2016년 이후 한국장편영화 여성 캐릭터의 사회적 지위 연구

Abstract

This study focuses on the trend of Korean feature films forming a wave of feminist films and female narratives since 2016, along with the discussion of feminism in the mid-2010s. The social status of a female character is the common element that goes through the texts analyzed in this study. The main research background here is the era of 2016, the film production process, and discourse formation. Active discussion on feminist films since 2016 is associated with the social background of the films, the production process of mostly low-budget independent films, and domestic and foreign valuation. Feminist films and female narratives since 2016 show characteristics like the reality of employment instability, the fall of patriarchy, and the mother-daughter relationship. These characteristics connect to the element of women's social status, deriving new female narratives out of feminist films. The study looks through films released after 2016 that lead to a discourse on feminist films or female narratives in relation to the social status of women. This paper analyzes and discusses the texts from Microhabitat (2017), House of Hummingbird (2018), Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 (2019), and Moonlit Winter (2019). One of the main features of the texts is that they show the conflict and cracks that exist between the traditional female representation as a housewife and a professional career woman. In addition, these films paradoxically reveal the social implications and assessments of domestic labor. Kim Ji-young: Born 1982 and Moonlit Winter directly reveal the conflicts and cracks, and Microhabitat shows the main character Miso choosing a housekeeper as a job, and House of Hummingbird expresses the traditional female image and changing female conflicts and cracks through Eun-hee's mother and academy teacher's territory. Betty Friedan, an American feminist and social psychologist, earlier explained how society mythically constructs women, how the myth diverges from what women desire, and how society oppresses those desires. The social status of female characters in Korean feature films since 2016 has been represented as mothers, housekeepers, cafeteria cooks, etc., who appear to be women within the borders of patriarchy. However, through introspection, variations, parodies, and paradoxes, they criticize and show changes in the gender roles of Korean society today.