바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기

logo

Undomesticated Visions: A History of South Korean Independent Women’s Films, 1974-2004

Korea Journal / Korea Journal, (P)0023-3900; (E)2733-9343
2009, v.49 no.4, pp.135-162
https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2009.49.4.135

  • Downloaded
  • Viewed

Abstract

Women’s and feminist film practices in South Korea are normally considered to have emerged in the mid-1990s, when class issues and nationalism no longer drew serious attention from the country’s dominant intellectual discourse. This view tends to imply that women’s filmmaking practices were virtually nonexistent before the 1990s. In opposition to the conventional view, this work shows that women’s filmmaking with feminist intent arose in the 1970s in South Korea, contemporaneous with Western cine-feminism. It also argues that South Korean women’s films have developed a unique narrative discourse in which patriarchal male-centrism sustaining class politics and nationalism is challenged and deconstructed. To illustrate these points, this study calls attention to the fact that women’s filmmaking has taken place in the noncommercial independent cinema sector since the 1970s in South Korea. By examining four independent women filmmakers.Han Ok-Hee, Kim Soyoung, Byeon Yeong-Ju, and Ryu Mi-Rye.and their films, it maintains that independent women’s films have made continuous efforts to subvert male-centered ideologies, seeking new positions for women.

keywords
women’s film, feminism, Korean national history, independent cinema, women filmmakers

Reference

1.

An, Jae-seok. 2001. “Yeoseong silheom yeonghwa jipdan kaidu keulleop” (Women’s Experimental Film Group the Kaidu Club). In Yeoseong yeonghwain sajeon (The Dictionary of Women Filmmakers), edited by Joo Jin Sook, Jang Mi-hui, and Byun Jai-Ran. Seoul: Sodo.

2.

Berman, Marshall. 1988. All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Penguin.

3.

Byeon, Yeong-Ju. 1995. Asia-eseo yeoseong-euro sandaneun geot (A Woman Being in Asia). Seoul: Hwapyeongsa.

4.

Byun, Jai-Ran. 2001. “1980 nyeondae yeoseong yeonghwa” (The Woman’s Film in the 1980s). In Yeoseong yeonghwain sajeon (The Dictionary of Women Filmmakers), edited by Joo Jin Sook, Jang Mi-hui, and Byun Jai-Ran. Seoul: Sodo.

5.

Chun, Soon-Ok. 2003. They Are Not Machines. Aldershot: Ashgate.

6.

Finke, Laurie A. 1992. Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.

7.

Han, Ok-Hee. 2006. “1970 nyeondae kaidu silheom yeonghwa hwaldong-e daehaeseo” (About the Kaidu Experimental Films in the 1970s). In introduction to the brochure, Maehok-ui gieok, dongnip yeonghwa (The Spellbound Memory: Independent Cinema), vol. 1, 1970-1980.

8.

Hong, Ki-Seon. 1983. “Hanguk yeonghwa-ui rieollijeum” (Realism in Korean Cinema). In Saeroun yeonghwa-reul wihayeo (Toward a New Cinema), edited by Seoul Cinema Collective. Seoul: Hakminsa.

9.

Joo, Jin Sook, Jang Mi-Hee, and Byun Jai-Ran, eds. 2001. Yeoseong yeonghwain sajeon (The Dictionary of Women Filmmakers). Seoul: Sodo.

10.

Kang, Jun-man. 2006. Hanguk hyeondaesa sanchaek (III)—1990 nyeondae pyeon (Promenade of Modern Korean History (III)—1990s). Seoul: Inmul kwa Sasangsa.

11.

Kim, Seung-Kyung. 1997. Class Struggle or Family Struggle?: The Lives of Women Factory Workers in South Korea. New York: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Kim, Soyoung. 1996. Sinema: tekeuno munhwa-ui pureun kkot (Cinema: The Blue Flower in the Land of Technology). Seoul: Youlhwadang.

13.

Kim, Soyoung. 2000. Geundaeseong-ui yuryeongdeul—Pantaseutik hanguk yeonghwa (The Ghosts of Modernism—Fantastic Korean Cinema). Seoul: Ssiaseul Ppurineun Saram.

14.

Kim, Soyoung. 2005. “The Maid, Madame Freedom, and Women.” In South Korean Golden Age Mellodeurama, edited by Kathleen McHugh and Nancy Abelmann. Detroit: Wayne State UP.

15.

Kuhn, Annette. 1994. Women’s Pictures. London and New York: Verso.

16.

Kwon, In-Suk. 2005. Daehanminguk-eun gundaeda (The Republic of Korea Is the Army). Seoul: Cheongnyeonsa.

17.

McHugh, Kathleen, and Nancy Abelmann, eds. 2005. South Korean Golden Age Melodrama. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

18.

Mun, Jeong-Hee. 1988. Nue: iwhayeodae yeonghwa changjak dongari (Nue: The Student Filmmaking Collective in Ewha Womans University). Yeonghwa (Movie) (March).

19.

Seoul Cinema Collective, eds. 1983. Saeroun yeonghwa-reul wihayeo (Toward a New Cinema). Seoul: Hangminsa.

20.

So, Yun. 2005. “Sahoejeok sosuja-reul hyanghan chingeunhan eungsi” (A Friendly Gaze at Social Minorities). In Kamera-reul deun yeojeonsa (A Bandit with Her Camera), edited by Heo Eun-Young. Seoul: Aigong

21.

Todorov, Tzvetan. 1975. The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. Ithaca & New York: Cornell University Press

Korea Journal