South l(olean Film ilelodrama: State, llation, Woman, and the lran¡nat¡onal tamiliar

KATHLEF,N MCHUGH

Nations arise from interactions, rvhether material or discursive. The nation, as nation-state, says no; it defines its contours b), nsga¡ian, artic- ulating r,vho is not a citizen, rvhat acts are forbidden, u,here its territory and authority begin and end, rvhat fieedoms will be taken au,ay fiom those rvho transgress its laws, and r,r4rat limits rvill shape the flow of cur- renc1,, traflìc, and communications.'Yet the state's ncgatiolls coincide and overlap r,vith the affinnative interactions that cornprise the nation as homeland, interactions that involve knol,vleclge, imagination, memory, and identification. These affìrmative interactions shape the citizens' expe- rience of national culture, among other things. But the presurnably unique components that make up that experience tend only to become salient, visible, and identifiable in encounters q,ith that rvhich is alien, other to it. For instance, rve learn rvhat is "uniqlle" about our orvn cul- ture lvhen \\'e tra\¡el abroad or otherwise encounter diffèrent cultural practices; the structure and grammatical particularities of our mother tongue only become evident lvhen r.e study or learn a second language. As with any other identity, ive Llnclerstand our national iclentity and who we are as a nation through historically contingent ancl variable interac- tions u,herein lve encoullter, iclentifj,, and name rvhat lve are not. In this essay, I u'ould like to consider South Korean cinema as an instance of a national cinema fi'om this perspective: as a complex and con- tradictory entiry Llsually only iclentifìed ancl affìnned in encounters r'r'ith and negations of that l'hich it is not. These encounters traverse personal, econornic, political, aesthetic, intellectual, ând international fields and concerns) and include, of course, encolrnters benveen fìlm scholars and films. As such, I must first define uly own position. I am a U.S.-born and -educated fìlm scholar, trained in a version of r'vorld cinema that, marked by the various economic and international exigencies of a specific histor-

I7 Kathleen McHugh State, Nation, Woman, ar-rd the Transnational Familiar ical moment (I980s), did not include exposure to Korean cinema. Fur- acatlemy ancl its er-nphasis or-r interdisciplinarl' and cultural studies research ther, I do not speak, read, or understand the Korean language. Yet rather provided the context u'herein a dinner conversafion between colleagues than being deterred by mf ignorance, I would rather propose it as an and friends in very different disciplines became a viable research project. exemplary component of knowledge production concerning other The IJniversity of California's interest in developing ties r,vith Asia and national cinemas: that the insights generated about Korean cinema or any East Asia led to the fìurcling of this project I'ia a Pac Rim grant. This grant other national cinema can only derive from error) or better, from u'hat is and this interest derives from a more per\¡asive and recent example ofwhat not familiar to the non-national film scholar, from what s/he does not Rey Chow calls " European and North A¡nerican fàscination with know. East Asian cinema,"' itself perhaps a complex part of or reaction to the contradictory priorities of a millennial moment characterized by global- First Contact ization, multinational corporations, and the United States' intransigent, Over clinner several years ago, East Asian anthropologist Nancy Abel- unilateral investment in its or'vn irnperial brand of narionalism. wrile the mann told me about her lvork with a group of South Korean u'omen who fascination of which Chou' speaks is for contemporary Asian cinema, in had come of age right after the Korean War. As they remembered the this volume's fàscination rvith the Golden Age, there is perhaps a nostal- period, they repeâtedly invoked a group of South Korean and An-rerican gia for the idea of nation and national cinema as resistant, as ernergent film that, as she explained to me, "somehow resonated with r.rnder conditions of duress, as a perceptible if r.vhol\' ephemeral coales- the quotidian reality and the imagination of these women's youth; with cence of fi,vo utterly different orders of representation-material and sym- equal verve they recalled the films and the drama of their own lives in bolic. those times."'? While the Korean films the \4/omen referenced were con- It is fitting then that m)' fìrst encounter with South Korean cinema temporaneous, produced and exhibited in the 1950s and l9ó0s, the Hol- had to do u,ith a or mode generated fiom issues of representation llnvood films dated from the 1930s and 1940s and were just being shon'n and duress. Abelmann described her research to me because of my schol- in South Korea for the first time. Thus the ethnography that Abelmann arly work on Classical Holll.n'ood and domestic labor. As she was conducting involved an encounter between Classical Holll'wood cin- told rne the plots of the Golden Age films, whar srruck me immediately ema and the Golden Age of South Korean cinema (L955-72) in the cul- lvas their o\¡ert attentiolt to women's r,vork and their relationships with tural imaginary of these wonten.. money) class, and economic value, a range of concerns generally sup- As the Golden Age lvas precipitated by Korea's liberation from pressed by or subsumed rvithin romantic and emotional issues in Classi- Japanese occupation, it provides both an exemplary and provocative cal Holllnn'ood cinema, especialll, after the institution of the Production instance of a national cinema for a number of reasons. First, Golden Age Code in 1933. Rrther than highlighting corulecrions berween rhe emo- South Korean cinema'vvas self-consciously engaged in imagining and nar- tional ancl economic, A'rnerican rneloclrama tends to use femininity to rating South Korea as an emergent and divided nation and one now dom- rnystify class issues.' But) as the fìlms themselves amply demonsrratecl, inated by a Western power. Second, the claims of the state, in the form of lvorrlen in South Korean melodramas cluring this period, though abject Park Chung Hee's [Pak Clröng-hùi] euf-orcement of censorship larvs in in the areas of love and romance ) ne\/ertlìeless possess valued economic IgT2, thintately curtailed, for a time, this national imagining. Third, the agency and power-they work, they make money, often enough to save divided nation of Korea rvas embedded in cold war politics, out of which honres, lives, and social status.'' ollr contemporary sense of the uation emerged. Finall¡ this historical Thus I fìrst rneaningfully encountered South Korea not as a narion, period rvas also the one in which film studies, including the study of per se) but via a fìlm genre-melodrama-and my orvn research priorities: national cinemas, emerged as a viable scholarly discipline in U.S. unit'er- in what I perceived to be a different and comparabll' s¡rout.r constmc- sities. tion of femininity in its South Korean variant than in that of the Holly- Yet this moment of emergence must be placed in relation to the wood cinema r,vith rvhich I r,vas fàmiliar.t Several factors contributed to moment of encounter and reception thirty years later that ultirnately gen- this perception. The first r,vas that, in this body of fihns, the significance erated the essays in this volume. The changing character of the U.S. of rvomen's relationships r.vitl-r other women frequently exceeds that of t8 t9 Kathleen McHugh State , Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar their relationships u'ith men.t The second \\/as that the plots of these fih¡s sionisnr, Germøn Expressionism, and Soúet Montage. ofìen featurred u'omen r,r4ro rvere more ambitious and economically sarruy 2.'îhe nationâl cinemas and national film movements whose than their husbancls. Finally, the u'omen's econollic skills, their labor, identity as such vvas fàcilitated by international frlm festi- and their employn-ìent were fòregrouncled and generally vah.red in these vals that came to prominence after World War II, a circuit films rather than being dernonized, renclered abject, or adversely com- that "invests in and promotes the ctiscovery of new nat- pared to emotional and leisure pttrsuits as $'omen's econornic iltt'oh'e- ional cinemls."" ment fì'equently u,as in Classical Hollpl'ood urelodramas." Conseqr'tentll', the difference in narrative collstructions of fèrnininity became a primarl', Yet the ar'vard structure of these fèstivals designated prize-winning salient component of r,vhat I perceivecl South Korean cinema to be. films, by definition, as exceptior-ral products of their respective nations) produced b)'-ast.r : in Japan by Yasujiro Ozu, I(enji Mizoguchi, The Question of National Cinema and Akira Kurosawa; in India by Satyajit Ra\'; in Mexico, by Luis Burluel. Since the carll' years of silent cinema, national iìlm industries have existed This structural imbrication of aesthetics and nationalism, while providing nearly everlnvhere. But the economic, industrial, and social conditions r.ery limited international access to a verlr small number of films fi'om that shape critical ancl theoretical understandings of national ciuema nations other than the lJnited States, nevertheless reified Hollpvood's began after World War I."'The devastation of Europe resulted in Holly- normati\¡e and dominant position, r,vhile also insuring that the products r'vood cinema's rise to international dominance, a position this industry of other national cinemas rvould be selected and would circulate as "art" has held ever since . This clominance, though predicated on econotnics, cinema rather than as narratives in direct cornpetition rvith Hollyr,vood technology, ancl issues relating to the state, registers lnost fòrceftlll)' in products. Meanwhile, certain film rnovements, emerging initially in film criticism as an issue of nationalized aesthetics. As one rvriter on the Europe after World War II, designated national contributions to rvorld

