Shinpa melodrama, now known today as outmoded or overdramatic pieces of media, actually remain one of the most important media and art forms in Korea, despite (or perhaps because of) their importance. Shinpa is defined as "New Theater", and was imported from the Japanese style of theater troupes, which provided filmed scenes along with sad, overly emotional stories. These stories consist of tear-jerking, highly emotional stories that typically involve romantic or familial relationships, but with an incredible amount of intensity and drama to them. At first, when the Japanese form of melodrama arrived in Korea at the turn of the century, it was basically a staged art form; kino-films, filmed scenes, would accompany them. Eventually, plays themselves would be filmed in their entirety; however, as this art form became more and more of a "low-class" pastime, shinpa works were seen as less important or ambitous (Lee, p. 39). Despite this resistance, it cannot be denied that shinpa melodramas were very influential on Korean cinema, and remain an active presence in muted forms today.
At the beginning of the shinpa era, filmmaking was introduced to Korea through the use of "kino-dramas," which were combinations of filmed scenes and staged scenes to create a cohesive work. This made the two art forms dependent on one another to tell the story; the theatrical style of more straightforward shinpa melodramas can be credited to this need to have overt theatricality match the tone of the staged portions of the works. The resulting bleedthrough of styles helped to create a sense of presentationalism and intensity to the works, which remains one of the most prominent factors of shinpa melodramas.
As time went on, and the "talkie" films of 1935 became a presence in Korean cinema, shinpa plays and subsequent films were seen as fodder for the masses that did not have any artistic value, particularly with the advent of other film movements like the advent of sound films. Soon, shinpa had to evolve into an art form that was entirely cinematic in order to maintain relevance; those troupes who maintained the mixture of theatricality and filmed segments were thought to be the true garbage entertainment for lower-class Koreans. In the early 1950s, many theatrical performers would start to transition into film, with shinpa troupes making entirely filmed productions featuring colonial-era stories and exaggerated acting, showing a resurgence of the art form.
As the rest of the civilized world crept its influence into Korea, the essence of the shinpa melodrama helped to tap into many unique cultural ideas that Koreans were feeling at the time. With a collision between old and modern values and cultures taking place, the plots and stories of shinpa melodramas helped to describe that confusion and befuddlement they were experiencing. In the 1950s, an infusion of American media and culture entered Korea, particularly after the Korean War. Learning new ways of filmmaking from American films, different types of melodramas that included these newer sensibilities became popular, existing alongside shinpa in the annals of Korean popular culture. However, these new contemporary melodramas began to overshadow shinpa melodramas, and they quickly fell out of favor, becoming anachronistic and outdated.
As film took over as the primary form of entertainment in Korea, shinpas became even more old-fashioned; however, the modernization of Korea and the subsequent class conflicts that took place brought these tropes back in different settings. As time went on, shinpa films seemed to expand in definition, to the point where nearly all contemporary melodrama would be dubbed shinpa. Any work with excessive emotions portrayed by the characters given exaggeratingly horrible events is considered to have some elements of shinpa now, as opposed to more subtle, contemporary films. In the late 1960s, however, shinpa started to come back with commercially successful films like Love Me Once Again (1968), which despite critical derision was very popular in Korea. This film noted the change in shinpa from a more soap-opera aesthetic to something that resembled more cinematic films of the West. Nevertheless, the films maintained their sense of emotionality, excessive sadness and hamfisted tragedy, all set to gaudy background music.
Shinpa melodramas typically have a very excessive emotionalism to them, where attitudes and personalities are heightened to the point of ridiculousness. Like with many shinpa stories, the film revolves around a couple in love; they are usually young, attractive, and they find a way to be together despite social pressures and being from different classes. When bad things happen, this destroys the people involved emotionally; there is constant crying, carrying on, fits of rage and sadness and so on. Emotions are never played close to the chest, instead with broad gesticulation and energy. Lee describes the emotions as a reaction to "antimony," where there is an opposition between forces that leaves no good answer for the main character, the frustration and confusion causing the excessive emotionality.
One more trope present in many shinpa melodramas is the tragic event; in the plot, some sort of huge, out of nowhere and unexpectedly awful tragedy happens, usually resulting in the death of a member of the family or loved one. This is the plot device by which a lot of the emotional manipulation and exaggeration experienced by the characters occurs in shinpa melodramas. There are very few shinpas which end positively; they may have bittersweet endings, but nothing ever ends well for the people in these works. Many shinpas end with either the suicide or the tragic death of a main character; often, that death is the cause of further tragedy among the other main characters. In essence, much of the melodrama that occurs in shinpas deal with romantic fantasies of tragic love or unappreciated family members, and those who experience grief either learn their lesson for being so cruel to the innocent experiencing the tragedy, or their sadness proves their worth to the audience and the person undergoing such trials.
The changing of values is often the impetus behind these tragic events occurring, or at least exacerbate the problem to the level where a dilemma occurs. This also plays into the cultural divide that shinpa melodramas often help to express. The reason why so many Koreans identify with this genre is that it allows them to cathartically express the frustrations that they have balancing Western and Korean ideals. When characters in shinpa melodramas cannot be together because of some traditionalist notion of class or income-based romance, or when a family is torn apart by a random but insidious disease out of nowhere, these are expressions of the resistance or frustration regarding the erosion or transition of Korea. As Korean changed from an independent nation with its own sense of tradition to a more globalized partner of many nations, with increasingly lucrative and alluring ideals of secularism and more progressive social mores, Korea's growing pains were expressed through the trials of these families and couples in shinpa melodramas. In essence, they became a balm by which Koreans could soothe their worries about it not being "their" Korea anymore.
In conclusion, shinpa melodramas are some of the most important and culturally relevant pieces of media in Korea. Their current form encompasses a combination of contemporary melodramatic devices along with the traditional overt emotionality and excessive sentimentality that harkens back to its theatrical roots. From a cultural perspective, shinpa has changed over the years to fit into the cultural mold that Korea was forced to fit into after the liberation and after the Korean War; with the threats of globalization and Americanization, Korean cinema became more Western as a result. In a way, the last vestiges of Korean-ness in Korean cinema are present most acutely in shinpa melodrama, retaining the theatricality and intense emotion of Korean theater with the more subtle narrative and cinematic techniques of Western media. This provides an avenue by which to convey the tensions of a nation that is slowly losing its traditionalism in the wake of globalization.
Works Cited
Lee, Soon-jin. "The Genealogy of Shinpa Melodramas in Korean Cinema." Korean Cinema, pp.
37-44.
