Challenging Social Norms in Korean Disturbing Films: How Cultural Context Heightens Discomfort for Different Audiences
露西李
Instructor’s 介绍
在《WR 151令人不安的故事：哲学和叙事中的问题》中，我们澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究了令人不安的故事，并试图解释它们的价值。 当我们作为一个班级一起考虑例子时，我们问为什么不道德的角色如此频繁地吸引我们，我们澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究哲学美学中的相关主题，如净化，审查，艺术和美的定义，以及艺术在我们日常生活中的作用。 同时，每个学生都会澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究与他们产生共鸣的任何类型或艺术形式的故事，同时努力解释为什么这些故事是有价值的。
在她的文章中，露西就是这么做的。 她从自己的身份中汲取灵感，探索了令人不安的韩国电影，并认为它们之所以如此，是因为它们对观众的文化背景很敏感。 与此同时，她还提出了一个有趣的观点，即这些故事的创作者并不打算吸引单一的观众，而是希望吸引不同背景的多个观众。 在这样做的过程中，她培养了我们对作者意图、读者，尤其是我们自己的文化背景在我们对令人不安的故事的体验中所扮演的角色的复杂理解。
虽然本文的内容有意识地探讨了我们课程中的关键概念，如风格、体裁和受众，但其严密的组织和对细节的高度关注也可以作为典范。 它的过渡很流畅，因为每一段所探讨的思想都是明确地相互联系在一起的。 它经济地为读者提供了掌握资料要点所需的背景，而不牺牲分析资料所必需的细节。 它的证据呈现同样是经济的，因为每一个关键的证据确实为论点增加了一些新的和必要的东西。
总而言之，露西的论文模拟了我们自己的经历如何在学术背景下激发严肃的探究和反思，因此它也鼓励我们这样做。
柯蒂斯斯奈德
来自作者
迅速蔓延的 韩流 作为一个来到美国的移民，当人们不知道有这样一个国家存在的时候，对韩国文化的兴趣是一种令人着迷的亲身体验。 回顾韩国媒体在过去十年中出人意料的增长和创新，我总是问：为什么是韩国？ 韩国的社会背景和特点是什么？韩国的音乐、语言、时尚、电影是什么？ 随着最近的成功 寄生虫 我的灵感来自于课堂上澳门威尼斯人注册令人不安的美学背后的哲学讨论，我探索了文化特异性是如何在不同的韩国令人不安的电影中使用的，以及它们对韩国观众和非韩国观众的影响。 检查 的侍女, 母亲, 寄生虫，我评估了它们的主题和美学元素，引起了不同观众的共鸣，以及它们在取得令人不安的影响方面取得的相关成功。
Challenging Social Norms in Korean Disturbing Films: How Cultural Context Heightens Discomfort for Different Audiences
文摘
Films, with their ability to be deliberately manipulated, can highlight social norms and issues through their carefully crafted plot。 Korean disturbing movies, with intentional, layered plots, often implement Korean cultural specificity to bring out the social problems in the narrative,
让韩国观众体验电影导演的策划。 This, however, limits non-Korean audiences to understanding how the directors manipulated the film to highlight different social problems embedded in Korean society。 有些电影，比如 The Handmaiden (2016)和 母亲 (2009), are overall more appealing to Korean audiences, for their plot is saturated with specific Korean context that is necessary for the film’s narrative development to reveal social issues such as patriarchy and conservative expectations of motherhood。 寄生虫, on the other hand, successfully incorporates both Korean and Western cultural specificity to make its plot appeal to all audiences, resulting in international popularity。
介绍
Traditional values and social norms are ingrained in our society, we often do not question them nor realize their existence。 Films often take those social norms and confront them or push them to extremes, forcing unrecognized social problems to become undeniable issues onscreen for the audience to ponder。 This is possible because film is the essence of manipulated visuals, sounds, angles, acting styles to narrate a specific plot, allowing directors to precisely curate and calibrate the audience’s experience in intaking the plot。 As Aristotle introduced in his book of literary theory, the plot is understood to be the most important, followed by stylistic choices (Aristotle, 3)。 The Korean movie industry seems to agree with his theory, for it puts films with intentional, layered plots above movies that are ornate with stylistic choices and shallow plots。 This results in many popular Korean films being plot-focused, allowing movies to have dimensional, thoughtful plots characterized by the cultural specificities of Korea。 Such specificity is what allows Korean filmmakers to make disturbing societal norms starkly visible to Korean audiences throughout the storyline。 While adding cultural context to disturbing plots targets Korean audiences and maximizes their discomfort, non-Korean audiences are left to interpret the films without this assumed context。 Therefore, many Korean films are made disturbing through plots enriched with unique Korean cultural and social context, delivering their unsettling messages directly to Korean audiences while preventing non-Korean audiences from experiencing the full potential of their disturbing plots。