Hollyr,r'ood cinema observes : cinema less securely anchored to specific, exceptional allteurs) but to shared vision, style, and means of production. Examples of these more B,v also clomin:rting the intem¿rtional market (rvhich most critics politically inflected national film gror.rps include, in rough chronological datc fiorn 1919 onrvards), tl're Americau cinema iusured that for order: Italian Neorealisn-r, French Neu'Wave, Brazilian Cinerna Novo, the vast rnajority of the audience, both here ancl abrotrcl, Holly- and Ner,v German Cinema. r,vood's Classic Periocl fihns rvould establish the definition of the In the 1980s and 1990s, the fèstival scene came to include pan- medium itself. Henceforth, different ways of making movies African, Latin ,A.merican, and Asian events. Yet the international festival u,ould appear as aberrations from some "intrinsic essence of cin- circuit continuecl to formulate an equation between access and aesthetics, ema" rather than simpll' as altematives to a particular fonl that wherein the economic and industrial apparatuses of the state that pro- hac{ resulted from a unique coincidence of historical accidents- videcl for or limited access rvere masked b¡ even as they shaped, a struc- aesthetic, econornic, technological, political, cultural, and even turally exceptionalist aesthetics. Film stuclies since the l9ó0s has gener- geographic." ally a...Or.O this exceptionalist criteria as that u'hich identifies the natioll in various national cinemas. Thus the concepts and methodologies artic- Eally on, fhesc aberrations u,ere assimilated to the cinematic canon pri- ulated by film theorists and historians concerning national cinemas, rnarily as aestheticized or high art alternatives to Hollyrvood's mass cttl- national film movements, Classical Hollylvood cinenta, Third World Cin- ture nonns. Later, the distinctions became politicized. en-ra, political, cornrnercial, and aesthetic cinemas and so on frequently Signifìcand1,, these irssimilations hat¡e proceeded largely under the depend upon problematic and unexamined icleas of nations that derive aegis of nations: frorn cold rvar politics and understandings of national designations from the l9ó0s: First, Second, and Third World nations. l. The intemational avant-garcles of the 1920s, critically and Many postcolonial critics are now indicating what has been left out historically categorized as Ft"ettch surrealism and impres- of these accolurts. Among the omissions are : the lateral relations among 20 2t Katl-rleen McHugh State, Nation, Wornan, and the Transnational Familiar

non-IJ.S. film industries-for example, betu'een India and the ft¡rmer tragic, empry center that not only r,vreaks havoc in the lives of worncn, Soviet lJnion, anìong the cinemas of Latin A.merica, or in the more children, and the social order but also provides the context in r,r'hich Íì'aught relationship betq'eeu the Japanese ¿rnd Korean fìlm industries; rhe lvofiren take up economic agencltto vibrancl,, reach, and power of non-U.S. film inc-lustries and their self-ertic- The crisis of narional di'isio' and the economic and social problems ulation within a global context that tends to be suppressed in the Holly- of the postwar years, frequendy dealt with explicitly in these narratives, u'ood/other dyad.''t Final\,, film stuclies has, until recentll,, tenclecl to together with the absence of masculine agency, shape the femininity ignore the state's role in the f-ormation of national fìlm culture via eco- and gender relations within them. In this particular historical momenr) nomic, political, and technological opportunities and consrraints.'' Golden Age films articulare a very specific narional allegory in melodra- Within this critical historical scenario, the cinemas ol l(orea, Ger- matic constructions of femininity. Many critics have rnade this point." I man¡ and Vietnam pose a unique and substantial challenge to convelt- want to push the issue sornewhat further, indicating hou' the Golden Age tional ftrnnulations of national cinemas. The reasonl Because their cine- constructioll of femininity and gender borror,vs fi'om yet alters the Euro- mas are or were state cinemas \\'ithin llations r,vhose land, governmcnt, American dy'amics of melodrama, also reve aling the illusory char- '4rile and cultural irlaginarl, have been f-orcibly diyided. I¡ each case, the cold acter of distinct national cultures and cinemas. $'ar politics that gavc rise to conterÌìporary fòrmations of the nation and its manifestations in fìlm and other culture industries also resulted in the Genre Difference division of these llatiorls at the trehe st of the t\\/o calnps of the cold u'ar. Although European and,A,merican literarl, and film critics debate u,hether Thus South I(orean cinema) until very recently a cinen-ìa lvhose fìlms rvere rnelodrama is a mode, an imagination, or a genre, all agree that it has had unavailable internationally, constitutes itself tvithin these divisions (of the extraordinar)¡ reach and power in popular culture in the West. Linda state and the nation and of the nation with itself) and u'ithin global polit- williams asserts: "[M]elodrama is a peculiarly democratic and American ical and aesthetic relations of influence (especialll, rvith the United States) form that seeks dramatic re'elation of and emotional 'roral trut-hs that film-studies scholarship and its fbcus on natioltalized aesthetics has through a dialectic of pathos and action. It is the ft¡undation of the clas- been structureci to ignore . sical Holllnvood movie."'* williams summarizes the critical tradition on In my reception of these ûlrns, the symptom of difference that I Euro-American melodrama, listing its most salient features: character and perceivcd in (and as) South I(orean cineura, that of fernininiry ancl, in action are construed u'ithin emotional and moral registers, ratlìer than more general terms, of gencler, resonates v,ith the incommensurate divi- those of psychology or realisrn; specarors side r,vith and fèel symparhy for sion at the heart of South l(orean cultural procluction: the loss of a uni- virtuous victims r'vho confì'ont forces larger than they are; the narrative is fied, if ñlndamentally illusory national identity, f-or n4rich the negations above all constructed to reveal innocence, whether the character possess- and constraints of the state are endurecl. This eflèct is particularly pro- i'g that innocence is saved or lost.'' Peter Brooks argues that melodrama nouncecl in Golden Age fìhns. A brief sun'ey of the major fìhns produced seeks above all to make moral principles clear and accessible to everyone. during this period reveals that none fèature a strong male protagonist. coming to prominence in the vvake of the Enlightenment and the conse- Rather, a predominant nnmber of fihns have fèmale protagonists, fre- quellt loss of the sacrecl, melodrama "re¡tresents both the urge tou¡ard quently rvith children, rvhose husbands are: absent (Tbe Houseguest &nd resacralization and the impossibility of conceiving sacralization other than M), Motlter/Sørugbørry sonnitn hwø õmõni; Home Is Wltere the Heørt i' personal terms."'n Thus melodrama articulates the social, economic, Is/Møíun ùi holtj,øttg; Bitter lmt Once Agøirt./Miwõdo tøsi ltønltõn), <>r and political in the register of the private and the personal. The ge're impotent (The Housetuøid/Hønyõ; My LtJt; Tlte Stra1, Bullet/Oltøb'øn). emphasizes moral polarities u'ith clear distinctions bern'een good and evil In those fìlms that do fèature a patriarch, he is represented as an endear- over nuance, cornplexiry and subtlety; it fosters aflèctive identification ingly humorous and pathetic anachronism (The Coøchtuøn/Møbu; Mr. rather than considered analysis. Its narrative focus on clarity and the per- Pøk/ Pøh sõbørry; Rontø.nce Pøpø/ Romøensùppøppø\'u The lack of strong sonal fìnds spectacular expression in the American cinema,s emphasis on male characters operates as a structllriltg absence in these fihns-the continuity and closure. classic Hollln'r,ood's conventional narrative tra-

