My Korean Cinema (2004)

With the singular vision of a master connoisseur of filmmaking craft, Hong-Joon Kim takes the audience on his journey of personal understanding and reflection in the first three episodes of My Korean Cinema, an ongoing video essay project with infinite possible chapters.
Episode One, My Chungmu-Ro, is Kim’s personal memories and reflections on the place once described as the “Hollywood of Korea”. The second episode, For The March of Fools, sees Kim’s reflections on the 1975 classic by the late Ha Kil-Jong, and the record if its mutilation by censorship and unfinished restoration. The third episode, Smoking Women, is a searing and incisive study of Korean gender politics through images of women smoking in Korean films of the 1950s and 60s