JUST LIKE STARTING OVER - A Review of Tony Rayns new book on his encounters with Korean Cinema

The Brit film critic Tony Rayns made his first trip from his home in London to East Asia way back in the mid-70s and has since done so on countless occasions. The first trip was to find films for a Chinese film retrospective at the London NFT. His first trip to South Korea came a decade later in 1988 when the country was still essentially a military dictatorship. But it was only a few years before the country transformed into some sort of democracy and its film and broadcast industries began the transformation into what is now an international powerhouse of production. If you find that overstated then I offer as Exhibit A the amount of South Korean material you can find on Netflix, a national output reaching an international audience unrivalled by any other non-English speaking country.

The part Rayns himself has played in that modern history of the Korean cinema cannot be underestimated. Now he has written a book, part memoir, part critical diary, part political commentary which recalls decades of close encounters with Korean film-making at all levels of production. "Just Like  Starting Over: A Personal View of the Reinvention of Korean Cinema" has now been published by the Korean Film Council and is a most informative read. It is just so first because the author's voice comes through so unmistakably - forthright, incisive, generous to many and acerbic about some. Second it is a most welcome resource to help track through the myriad of film-makers who have made their names not just in Korea but now even  in the wider international film production community.

The book was commissioned by Park Kiyong the Chairperson of the Korean Film Council who has known Rayns since his first visit and fully acknowledges in his Publisher's Foreword the author's contribution. "Tony Rayns created a doorway for us to the outside world." This doorway was initially through Rayns contact with various festivals in Europe and America. It wasn't an easy task. Festival directors were never wildly adventurous souls but still there were receptive people in Vancouver, Rotterdam and London and they took Rayns advice and suggestions seriously enough. It was always a slog. (Nearly a quarter of a century ago I wrote about the phenomena of festival caution in a despatch for Senses of Cinema from Vancouver.) I'm not sure that the battle has yet been won.

Rayns book tells this story and then moves on to a series of mini-essays about the key film-makers of the modern era. Needless to say the list is led by Bong Joonho but it includes Hong Sangsoo, Im Kwontaek, Jang Sunwoo, Kim Jeewoon, Kim Kiduk and Park Chanwook among them. It includes much information as well about the politics of the industry and especially the effort made to reserve a large section of film exhibition for Korea's own cinema.

Rayns is a superb writer and recorder of these events and the Korean Film Council is to be commended for commissioning what is a quite unique study of a nation's modern film-making development. 

For information about obtaining a copy of the book:

Korean Film Council (KOFIC), 130, Sueyeonggangbyeon-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea 

koreanfilm@kofic.or.kr