22 zõ Kathleen McHugh Statc, Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar jectories and resolutions usually leave no cloubt or questions abolrt \'\'ho rative endings. The sense of r'.r-rlnerability that emerges has much less to is the good guy, the bad gu¡ and what the ending means. do rvith individual morality and rnetaphysical clashes that shape rhe mean- In South l(orean melodramas of the Golden Age, rnany of these ing of the material world than it does widr an unrelenting emphasis o' conventiolls are in evidence; hou'ever, the ern¡rhasis on moral clarity (rvho the fàllibility of human social and political systems ar-rd their sornetilnes is "good" and "innocent" and u'ho is "evil") and on continuiq' and clo- nefarious effects on human relations and communities. sure are attenlrated in favor of a somervhat different articulation of the A' understancli'g of Golden Age south Korean film and its 'relo- melodramatic ethos.2' This difference hinges on Golden Age cinema's dramatic applications provides a model for a complrative, transnational eyaluation of leisure a¡d labor, g'hich I s'ill discuss belot'r,, and how these approach to national cinema, which includes the machinations of the state values influence the distinction betn'een public and private life. Critics in aesthetic considerations. Rather than essentializing an idea of the have frequently ¡o,.0 American meloclrama's proclivity for converting all nation related to national identity, this approach foregrounds sociohis- political and social problerns into personal ones that then are more easily toric and economic context in the analysis of an aesthetic genre. Further, resolved." Golden Age cinema's melodramaric ethos testifies to rhe absence of that By contlast, in Golden Age rnelodramas, personal fi'usuation be- rvhich in Euro-American cinemas is an unarticulated backdrop, illusory colres the basis for interpersonal identifìcatio¡ that is at once familial, and mythological: the idea of a unifìed and auronomous nation." social, and political. For example , i¡ Yu H1'ön-mok's 196I The Strny Bul- Gender, Genre, and let, the plight of a group of I(orean War veterans, one crippled, all impov- the Nation: Gold.en Age Films erishecl, opens up a matrix of social and economic connections all In reconceptualizing south l(orean melodrama, I would like to have it adversely affected by the rvar and its aftermath. In just one of these sub- both r,vays: first, to consider rhese narratives as diffèrenr from Holl;.wood plots, a veteran breaks off his engagement to a \voman who is part of a melodrama in certain distinct \4/ays; and second to suggest the globar ner- fomrerly North Korean farnily because he cannot support her. Out of work of cultural influences within which south Korean cinema imagined despair and her farnil1"5 desperate econotnic need, she becomes a prosti- itself via fèmininity in the 1950s and l9ó0s. If the state says "no" and the tute rvho services American GIs. Macle in the same year, bLrt set in dle nation "yes," I want to explore the ambivalence that necessarily arises in l92}s, Sin Sang-ok's The Houseguest ønd M1, Mother aligns the fates of postcolonial self-representations and encounters) an arnbivalence regis- tq'o lvidolvs-the protagonist, a well-born woman) and her r-naid-lvhose tered and represented much more forceftllly in south Korean cinema very different class identities dictate rvhether drey can (the maid) or can- because of its unique position within the cold war and its national fic- not (the rl,ell-born woman) remarry. Standards of behavior are thereby tions. while the postwar south Korean cinema consritures an exemplary articulated apropos of a class strllcture rather than a moral one. This instance of this ambivalence, so does, in a very different tr¡ay, my own drama is played out in relation to three generations of women-the pro- recent encounter with this very cinema. As a product of u.s. education tagonist, her daughter, and her mother-in-la1¡¡-lvhess kinship duties and and of U.S. academic fìlm studies, I knew little about Korea, much less structlrre are depicted as shaping the social u'orld of a certain class of Korean cinema, deficits that fueled rìy sense of the uniclueness and uni- women. versality of Holll.wood melodrama. Thus my entry point to the difference Consistently these films encompass and interrelate injuries and of Korean cinema-r,vhat I don't know-interacts lvith lvhat in south inequities relating to national division, class division, gender division, and Korean melodrarna is marked as other, as not-Korean; this interaction properry division. Thus Golden Age melodramatic expression clocuments becomes the place where cultural perceptions of identity are formulated. the formation or destruction of relationships, affinities, and community The canonical films from the Golden Age period include: The pu.b- as a response to shared victimization rather than revealing innocence lic Proserutot'ønd the Teøcher (Yun Tae-ryong, ì.948), IIonte Is Wbere the made manifèst s'ithin the personal and embodied in exemplary individu- Heørt Is (Yun Yong-g1.r.r, 1948), Mødøme Freedom (Han Hyöng-mo) als. The causes of this shared victimization range from mothers-in-law 1956), Hell Flon,er (Sin Sang-ok, 1958), Til the End of M\,Izy' (Sin Sang- and repressive gender codes to the state and the econom)¡' forces that are ok, l9ó0), The Hottsemøirl (Km Ki-yöng, l9ó0), Mr. Pøh (1960), The often at odds u'ith one another and not resolved in pat or moralistic nar- Coøchmøn (19ól) (both Kang Tae-jin), TIte Seø Vittøge (Kim Su-yong,

24 25 Kathleen McHugh State , Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Farniliar

1964), Tlte Housegu.est ønd M),Motber (Sin Sang-ok, l9óL), Thc Strøy each other, they share simiÌarities that distinguish then-r fi-or¡ the Euro- Btr.llet (Yu Hyön-mok, t9ól), The Mist (ICm Su-yong,1967), Bitter lntt A¡lerican model that has definecl lvhat melodrama l'neans and hor,v it sig- Once Agøirt (Chöng So-yöng, l9ó8), and Thrce Sittgnto Szsrørr (Kim nifìes that meaning. FIrva-rang 1969). These fìlms easily f¿ll into gendered categories-those tlrat f-ocus on fèmale protagonists and issues (Thc hrblic Prosectûor and Mød.ørne Freed.orn: A Femininity to Suit the Nation the Teøcher, Home Is Wltere tbe IIeø¡'t Is, Mndøtne Freedom, Hell Flon,er, South Korean cinema colnes "into full existence ," writes fihn theorist So- The Hottseruøid, and Tlte Houseguest ønd M), Mother) and those that fì-¡cus yolrng Kim, rvith the extraordinary success of two f/rnts, Cltturthyøngjõn on nrale protagonists (Mr'. Pøh, Thø Conchmøn, Tlte Strøy Bullet, and Tlte (Tlte Story of Chwt-ltyøn¿, Yi K1u-hrvan, I955) and Chøyu puin (Mødøme Mist). Of these fìlms, those that shor,r'ed the most pronouncecl stylistic Freedom, Han Hyöng-mo, 195ó). Their box offìce helped builcl "a cor- and narrative influence of intemationally reuolvned fìhn lno\¡ements and tage style film indusuy."tt Yet the nvo films coulcl not be more different. auteurs n'ere films concerning male protagonists: The Coøcbntøn, The While Tl¡e Stor"1, sf ç¡tttrt-hyøttg revivecl a story fiom the Yi d1'nasty that all Sn'øy Bullet (Italian /De Sica/Bicycle Thief), and Tl¡e Mist Koreans u'ould knou, and that toì"lted traditional Confìrcian ethics, (Antonioni, L'Atpenturø). Tlte Coøchmøn\yas also the only 1ìlm to lr,iu a Mødøme Freedom refìected the period and social upheaval of the posnvar prize in an international film festival (the Silver Bear at the I9ól Berlin era in rvhich it rvas made .'u I will consider the latter precisely because it International Film Festival) during this periocl. suggests one \4/ay in which melodrama negotiates social crises and cultural The films featuring fèmale protagonists were at once more emphat- interactions in Golden Age South Korean cinema. ically melodramatic and rnore stylistically converÌtional. Filn-r scholar Hee In some wâ1r5 ¿ succes du scøndøle, Mndøme Freedotu. was taken from Moon Cho obsen'es that rvhile films such æ Tbe Str'øy Bu.llet received crit- the controversial novel of the salne name) published the year of the ical acclairn, they tended to be much less popular than the controversial armistice that ended the l(orean War and indefinitely partitioned rhe Mødøtne Freedont., lvhich "was a huge box-offìce success" as were other nation (1953)." The film tells the story of a traditional hor.rsewife and fìhns geared toward female audiences, such as the more traditional and mother, Sön-1öng, whose profèssor/husband is cold ancl u'ithclrarvn, "very Korean" Hltne Is Where the Heørt 1r and Tlte Ilouseguest ønd My interested only in his work. While his occupatioll grants thern a signifì- Motlter.'n This type of l¡reakdown is a typical gendering of high/low art. cant degree of social statlls, his income does not equal that of many of the What I rvould like to consider is how the nation, class, property, and gen- other women's husbands in Sön-1öng's social cohort. In order to der are configured and interrelated in one of the first and most popular improve their economic situation, Sön-1öng gets a job as a salesr,voman in melodramatic films directed at a fernale audience in this period. My read- a slrop (P'øri or Paris) that sells U.S. goods, a job at r,vhich she excels. Yet ing r,vill be based on the tu'o interrelated negations and encounters I her consequent social exposure results in ruinous financial and sexual dal- noted at the beginning of this essay: my perception of the diffèrence of liances. At fihn's end, her future anci that of her family is uncertain. FIer femininity in this fìlm; and that u'hich within the film is designated as not- husband, demanding that they separate, has locked her out of the house, Korean. an act lÌeightened b1, the sudden appearance of snow for the fìrst time in My reading will also take into account the subject of melodrama in the fìln-r. When their young son begs him to let her in, the husband an international setting. Insofar as I see women in South I(orean cinema relents, and the film ends with the son running outside to embrace his as possessing more economic and productive agency and sharing more mother, as the husband looks sternll, at them from the doorway. profound homosocial bonds with one another than women in Holly- Although this plot slullmary clescribes the main action of the fìlm, r'vood cinema, South Korean melodrama of this period shares some- nulnerolrs subplots mirror, nuance) and sene to generalize the tale of thing rvith the female protagonists of Mexican cinema's Golden Age Mødøtne Frecdom. Together s'ith Són-1'öng, several othcr fèmale charac- (f 930s-50s). Mexican melodrarnatic heroines also are possessed of narra- ters-Madame Ch'oe and Sön-yöng's social cohort, Miss Pak and the tive agency and importance that exceeds that of fernale protagonists in group of secretarics to u'hich she belongs, Sön-},öng's L-loss's rvifè ancl Hollylvood cinema. Although the exarnples and narrative paradigms of Sön-yóng's niece-represent South I(orean fèmininiq, across a range of Mexican and Korean melodramas are in some ways very different fiom class positions (affluent to u'orking class) and fàmilial positions (married,

