The Intimacy of Distance: South Korean Cinema and the Conditions of Capitalist Individuation By Jisung Catherine Kim A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kristen Whissel, Chair Professor Mark Sandberg Professor Elaine Kim Fall 2013 The Intimacy of Distance: South Korean Cinema and the Conditions of Capitalist Individuation © 2013 by Jisung Catherine Kim Abstract The Intimacy of Distance: South Korean Cinema and the Conditions of Capitalist Individuation by Jisung Catherine Kim Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media University of California, Berkeley Professor Kristen Whissel, Chair In The Intimacy of Distance, I reconceive the historical experience of capitalism’s globalization through the vantage point of South Korean cinema. According to world leaders’ discursive construction of South Korea, South Korea is a site of “progress” that proves the superiority of the free market capitalist system for “developing” the so-called “Third World.” Challenging this contention, my dissertation demonstrates how recent South Korean cinema made between 1998 and the first decade of the twenty-first century rearticulates South Korea as a site of economic disaster, ongoing historical trauma and what I call impassible “transmodernity” (compulsory capitalist restructuring alongside, and in conflict with, deep-seated tradition). Made during the first years after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the films under consideration here visualize the various dystopian social and economic changes attendant upon epidemic capitalist restructuring: social alienation, familial fragmentation, and widening economic division. The revamped film industry and liberalization of censorship laws that accompanied this historical moment also enabled South Korean filmmakers to explore unresolved and long repressed sociopolitical tensions with North Korea and the United States. Through readings of feature-length films across the genres of melodrama, romance, blockbuster, horror and youth-oriented art films, accompanied by sociological and historical research that situates South Korean films within the broader transnational history of the Cold War and the regional history of South Korean nation-building, I reveal how this film culture’s portrayals of “intimacy” and “distance” provide a method for visualizing the ongoing aftereffects of geopolitical historical change that may be invisible to the naked eye. My project explains how modes of nonlinear temporality, narrative patterning, and imagery of violence, competition, individualism and diaspora in stories of everyday life covertly represent historical experiences of U.S. militarism, heartrending national division, and volatile boom-and-bust economic cycles. By connecting impossibilities in personal life to larger crisis in national and transnational life, my project reexamines taken-for-granted perspectives and helps us see anew the ongoing intersection of American imperialism, South Korea and the globalization of capitalism since the mid-century era. 1 This dissertation is dedicated to Karina Miyoung Chun & Fiona Sunyoung Chun i The Intimacy of Distance: South Korean Cinema and the Conditions of Capitalist Individuation by Jisung Catherine Kim Table of Contents Introduction The Intimacy of Distance ..................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 Dying to Reunite: Ghostly Intimacy and the Specter of National Division in South Korean Horror Cinema .......................... 15 Chapter 2 The Monster Versus the Oppressed: Korea-U.S. Relations, Paternal Melodrama and Communal Love in The Host ..................... 46 Chapter 3 Finance and Romance, Capital and Melodrama: Ephemeral Intimacy in South Korean Cinema .................................. 82 Chapter 4 Coming of Age After the Crisis: Girls, (Im)Mobility and Neoliberal Globalization in the Twenty First Century .................... 127 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 171 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 177 ii Acknowledgements Writing this dissertation is one of the most important things that I will ever do. And it has been a project I have dreamed of since I was a girl growing up in Koreatown (Los Angeles) and taking the school bus to Cleveland Humanities High School in Reseda (known by students as “core”). There I read Marx, Freud, and innumerous others who opened up new possibilities of imagining and challenging the world. We don’t need a PhD to “prove” our worth as intellectuals. But for me, it has been an urgent life-long dream. So thank you first and foremost to my dissertation committee, and especially to Kristen