12 mins., b&w, silent – intertitles in English
Source : AMNH, film collection no. 200
Background – This is an informational film entirely confined to street scenes in Seoul, though it is not clear who made it nor for what purpose. There is no main title : ‘Korea’ is simply how it is titled in the AMNH catalogue. The intertitles seem to be in American English, and although they are often supercilious or prejudiced, the film does not appear to have a specific agenda other than reportage.
On the other hand, the film-makers do appear to have been in favour of the Japanese annexation of Korea, which had formally taken place two years before the film was made. An intertitle towards the end of the film lauds the efforts of the Japanese to reforest hillsides around the city ‘denuded centuries ago by a corrupt government’.
Film content – Within the limited brief of showing something of the street life of Seoul, the film is valuable, representing the city at a time when ‘trolley cars and bullock carts share the city streets’ as one intertitle puts it.
Another intertitle claims that a few years previously, women would not have been seen in public, whereas now, as the film shows, they freely walk through the streets. The same intertitle also claims that they ‘even discuss women’s suffrage’ (though whether there was any form of democratic voting system at the time seems highly unlikely).
The film is perhaps most interesting with regard to dress. Almost all the adults in the street are wearing clothes of spotless white. Many men wear a distinctive form of headgear, which is a tubular horse-hat placed over a skull cap and tied with a crinoline bow (see above). There are also a number of engaging close-up personal portraits.
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