Investigating Korean Queer Films in Politics, Economy and Queer
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The Politics of Korean Queer Cinema: Investigating Korean Queer Films in Politics, Economy and Queer Ryu, JaeWook This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2021 LANCASTER IN CONTEMPORARY ARTS Film Studies Declaration This thesis has not been submitted in support of an application for another degree at this or any other university. It is the result of my own work and includes nothing that is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated. Many of the ideas in this thesis were the product of discussion with my supervisors, Gary Bettinson and Jonathan Munby. Excerpts of this thesis have been published in the following conference manuscripts and academic publications. Ryu, JaeWook and full qualifications Lancaster University, UK I Acknowledgement Foremost, I would like to express great thanks to my two supervisors, Gary Bettinson and Jonathan Munby, to encourage and support my PhD study and research. Without any help and supports from them, I would not complete this research. In particular, Gary and Jonathan continuously inspired me to improve my thesis with their thoughtful advice on my research. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my PhD. In particular, I appreciate Gary’s continuous support and help when I had a challenging time in my life. Writing this thesis was sometimes very tough and painful in terms of time management. I know he always contacted many university staff to solve and help my issues and concerns. Without Gary’s help and support, I could not complete this thesis. I still remember when I decided to conduct this research. I would like to thank my dear friends, Kenny and Louis, who I met in Chicago. These two friends inspired me to look into Asian Queer. If they did not share their real-life as gay in Asian countries, I would never have had any chance to investigate this matter. I have many people that I must express my appreciation and gratitude. I want to thank my dear friend, Cron, who is always with me as a writing buddy. I am glad that we finally completed this long journey in the same year. And, I would like to thank my colleagues at Uclan, particularly Mark Plaice. Without their understanding, help, and encouragement, I would not complete my journey. II Finally, I am deeply grateful for the love and support of my family. In particular, my father and mother have always shown their love and supports to me. Whenever I feel lost, they have been the light to guide me. I truly want to say I love you. Without their love and supports, I could not take this long journey by myself. III Abstract This thesis discusses various issues around queer in the Korean film industry, looking at different perspectives, such as gender, politics, and economy. In particular, this thesis may be the first that investigates Korean queer films in various domains. Unlike earlier research looking into Korean queer films, this thesis focuses on exploring a variety of contexts and texts related to queer. Just beyond film analysis, in a tour approach, this thesis deals with multiple perspectives from politics, the economy (including film industry analysis), queering, queer films and alternative movements, such queer film festivals and the queer pride parade. Indeed, it will examine the context of production (industry, director and politics), texts (queer films, genre and queering non-queer films) and circulation (film festivals and the place of queer in queer culture). These are all related to further understanding the meaning of queer film making in Korean society. First of all, this thesis explores the political role of film in Korea by looking at political Korean film history including various issues that the Korean film industry has faced. This thesis also provides evidence about why Korean films are so political. Second, to further understand the Korean film industry it investigates the economic particularity of the Korean film industry. Third, this thesis investigates several non- queer films in terms of queer reading. By analysing films with a possibility of being viewed in a queer reading, it discusses various discourses from film texts. Fourth, this thesis hypothesises that there are certain ways to represent queer in contexts around IV the heteronormative film industry. Thus, to further understand Korean queer films and to seek implications about the political purpose of queer film making in Korea, this thesis looks into them. Lastly, this thesis looks into alternative perspectives about queerness in Korea in addition to focussing only on Korean films. Therefore, this thesis deals with alternative perspectives including the queer film festival and the place of queer in Korean society. V Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1. Terminology Between Queer and Dong-Seong-Ae, and Class-matter ..... 2 2. Hyper-Masculinity : A Dominant Power .................................................... 9 Chapter outline and Methodologies ......................................................................... 43 Chapter One. Political Particularity of Korean Cinema ..................................... 47 1. The Purpose of Queer Filmmaking in Korea ........................................... 49 2. The political history of Korean cinema ..................................................... 56 3. The Social and Political Impact of Korean films ...................................... 67 Chapter Two. Economic Particularity of the Korean Film Industry ................... 87 1. The Structure of the Korean Film Industry ............................................. 88 2. The Korean Independent Film World: A Reality of Queer Filmmaking 101 3. Investigation of Popular Film Genre in the Korean Film Industry ..... 107 Chapter Three. Open to Queer Reading in Korean Cinema. .............................. 113 1. Queer Reading in Cross-Dressing ............................................................ 115 2. Between Friendship and Love? : Bromance in Buddy Films ................ 137 VI Chapter Four. Regarding to Korean Queer Cinema ............................................ 156 1. Films Dealing with Queer and Death: Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001) and A Frozen Flower (2008) ................................................................. 160 2. Living as a Queer Teenager in School: Like a Virgin (2006) ................. 175 3. Korean Queer Film Directors : KimJho-GwangSoo and LeeSong-HeeIl 183 4. The Purpose of the Queer Filmmaking in the Korean Film Industry .. 200 Chapter Five. Queer in Korea: Throughout Queer Movement and Anti-Queer Movement Beyond Queer Films ............................................................................. 207 1. Queer Film Festival as the Counter-public Sphere for Gender Discourse 209 2. Queer Controversy in Queer Film Festival and Korean Film Industry 217 3. From Korean Queer Festival to Korean Queer Cultural Movement. .. 224 4. Anti-Queer Movement and Homophobic Koreans.. .............................. 240 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 251 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 262 Filmography ............................................................................................................. 286 VII APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................................. i List of Tables Table 1. Distributors Market Share in 2014. ................................................................... 93 VIII List of Figures Figure 1. Young-Ja’s face with mud by a car .............................................................. 24 Figure 2. Public bath scene, Chang-Su washes Young-Ja’s body ............................... 27 Figure 3. Young-Ja and two men, Chang-Su and her husband. ................................... 28 Figure 4. Kiss in front of stature of General Lee, Soon-Sin. ....................................... 31 Figure 5. The post of A Man and a Gisaeng (1969). ................................................. 117 Figure 6. The brochure of The Man with Breasts (1993)........................................... 129 Figure 7. Kiss of Hye-Suk and Hyung-Jun. ............................................................... 134 Figure 8. Exposure of breasts after Kiss. ................................................................... 134 Figure 9. Dan-Joo to massage HyunMa. .................................................................... 141 Figure 10. Protestants wearing Korean traditional costumes in anti-queer movement from CBS Nocut News. ..................................................................................... 247 Figure 11. National flags rally for the release of Park, Guen-Hye impeached in 2017 from Busan- Yonhap News. ............................................................................... 247 Figure 12. A Brochure about AIDS which can be transmitted by Homosexuality. ... 248 Figure 13. AIDS AD of anti-queer movement in the electronic board in Daegu. ..... 248 IX Introduction Whilst studying in the USA, I noticed that my gay friends from Asian countries were struggling with closet matters in their family. For example, one of them had been arranged by his family to get married to a woman as soon as he returned to his mother country. This was because