26 27 Kathleen McHugh State, Nation, Wcrrnau, ancì the Transnational Far-niliar

to become financially indepenclent of her husband, to er-tjo}, lilè more, and to get involvecl u,ith rvhat becomes a disastror.rs money-making scheme. Finalll', Sön-yöng's niece, also depicted as com¡rletel), Wcsrern- izecl, is involvecl r,r'ith Són-vöng's neighbor Ch'un-ho, u'ho also secluces Sön-yöng. With these cou.rplications, the film relentlessll' rnrrkcs the ¡roint that u4ren \\/omen lear,e the domestic sphere, u'hich all the q'omen in this fìlm, ar-rd by extension, all I(orean \\¡olren) irre clepicteci as doing, sexnal chaos ensues. Yet unlike U.S. cinen-ra's fìndamental ambivalence toward \\,onlen's r,l'ork and its correlatir,e celebration of leisure, Mødømc Freedont depicts wornen's sexual indepenc'lence and rulnerabiliq' xr inextricable fiom their much more positively valued furancial abilities, sratus, ¿rnd con- cems, precisely rvhat takes them outsicle the domestic sphere in the fìrst place! The motif of n,omen's labor and its appropriirte place is introduced \¡ery early in the film, follolving Llpon the trvo opening shots, tvhich set up the opposition benveen the fè¡rces of modemiq' and those of traditional social structures. The fìlm begins r,r,ith a shot of chaotic urban traflìc on a major thoroughfàrc, fbllorvecl b), ou. of a still and quaint neighborhood, u'hich then leads to the inrerior of Profèssor Yi's home . Sön-yöng kneels Miss Pak and Profèssor Yi's outdoor tryst, fi'om Mndntne Frctdout on thc floor carefirllf ironing, u'hile her husband sirs at a desk rvorking. Bending oyer his orvn books, he ignores his son, rvho asks him ftrr helpr n'ith his homclvork, thereby sigr-raling that this is his n'ifè's job. Sön-yöng and her husbancl then talk about her \,vorking outsicle their home. He thinks it is unseemly ftrr ¿r rvoman in her position (the lvife of a profèssor), single). Each of the main characters confronts morally difficult situations but the next day, as he is leaving the house, he sees her r,r,ashing their relating to rolnance. While Madame Ch'oe and Sön-1öng's boss's r'vife clothes in a tr-rb. Hat'ing his rvifè clo the lar-urdry instead of a maid is more rrrlrst corÌtencl rvith unfàithñll husbands, the other female characters unseemly to Profèssor Yi thar-r having her u'ork for a r,vage. Class concerns choose different solutions to illicit sexual attractions. The )¡oung secre- thereby trump traciitional gencler roles. He tells Sön-yöng she can do tar1,, Miss Pak, becomes involved first professionally and then romanti- u'hatever she rvants. cally with Sön-yöng's husbancl, Profèssor Yi, afier she approaches hirn and The fìlm depicts Profèssor Yi as inadequare ro the task of resolving asks if hc rvill teach her and a group of typists Korean language anci gram- incompatible priorities that have to do r,r,ith, otì the one hand, maintain- rnar lessons every evenirlg. Miss Pak anci her group, unlike Sön-yöng, all ing a traclitional fàmilly'gencler srrucrllre and space, and on the other, \.vear very snart Western suits and have careers." Miss Pak and Professor sustaining a sufficientll' aflnent lifèsryle in keeping u'ith the s1'mbolic sta- Yi's trysts take place primarily outdoors, ar-rd though they declare their tus of his profèssion. Passive and resigncd, he acqniesces to the violation love fbr each other, they never become ph¡,s¡."¡tt involved. Sön-yóng, by of tradition. Unlike her husband, Sön-1'öng's response to their economic contrast) coffìes close to sleeping u.ith tu'o men, her boss ancl her neigh- troublcs clepenc{s upon her sense olher own agency: she actively plrrsues bor, after meeting them in cafes, dance halls, and restaurants. ernployment and the rern'ards in srarus it u,ill aflbrd her fàmil1'. It is in rela- Meanu'hile, Sön-1öng's best fiiencl, Madarne Ch'oe, has a husband tion to econornic agenc,v and action that the fìlm most noticeably refirses devotcd to his mistress; she encourages Són-yöng to take clancing lessons, a clear, melodrarnatic delineation of character. Both Sön-)'öng and her

28 29 Kathleer.r McHugh State, Natiorr, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar

neighbor, has temporarily left him so she can go our with an American tvho can teach her English. Significand¡ the quasi-incestuous subplot of aunt and niece competing for the same man depends entirely on the \,\'omen's public and professional circulation and supercedes the familial hierarchl, that would demand the niece honor her aunt. The fìlm interrelates several sets of oppositions through the figure of its protagonist along three registers: (l) social space (public/private; urban/domestic; rvork/leisure, professional/farnilial), (2) gender and family positions (mothey'fàther, husband/wife, married/unmarried rvoman), and (3) sociohistorical temporalities (traditional/n-rodern). Her eponymic and fundamentally oxymoronic tide-Madame Freedom- astutely captures the nature of her crisis and also that facing South Korea. For a Korean wornan, the entry into marriage requires her precisely to forego freedom and autonomy and enter into binding relations of duty and hierarchy rvith her husband and her husband's family. "Madame Free- dom" therefore designates a femininity not only inflected by the United States (she is called "Madame" in English several times in the film), but also one that is, u'ithin Korean culture, a conradiction in terms. For this Western vielver and theorist of rnelodrama, the difference

