아이 돌봄의 위기와 상호의존적 관계의 복원: 영화 <미씽>과 <Lost，Found>를 중심으로

Abstract

This article focuses on the Korean film Missing(2016) and the Chinese film Lost, Found(找到你)(2018), which use the motif of child abduction to reveal the various dimensions and causes of the child care crisis. In the two films, which were made in a co-production method, the crisis of child care gaps created by gender inequality at home, workplace conditions, and institutional limitations of public power is presented in the extreme situation of a child abduction by a nanny. The rescue of the abducted child is the moment when the concentric circles of the three dimensions of care - primary intimate relationships, secondary social relationships, and tertiary relationships related to the national and international levels - are triggered in synchronization, and the support of society and institutions is made manifest. The event of a child care crisis and its resolution elicits “cognitive empathy” and “affective empathy” in mothers’ interactions, leading to more children in crisis receiving stable care. However, the death of the nanny child, who, despite her dedicated motherhood, was excluded from care due to economic hardship and an imbalance of medical resources, reveals the exclusion of the precariat from the structure of care resources set up as a zero-sum game. These two films show the problem of care, which has been largely discussed within the realm of conventional feminism, by linking it to the old oppression of racism, which operates behind the exclusionary class problem of the urban/rural dichotomy, and the otherworldly woman, who is othered by the division of nationality, and shows that as a result, no one is free from the crisis. The interdependent nature of care demands that we actively notice the plight of the excluded and offer timely assistance.