South Korea precariously balances its conservative society and progressive film industry, establishing a desirable playground for film directors to push and pull at its firmly set values。 One such conservative value persisting today that film directors often challenge is the oppressive patriarchy that has yet to be uprooted。 In a society where feminism is still frowned upon, Park Chan-wook released his 2016 thriller and LGBTQ+ film, 的侍女。 This bold film explores the world of powerful men and oppressed women through the contextual lens of Japanese-occupied Korea。 The movie narrates the life of Lady Hideko under the control of her uncle。 She is forced through traumatic experiences since her childhood, witnessing her aunt read pornographic literature to noblemen – a task she takes on herself after her aunt supposedly commits suicide。 In an attempt to steal Hideko’s wealth, Count Fujiwara partners with Sook-hee to become her new handmaiden and help Hideko fall in love with him。 However, Hideko’s cordial dependence on Sook-hee transforms into forbidden love, the two struggle to find their own freedom and happiness in the perverted world of aristocratic men。
In this film, Park carefully constructs a world of contrasting imbalances: women versus men and Korean versus Japanese。 Park consciously controls these two points of tension, creating an inconsistency in which the Korean uncle is more powerful than Lady Hideko, a Japanese woman, going against the social framework of the Japanese control over Koreans。 This emphasizes the patriarchy embedded in both cultures – an inequality powerful enough to outweigh the political and ethnic discrimination assumed in the film’s setting。 Park supplements this emphasis on gender inequality with disturbing plots, such as when the uncle trains Hideko and her aunt to read erotic material and forces them to act out scenes with sound effects and mannequins。 The women, dolled up and kneeling down on the stage, perform in front of male elites nodding as if they are enjoying fine poetry。 Hideko and her aunt are merely entertainers for male pleasure。 In another scene of the movie, when Hideko and her aunt do not take the reading seriously, Hideko’s uncle wears gloves, clutches onto the women’s faces, shakes them violently。 He is in complete control of the women of his household, not only mentally oppressing them but physically abusing them with gloves as if they are not worthy of his touch。 With the majority of the plot depicting women being blatantly abused by men, Park clearly marks one of the film’s intentions: to highlight gender inequality present in Korean society at the time。 This message is clear to both Korean and foreign audiences, for patriarchy is a near-universal theme that is not tied to Korean culture alone。
However, other themes in the film are laced with Korean cultural specificity that makes it difficult for non-Korean audiences to grasp。 的侍女 has quite literal filmmaking decisions that cause such limitations on foreign audiences, for Park adapted this movie from a British novel, 扒手莎拉·沃特斯（Sarah Waters）著。 He deliberately adjusts much of the plot and stylistic elements of the text to bring the film into “greater proximity with the cultural and temporal context of [Korean] readers or audiences (Sanders 2016:215)” (Choi et al。 2)。 Park “transports the story from Victorian England to Korea in the 1930s, when the peninsula was occupied by Japan” (Armitstead)。 While the essential plot remains the same with a girl and a gentleman scheming to trick a wealthy heiress, Park divides his characters between two different ethnicities: Korean and Japanese。 Language then becomes fundamental to the film’s narrative development, depicted through shifting between Korean and Japanese between characters (Choi et al。 3)。 One way Park uses language is by psychologically distancing the Korean-speaking audience from characters who speak Japanese, which is assumed to be their foreign language。 Therefore, when Hideko and Sook-hee use Korean, solidarity is established because a Korean audience feels an instant familiarity with the language, whereas when the uncle and Count Fujiwara speak Japanese, the alienation of the language aligns with their detached feelings from Hideko and their hypocritical, materialistic mindset throughout the film (Choi et al。 