식민지 조선에서의 교육영화 상영을 통해본 식민지 권력의 불완전성

Abstract

This article investigates the screening of educational films in colonial Korean society. The colonial government’s purpose for screening these educational films was effective reeducation and mobilization of the people. By analyzing these educational films, one can see that the educational contents were about the necessity of diligent labor, the benefits that come when Korean children obey the Japanese, farming villages depicted as utopias, and other themes. Because the contents of these films were quite detached from reality, they were not successful in making Korean children, the target of the mobilization, to “feel a sense of trust that they could become one of us.” Hence, this led to contradictory results in terms of its original intentions to reeducate and mobilize. From the aspect of screening environments, the condition that allows the audiences to feel a sense of realism within the virtual world and draw them into the film was necessary to enhance the educational effect. But because of limits within the colonial authority, a proper preparation of such screening environments was not possible. Due to the unrealistic contents of the films and the inadequate screening environments, there was a high probability that Korean children did not accept the films as intended by the colonial government. There were even cases in which film screenings were used as motives for resistance. From this, it can be seen that the screening of educational films in colonial Korean society was carried out hastily and without proper preparation. Lastly, by comparing this with the screening of educational films in Japan, which were carried out in a state of preparation and which brought about satisfactory results, we can clearly see that the nature of the colonial authority, as shown from the screening of educational films, was incomplete and self-contradictory.