This study, ‘The Korean Film and Urban cultural Space in the Era of Glocalization: 1980 ~ 2007', by focusing on the meaning of space, seeks to understand Korean films in a multi-layered and holistic way through the perspective of 'space' that enabled ...
This study, ‘The Korean Film and Urban cultural Space in the Era of Glocalization: 1980 ~ 2007', by focusing on the meaning of space, seeks to understand Korean films in a multi-layered and holistic way through the perspective of 'space' that enabled for the social relations, which were difficult to be understood only with their shape, function, and structure, to be observed in a holistic and critical ways. The Korean films, so far, has been studied on a chronological basis in terms of time, thus understood as one that are linearly and fragmentarily despite their changes and developments over long years. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to overcome limitations of previous studies and understand the Korean films in a holistic, multi-layered and de- chronological way by reviewing Korean films produced in the era of glocalization (1980-2007) through a new perspective of space.
For the purpose, the relationship between Korean film and the contemporary urban space formed over about 30 years since the 1980s, when new film generations emerged, was divided into three periods of 'space of crack', 'space of reorganization', and 'space of globalization and localization'. For each period, the effects of changes in political, economic, historical, and cultural spaces and the accompanied changes in system, institution, daily life, mass collective consciousness, and value on the crack, rearrangement, or suture of urban space were analyzed. Furthermore, the effects of urban space containing the tension relations of domination, exclusion, oppression, solidarity, resistance, and conflict on the 'space of reproduction', 'space of production' and 'space of viewing' of Korean movie were examined holistic and multi-layered way.
For the first period, in the 'space of reproduction', based on private, public, and flexible spaces, how the economic development hope for entering developed country, and accompanying sense of being deprived perceived by Koreans at that time and the related emotional and physical problems were revealed through the space was examined. For the 'space of production', the political science through film, the resulted changes in film policy, and changes in film production space due to production capital were examined. Regarding the 'space of viewing', the formation of middle class and urban culture that were promoted by the development of Gangnam in Seoul were investigated, and the resultant change of movie theater space and the trend of the popular genre were investigated.For the second period, in the 'space of reproduction', the spaces including private and public ones were analyzed comprehensibly and the modernity problem of space featuring in films were explored critically. The films at this period maintained critical perspective society by highlighting, through reproduction of private space, dramatic change in value, and through reproduction of public space, class and rank structure due to redevelopment. For the 'space of production', the influence of the political and economic environment changed by the establishment of the Democratic government and the Sixth Republic established in 1987 on the spatial change of production was analyzed. Regarding the 'space of viewing', the changes of movie distribution and screening were tracked and analyzed focusing on direct screening in Seoul Cinema Town and the spatial rearrangement of viewing movie from movie theatre to home, a private space, due to explosive increase in video penetration in the 1990s were examined.
For the third and final period, in the 'space of reproduction', the urban space and the lives of the urban people, which had been indefinite and complicated by the social violence brought about by the neo-liberalism that emerged after the 1998 IMF crisis, were explored. For the 'space of production', the changes of geography, culture, political, and urban cultural spaces were analyzed. Regarding the 'space of viewing', The multiplex, which emerged in the context of urban space transformation and commercial facilities reorganized by neo-liberalism, is continuously attempting spatial evolution reflecting not only the change of the movie theater but also the new consumption style and physical senses of the city dwellers.