Lincoln Center in New York is once again programming a series of rare Koreans film for Asian American Appreciation Month. This year it’s Korean Cinema’s Celluloid Fever: The 1970’s. Among them is Genealogy (1979), also known as The Family Pedigree or The Genealogy, directed by Im Kwon-taek (Sopyonje; Chihwaseon). An unheralded triumph in the U.S., the film follows a Japanese official tasked with forcing a Korean nobleman to change his surname during the fascist occupation of the 1940s. The ensuing family drama interrogates the violence of the unspoken consensus that arises among those who cede political control to fascism. Timely once again, Genealogy will screen twice during Korean Cinema’s Celluloid Fever: The 1970’s.
“In the 1930’s, the law of the jungle prevailed in the world.”
Genealogy opens with a history lesson, heading off any risk of enthymeme in its audience. To go even more in-depth: Japan was on an Imperialist rampage in the 20th and 21st century, briefly invading Korea in 1894 before finally occupying the peninsula from 1910-1945. During this period, the Japanese occupation used Japanese-supremacist claims of common ancestry to insist upon a stronger social assimilation by the Korean people. This Name Change Policy by Governor-General Minami turned the all-too-familiar fascist rejection of immigration on its head, painting oppression as a progressive reversal of policy.
In a bit of genius casting that muddles the Governor-General’s claims, Korean actor/director Hah Myung-joong (Life Line; The Last Witness) plays Officer Tani, a Japanese official sympathetic to the Korean plight. An unwilling fascist, Tani wants to study painting, but was born into a fascist society that sees the individualism of artistry as unpatriotic. Fondly remembering a childhood stint in the Korean country-side, he relented to a job in the occupation. While overseeing the area with the lowest Name Change Policy completion rate, Tani’s indignant commanding officer points him to local nobleman Sol Jin-young as the figurehead for this resistance.
“There is a Japanese proverb ‘Fall in line if the line is long.’”
Ju Seon-tae (Madame Freedom; The Coachma) will bring you to tears as the beset patriarch. A Schindler-esque figure, his excessive “patriotic” donations of rice to the Japanese army have protected his clan from government oversight until now. He receives Tani with paternal warmth while his daughter, Ok-sun (Han Hyke-suk (The Last Witness; The Evergreen Tree), is attracted to the sensitive artist. Jin-young presents Tani with a treasured artifact: a 700-year genealogy of his family, which he dare not end by changing his last name. Together they hatch a clever ploy to obey the letter of the law and preserve this history by exploiting the shared characters of the Korean and Japanese alphabets.
If you have ever persisted within an environment that aspires to fascism, then you can anticipate how the situation quickly spirals out of control. Fascism demands consensus, not simply obedience, to be loved and thanked for its violence, not reminded that its control requires constant effort. Even the incidental offense of failing to pick up on the subtextual cruelty behind its rules is a deadly insult.
A still from Im Kwon-taek’s GENEALOGY. Photo courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center.
If there is an analogue to the ensuing violent game of manners slightly more familiar to American cinephiles, it would be The Garden of Finzi-Continis (1970). That Oscar-winning film follows a wealthy Jewish family in France who assumes that bribes to the Vichy-Nazi alliance will protect them from the transforming culture around them. In the same way, Jin-young’s plight tells the story of a Korea that has been invaded over and over again, and no amount of beauty, wealth, or compliance has protected them.
Taking place in 1941, Genealogy uses the viewer’s own knowledge of history against them, the cruelty of time rushing to the forefront. Hope is just a few years away, but what cold comfort is that when violence is on your doorstep? Shot by Lee Seok-gi (A Day Off, White Valentine), the film is pristine in color while reflecting events most grotesque. Even the camera feels overwhelmed as Kwon-taek sends it hurtling in circuits around his actor or renders it bulbous with a daring use of fisheye lenses. The beauty of its deep focus feels cruel, forcing you to see all that transpires and all that is trampled underfoot.
Witness it on the big-screen, only at Lincoln Center, with the second screening Sunday, May 24th at 6 p.m..
Films screen from May 15th – 26th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Film at Lincoln Center Korean Cinema’s Celluloid Fever: The 1970s webpage.
For showtimes and tickets, head to the official Film at Lincoln Center Korean Cinema’s Celluloid Fever: The 1970s event webpage.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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