• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.211-266
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• 2019

Films of the 1960s in both Korea and Egypt share many common characteristics. These include the main trend of such films' in addition to some of the political situations. This trend mainly relates to the adaptation of novels into films. In the late 1940s, Andre Bazin wrote his ideas about a similar phenomenon in Europe and the United States. Based on Bazin's thoughts and other examples for films adapted from novels in the 1940-60s, I found that the trend in both Korea and Egypt can be explained as an international phenomenon, in which film developed to a further stage due to a dialectic between content and form after the increase in the development of film techniques. The trend in Korea is believed to have led to the so-called golden era of Korean movies, while in Egypt films adapted from literature were not able to earn high profits, even though in a 1996 list of the best 100 Egyptian films, 23 had been adapted from novels. To explain the reasons behind this phenomenon, I looked into the internal demand from filmmakers themselves to further develop the industry through the articles written at that time. In addition, I explored the different situations and policies that influenced film production in both countries in the 1960s. I found that political situations and policies could have helped in the continuity of such trend, but it is difficult to consider these as the main reason for its creation, in contrast to the internal demand, which I believe is the main reason for the creation of such direction.