Film Narrator, a Voice that Testifies to the Times

From the introduction of motion pictures to Korea in the early 20th century, and until talkies became common in the mid-1930s, it was the film narrators who held the key to film screenings and box office success. Around 1910, as permanent movie theaters such as Dansungsa, Umigwan, and Joseon Theater appeared, professional narrators who explains movies, or “film narrator,” also took their place as one of the scenes in the movie theater.

Most of the Joseon films produced at the Japanese colonial perion have been lost, so it is not easy to confirm their existence at present. However, there are ‘voices’ that have revived this lost time. For about 15 years from 1926 to the end of the 1930s, famous narrators recorded their movie commentary on gramophone records. We cannot watch Joseon's silent movies, but we can listen to them thanks to these records.

The first records of cinematic dramas were Flowers Fall and Water Flows (narration: Kim Yeong-hwan, role of Chun-hong: Bok Hye-suk) released by Victor Records in Japan in Dec. 1928, and Everlasting Dream (narration: Kim Yeong-hwan, role of Lee Su-il: Seo Wol-yeong, role of Sim Sun-ae: Bok Hye-suk) released by Columbia, Japan in Feb. 1929. Especially in the case of Everlasting Dream, its popularity continued until 1941, a decade after its release.

By the 1930s, each record label produced several types of cinematic dramas. Among them, Na Woon-gyu's Unspeakable Circumstances (1931) was the case whose screenplay was completed but not made into an actual film. Some of them were completely created anew to fit the characteristics of the medium called 'record.'

Even after that, the lifeline of film narrator had barely retained its life. However, their performances could be encountered occasionally in temporary theaters or theaters in the countryside. By the 1960s, the film narrators' performances had completely disappeared, and with the death of Seong Dong-ho in 1985, who was known as the ‘last film narrator’ among professional narrators active during the Japanese colonial era, their lineage was completely cut off.

In addition, as research on gramophone records has been active since the 1990s, various film commentary records recorded during Japanese colonial era started to be discovered in earnest. Based on these, film narrator's storytelling arts have been reproduced and passed on. There are also ongoing attempts to discover and restore gramophone records. KOFA found out the record of Punguna (1926), and restored it to a clearer sound in 2022.

Gramophone records breathe life into forgotten films by reviving lost Joseon films. At the center of it was the pilot of silent movies, or the film narrator. This exhibition has looked back on the rise and fall of the film narrators. I hope this exhibition helped you remember the lost time of Korean films again and provided you an opportunity to listen the films of the time, even if only with your ears.