The Sacrifices of Youth: Historical Feature Films on South Korea’s Longue Durée

Abstract

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies Vol.16 No.2 © 2016 Academy of East Asian Studies. 179-196 DOI: 10.21866/esjeas.2016.16.2.003 email of the author: khwang3@gmail.com 179 Feature films set in the past seem to have hit a peak recently in South Korean cinema, if judged by the box office. The two most popular releases on record are historical films appearing in the past few years (“The Admiral” and “Ode to My Father”), and despite the consistent lament by social and cultural elders of the citizenry’s lack of historical understanding, the popularity of historical films undoubtedly reflects the appeal of national history, at least among the movie-going public. But this is not a new phenomenon, as some of the best films in the very sophisticated South Korean film industry over the past two decades not only have been set in the past, but have provided definitive commentaries on the past and its connection to the present. And while not all of these movies hit box office gold, they have offered powerful reflections and interpretations of, and perhaps even interventions in, contentious debates surrounding the country’s turbulent history, which have reflected major political and social divisions as well. In this paper I wish to demonstrate how these historical films comment on meta-narratives of South Korea’s past. I find that, on the whole, these films have featured young main characters as symbols and vehicles of major historical This paper demonstrates how some South Korean historical films over the past two decades comment on critical meta-narratives of the country’s past, and in turn reflect the powerful presence of this history in South Korea today. Due to the directors’ age as well as to the relaxing of film censorship in the 1990s, among other factors, these films have generally represented the liberal historical views that came to prevail in South Korea following democratization in the late 1980s. But the filmic expressions of this general understanding emphasize a variety of driving forces and elements in the nation’s modern history. Beginning with an analysis of the recent hit, “Ode to My Father,” this study examines approximately a dozen films as they illuminate three major historical themes: South Korea’s turbulent origins; life under the rule of Park Chung Hee; and the struggle to overcome the burdens of the past. It finds that, on the whole, these films have featured young protagonists as symbols and vehicles of crucial historical moments, which results in a somewhat unbalanced, but nevertheless diverse range of historical perspectives.