한국영화미학에 대한 논의 = A Discussion on Korean Film Aesthetics

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

1. Introduction
A discussion on Korean film aesthetics has to be made centering on the identity of Korean film. The reason is that to discuss Korean film aesthetics is to find out the difference between Korean film aesthetics and foreign one and, furthermore, to create the originality of Korean film for the differentiation. To discuss the films of a country is to examine the spiritual and cultural value systems which the films have kept throughout the film history of the country.
For the past seventy years or so, Korean film had a hard time, which prevented it from establishing its spiritual and cultural value systems. Examining the historical background of Korean film, we can find it was originated from foreign culture which was imported with other genres of modem culture from the West. Unlike other genres such as literature, music, fine arts and the theatre, the cinema was not produced soon after being imported. So, the history of Korean film-making is shorter than that of presentation. In the early days of modernizing our culture, we accepted and transplanted modem culture to ours through the imitation of foreign culture. As for the cinema, the spiritual and cultural transplantation was made only through the appreciation of foreign films.
Korean film-making started poorly due to lack of capital, but was in active cooperation with other contiguous genres of culture. For a kino-drama(a screen-and-stage play), the cinema was a supporter of the theater. In the silent picture days, it depended on literature, in that traditional stories of ancient times provided the cinema with its peculiar forms and affluent contents. Many of the works of Nah, Woon-kyu, a pillar of the Korean film circle in the early days, were related to literary works.
After that, Korean film accomplished a great development in terms of technology, but the simplicity of dramatic plot led to the poor content. As poorly circumstanced for the perfect accomplishment of the beauty of form, we needed to strengthen the content, but, our realities were not good enough. The audience were indifferent to the beauty of form of a film. They were swayed by its story. As goods, a film was an object of entertainment, and a means to public relations or propaganda. Controlled by capital and the masses, the cinema is inevitably restricted by social circumstances and the level of the masses. In spite of all, however, we have to realize that the cinema is a genre of culture and arts. In short, Korean film has to show the cultural and spiritual identities of Korean people in consideration of all problems related to capital and technology in our realities. For that reason, a discussion on Korean film aesthetics has to start from the questions which films were manufactured and which films will have to be manufactured.
2. The Beginning of Korean Film Aesthetics
In the early days, most of the Korean silent pictures were adapted from classical Korean novels or third-rate Japanese novels. Surprisingly, however, film reviews pointed that our classical novels were not fully understood in those days. Then Korean film personalities did not have a good understanding of the manners and customes of the Choson Dynasty Period and the Old Choson Period which they dealt with(a review of Story of Shim-cheong, Maeil Newspaper, Apr. 3, 1925). On the contrary, The Long Regretful Dream, adapted from a Japanese novel, was commented better than poor Korean films(Maeil Newspaper, Mar. 21, 1926). The two works, mentioned above, were made by the same Korean director. Nevertheless, the reviews of them show one with a Korean theme is poorer than the other with a Japanese theme. It is quite meaningful; In the beginning stage of film-making, Korean film personalities neglected our spiritual and cultural identities.
Such an attitude is shown in Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang, the starting point of Korean realistic film. As a whole, Arirang is a noteworthy work, in that it depicts the realities of then Korean rural communities. However, excessive exaggeration and unrealistic description break the dramatic harmony. Another problem is that the love scene is not in a Korean style, so distorts the emotion of Korean people(Choson Daily Newspaper, Oct. 1, 1926). After some years, Nah, Woon-kyu wrote that he had tried to express our people's emotion(Samcheonri, Jul. 1930, "Arirang, Society and I"). But he reversed his previous insistence to confess that he 'mimicked a foreign film' in another writing(Choson Film, "When Making Arirang", Nov. 1936).
Finally, Nah, Woon-kyu has made a conclusion of Arirang; He says that he feels ashamed of imitating the form and content of foreign films in order to attract the audience's attention although he wanted to express 'the emotion of Korean people'. On the contrary, Lee, Kyu-hwan's The Ferryboat With No Ferryman, a Korean localistic film, was favorably commented by critics that it showed 'a model of Korean populace'(Dong-ah Daily Newspaper, Sep. 15, 1932). It was also criticized for only having conflicts, not struggles(Maeil Newspaper, Sep. 15, 1932).
As examined above, Na, Woon-kyu's and Lee, Kyu-hwan's films were evaluated to show relatively well the spirit of Korean film in those days. During the period of Japanese imperialism, most of Korean films were adapted from classical Korean novels and third-rate Japanese novels. In this circumstance, the two directors attempted to establish a true view of Korean film to represent Korean people's feelings. It was the starting point of Korean film aesthetics. The problem is to deduce a film from a printed material, the secondary one, not to examine closely into its form which includes its content by watching the film itself. Let's take Arirang, which is said to try employing the montage technique first in the Korean film history, as an example. It shows the realism of Korean film puts story higher than image. The reason is that montage is a characteristic of anti-realistic films. Accordingly, we can guess that Lee, Kyu-hwan's The Ferryboat With No Ferryman and Choi, In-kyu's A School Fee, which follow the realism shown by Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang, were categorized into literary realism where the content attains superiority over the form.
