From Silent-Era Korean Combat to Postwar Judo Cinema: Transformation of Martial Representation in Korean Film (1920s–1956)

This  paper  examines  the  transformation  of  combat  representation  in  Korean cinema  from  the  Japanese  colonial  era  to  post–Korean  War  South  Korea  through comparative analysis of fight scenes appearing in early Korean films and the 1956 film  Holiday  in  Seoul  (서울의  휴일).  Particular  attention  is  given  to  the  contrast between  the  combat  methods  associated  with  the  1920s  footage  connected  to  Kim Won-bo,  the  fighting  depictions  in  the  1926  film  Nongjungjo,  the  1934  film Crossroads  of  Youth,  and  the  distinctly  different  martial  aesthetics  visible  in postwar  Korean  cinema.  The  study  argues  that  Korean  film  fight  choreography after the Korean War increasingly reflected the influence of Japanese Judo, Karate, and  Western  boxing,  while  earlier  silent-era  Korean  fighting  scenes  preserved traces  of  indigenous  Korean  bodily  culture  and  movement  traditions.  Cinema  is treated not merely as entertainment, but as a historical archive reflecting shifts in colonialism, modernization, military occupation, and cultural transformation.