Sór-r-1'öng, with an adrniri¡g customer, sells Wester¡ goods at P'ari, fro¡r of Mødntne Freedow and its depiction of femininity derives from another Mødøtne Fr¿edont set of sigr-rifìiations that have to do lvith $'omen's labor. Wrile the oppo- sitions the film sets into play in some sense reduplicate those of U.S. melodramas, their meanings and value are different. In Hollywood melo- drama, the home has been resolutely depicted since the late 1920s as a husband are depicted as flawed; neither are idealized or ciemonized. Fur- place of leisure, the domestic labor necessary to maintain that home ther, the fìlm extends the signifìcance of the conflicts that will result from transformecl into affective expressions and imperatives. The U.S. fantasy these differently gendered responses in its use of setting and mise-en- that everyone can be middle class has dependecl upon middle-class scène ." women rvhose lifèsryle and appearance are leisured; in U.S. melodramas From this point in the narrative on, the fìlm orchestrates its melo- of the classic period, female protagonists are often severely punished for dranratic situations r'r'ithin public and/or commercial urban space: city pursuing careers) either in or out of their homes.t" Mødøme streets, boutiques, cafés, restaurants, Parks, and nightclub/dance halls. In Freedont., this is not the case. Professor Yi's household The film pLrnctuates this urban milieu lvith two short sequences that indi- is a place r,vhere everyone works; in fact, no leisure or play occurs there, cate what is getting lost, the traditional home. We see Sön-yöng's son at not even with their young son, r,vho is writing or reading at his litde desk home alone at ten o'clock at night, his parents each out pursuing their every time we see him. Sön-yöng's employment in a boutique initially is separate careers/romances. AII the romance s in Mødønte Freedom, illicit represented as both necessary and highly valued. Similarly, the film does and other$'ise, are articulated through "profèssional" relationships- not critique Miss Pak's employment as a secretar¡ her smart, tailored those overtl)' mediated b)' economic exchange or professional irnprove- suits, which suggest her profèssionalism, and her desire to learn Korean ment. Sön-yöng's ¡eighbor gives her dance lessons; her other suitor is her grammar. In short, neither Sön-yöng nor Miss Pak's econ.omic productit,- boss. Sön-1,öng's niece) r'vho has also been going out lvith Sön-yóng's 14, s..- to represent a problem.

30 3l Katl-rlee¡r McHugl'r

Music, Genre, and the Transnational Familiar

\d/lrat cloes seeln to be problemltized via Són-yöng's en-rployment is the slavish valorization of Westem goods, language, and activities, their inflatecl but ultimately empty valLre narrativized in the film by Madame E É Ch,<¡e,s ill-fàted get-rich scheme selling Western goods.''r Maclame Free- E il clom not becallse she lvorks in the public sphere but because her "falls" Eì presence there leacls her to investigate social settings and pursue activities a I il imbricates her consequent exposure ü n devoted to leisy.re. Telli¡g\,, the fìlm E t more general- æ to sexualiry outsicle the traditional familial stfucture s'ith n n H Korean cultllre's complicated encounter I ized representations of South T, *,ith the West. All of these themes are ñrlly realized in a lengthy scene that f ffi constitutes the tgrning point of the film. Prior to this scene, Madame Freedom has ahvays \,vonl traditional clothing, and though various men have flirted u,ith her, she has maintained a certain distance and reserve. H Finally, she agrees to meet her neighboy'dancing teacher at a nightclub' The sequence begins u'ith a close-up of a trumpet as it sounds the firsr nore of a big band rif'f-"cherry Pink and Apple Blossom white." "Cherry Pink," the most famous sollg il1 the world in 1955-5ó, was r'vrit- Marnlr

3Z Kathleen McHugh State , Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar

Headlined Lrnder the I(orean tttLe, Pt'otest of the Flesh, and featuring star diverse nationalities could be reached by the sarne recordings. Ninón Sevilla's face in a characteristic snarl, the ad informs viervers that Thc rnambo's hybridness remained more "pure" for not having this film sports the same production team and narrative traits of a previ- to pick a language.''u ous Mexican feature released in South Korea, Wild Womøn Jøsgørø.In all likelihood, the earlier feature was Sensu.ølidød (Gout, 1950), another This verbal laconism was coupled r,vith musical, ph1,5lç¿l excess; the cøbøreterø featuring Sevilla.tn This pronounced connection between Mex- mambo craze was a dance craze and one acconpanied by either the ican and South Korean cinema is suggestive in several ways. embrace or the fear of its ph1,slçally fiantic, uninhibitecl style. Pérez Fir- Scholars have typically noted the influences of , mat notes: "In the mambo, thcre is not rvarming up or cooling dor,vn, no French art, and American epic cinema on Golden Age South Korean fòreplay or afterplay. The mambo begins and ends with paroxysm."" films. Missing from this account are the visual, generic, and musical influ- The international diffusion of mambo, predicated on both its ver- ences from Mexico and other Latin A'merican cinemas on South Korean bal paucity and physical excess) emulates, in a different register, the struc- melodramas of this period.-" Given the panache of the former influences, ture of meloclrama lvherein excessive spectacle attends a correlative aesthetic in the case of said Italian and French film movements and eco- generic propensity for muteness, for what cannot be said.t' These kindred nomic in the case of Hollywood epics, the exclusion of the Mexican/Latin generic structures marking mambo and rnelodrama can be considered in American influences can be read in terms of the gendered/generic distinc- relation to national cinemas and the corning of sound. ,A.na López tions I have noted above ønd in relation to the aesthetic exceptionalism observes: "Because the costs of the transition to sound were enormous that has dominated the canonization of certain national cinemas in U.S. . . . local investment throughout the world lagged behind that of Holly- and international fllm studies. The acknor,vledged challenges to Holly- lvood. Flor,vever, the difficulties of translation did open up a potential u'oocl in the posnvar era came from fìlm movements, allteurs) and films windorv of opportunity for local producers in non-English-speaking mar- adopting a realist or neorealist aesthetic; Mexican Golden Age cinerna kets rvho suddenly had an easy answer to the question of 'national' dif- with its profoundly musical and melodramatic aesthetic never registered. ferences in the cinema: langr.rage and music."t'Interestingl¡ in the penul- And yet, in the visual and musical d)'namics of this pivotal sequence, the tinrate scene in Mødørne Freedoru,language and music do not mark u'hat transnational influence of Mexico might be foregrounded over that of is local so much as they stage the rnixing of and confrontation among dis- Hollywood. parate transnational influences. While the mambo enunciates Afro- That this axis of influence is predicated on sound as u'ell as image is Cuban, Mexican, and American jazz influences, the repetitive lyrics are also very suggestive. The global diffusion of mambo, rvrites Gustavo voiced in English. Tellingll', the local regisrers itself elser,vhere . Pérez Firmat, could be attributed to its "laconism." FIe writes: It is in the specular organization of the cabaret sequeltce drat the filrn distinguishes itself from its anrecedents. In Mødøtne Freedom, the Because the mambo began its life onl1, as a type of improvisecl gaze and its object are ernphatically femøle. Sön-yöng's very appreciative refrain, lvhen it achieved independence it became a free-standing look at the dancer is both desiring and identificatorl,, tinged rvith eroti- fragment, a part that has escaped the r,vhole. . . . The rvords do cism and something between admiration and enly. Although it is perhaps not help. When they exist, thel, are minirnalist to the point of the most noticeable of these looks in the film, a series of rhem have in fact absurdity. Pérez Prado used lyrics in the manner of scat lvords. structured the entire narrative. The first occurs in an early scene u'hen . . . Laconic rather than lyrical, interactive rather than narrative) Sön-1,öng attends her "wives of famous men" club meeting. A series of the mambo does not believe in stories. When music and words point-of-view shots depict Sön-yöng and Madame Ch'oe looking closely meet, the result is often logoclassia, the disarticulation or frag- at the lavish jervelrl' and stylish clothing of their fèllow club members. mentation of language. As logoclastic music, the mambo exploits This sequence also features a woman singer who sings to and caresses lar-rguage for its onomatopoetic or phonic qualities, not for its Sön-1,óng, later encouraging her to join the dances that she sponsors. In meaning bearing capacity. Words are valued for their sound, not addition to underscoring the rnaterial arnenities denied to Sön-yöng (as their sense. Since there was no need for translation of lyrics, the wife of a high-status bur low-paid professor), the club also provides

