Anyone who has been watching for the last decade or so has witnessed the rapid growth and blockbusterization of South Korean cinema and its transformation from what was a marginal pop-cultural backwater into local success story gaining increasing attention from audiences across Asia and even in the West.
A number of authors have grappled with this transformation in different ways over the years, from thoughtful discussion of the cinema, and sharply focused explorations of specific filmmakers' work, to the pointless boosterism of a few touting the so-called "Korean Wave."
Jinhee Choi charts a different tact in this monograph, approaching the subject with a sharp eye for detail and a keen theoretical practice. Inherent to her argument is the sense that what is most central to understanding the transformation of Korea's national cinema is the content and composition of the films themselves, and how they are called upon to function as both products and artworks. The balancing of dual role is, for Choi, explains the ongoing success of Korean film today. The "South Korean Film Renaissance" is decidedly academic.