The New Zombie Apocalypse and Social Crisis in South Korean Cinema (translation into Russian)

The popular culture version of the zombie, developed over the latter half of the twentieth century, made only sporadic appearances in South Korean film, which may in part be attributed to the restrictions on the distribution of American and Japanese films before 1988. Thus the first zombie film Monstrous Corpse (Goeshi 1980, directed by Gang Beom-Gu), was a loose remake of the Spanish-Italian Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (1974). Monstrous Corpse was largely forgotten until given a screening by KBS in 2011. Zombies don’t appear again for a quarter of a century. This article examines four zombie films released between 2012 and 2018: “Ambulance”, the fourth film in Horror Stories (2012), a popular horror portmanteau film; Train to Busan (2016) (directed by Yeon Sang-Ho), the first South Korean blockbuster film in the “zombie apocalypse” sub-genre; Seoul Station (2016), an animation prequel to Train to Busan (also directed by Yeon Sang-Ho); and Rampant (2018, directed by Kim Seong-Hun ), a costume drama set in Korea’s Joseon era. Based on a cognitive studies approach, this article examines two conceptual metaphors which underlie these films: the very common metaphor, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, and the endemically Korean metaphor THE NATION IS A FAMILY.

On Subtitle Translation of Chinese Costume Drama, The Longest Day in Chang’an

China’s enhanced international influence creates a good environment for spreading its traditional culture overseas. In recent years, Chinese subtitle translation is no longer restricted to translating foreign works into Chinese, with costume drama subtitle translation gaining more and more attention. However, relevant research in China is inadequate, and differences between Chinese and English aggravate this difficulty, which may be solved by studying and analyzing the subtitle translation of The Longest Day in Chang'an under the guidance of Nida's functional equivalence theory from the perspectives of lexical equivalence, syntactic equivalence, and stylistic equivalence, so as to provide the guidance to translators to render a proper translation both in the conveying of information as well as ensuring readers' response.

Pirates of the Caribbean in Frank Yerby’s the Golden Hawk

This essay argues that Frank Yerby’s 1948 costume drama, The Golden Hawk, offers a prime example of a transnational/circumCaribbean novel. Concurrently, however, it is also a carefully researched historical novel, one that builds on the formulas of both the romance and the adventure tale, while mining the then-current popularity of the pirate novel and film. Issues of race, gender, and nation figure prominently in this critique, as well as histories of Haiti, Columbia, and Caribbean piracy.

Staging Sancho

In this chapter Paterson Joseph describes the genesis and evolution of Sancho—An Act of Remembrance, a play he wrote and performed about the life of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Sancho fulfilled the author’s desire to perform in a costume drama and bring awareness to black contributions to Britain. Developed as a monologue, the play conveys the extraordinariness of Sancho who was a musician, writer, actor, valet to the duke of Montagu, grocer, and was the first Afro-Briton to vote in a parliamentary election. Joseph recounts some of the challenges of bringing the play to the stage as well as the contributions of musicians, producers, choreographers, costumers, and lighting and set designers. He describes the audience reaction to the play revealed in post-show question and answer sessions which helped him see modern parallels with the political disenfranchisement of blacks in the US. Joseph positions Sancho as not only bringing awareness to the life of one remarkable black man, but helping break the monotone view of British historical drama and expanding our understanding of black lives of the past.

The transitivity of costume in That Lady (Terence Young, 1955)

Released during the heyday of the costume drama, La princesa de Éboli (That Lady) (Young, 1955) is an Anglo-Spanish co-production about Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Éboli (1540–92), a prominent figure at Philip II’s court who was accused of treason. Based on Kate O’Brien’s novel, the film adaptation was eventually made into two different films for Spanish- and English-speaking audiences owing to the restrictions of Spanish censorship. Modifications to the script, film-edit and ending of the film offered a reversed interpretation of the fate of the protagonist in the Spanish version. Focusing on the costumes of the Princess of Éboli (played by Olivia de Havilland), we explore the shifting meanings that are brought to bear between the Spanish and the English versions. In contrast to costume films of nationalistic glorification in which the heroine sacrifices her personal desires for the more noble cause of patriotic ambitions, the English version disturbed official views of the past by celebrating female pleasure.