34 35 I(athleen McHugh State , Nation, M/oman, and the Transnational Familiar hcr rvith the attention and recognition she is not getting at home. The to the point, if Holl¡vood fìhns of the 1930s and 1940s influence the seconcl example olfèmale-to-fèmale gazes occurs at the shop where Sön- ambiance, the mnsic, and the dancing, the irony here is that it is a Hol- 1'óng u,orks. The shopkee¡rer's u,ifè lvatches Sön-1,öng closely as Sðn-1,öng ly"wood itself f,rscinated with all things "Latin" and specifically derived makes a particLllarly lucrative sale . As Sön-1'óng puts the noney in the fiom Afro-Cuban rnusic. In this lnanner, the scene opells Lrp a global ancl knou'iug glance the cash clLau'er, she exchanges an intimate l'ith frarne of refbrence. The nightclub furtctions as a global chronotope , stag- shopkeeper's rvife, smiling as the other woman r,vinks appreciativel)' at ing South Korea's encounter u,ith ¡nodernity as one that greatly exceeds l-rer. Finally, Sön-1'öng and her niece each "spy" ol'l the other's erotic a dichotomous relation r'vith Europe or the United States per se, albeit intcrluclcs u,ith the drncc iustructor. implicitly and unnoted b1, t.¡otutt.n'' These fèmale-to-fèmale looks rre highlighted iu the narrative and The chronotope is a concept articulated in M. M. Bakhtin's "Fornìs organize all the spheres of Sön-yöng's lifè-her fami\', her fèmale cohort, of Tinre and of the Chronotope in the Novel ," in Tlte Diølogic Imøginn- her u,ork, and her leisurc-according to a female point ofvierv. Translated tion.o'In "'Lounge Time': Post-War Crises and the Chronotope of Filnt to fìlm, the homosociality of traditional l(orean culture gives rise to al'l Noirr" Vivian Sobchack uses the chronotope to reconceptualize the link akernative specular structure whose threat is fìnally realizecl in the night- betlveen film text and historical context in .n'Her account of the club scene. Sön-yóng's look at the dattcer, strikingly unmediated by any chronotope of "lounge time" as a threat to domestic space and timc res- male gaze, fìnally precipitates her fall. Imrnediately follorving this onates with the use of the nightclub sequence in Mødøme Freedoru. Yet sequence, Sön-yöng adopts Western clothing and has tlvo disastrous sex- insofar as Bakhtin's notiorl of the chronotope attempts to grollnd repre- ual encounters, the first lvith her neighbor) a tryst interrupted by her son sentation and discourse historicalll,, in specific, material time and space, calling out for her, and l¿1ter on) oue lvith her boss, interrupted by his the global chronotope is something of a paradox. The referent for the u'ifè. When she fìncls Sön-1'öng r'vith her husbancl in a clarkened room, the nightclub and lounge time in Mødø.me Fre edoru clerives ât least as much, shopkeeper's lvifè slaps Són-1,öng, who signifìcantly has averted her gaze if not more, fiom other transnational cinematic representations than from in shame. This ruptr-rre or violation of the fèmale-to-fèmale gaze and acnral postwar nightclubs in Seoul, which rvoulcl, in anl' case, have been homosocial aflìnities that have strLlctured the fìlm makes wa1, fþ¡ the fìnal populated by American GIs. The chronotope here does not ñtnctiolr sequence in rvhich, f'or the first time , the male gaze orients the space and sociologically so much as allegorically for the influence of U.S. rnilitar¡ meaning of the mise-en-scèue. Although its otttcome is left uncertain, economic, ancl cnltural interventions contaminating the cohereut imagin- Sön-},öng's attempt to return to her familial place occurs under the aegis ing of a South Korean nation. llolvever, at the sanìe lime, it is important of her husband's gaze and at the behest of her young son. Both of these to llote that these representations and imaginings are also inftised lvith characters have been rnarginal to the lÌarrati\/e, yet they figure here as cru- appropriations fi'om the contemporaneolls Mexican cinema and global cial to rvhat is being narrirted. If Mødøme Freedoru "imagines the fate of music, features that expose the Hollpvood/national cinema binarl' fs¡ the nation as that of the violated and subjugated !voman," fàther and son the fiction it is by highlighting the other transnational signifìcations in this are specters of u4rat can no longer or cânnot yet be imaginecl-a distinct scene. nation rvith tr¿rdition, authoriry, and people intact. Rather than resolve Further, the sccne implicates the female gaze and nerv fèmale fi'ee- this scenario, either with sön-yöng banishecl or reincorporated, the fìlm dorn in this global chronotope. Unlike Miss Pak, Sön-yöng's donning of leaves the monlent) the national allegory suspended, haunted by specters. Western attire has nothing to clo u'ith her productivit)' and profèssional- This irresolution acquires even more signifìcauce if rve consider the ism and everything to do with leisure, dancing, and sexuality. If the film context that precipitates Sön-yöng's transgression. The nightclub scene attributes these aberrant and dangerous freedoms to an A'rnericanized aligns Sön-yöng's gaze u,ith larger and more generalizcd issues cottcern- West, thel' enter the female body by way ef Latin American music aud ing South l(orean culture's encounter lvith the West. As Sön-yöng looks dance that is itself influence cl by African culture . It is here that the nation- at the dancer, the band provides accompaniment to this homo- state is most ambivalent-inadvertently aflìrming its porous identity even social/erotic moment rvith bongos and a decidedly Latin beat. The as it attempts emphatically to irot"r. what is not-Korean. Yet, signifi- singing anci some of the dialogue in this nightclub are in English. More cantly, the woman becomes the focus of this irresolvable ambivalence,