The Korean realistic films are divided into two trends. One of them is KAPF film which urges on 'the films as arms' and whose first work was Wandering (1928) by Kim, Yoo-young. However, as losing amateurism and popularism, it had not been mentioned until popular film appeared in the 1980's. Characterized by popular arts, the films cannot discuss the general theory of film aesthetics which targets a small number of specific groups or film mania.
3. The Tradition of Korean Film
Since the birth of Korean film, Korean film aesthetics has been based on realism. As mentioned above, the realism of Korean film pursued the realism of literature, rather than being influenced by foreign realistic films. Above all, Korean film followed critical realism which was discussed actively in literature. So, the spirit of realism in Korean film was controlled by a critical point of view that deals with Korean people's deplorable life and the disadvantaged classes during the period of Japanese imperialism. This point is quite different from the current of foreign film at the same period. German expressionistic film, which depicts the realities from a subjective view-point getting out of naturalism or realism, French experimental film, which emphasizes the visualization of a film giving priority to form over content, and Soviet montage film, which emphasizes content but put more importance on form, developed foreign film while struggling for mastery in film aesthetics. Influenced by critical realism, we established the tradition of Korean realistic film from Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang through Lee, Kyu-hwan's The Ferryboat With No Ferryman and KAPF-style tendency film in the 1930's, Choi, In-kyu's A School Fee in the 1940's and Han, Hyong-mo's Free Madam in the 1950's to Yoo, Hyon-mok's A Aimless Bullet in the 1960's. Such a critical attitude of Korean film has been consistently urged and continued up to the 1990's getting through the 1970's and the 1980's.
The tradition of Korean film is critical realism led by Nah, Woon-kyu―Lee, Kyu-hwan―Choi, In-kyu before the Liberation and Yoo, Hyon-mok―Lee, Man-hee―Lee, Jang-ho, Ha, Kil-jong, Kim, Ho-seon―Bae, Chang-ho―Park, Kwang-soo, Chang, Seon-woo after the Liberation. New directors in the 1990's are participating in this line. Kim, Ki-young's expressionistic realism and Kim, Soo-yong's modem-style realism were not recognized properly. Although Yoo, Hyon-mok made noteworthy expressionistic or modem-style films, and Kim, Ki-young and Kim, Soo-yong also made noteworthy critical realistic films, Korean film critical circles neglected them.
Here, we need to change our prejudice of regarding critical realism as the only spirit of Korean film and the only attitude for Korean film-making. It is urgent to change our thought to re-establish the tradition of Korean film. First, we have to re-evaluate various works by the leading directors in the 1960's. We have to find that the various identities of the times were represented by such films getting out of critical realism as Shin, Sang-ok's historical drama, The Guest and My Mother(1961), A Red Muffler(1964), and A Thirteen-Year-Old Boy(1974), Hong, Seong-ki's A Star In My Mind(1958), and When Youth Goes Into the Night(1964), Yoo, Hyon-mok's A Spring Dream(1965), The Visitors Coming By the Last Car(1967) and A Door(1977), Kim, Ki-young's A Housemaid(1960) and Hyonhaetan Knows Everything(1961), Kim, Soo-yong's A Dried Corvina Fish (1963), A Fog(1967) and A Night Trip(1977), and Lee, Man-hee's Dial 112 (1962), The Marine Corps That Did not Return(1963) and A Return Trip(1967). We will be able to find out the tradition of Korean film when we investigate with a new critical way of thinking how Korean film perceived and accepted modem images and changes in tradition and modem everyday life, and represented Korean people's feelings for various materials.
Now, I suggest that we should re-establish the lineage of Korean film classified into Kim, Soo-yong's modem realism, Yoo, Hyon-mok's critical realism and Kim, Ki-young's expressionistic realism. Such a systemization will be effective in establishing the various branches and trends of Korean film, and understanding its spiritual and cultural identities. It is also useful to get rid of all confusions to systemize Korean film aesthetics.
4. A Study on Korean Film Aesthetics
The cinema keeps a closer relationship with the masses than any other arts dealing with the human problems. In any society where men live, there always exist conflicts and oppositions. Realism is preferred in order to settle them. Therefore, it is inevitable that realistic films are loved as social conflicts come up to the surface. The opposed situation is possible, too.
The conflict shown in Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang is a story of long times ago. Also, the obstacle which Yoo, Hyon-mok's A Aimless Bullet and Lee, Man-hee's Seven Women Captives could not overcome have been removed. The new age of the 1990's, when Chang, Seon-woo's Send Me To You gains public favor and Im, Sang-soo's Girls' Night Out becomes the talk of all, is closing. With the 21st century coming soon, Korean film aesthetics is confused and exposed to the random invasion of foreign culture. Deplorably, Korean film is poisoned seriously by foreign culture and does nothing but managing to retain its life in film-making itself. It may be meaningless to examine Korean film aesthetics in this circumstance, but we need to grope for the rebirth of Korean film aesthetics by finding again out our spiritual and cultural identities in preparation for film culture of the 21st century.
