홍상수 영화에 재현된 ‘서울’의 공간적 의미 - <극장전>과 <북촌 방향>을 중심으로

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the spatial sense of ‘Seoul’-including ‘sense of place,’ ‘placeness,’ and ‘cultural topography’-represented in Sangsoo Hong’s films Tale of Cinema and The Day He Arrives. Unlike Hong’s other films, these two portray specific places in Seoul with great realism and detail. In doing so, they uncover Seoul’s ‘sense of place’ and ‘placeness’ through the unique forms in which actors occupy those places. More specifically, both films take place in representative Seoul landmark areas such as Namsan , Jongro , and Bukchon , and they feature the actors wandering from one place to the other. As a result,‘Seoul’ in these films has more meaning than simply background because it retains its characteristics not only as an objective place but also as a subjective landscape. The differences between representations of Seoul in these two films and in Hong’s others are the following. First, Tale of Cinema and The Day He Arrives document the present of Seoul through ‘strollers’ walking around its landmark areas. Second, viewers’memory and imagination are stimulated by the landscape of Seoul as it has been discovered and reconstructed by Hong’s unique recognitions. As the result, the films lead viewers to rediscover Seoul’s routine, historical,and symbolic significance. By analyzing these features, this research will explore the spatial identity and new cultural topography of Seoul as it has been discovered, documented,and reconstructed in Tale of Cinema and The Day He Arrives . Its objective will be to identify the meaning of ‘Seoul’ in Hong’s films by explaining its spatial characteristics as both landscape and memory. While the ‘landscape of Seoul’ inspires reflection on the social, cultural, and rou-tine life of the present, the ‘memory of places’ awakens the historical narrative that has been accumulated in the physical locations, consciousness,and emotions of the individual who relates to those places.