7)。 Such innate responses of comfort versus disturbance produced by language use are natural for Korean audiences。 While this effect is attempted to be simulated to non-Korean audiences through color coded subtitles, the intrinsic reaction from language shifts is impossible to artificially transfer (Choi et al。 4)。 This results in major narrative developments getting lost in translation for non Korean audiences, hence disturbing qualities depicted through characters speaking Japanese is not understood as how Korean audiences would。
类似于 的侍女 奉俊昊2009年拍摄的惊悚犯罪片，探讨了父权制的普遍主题 母亲 检视母性这个流行主题。 Bong, however, twists the subject of motherhood – a universally comforting and loving theme – to something unexpectedly disturbing by pushing the societal expectations of a mother to the extreme。 By enriching the film with Korean cultural specificity, Bong successfully tackles the Korean-specific conservative values of motherhood, crafts a film uniquely relatable to Korean audiences。 影片围绕着一位不知名的寡妇展开，她被称为“母亲”。 In the film, her son, Do-Joon, has a mental disability and ends up as the main suspect in the gruesome murder of a young girl。 母亲 then tries everything to prove her son innocent, twisting into dark paths to eventually cover up the murder that her son has indeed committed。 Casting Kim Hye-ja, a Korean national actress known for her many roles depicting an affectionate mother, Bong creates this uncanny narrative of a mother’s fall to sin in order to protect her son。 The 母亲 often wears a flowy skirt, a scarf, floral-patterned jackets along with signature permed hair throughout the movie, reflecting the typical look of Korean elderly women, instantly creating a tender connection between the main character and the Korean audiences that likely have mothers that dress similarly。 Bong uses this innate, warm connection to his advantage, pushing 母亲’s actions beyond what is socially acceptable to create maximum discomfort for the viewers。 When 母亲 appears at the funeral of the murdered girl, she screams that her son did not murder the girl, her intense stare escaping the socket。 Such indifference to anyone but her son stirs a sudden unpleasant taste in the audience’s mouth。
However, Bong balances her unlikability with relatability and sympathy by showing how 母亲’s feeble mind desperately tries to save her loving son。 Clearly, Bong depends on the Korean audience’s natural affection when they see 母亲 on screen。 When viewed by an audience unfamiliar with Korean culture, however, the connection between the audience and the 母亲 is lost, for the character likely does not resemble their own mothers。 Bong’s technique, while it leads Korean audiences into a disturbing dilemma, is nearly eliminated for non-Korean viewers。
Unlike the two films previously discussed, Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 black-comedy and thriller film, 寄生虫, broadens and applies to more diverse audiences, evident from winning numerous critically acclaimed awards such as Best Achievement in Directing and Best Original Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars (“The Academy Awards Database”)。 The film illustrates a global theme of rigid class structures and economic immobility while still having specific Korean components that appeal to Korean audiences。 As a black comedy and thriller film about the clash between the rich and poor families in Korea, 寄生虫 is packed with stylistic choices that enhance the overall disturbing plot and the contrast between the two starkly different social classes。 In the movie, Ki-taek’s family is extremely poor but is skilled at deceiving the rich family to live off of their wealth like 寄生虫, eventually spiraling the symbiotic relationship of the three families into collapse due to greed and class discrimination。 While dealing with the universal theme of social hierarchy and the inability to move up the social ladder, Bong sprinkles unique elements that the Korean audience can recognize。 