전이적 공간의 기호적 특징과 시각적 메타포 활용기법 연구 : 60년대 이만희 영화를 중심으로

Abstract

This study investigates the transitional space of Lee Man-hee, a Korean film director, through the lens of semiotics and visual metaphors, and characterizes it using an analytical approach. Three of his works are selected for analysis, <The Devil’s Stairway>(1964), <Homebound>(1967), and <A Day Off>(1968). Lee’s main space and transitional space generate meanings through binary oppositions. To deepen the conflict of the narrative, the transitional space builds a contradictory relationship with the main space and becomes the place where major events happen. When presenting vertical transitional space, Lee forms the first layer of meaning through different phases of space and the characters’ direction of movement, then adjusts the semantic intensity through the angle of inclination. A visual inclination plays a role in controlling the scene’s suspense and implying the scenes to come. He then segments the horizontal space into interior-exterior and central-peripheral space, which become contradictory visual metaphors. Toward the end of the narrative, the character retreats into the transitional space and becomes isolated, where spatial images and verbal expressions contradict each other and display emotional splitting. Lee presents the themes of his works through the transitional space of the last scene, where meanings dissipate and questions remain.