6.25전쟁기 북한 영화와 전쟁 재현

Abstract

This article is on North Korean films of 1950s produced during the Korean War: what kinds of films there were and how they reenacted the war for political purposes. In North Korea on a war footing, the most important was militarizing civilians to support the national mobilization system. Film was mobilized to imprint righteousness of the war on civilians and arouse the animosity towards their enemies. It was a tool of bringing back their memories of war and repression. The documentary films such as <The Righteous War> and <Announcing to the Whole World> were produced to deliver a message that it was the war of aggression of the American imperialist and they were fighting for emancipation of South Korea from American colonial rule. Characters which reminded bad memories of Japanese colonial period, such as police and landowner, were used in the films to emphasize that the South was under the domination of the American imperialist. North Korean civilians joined the army not to lose their land which had been distributed due to the land reform, because for them the American colonialism meant a threat of returning to repressed tenants. Farmers became partisans and joined the People’s Army to fight against Americans. In the films, scenes related to the land reform were used as flashbacks to stress the value for them to protect through the war. And scenes of air strikes and carnage used in the films also infused them with a combative spirit. They represented the brutality of the American imperialist. In short, these symbols and scenes of the films produced during the war were propaganda for militarizing civilians, reminding them of what they should protect and how brutal their enemy was.