1960년대 초 국립영화제작소의 ‘문화’와 ‘영화’: 군사정권의 공보정책과 문화영화

Abstract

This paper was focused on films that promoted “culture” among “culture films” produced during the military rule period between coup on May 16, 1961 and the beginning of Park Chung-hee administration in December, 1963. Culture films during this time were official films produced by the National Film Production Center under the first Korean film legislation enacted in Korea since its liberation from the Japanese rule. Produced around the time when Taehan News and culture films were mandatorily screened before every feature film was shown in theaters, these culture films had to be in line with public information policies of the military regime. However, public information goals and policies faithfully reproduced in films faced moments of unexpected criticism. During that time, the military regime established detailed and effective public information policies to justify the coup and the regime’s rise to power. It utilized “culture” in various ways to this end. First, the regime attracted international cultural events to Korea to promote the legitimacy of its rule as well as the cultural nature of the regime to foreign nations. Second, the military regime attempted to boost domestic demand through industrial expos. It also attempted to engrave the image of positive “development” in Korean people’s minds by displaying industrial spectacles of modernization at expos. Third, the regime planned and held cultural events such as folk culture festivals to develop “tradition.” Through festivals honoring military figures in Korean history such as Yi Sun-shin and Chungnyǒl-gong (Lord of Loyalty and Righteousness), the regime attempted to link the history of Korean people to the story of the military regime. These cultural events were featured in films and showed in screens of theaters. They were used to instill the military regime’s public information goals in masses. Interestingly, cultural events that were hurriedly put together around that time seemed to have been created in order for Korea to attract “foreign currency.” The title “Tourism Korea” was born a result of the interest of the United States and South Korea’s military regime to increase Korea’s economics. To acquire foreign currency, the military regime reorganized infrastructure, implemented legislations, repaired tour routes, operated tourist hotels, and levied amusement taxes. Then also developed various cultural products. Invitation to Korea (1963) was a cultural film that embodied intentions of the military regime. The synopsis of the film was focused on inviting Smith, a fictional American who had fought in the Korean War, and his wife to Korea and giving them a tour of the country. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this film contained everything the military regime readied for “foreign” tourists. The film featured cultural products of “Tourism Korea,” including local cultural festivals such as Shilla Festival and Namwon’s Chunhyang Festival, hotels such as state-run Bando Hotel and others in Hwach’ǒn and Sǒgwipo, Jeju Island, a nightclub at Walker Hill Hotel which was opened in January 1963, sex tourism, and more. One thing that is worthy of note is that while the film introduces a tour course for an American couple, it summons “Koreans living abroad” by directly addressing them in the second person. In the end, this film was actually a message to Koreans living abroad, particularly those living in Japan, since the military regime needed their wealth. Therefore, films suggesting folk culture festivals began to emerge in Korea in 1962. They were developed as “traditional cultural products” to bring in foreign currency. It also paints a black picture of the future of “Tourism Korea” by commercializing women through the promotion of sensual female dancers and sex tourism which, became major parts of Korean tourism during Park Chung-hee administration.