영화에 나타난 한국전쟁기 미군과 민간인의 관계-<작은 연못>, <웰컴 투 동막골>, <아름다운 시절>을 중심으로-

Abstract

This paper examines the aspects of an otherized civilian population depicted in movies based on the Korean War from the viewpoint of the subject (in this case the U.S. military) and the other (Korean civilians). This paper starts by considering the awareness of Korean civilians that they were being treated as outsiders (the other) by U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. During this time, Korean civilians were often living as the other in the way that they were victims of U.S. bombings, exploited sexually, and made economically dependent on American charity. In the ethics of Immanuel Levinas, Conscience is the mind of devoting oneself to the other, as the subject is built by the other. Although the U.S. military did not intend to kill Korean civilians but to aid them, in the view of Levinas’s Conscience, they should be criticized for not being entirely devoted to help the Korean civilians. The U.S. military were standing in the place of the colonial subject, inflicting violence on Korean civilians by indiscriminate bombing, for instance. This paper will investigate how the relationship between the subject and the other appears in three Korean War films showing diverging aspects of the relationship between U.S. soldiers and Korean civilians. This paper notes that the image of the U.S. military differs in terms of its public and private relationship with Korean citizens, and this dual viewpoint is represented differently in the three films – ‘Spring in My Hometown’ (1998), ‘Welcome to Dongmakgol’ (2005), and ‘A Little Pond’ (2010). The U.S. military seems to be regarded in two very different ways by Korean citizens from these films. The first view is that the American armed forces in Korea were a companion while the second viewpoint regards them as perpetrators of violence and oppression. In ‘A Little Pond’, the U.S military came to Korea to help them as an ally at first, though finally they became a group guilty of indiscriminate violence and massacres to keep Korean civilians from crossing the tactical wartime border. This movie portrays U.S. troops as aggressors in the war and the Nogunri villagers as being otherized and victimized - unable to resist at all. In ‘Welcome to Dongmakgol’, Smith crashes into Dongmakgol and becomes friendly with the village people. In contrast, the larger U.S.-led military force is portrayed as ruthless invaders who attacked and threatened the villagers – even bombing the village on one occasion. In reaction to this aggression, Smith and some Korean deserters join the People’s Army to resist the U.S.-led air force bombings of Dongmakgol, revealing the duality of the subject and the other. In addition, in ‘Spring in My Town’, the U.S. military does something good for the Korean civilian population by giving out chocolate to children and providing civilians with delivery jobs. However, they commit acts of sexual violence, traffic women, abuse children for digging through the trash, and stigmatize Sungmin’s father for siphoning off military equipment by spraying them with red paint. So, at first the U.S. military helps Koreans financially, but becomes the devil incarnate; exercising omnipotent power by raping and committing acts of violence. It leads Changhee to fire at watermill and kill an American soldier. Here, the relationship between the U.S. military and Korean civilians is expressed as a personal and emotional relationship. The present study first considers the differing aspects in each of the three films–‘A Little Pond’, ‘Welcome to Dongmakgol’, and ‘Spring in My Hometown’. The U.S. soldiers captured on camera show the diverging perceptions of the U.S. military at the time - allies and companions to Korean civilians, but also perpetrators of violence and oppression. In conclusion, the relationship between the U.S. army and Korean civilians isanother tragedy of the Korean War. It shows how the America-led forces initially came to Korea as an ally, but eventually committed indiscriminate slaughter in the name of military expediency–in so doing otherizing the Korean civilian population. This paper has significance in that it’s the first paper examining the relationship between the U.S. military and citizens of Korea during the Korean War as depicted in Korean films.