36 37 Kathleen McHugh State, Nation, Woman, and the Transnational Familiar inhabiting the place of what both is and is not South I(orean. Through Rcprrltlic of l(oren, ed. Laura I(endall (Honolulu: University of Flarvai'i Press, her, the film plays thc clomestic against the global, u'ith the narion hiding 2002), 165-96. See McHugh, Labor of Matcrnal Melodrarnas: Converting Angels to behind her fìgure. She takes the fall, her husband ancl son, rnarginalized 9. "The Icons," in Amtricøn Donnsticity, 13049. past alld virtual Íirture, divided and fì'ozen over her fàte. A.nd this 10. IGistin Thornpson, u'riting on the emergencc and sigr-rificar-rce of the concept arrested, ambiguous moment) insinuated through fami\,, gender, and sex of national cinemas ("in the decade afìer 19I5"), lirnits l-rer comments to the roles, becornes the only possible representation of nation, one that is fàct that this concept becarnc one of the primarl'rubrics frrr rvritir-rgs or-r fihn irresolute, contraclictor¡ and anbivalent, local only r'1{¡þitt a transnational lristorl,. "Natior-r, National Ider-rtiq' and the Intcmational ()inenta," Filnt (1996):259-60. fìrn-riliar. Ilistory 8, no. 3 l L Robert Ray, A Ctrtøin Tcndcncy of Anericnn Cinunø (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I985), 2ó. Notes 12. ]ulian Strir.rger, "Traflìc in Cinema," in Rcgørding Fibn Festit,nls (PhD diss., l. Ar.r carlicr versiou of this essal' appeared in Qtørterly Rtt,itr of Film ønd L.rdiar.ra University, 2003), 3. See also Bill Nichols, "Discovering Form, Video. Inferring Metrnir.rg: Nel'Cinemas ar.rd the Fih.r.r Festival Circuit," Film Qrnr- 2. Nancl, Abelmann, "Mclodramatic Memories: Classic¿rl Holl¡.r,oocl Cinema terly 47, no. 3 (Sprir.rg 1994): ló-30, and "The International Film Festival meets the Golclen Age of Korean Cinema," Pacific Rin-r Rcsearch Proposal, and Global Cinema," Eøst-West fortrnnl 8, no. I (1994). 1997, page 2. 13. Among rnanl' possible examples ancl in aciditioll to the rvriters on Korean cin- 3. M¡, ¡¡ss of the tem "cultural irnaginarl," rcfbrs to the social/subjective phe- ema and film 1èstivals that I have already cited, see Chris Berr1,, "If China nofirenoll evicienced in Al¡elmann's study The u,omen invoked mass media Car.r Sa1' No, Can Chinr Makc Moviesf Or Do Movics Makc Chinaf Rethink- cultural narratives to rìarrate their orvn experiences ancl as a salient part of ing National Cinen-ra and National Agency," ltoundøry 2 25, no. 3 ( 1998): those experiences. Furthcrmorc, they did so independently ofoue another, 129-50, "Race : Chinese Fihn, and the Politics of Nationalism," Cinantø ne\¡ertheless referencing the same group of filn-rs. Thc concept of a cultural Jomttøl 31, no. 2 (1992):45-58; Nick Brorvne, Paul G. Pickou,icz, Vivian or national irnaginary derives from Ber-redict Anc-lerson's theorizatior-r of Sobchack, ar.rcl Esther Yau, eds., New Chinese Cinemo: Fonns, Identities, Pol- nationalisn in hnngined Connnunities (1983; Nes,York: Verso, l99l) and lrirs (Cambridgc: Can.rbridge University Press, 1994); Re1' Qþç¡11,, Priutitiv¿ has shaped recent n'ork on national cincrnas ir-r film studics. For a discussion Pøssions: Vinrnlity, Senmlity, Ethnogrøplty, ønd Contentporøry Chinese Cin- of A.nderson's influence, along rvith a critique of film tl-reorists' tcndcncy tcr eørø (New Yolk: Columbia University Press, 1995); John I(ng, Ana López, link Ar-rderson's notior-l of the imaginary rvith the Lacaniar-r variant, see ar.rd Manuel Alvarado, eds., Medintittg Ttvo Worldt Cinetnntic En.cottntrs in Michael Walsh's "National Cincma, National hnagirtarl'," in Film HistoryS, tht: Atnericøs (London: BFI, I993). no. J. (1996): 5-17. While Walsh's revierv of the litcrature is l-relpful, his cli- I4. For some notable exccptions) see Surnita Chakrirvary, "The Fihn Industry tiquc ar-rd conclusions âre not sufficiently substar-rtiated. and tlre State," in Nntionøl Idiltity irt Indiøn Populnr Cbtontø (Austin: Ur.ri- 4. Rey Chorv, "A Phantom Discipline," PMLA 116, no. 5 (October 2001): versity of Texas Press, 1993), Ì9-55; Thomas Elsaesser, "Film Industry- I 393. Film Subsid¡" in N¿ri' Gennøn Cinemø (Nerv Brunsrvick, NJ: Rutgers Uni- 5. I explore this pl-rer-ror-rrenon in much grcater detail in the section "H<¡use- versity Press, 1989); Ian Jarvie, Hollyn'ood's Operstns Cørnpøitn (Cambridge: keepirrg in Hollyrvood," in Arutricttn Donrcsticitl,: From How-To Møttuøl to Cambridge University Prcss, 1992); R¡r.rdal Johnson, "In the Belly of the Hollywood Mùodrntnø (Nerv York: Oxford University Press, 1999),81-149. Ogre: Cinema and State ir.r Latin America," in Mediøtirrg Tlvo World5 ed. ó. lVon-ren u,ith cconomic agelÌc)¡, especially that related to dornestic skills, are I(ng, López, ancl Ah'arado,204-13; Paul Lenti, "Columbia: State Role ir.r fiequently pur.rishecl fbr their success or expertise in Holl1ar,,666l melodramas Filrn Production," in Mediøtiug Ttvo Worlds, cd. King, López, and Alvarado, of tl.ris period. Obvious examples u'oulcl inclucle: Initøtion of Lifc (1933, 214-21. E. Ann Kaplan, rvritir-rg on Chinese cinema, does gcsture tor,r,ard the 1959) and Mildrcd Picrce (1945). role of the state, fonnulating thc distir-rction berlveen nationâl culture and 7. When I shared this perception rvith South Kcrrcan wolllcll in the Unitcd the stilte as nr.o dif'fcrcnt kinds of critical discourses that can bc applicd to the States and Seoul, they quickly qualified my understanding of "strong fèmi- cinematic text: the aesthetic and the political, respectively. But the distinctiorr ninitl'," stressing the verl, misogynist and patritrrcl-ral cl-raracter of South beûveen cultural imaginarl,, the citizen's "yes," alìd the constrair-rts in-rpclsecl

Korean cultnre . by the goven-rment, the state's "no" are limited to the critic's aesthetic and 8. See Cho Haejoang's discussion of South l(orea as a homclsocial culture in political illterpretations of the text. Neither the rnaterial colÌtext of the state "Livir.rg n,ith Cor.rfìicting Subjectivities: Mother, Motherly Wife, and Scxy nor the state's impact ()n the aesthctic rnakcr-rp of the tcxt are registerecl. See lVonran in tl-re Trar-rsition fi'om Colonial Modcm to Post-Mode rn," in Under her "Meloclrarna/SuLrjcctiviqy'Ideology: Westem Mclodrama Theories ar.rd Constntction: Thc Gendering of Modernity, Cløss, nnd Connnnþtion in thc Tl-reir Relevance to Rccent Chinese Cinerna," in Melodrømø øní Asiøn