Whissel, my dissertation chair. I can never thank you enough. Everything good and smart about this dissertation comes from you. Kristen has been an indefatigable ally, mentor, teacher and colleague. Her loving support, critical intelligence, pioneering scholarship and breadth of knowledge have galvanized me time and again. She has been the main condition of possibility for this—our—dissertation. Elaine Kim and Mark Sandberg have also made this dissertation possible. I have known Elaine for many years, since I was an undergraduate at Cal; she has provided material, emotional and intellectual support in countless, unseen ways. Thank you for always reaching out to me, from allowing me to be a guest in your home to seeing a Jet Li movie together or meeting special scholars only you have access to. Elaine’s integrity and fearlessness, her acumen and sense of justice, and her commitment to fusing scholarship with the greater good have deeply informed my world. Mark’s keen and expansive critique has been transformative. His impeccable understanding of modernity, his rigorous attention to detail and his gentle-yet-firm push to challenge my presumptions have been liberatory. Thank you to all the generous and supportive people I have met at Berkeley, faculty and students alike: Linda Williams, Jeffrey Skoller, Anne Nesbet, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Maxine Fredericksen, Marcus Norman, Hoang Nguyen, Dalida Maria Benfield, Jen Malkowski, Laura Horak, Irene Chien, Kristen Loutensock, Erica Levin, Norman Gendelman, Tung-Hui hu, Emily Carpenter, Steve Choe, Jonathan Haynes and Amy Corbin. I am also deeply indebted to the late great Alfred Arteaga—he is missed. I must also thank Laura Hyun Yi Kang, Juana María Rodríguez, Caren Kaplan, B. Ruby Rich, and Susan Stryker for their consequential teaching and gift of reshaping our worldview. Belated thanks to Marty Kravchak, Ray Linn, John Yau, Myung Mi Kim, Rena Rosenwasser, Judith Butler, Chungmoo Choi, and Kyung Hyun Kim. Gratitude to my Diatribe com(m/p)adres: Jason Luz, Dolores Garay, Billy Chen, Jian Neo Chen, Jason Alley, John Moy, Mike Chavez, Kevin Cartwright, Archie Hernandez, Michella Rivera-Gravage, Allan Benamer, and honorary member and Laura Johnson. Thanks also to KAWA: Judy Han, Jean Kim, Jenny Chun, Jin Kyoung Park, Julie Lee, JeeYeon Lee and Nicole Jae Sim. I am also grateful to have known Vu T. Thu ha, EunSook Lee, Vibhor Garg, Paul Yi, Ingin Kim, Diep Tran, Jason Sperber, and Kei Okumura. Lasting gratitude to Erica Cho for everything. iii For crucial financial support, I would like to thank the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Opportunity Program for a multiyear fellowship, and the University of California, Berkeley, Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship. And gamsahapnida to my family for your unconditional love, trust and encouragement! My mother’s tireless support and my father’s unquestioning acceptance have given me the space to pursue intellectual work. My mother helped me nearly everyday with childcare and housework, despite her work at a demanding full-time job. My father has made me (us) copious amounts of the most delicious Korean food for decades. My beloved grandmother is always with me. I am grateful to have known Sue Kim Hanson and her family. Thank you to my brother Glenn and his wife Helen, and much love to baby Adeline. Thank you also to my cousins Francie, Stan, John and Soo-mi, Soo-kyung, Han-mo and Jin-mo. Thanks to my in- laws for their support. On the home front, the person who I cannot live without, the person who ensured this dissertation would be realized, is my dearly beloved partner: the incomparable and magnificent Anthony Chun. His generosity, humanity, and unmatched sense of humor have made every day a delightful end in itself. Thank you listening to every word. Thank you for helping me to live a life I can believe in. I love you! My two daughters showered me with unconditional love, amazing patience and words of encouragement. And it is to Karina Miyoung Chun and Fiona Sunyoung Chun that I dedicate this work. iv A Note on Names and Film Titles In keeping with Jinsoo An’s point that the term “Korean cinema” conservatively naturalizes and privileges “South Korea’s discursive hegemony” over North Korean assertions, I also employ the term “South Korean cinema” to demarcate South Korea’s specificity.1 For the names of South Korean filmmakers inside the main text, I follow Korean convention, presenting surname first, given name second except in cases where surname last has been established as the norm or the individual’s preference. However, for names of scholars