The Feminine Reorientation of Korean Noir : Maternal Hunger and Female Subject Formation in Coin Locker Girl

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Jun-hee Han's Coin Locker Girl (2015) challenges the traditional focus of Korean noir on patriarchal gangster systems and masculine violence by centering its narrative on the mother-daughter relationship between two powerful female figures, Il-yeong and Woo-hee. Rather than presenting social anxieties solely through external conflicts and violent confrontations, the film relocates them into the intimate sphere of familial and interpersonal relationships. This article examines the potential of female noir through a psychoanalytic reading of Coin Locker Girl, employing Melanie Klein's good/bad breast theory and Peter Blos's concept of the second individuation process. By analyzing Il-yeong's hunger, her relationship with Woo-hee as a maternal figure, and her psychological development, this study argues that the film transforms material anxieties into conflicts over nourishment, dependency, and identity. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that female functions as a hybrid form of postmillennial Korean noir, in which the socioeconomic anxieties produced by neoliberal transformations are relocated from the masculine social order to the intimate sphere of familial and interpersonal relationships. Rather than merely replacing the masculine framework of traditional noir, female noir expands the possibilities of Korean noir by articulating social criticism through intimate psychological struggles.