Coming Home: Finding Our Space of Innocence Through Sagŭk Films
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2017, Vol 22, Issue 2
Abstract
The emergence of South Korea as an economic super power has coincided with the rise in popularity of the sagŭk film genre. This is surprising because, for decades, sagŭk, a genre of film set in the premodern era based on real historical events and the lives of actual historical figures albeit blended with strong fictional elements, has been marginalized and dismissed as a “dead genre.” In this review, I discuss the dominating operative mode of the sagŭk films, melodrama, and its essential feature of a “space of innocence” to explain its role in resuscitating the sagŭk film genre. I argue that organically emerging spaces of innocence within the diegesis of sagŭk film contributes to its becoming not only commercially viable but also one of the most popular genres in South Korea as well as outside of Korea, garnering global recognition.1 The space of innocence within the diegesis of recent South Korean sagŭk films is noteworthy in that, unlike a traditional definition, it is not bound to a particular space or time. Instead, an original status of virtue and innocence is manifested in personages in historical fiction. People who are historical and fictional characters in sagŭk films become the space of innocence. Contemporary sagŭk films elucidate the ideal humanness within people of the imaginary past, making them the locus of virtue. Ideal humanness in the characters then shapes and governs all human relations and social interactions in the diegetic world of the film. These relationships are among kings and subjects, family members, lovers, friends, neighbors, and even strangers. By doing so, the sagŭk films present desirable human qualities as a space of innocence which is no longer available in a late capitalistic society such as South Korea. At the same time, these idealized traits offer pleasure to audiences who see a restoration of innocence in humanness—something contemporary viewers imagine to be forever lost living under what Rob Wilson calls the “killer capitalistic” society of South Korea.2 With the analysis of a space of innocence as foundational to sagŭk phenomenon, I also demystify and redefine the notion of nostalgia and discuss how nostalgia is expressed in contemporary sagŭk films. With melodrama, nostalgia fundamentally shares the substantive desire to return to a space of innocence, idealized in one’s imagination among possible social interactions within a collective community. This ideal state, as I define in this review, supposedly existed in rural communities before the urban degradation of a late capitalistic society.
Authors and Affiliations
Saena Dozier
Keywords
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- EP ID EP26458
- DOI https://doi.org/10.22372/ijkh.2017.22.2.189
- Views 359
- Downloads 13
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