This paper is to survey the conditions of teen movies from 1989, when Happiness Does Not Come In Grades was made, to 1991, when The Marriage Life kicked off the fad of romantic comedy, and probe into the nature and meaning of those films.
During the time Korea’s film industry, facing direct competition with films made in Hollywood, was forced to find an escape route. In order to survive the competition, it was in the process of making changes such as recruiting new personnels, searching new ways to finance and seeking new ways to produce and distribute films. In late 1980s Korea’s film industry was experiencing drastic change of situation like opening its market to foreign products as the Korean society was rapidly transforming itself into a consumer capitalism. That is when the phenomena of teem movies surfaced again, and just like in 1970s its fad survived only a few years. What distinguishes the teen movies of 1980s from the ones of 1970s such as Yalkae series or Never never series is the fact that those of 1980s actively reflected the social problem and suggested a way of solving teenagers’ agonies, so they enjoyed much attention from teenagers and continuous production. Happiness Does Not Come In Grades was the one that opened the gate.
The teen movies produced in early 1990s commonly had characteristics like long titles, small pool of actors and actresses, development of story mixed with critical perspective towards the harsh reality of school and comical elements, and similar episodes. The teen movies seem to have been a mixed territory of newly introduced rational planning and production, and outdated mode of production without any clear plan. We can say the teen movies of this period led introduction and experiment of various genres of films that flourished in so-called the Renaissance period of Korean films from the late 1990s through 2000s.
Among the films made in this short period only two, Happiness Does Not Come In Grades and Our Class Accepts Anyone Regardless of Grade, stand out, as many other similar films seem to have been produced with no distinctive qualities.
Analyzing styles presented by Happiness Does Not Come In Grades and Our Class Accepts Anyone Regardless of Grade, I hope to specify the features and merits of the 1980s’ teen movies. The two films share with many other films the element of teenagers’ ‘revolt’ at home and school, but they actually ‘revolted’ against the 1980s’ mainstream commercial films not just in story but in stylistics. And I analyze the two films from the viewpoint of stylistic ‘revolt.’