Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

Korean films have taken an important role in the process of establishing Korean war"s private memory into public memory on the basis of the cold war ideology. It is right that the recognition on the history of Korean War and nation division amplifies and reproduces through films. So r d like to cons...

Korean films have taken an important role in the process of establishing Korean war"s private memory into public memory on the basis of the cold war ideology. It is right that the recognition on the history of Korean War and nation division amplifies and reproduces through films. So r d like to consider the structure of anticommunist films, war films and the films of the nation division with nation division and unification, and the change of various disclosure on North Korea, especially the recognition on North Korea appearing in films like Swiri, Spy Lee Chul-Jin and Joint Security Area, JSA. These films are made under "the Sunny Policy" of People" s Government. I" d like to make an issue on special concept appearing in common by studying difference and meaning in each films and examining image composition and structure about North Korea in comparatively latest movies. Therefore this is a challenging work representing dominant feeling and gap through cultural-political reading. Anticommunist film has a typical structure nation-governing film and guarantee-good film as carrots and censorship as a stick during the Park Jeong-Hee regime. We can find a nervous breakdown symptoms in crashing against with government"s censorship in regard with some films portraying North Korea. But the problems of anticommunist film caused a crisis which related to how we change anticommunist theme into a well made movie artistically and commercially. And this well made anticommunist film/war film/nation division film is the goal of film industry as well as ruling class. The obsession about the desire of a well made movie and the success and failure of a movie is still dominating from Swiri to JSA. There are two critical attitudes about Swiri. One is based on the Korean style blockbuster and the other is about theme on the basis of nation division. But I am neutral with the points of Swiri obsessing with the scale and action and amplifying the typical anticommunist ideology by using stereotyping frame. Rather than those problems, I think it has a serious problem with sexual difference combined with cold war ideology unconsciously. Spy Lee Chul-Jin portrays famine in North Korea with Swiri and it also shows a weak and helpless spy. This film partially succeeds in breaking stereotype image of North Korea but still produces another stereotype image by distorting and satiring reality. While we take a pity on Spy Lee Chul-Jin, he becomes the Other of us satisfying our superiority. On the other hand, JSA tells three different stories in mysterious and comic mood. Four north and south Korean soldiers jeer about Korean geopolitical situation at the last cold war area called Panmoonjom joint security areas. However, their breaking taboo is always accompanied concern and fear with fascination. Covering the truth, the film shows audience that the irony of keeping the peace reveals tragedy of the nation division most tragic. Especially four soldiers on the same photograph, one day a tourist took a picture of four contemporary soldiers by accident, tells us the truth of a funny and sad tourist attraction called Panmoonjom. Swiri, Spy Lee Chul-Jin and JSA reflect the trend of the nation unification discourse and the change of the relationship of north and south. This article tells that this change encourages producing other films on nation division but it also gives a warning to those films treating nation division just as a simple theme that capitalism meets nationalism which transfers into a group consciousness. The purpose of this article is looking for the future of post-division films in films portraying the reality of nation division properly and completing communication with audience.

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