해방 공간, 멜로드라마 영화의 수사학 - <해연>(1948) 이후 제작된 현존 멜로드라마를 중심으로-

Abstract

Since the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the Joseon film industry has turned to pro-Japanese, except for some, and under the great cause of the sudden liberation and the establishment of the government, it strives to shed its stigma and create a status worthy of a new independent nation. In the Liberation Day of Joseon which ended its disgraceful history of colonialism and stood at the starting line as a newly independent nation, the film also excited moviegoers with the enthusiasm to overcome the past 36 years and start anew. The Joseon film industry, which had been in the control of the government, was urged to strive for the goal of establishing a national film culture. Choi In-gyu's Hurrah! For Freedom(1946), An Innocent Criminals(1948), and The Night before Independence Day(1948) are called the "Liberation Trilogy." The circumstances in which the establishment of a national film, regardless of the left and right camps, is assumed to be the ultimate goal of Joseon films that meet liberation are seen in various literature. However, if we look at Korean films during the liberation period, focusing on the concept of ethnic films, there are some problems. To overcome some of the difficulties, it is necessary to take a broader look at what the film is doing in the future at a time when a large number of left-wing filmmakers have defected to the North around November 1948, when A Sea Gull was released, and the South Korean film industry has been reorganized into a right-wing center. Accordingly, we analyzed the melodramatic elements of the three melodrama A Hometown in Heart(1949), The Blue Hill(1949; Incomplete Edition), and A Journey of Youth(1949), which have been produced since the release of A Sea Gull, and read how they reflect and present social origins of the time. While the melodrama created after the South's sole government intentionally excludes political implications, the film functions to connect with the Nationalism Project and to capture the new National identity and various threats from society. Intellectuals of the Joseon urgently had to reshape their identity in order to relocate themselves to the "people" of an independent "new-born independent nation." The freed Joseon men typed women to reconstruct their identity that lived up to the creation of a national anthem, and women who were able to serve in the nation's discourse also wanted to reconstruct their identity through "a good wife and wise mother" image. Such a patriarchal country organized under gender separation appears in the film as more intensified.