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영어

In this essay I explore how films, originated from Western modern cultures, have been accepted in non-Western society, i.e. Chosun society under the Japanese imperial period. Film viewing is cultural practices, which are dependent on the contexts and the conditions of reception. In this regard, the ways of viewing and understanding films by the spectators in Chosun period seem to be much more different from those by westerners. In addition to the fact that film viewing is a way of experiencing modernity, the way of consuming films in Chosun society was influenced by colonial experience and internal cultural difference between the local areas in Chosun, resulted from unequal degree of capitalist development. Therefore, a peculiar way of film cultural practices such as programming, showing and viewing films was constructed, which exercised influence on conventionalizing film cultural practices after Chosun period up to the late 1950s in Korea. I would call such distinctiveness of film cultural practices“ locality”of film reception. Locality, here, designates not only beyond the meaning of physical areas but the contextual conditions upon which a certain film is received and understood by the spectators. Some examples indicating“ locality”of film reception are as follows: First of all, the mediated and disjunctive styles of programming films were the keys to the claim that foreign films could be easily received to the spectators in C h o s u n. Along with performances by bandsmen and singers, short films and film footages were shown to the spectators. This style of arranging programs in movie theaters lasted until the late 1950s when popular singer shows and film screenings took place alternately a day. Secondly, most, if not all, residents of fishing and agrarian villages with no movie houses viewed films, which were exhibited by Japanese imperial state in favor of advertising Japanese imperial politics and modern enlightenment. These kinds of propaganda -oriented films had an affect on the ways of thinking and behaving, thus constructing the people ’s identity as colonial subjects vulnerable to the justification of imperialism. Thirdly, many spectators in local areas except for big cities preferred the films performed by Bensi, who conveyed narratives and stories of silent films to the spectators, until the late 1950s in Korea. For instance, there is a record that a number of famous B e n s i organized a S h i n p a theater and toured all around the local areas even in the age of sound films. Finally, owing to the censorship by Japanese imperial state, there were idiosyncratic features for the spectators to go to the movies in Chosun under the Japanese imperial period. Upon the fact that Japanese imperial state censored films before screening and enforced the presence of censors in theaters, it is clear that spectators had ambivalent attitudes toward viewing films in theaters. In other words, the spectators experienced the pleasure of looking spectacles and, at the same time, underwent an anxiety for being punished if they acted contrary to the orders by the colonial power. The significance of this work on investigating “locality”of film reception in Chosun under the Japanese imperial period can be said as a contribution to rewriting Korean film history as a whole.