정비석 소설의 영화화와 그 시대성

Abstract

This article observes the nature of medium transition and the specificity of the time revealed in the process of the transition centering around the films based on Cheong,Bi-seok fiction works. 16 of his novels had been adapted to films and some of his works were remade several times. Thus the films based on his novels are 22 in total. The characteristics of the filmic adaptation of Chung’s novels can be classified into two. The first case is the controversial film in modern sense created by the trend of the period which his novels hold along with the new generation of the Korean motion picture field at that time. Madame Freedom is the prototype. The Enemy of Woman, A woman’s War, The River of Temptation and A Sad Pastorale would be included in this category. Most of these works were for a director’s debut or their early works. The second case is the film followed the popular genre movies in that period. This tends to be divided again into the details:the first was for producing a conventional melodrama, and the second was for the case chosen to make the work of the Sinpatrend. In these cases, the various backgrounds of the novels were adjusted into the similar period when the films were produced and characteristics of the popular melodramas and Sinpa films in those days were inserted. The ending with the suicide of the two main characters of 1966’s Wild Flower is the typical example of the variation. This article especially focuses on narrator's problem produced in the process of filmic adaption of novel and the relevance between gender issues and the changes of contemporary society and culture caused from the disputable works with modern sense. In the case of Madame Freedom, narrator’s presence prevalent in the novel was deleted. Therefore audiences would have more freely interpreted the work and had more generous attitude to the conduct, the desire and spending habits of a female antagonist, Oh Sun-young. In addition, the discussion on suggestive nature induced by films based on Chung’s novels raised generational conflicts on the tolerance for free love and sexual depictions that were very sensitive issues in those days.