한국전쟁과 낙동강, 가려진 현실의 융기 − 임권택의 「洛東江은 흐르는가」를 대상으로 −

Abstract

The present paper examines the film historical significance of Korean War through Does the Nak-Dong River Flow by Im Kwon-taek. Nak-Dong River in the time of Korean War, as the border landmark of fratricidal war, has its historical significance of the field of tragedy which decides between victory and defeat. A few sets of its significances could be drawn out from the cinematographic embodiment of that Nak-Dong River. A summary of the discussion is as following:First of all, Does the Nak-Dong River Flow is worth being counted as the masterpiece of war films. Despite its faithfulness to the anti-communist film, it also escapes the scope of ‘anti-communism’ and raises a solemn question as to the misery of fratricidal war, making a war movie based on humanity as a whole. With its well-made mise-en-scene, Does the Nak-Dong River Flow is before anything else a movie made with a great enthusiasm for the embodiment of 'Nak-Dong River.' In the movie Nak-Dong River posits itself not only as the significance of the site of tragedy covered with blood and carcases but also as the significance of love and parting at the same time. These are extracted from the situation of child combatant Cheon Tae-sik. Secondly, Does the Nak-Dong River Flow? directly deals with the problem of child combatants, an issue of continual controversy. Centering on a little child with no understanding of the circumstances of war at all, the misery of Korean War emerges all the more powerfully, and the pretty 'flower' in the movie calls attention to those horrors even more impressively, let alone the image of tanks and the scenes of humanity. Likewise, Does the Nak-Dong River Flow can said to be a distinguished film work of the embodiment of Nak-Dong River in the time of Korean War. Before anything else, it is noteworthy that Kwon-taek Im, who tries to approaches the historical fact with modesty and sincerity placing 'child combatant' as the central figure, poses Nak-Dong River as the space for the venting of spite, not being content with its spatial importance as the expression of the irony of Korean War which has no clear division between enemy and friend nor with its value as a factual record of the battlefield of the blind struggling for victory under those ironical circumstances of history. It must be deeply involved with those circumstances that Nak-Dong River has been one of the main subjects for film and other branches of art. There was a scene in the movie in which Cheon Tae-sik throws a field shovel to tell his fortune and other soldiers, utterly fearful of death, give facial expressions of agreement when they were making a plan to sweep the enemy through blowing up of a bridge and preparing for the operation. It is a moment of sadness, in which our minds cannot help but lapse into weakness infinitely under the tragic circumstances.