Cool And Cold (1962) by director LEE Kang-cheon a film long thought to have been lost has been found in Taiwan. The film is based on YI Kwang-su’s novel, The Heartless and starred CHOI Eun-hee, LEE Sang-gyu and HEO Jang-gang. The film will be useful in researching a historical period Korean film history especially considering that the loss rate of the 1960’s Korean films was 55%. 

The Heartless, considered the first modern fiction in Korea, serially appeared in the daily newspaper Mae-il Shinbo from 1917, and has been adapted for cinema several times. Cool And Cold is the oldest film based on the novel. Moreover, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Heartless. Korean Film Archive (KOFA) employed local investigators to search the data of the Taiwan Film Institute (TFI) for the list of Korean films having export records with the TFI’s help in 2015. As a result, a film named Jijung starring CHOI Eun-hee was found, and an additional investigation confirmed that film was also an adaptation of Cool And Cold. 

The 16mm film print was rediscovered. It is estimated that it was screened on tour for Taiwan soldiers as TFI received the film from the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense in 1992. The film was released as a part of KOFA’s Discovery, Restoration & Early Cinema program at the end of the last month.