영화 <신과 함께>의 저승 이미지 연구

Abstract

The movies Along with the Gods:The Two Worlds and Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days were mega box office hits that recorded over ten million audiences each. The original webtoon was also popular on internal portals and also sold over 900,000 issues when published as comic books. Studies on Along with the Gods mainly focused on webtoons/ comics, but there were few studies on the movie. Therefore, this study focused on the image configuration and imagination of the afterlife in the movie to investigate the theme that supports the movie and to examine the how archetype of the traditional Korean culture such as Korean myths and shamanist beliefs(faith in Shiwang) were used and transformed cinematically to effectively convey its theme and message. The biggest attraction of the movie Along with the Gods was definitely the configuration of the image of the hell. The creation of the afterlife space including seven hells and half-way spaces and the configuration of imaginative beings such as the kings of hell and psychopomp enhanced fantastic elements and a sense of immersion. It is well-known that the movie used the original webtoon, views on the afterlife in Korean mythology, and Ten-King paintings(Shiwangdo) in creating its image of the afterlife. However, the original must be transformed to fit the media, story, and senses and emotions of the times. The movie Along with the Gods was transformed to fit the emotions and sentiments of Korean audiences. The senses of the audience are thus captivated with the spectacles of a roller-coaster-like speedy ‘afterlife journey’ and the excitement of action fantasy genres. It also approaches the sentiments through the message on the relationship of parents and children, genuine repenting and forgiveness. Such strategy of this movie moved audiences despite criticism that it is ‘excessively melodramatic’, thus being able to attract over ten million audiences for each episode.