38 39 Kathleer-r McHugl-r State, Nation, Wornan, and thc Transnati<¡nal Familiar

Cirttntø, ed. Wimal Dissanayake (Cambricige : C:rn'rbridge lJniversiq, Press, (Seoul: Moti<¡n Picture Procincti<¡n Corporation, 1988), I12. 1993),9-28. 27. See Chungmoo Choi's illuminâtir1g c()nrììellts ()n Mødønt Fretdotn in 15. Nancy Alrelmann lnakes this point alrout Tbe Coøcbtuøn, Mr. Pnh, and "Magic and Violence of Moclcmization in Post-Colonial Korea," in Post- Romnnc¿ Pøpø in "The Mekrclrama of Mobiliq': Fihr Mornents and Fih'n Coloninl Cløssics oJ I(orcøn Cincntø, ccl. Chungn-roo Choi, ó-8. Memories," a paper dcliverecl at the Fr()nl Holll.rvood to F{an: South I(orean 28. See Chungmoo Choi's discussion of Miss Pak,'r'r4rich collcerlìs the language Mcloclrama in a Global Context c(xrfèrelìce l-relcl at thc Univcrsity of Califbr- lessons along rvith hcr appearance, her afIìliation *,ith ân A¡lcricf,ll conlpan)¡, rria-Riversiclc, f ur.rc 25 and 26, 1999. and postcolonial sexual politics in "Magic and Violence of Modernization ir-r 16. I ¡rrn grateful to Chor-r Noriega fbr this observation. Post-Color.rirl I(rrea," 8. 17. See Sol,o¡rtlt Kirr, chaptcr 7 in this volume, and Cl-ulngmcxr Choi, "Thc 29. Chungmoo Choi's "Magic and Violcncc of Moclcmizrtior-r ir-r Post-Colonial Magic ar.rd Violence of Modernization ir.r Post-Colonial Korean Cinema" in I(orea" colltains a very ir-rfbrmativc discussion of venues codecl as fapancse Post-Coloninl Clnssìcs of lØrcøn Cinenn, ed. Cl'rungr.noo Cl.roi (Irvine, CA: colonial, trtrditionirl l(oreau, and A¡lerican in the rnise-eu-scèlle of this fìln-r, Korean Film Festival Committee, UCI, 1998). Also of ir.rterest, though not 6-7. relatir-rg specificalll' to fih-n or melodrar-na, are the essays in Elaine H. Kim and 30. McHugh, "Housekccping ir-r Holll'¡1;1¡¿," it't Amcricnn 7)outcsticity, Chungmoo Choi, eds., Døugcrous Wontcn: Gendtr ønd I(ormn Nntionnlisnt 8 l-149. (Nerv York: Iloutledge, 1998). 3I . Se e Soyoung I(im's cliscussion olthis theme in her essaf in this volurnc, chap- 18. Linda Williar.ns, "Melodrama Rcvisited," in RcJi¡ru'itt¡ Amcricnn Filw Gm- ter 7. res: Tltcory utd History, ed. Nick Brou,ne (Berkeley: Universiq, of Califor-nia 32. Gust¿rvo Pérez Firn-rat r-rotes, "'Cherr:y Pir-rk'cnjoys tl-re distir-rction of hl,ing Press, 1998),42. stal,sd ,ru thc Billboarcl charts ft¡r r\\¡enry-six rveeks, a tenurc ouly surpassed I9. rbid. by Elvis Preslel"s 'Dou't Bc Cruel."' Praclo's "Que rico el matnbo," recorded 20. Petcr Brooks, Tbe Mclodrnmøtic Innginntiori (Neu, Haven: Yale Univcrsiry in 1949 after hc had left Cuba f'or Mexico Ciry "startcd the maml¡o craze." Press, 197ó), l5-ló. Sce lris "A Brief History of Mambo Tir.ne ," in LiJ-t ott tbc Hyphon: Tltc Cubnn- 21. See l(eel-ryeung Lee's essay in this volume that n()tes that ir-r telcvision, tl-ris Atn¿ricøn I4lø1 (Austin: University of Tcxas Press, 1994), 84-104. distinction is reversed. South l(orean serial TV melodrar-na exhibits ¡nore clo- 33. On this genre, see Aüa M. López, "Tears and Desirc: Wr¡rnen and Melo- sure fi-om cpisode to cpisode than does U.S. serial TV. dranra in thc 'Old' Mcxicar.r Cinema," in Multiplr Voicts in Ftnùtist Filnt 22. Ray, Certøin Tendency of Arncricøn Ciut:nø, 57 . Criticisn, ed. Di;rne Carsou, Linda Dittn.rar, and lanice Welscl.r (Minnetrpo- 23. Man,v fiirn critics and l-ristorians are now empl-rasizing thc overlaps and inter- lis: Ur.riversify of Minnesota Press, Ì994), 254-70. actions that have existecl anÌollg supposedil, discrcte national cinernas. K¡istin 34. The ad notes that thc production company \\,as Câlderon. Tl-re Calderor.r Tl-rornpson clescribes such intcractions rvithin Europe ar-rd in relatiorÌ to the brothers produced a trilogl, of fì|¡s that starred Ni¡ó¡ Seyilla, ¡'ere directed United Statcs in "National or Internatior-ral Fihns) The European Debatc b), Alberto Gout ar-rd rvritten b), [11,¿¡1¡ Custuc-lio, a fìlm critic ancl Spanish during the 1920s," in Fikn Hktory 8, r'ro. 3 (1996): 28I-96. Other scl.rolars immigrar.rt: A1)entilrtrñ, Stnstrølidød, alìd N¿ì niegrl nù pnsßda (195ì.). Thcse have explored this issue in the context of non-Westcm ancl postcolor-rial cin- filt-ns nere notable alnong the cøl¡ørtftrn fìlms frrr their subversive qualities, emas, challenging the implicit Eurocentrism of botl-r traditional ancl revision- evicicnccd most clearlf ir-r the ruthlcss sexnaliq,, r'irulent ar-rd vengeful, exl-rib- ist accour-rts of national cinema. Examples ir-rclucle: Juliar-ure Bu¡ton-Carr,¿rjal, ited by the characters played u,ith rclish by Sevilla. Sl-re u,as celebratecl by the "Arøyø across Timc and Space: Con-rpeting Canons of National (Vcnezue- surrealists and b1, the autcr-rl critics for l-rer challer-rge to all conventional lan) ar-rd Internati<-rnal Film Histories," anrl Ana M. Lopez, "Crossing moralities. See Ecluardo dc la Vega Alfaro, "The Declinc of the Golclen Age," Natior-rs and Genrcs, Travclir-rg Filmmakers," both in Visiltle Nntions: Lntin in Mtsico's Cintmn, ec1. Joanne Hcrshfìcld and Davicl R. Maciel (Wilming- Antericøn Cincmø ønd Vidto, ed. Chon A. Noricga (Mir.rr.reapolis: Ur.rivcrsiq, ton) DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999), 169, ar-rci fura Lôpez, "Tears and of Mirrnesota Prcss, 2000); ar.rd Ella Shohat and Robert Starn, Unthinhitry Desire," 2ó3. Elroctntriy¡t: Mnltimlturøliyn nnd thc Mtdin (Neu' York: Routlcdgc, 35. Tl-ranks to Jir-rso<'r An for this slurìlrìar\¡ of critical u'ork b1, South Korean fìlm r99+). scholars. 24.The quotc is frorn Isr¡lcte Standish, "Koreau Cinema ar-rcl thc Ncn'Rcalism: 36. Pérez Firmat, "A Brief Hist()r)/ of Mrnlbo Time," 86-88. Text and Context," in Coloninliyn ønd NøTionnlint in Asintt Cinemn, ed. 37. tbid.,94. Wir.nal Dissanaytrke (Bloomir.rgtorr: Intliar.ra Univcrsity Prcss, 1994), 70. The 38. Peter Brooks, Thc Mclodrnutfitic Iriløliilariari (Ncrv F{aven: Yale Univclsir}' information about the other films car-ne fì'om a convcrsation l,ith Hee Moon Press, 197ó), 56-57. Cho. 39. Ara L6pez, "Facing up to Holll's,ood," in R¿inttentitul Film Studics, ed. 25. Solor.urg Kim, chaptcr 7 in this vohrrne. Christine Gledhill ar.rd Lir.rda Williams (Loudon: Oxfbrd Universir)' Press, 26. Yourrg-il Lee, The History of I{ortøn Cincmn, trar.rs. Richard Lynn Greever 2000),424.

40 Ð. I(athleen McHugh

40. M. M. Bakhtin, "Fortrs of Time and of tl-re Chrorlotope in the Novel," 7/r¿ Diølogic Inøgùtntiott (Austir.r: Universitl' of Texas Press, l98l)' 84-258' 41. rbid. 42. Vìvian Sobchack, "'Lotulge Time': Post-War Crises ancl thc Chronotope of Film Noir," in Rcfigru'irtg Atnericøtt Fihn , cd. Nick Brou'ne (Berkc- l,lelodlamalir ïexts and (ontext¡: ley and Los A.r'rgeles: Universiry olCalifon.ria Press, 1998), 129-70' Itomen's lives, lrlovies, and ilen

NANCYABELMANN

This essay considers one Golden Age melodrama and the personal narra- tives of tq'o fìfty-something r,r'omen u4ro carne of age in South Korea in the late 1950s. I interviewed the nr¡o u'omen-u4rom I call The Educa- tion Mother and The Moviegoer-at length over several years for a larger oral narrative-based project or1 wolnen ancl social mobility in contempo- rary Soutlì Korea.' By Way of a Story The narrative that follows, which also begins the Introcluction to this vol- ume, is The Education Mother's accolurt of the fate of her onllr 5is¡.r. 1 call her The Education Mother because of her tireless efforts on behalf of her children's education.' Enveloped in a rich r,veb of interpretive asicles and afierthoughts, the story offered rnuch more than a string of events. The Education Mother joins many women of her generation in South Korea in the conviction that their lives are as "dramatic" as those featured in television and film.' At the time the story was told, The Education Mother's younger sister was peddling shellfìsh on the beaches of South Korea's southeast- enl coast. Abandoned by her husband early in her marriage, and then part of a rnarginal econom¡ this sister inhabited an entirely clifferent n'orld fi'om that of The Education Mother in Seoul, r,vho defìned her olvn "middle-class" identity in terms of the "leer,vay to lit'e entirely off the interest of stock and real-estate investments" ancl the "time and money to join a health club ancl travel wit-h international tours." At the heart of this storlr is a melodramatic molrent in rvhich her sis- ter's fate tumed suddenll'-the sort of mornent that coulcl easill' þs accompanied by high-pitched string instrumentation or thunder and lightning in a melodramatic film or soap opera. It happened one day n4ren

42 43 Renvall-¡nsiituutti l! 59 {Unioninkatu 38 A} i n s i n yr iopisro Contemporary Approaches F,äÍ#',s to Film and Television Series

A cornplete listittg of the ltoohs in this series cøn be found online at bttp://ursu.press.l,ø),ne.etht South Kolean Gen.erøl Editor Barry I(eith Grant Golden Age Brock University l,lEL0llRAllA AdYisot')' Editors Patricia B. Erens School of the Art Institute of Chicago Gender, Genre, and National Cinema Lucy Fischer University of Pittsburgh

Peter Lehman A¡izona State University

tdited by Caren J. Deming University of A¡izona Kathleen I'lrHugh and llan(y Abelmann Robert J. Burgoyne trVayne State University

Tom Gunning lJniversity ol Chicag

Anna McCarthy Nerv York Universiry

Peter X. Feng University of Delarvare tiffill Wayne State lJniversiß' Press Detroit