was aware of the importance of a
role of actors who embodied the ideology in its propaganda films at the
inception of the foundation. When the actors were employed, it was required to
be tested all the preconditions such as a certain level of learning, command of
Japanese, career, stardom, and a thorough personal reference.
The propaganda films of Cho Young were sugarcoated by stories of family.
Most of them were about a volunteer and his family. They didn’t deal with a
dichotomy between good and evil which had been mainly conducted in existing
films of Chosun anymore. Instead, there were only the volunteer in agony who
needed to make a choice between his social duty and love to the family and
supporting roles who helped the main character to solve his problem.
Because of this feature of the propaganda films, the actors of Cho Young
underwent ups and downs of stardom.
To begin with, actors whose images as a star fell in with the character in
the films, such as Moon Ye Bong-the good wife and wise mother and Kim Sin
Jae-the cheerful little sister, continued to take main roles and jumped to
stardom. On the contrary, Kim Han famous for the role of the villain and the
action star Lee Won Yong whose role had been to defeat the villains only
played minor parts because there were no roles fit for their star images
anymore.
Additionally, young and new faces who had a command of Japanese were
promoted to leading actors. It’s because Cho Young produced the films in
Japanese Language and mobilization of young people to the war became the
major role of screening the films.
Lastly, Japanese stars played the role of generous Japanese who led the way
of people of Chosun. In the propaganda films, people of Chosun could solve
problems only with the help of Japanese. It is a cinematic presentation of
colonial state of Chosun under Japanese reign.
As Cho Young controlled all the productions in Chosun and produced the
propaganda films in the same pattern repetitively, actors experienced changes of
their stardom. This indicates that the star image was one of the important
considerations when a nation used films as the mean of propaganda.
For quite a some time, a film had been taken advantage by a nation, used as a
mean of propaganda. At the end of the Japanese colonial period of Chosun, a
controlled film company through which the government-general could control all
productions and distributions was founded. Propaganda films of this company
delivered the pro-war ideology of Japan to audiences of Chosun. For Colonial
Chosun was regarded as a crucial source of war resources as the war was
being escalated, it was needed that inculcation the ideology upon people of
Chosun to mobilize the human and material resources.
Cho Young, the controlled film company, was aware of the importance of a
role of actors who embodied the ideology in its propaganda films at the
inception of the foundation. When the actors were employed, it was required to
be tested all the preconditions such as a certain level of learning, command of
Japanese, career, stardom, and a thorough personal reference.
The propaganda films of Cho Young were sugarcoated by stories of family.
Most of them were about a volunteer and his family. They didn’t deal with a
dichotomy between good and evil which had been mainly conducted in existing
films of Chosun anymore. Instead, there were only the volunteer in agony who
needed to make a choice between his social duty and love to the family and
supporting roles who helped the main character to solve his problem.
Because of this feature of the propaganda films, the actors of Cho Young
underwent ups and downs of stardom.
To begin with, actors whose images as a star fell in with the character in
the films, such as Moon Ye Bong-the good wife and wise mother and Kim Sin
Jae-the cheerful little sister, continued to take main roles and jumped to
stardom. On the contrary, Kim Han famous for the role of the villain and the
action star Lee Won Yong whose role had been to defeat the villains only
played minor parts because there were no roles fit for their star images
anymore.
Additionally, young and new faces who had a command of Japanese were
promoted to leading actors. It’s because Cho Young produced the films in
Japanese Language and mobilization of young people to the war became the
major role of screening the films.
Lastly, Japanese stars played the role of generous Japanese who led the way
of people of Chosun. In the propaganda films, people of Chosun could solve
problems only with the help of Japanese. It is a cinematic presentation of
colonial state of Chosun under Japanese reign.
As Cho Young controlled all the productions in Chosun and produced the
propaganda films in the same pattern repetitively, actors experienced changes of
their stardom. This indicates that the star image was one of the important
considerations when a nation used films as the mean of propaganda.