Wagner's theory of arts is still true; The form of total arts does not change, however its style does. The problem of Korean film aesthetics is that changes in the style of films have been influenced by the acceptance of foreign culture, rather than the development of the intrinsic legacy in our tradition. The tradition of Korean culture must be found in mask dance which dealt with common people's joys and sorrows of life, not in aristocratic culture. 'Taedongkut', which was regularly performed with the consciousness of a community, was both a ritual for a good harvest and the peace of a village, and the lower classes' resistance against the ruling classes. Its content was the resistance to the realities and expression was in satiric symbolism. However, the modernization of culture drove out the essence of our traditional drama and developed the dramatic form with only story borrowed.
In Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang, the consciousness of resistance is our tradition and the montage technique is a symbolic satire. After Arirang, the base of Korean film aesthetics is generalized into realism which the content conforms to the form. In traditional Korean arts, however, the content is inconsistent with the form. It is influenced by Confucianism, and caused from the modesty and submissiveness of Korean people. Although getting the feel of their deplorable realities with skin desperately and directly, they are satisfied with expressing them in an indirect way. Therefore, it is most suitable for Korean people's emotion that the realistic content is represented in an expressionistic style.
But, our reality is the direct opposition. Accepting modern culture, our consciousness started to be westernized. As a result, we pursued the amusing quality, rather than the essential goal of our traditional drama. Moreover, the materialistic function of camera naturally led us to prefer to realistic expression and the critical circles followed blindly the western theories of realistic film to square content and form. At this very point, Korean film aesthetics began to go astray. In case of the films, which cannot accept the consciousness of a community directly unlike performing arts, however, long take, a realistic technique of camera, may be considered. Long take is a way to lead the audience to watch a film actively and the active attitude for film appreciation can enhance the consciousness of a community.
So far, I have examined the origins of the Koreans' spiritual and cultural identities, and pointed out the essential problems of Korean film aesthetics. The tradition of Korean film aesthetics, which started from Nah, Woon-kyu's Arirang, led to literary realism, which put superiority on the critical realistic content urged by KAPF film, resisting the conflicts of the times. In the meanwhile, in Yoo, Hyon-mok's A Aimless Bullet, filmic realism putting superiority on the form was introduced from neo-realism. Critical realism continued by Lee, Man-hee, Lee, Jang-ho, Ha, Kil-jong, Kim, Ho-seon, Bae, Chang-ho, Park, Kwang-soo, Chin, Yoo-young, Yeo, Kyun-dong and Kim, Hong-joon has been widened to Kim, Soo-yong's modern realism and Kim, Ki-young's expressionistic realism by Park, Cheol-soo, Chung, Ji-young, Chang, Kil-soo, Chang, Seon-woo, Kwak, Ji-kyun, Shin, Seung-soo, Lee, Myong-se, Park, Jong-won, Kim, Yoo-jin, Kang, Woo-seok and Hong, Sang-soo.
In this turmoil, Yim, Kwon-taek has been the mainstay which firmly supports the Korean films. Besides, there are such important films which show Korean images to represent the emotion of Korean people as Bae, Yong-kyun's Why has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?, Paek, Il-seong's In a Handful of Time and Lee, Kwang-mo's Spring in My Hometown. We also must not overlook Lee, Jang-ho's The Man with Three Coffins which quite clearly reveals one aspect of our identity through the ideological conflicts in the continuously flowing stream of the traditional spirit.
5. Conclusion
Getting through the 1990's, the ideology has clearly changed. The Cold War has closed a long time ago and the ideological conflict between the South Korea and the North Korea is getting soften more and more. Also, the problem of filmic expression conflicting keenly with ideology seeks for changes intrinsic formal aesthetics, getting out of the content-superior age when a film was evaluated only with subject matters and themes. Such a change has to start from the accumulation of the inherent spirit and philosophy in our tradition. The problem is that changes are made by imported culture rather than the legacy intrinsic to our tradition.
Reflecting the biased inclination of Korean film to critical realism, I would like to come to the front other streams of Korean film. The language, action, color, fashion and design, which have to keep our emotion, have already been westernized. As the policy for film promotion is bent on making films, our cultural spirit is controlled by capital to become like a losing child of unknown nationality. For this circumstance, we do not know where we can find out Korean spirit and culture however strongly we may try to emphasize them in the films.
I strongly insist that it should be problematic to discuss on Korean film aesthetics only with the content and form of the present Korean films. It is desirable to examine ourselves in the past films, which are less contaminated by foreign culture, to re-find to discuss on our film aesthetics. Until that time, we cannot grope for an alternative measure to establish the identity of Korean film aesthetics.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 여는 말
• 2. 한국영화미학의 출발
• 3. 한국영화의 전통과 그 맥
• 4. 한국영화미학 고찰
• 5. 맺음 말
• 참고 문헌