Stream K-Dramas at OnDemandKorea

Harvard University Offers Course on Korean Cinema

New York (Yonhap) - Harvard University is offering a regular course on South Korean films, officials at the Korean Cultural Service in New York said Monday.

The Department of Visual and Environmental Studies of the top U.S. university began the "Korean Cinema" course in the spring semester this year with South Korea's short film director Gina Kim as lecturer. The course will be offered for the next two years, they said.

One-hour lectures for the course are given every Monday and Wednesday, with screenings of South Korean movies every Monday afternoon.

Kim's lecture is popular as 25 students are taking the course, which is double the average number of students for other courses opened by the department, according to the school.

The screening is part of the ongoing Korean film festival that opened Feb. 6 at the university, sponsored by the Korean Cultural Service here in cooperation with the Harvard Film Archive.

Two South Korean directors, Kim Dong-won ("Repatriation") and Lee Jae-yong ("Untold Scandal") were scheduled to give lectures on their filmmaking styles.

Harvard apparently opened the new course out of the need to systemically study Korean films as they have been recently acclaimed in the United States as well as in Asia, officials said.

South Korean films won several major prizes at international film festivals last year. Director Kim Ki-duk won the best director's award at the Berlin Film Festival for "Samaria" and another best director award at the Venice Film Festival for "3-Iron" ("Bin Jip").

"Oldboy" earned director Park Chan-wook the grand prize, second only to the Palme d'Or, or Golden Palm, at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Advertisement

❎ Try Ad-free