박기채 영화의 스타일과 존재의미 - 시나리오 <무정>과 영화 <조선해협>을 대상으로

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to examine the milieu of the Joseon cinema world around the beginning of the talking movie era by exploring the work of Park Gichae who was actively engaged as one of the rising moviemen in Joseon who had studied abroad. That is to say, we will define the movie style that the director Park Gichae had pursued with the subjects of his scenario Mujeong and his movie Joseonhaehyup, then consider what these works meant in the cinema world of Joseon under Japanese occupation, which is considered as both a quickening period and dark period in the history of Korean movies. The narrative of Mujeong evolved into a tragic story of Yungchae. Not the enlightenment movement of the original, Joseonhaehyup turned to ‘the offset of the fear of war’ by omitting the slogans of propaganda. This was achieved by adjusting the narrations of the scenario and film on the basis of the actual situation outside the movie. The staging of scene formation like acoustic material, natural switching style of camera on symbolic props and so on emerges in the scenario Mujeong. This scene design played a part to emphasize the present reality of Yungchae. The movie Joseonhaehyup replaced propaganda contents by presenting compressed images that utilized music and sound equipment instead of lines of characters. The compressed images were a device that obtained the nature of melodrama, while jettisoning the oversimplified and lopsided propaganda. This calmed the fear of war because the rear was not directly connected to the war. Park Gichae, who was interested in “film connection method of talkie,” was a rising movieman who jumped in the cinema world of Joseon and was looking forward to being a “new school movie artist.” For that reason we can say his works were experimental models; instances of talking film scenarios and talking movies that would not take root in the cinema world of Joseon. For example, visualization of the moving of the camera, actors and sound that emerged from the scenario Muwjeong was an experiment of aspect that was required in scenarios in the age of talking movies. Moreover, the movie Joseonhaehyup, with its style of superimposing sound over compressed images, had the added benefit of presenting alternative ideas that complemented actors who were not adapted for talking movies and primitive recording conditions. The scenario Mujeong was not a failed literary work, and the movie Joseonhaehyup was not a clumsy propaganda film. They were a test ground of a new movie style that existed in the line of connection of talking movie age in the middle of 1930’s. Park Gichae found his specialty that enabled him to surmount the literary world and the established cinema world as a professional of talking movies. These experiments of talking movie style were a supporting power of the Joseon cinema world which was prescribed as a dark age, and made the early period of Korean movie abundant.