For example, he places the poor family in a half-basement in Ahyeon-dong and the rich family in a two-story estate in Seongbukdong。 These two neighborhoods are easily recognized by Koreans as generally poor and rich neighborhoods, automatically placing the two families in their socioeconomic status。 When an audience unfamiliar with Korean geographical stereotypes is introduced to these two neighborhoods, this natural categorization of the two families does not occur。 Another detail that Bong adds is when the wealthy housewife directs her maid to make Jjapaguri with expensive short loin pieces for her son。 对韩国人来说，Jjapaguri是一种快速、廉价的拉面； it is a homey meal cooked to save time。 To Koreans, it would be strange to add expensive ingredients to such cheap ramen。 In fact, in the movie, the wealthy housewife regarded the dish as a commoner food。 奉俊昊在接受采访时补充道 洛杉矶时报 that “‘This is something kids like, regardless of the rich or the poor, but the rich wife couldn’t stand her kid to eat this cheap noodle so she adds sirloin topping’” (Rochlin)。 This scene then instantly alienates the rich family to the general Korean audience, showing a wealth disparity through the food that they normally intake。 但是，外国观众可能没有感受到这种疏离感。 If they do not have this specific ramen brand ingrained in their childhood and daily life as cheap food cooked by a family member, this abnormal behavior would not seem as peculiar。
但如果奉俊昊加入这种文化特殊性 寄生虫 that is only relatable to Koreans, then how could the film have won so much critical and public attention? In the movie, the young son of the rich family is obsessed with Native Americans, playing with bows and arrows and wearing the traditional Native American headdress。 This parallels the poor family being Europeans who extracted what they needed from the Native Americans’ homes and their attempt to take over what is not theirs。 Bong is also hinting at the historical fact of how the Europeans refused to live with the Native Americans symbiotically, implying that the two starkly different social classes cannot coordinate a collegial life together。 This is obviously not a theme as apparent to Koreans than to Western audiences, capturing both audiences and incorporating elements from both cultures to create a more universal claim。
Plot-rich Korean films often successfully target Korean audiences by using cultural and social contexts that they resonate with。 Either by creating familiarity or alienation by relating the audience with specific Korean elements throughout the narrative, Park Chan-wook and Bong
Joon-ho tailor their disturbing movies to the Korean audience, maximizing discomfort to point out societal problems and norms。 这种技术同时也会给非韩国观众带来理解电影的障碍，但是一些电影，比如 寄生虫 skillfully appeal to the Western audience as well by adding cultural specificity of the West, allowing all audiences to see how Bong highlights rigid social structures throughout the plot of the film。 Korean directors, with their ability to manage cultural context to appeal to either Korean or foreign audiences, can deliberately adjust their films and plot to target their social commentary to specific audiences。 If done right, such films spotlight disturbing social problems with cultural context that appeals to their targeted audiences。
作品的引用
亚里士多德。 Aristotle’s Poetics。 纽约：希尔和王，1961。
Armitstead,克莱尔。 “Sarah Waters: ‘的侍女 Turns Pornography into a Spectacle – but It’s True to My Novel。’” 《卫报》，《卫报新闻与媒体》，2017年4月8日 www。theguardian。com/film/2017/apr/08/sarah-waters-the-handmaiden-turns-pornography-into-a-spectacle-but-its-true-to-my-novel -。
Choi， J, Kim， K。 H。, Evans， J。（2022）。 Translating code-switching in the colonial context: Park Chan-wook’s 的侍女。
母亲。 奉俊昊。 CJ娱乐，Magnolia Pictures, StudioCanal UK, 2009 寄生虫。 奉俊昊。 CJ娱乐，Camera Film, 2019。
Rochlin,马吉·。 “How Steak and Korean Instant Noodles Illustrates Class Tensions in Bong Joon Ho’s ‘寄生虫。’” 洛杉矶时报，《洛杉矶时报》2019年10月19日 www。latimes。com/food/story/2019-10-19/parasite-ramdon-bong-joon-ho-ramen-udon jjapaguri。
“奥斯卡奖数据库。” Browser Unsupported – Academy Awards 搜索, awardsdatabase。oscars。org/search/results。 获得于2024年4月5日。
的侍女。 朴赞郁。 CJ娱乐2016
水域,莎拉。 扒手。 河源贸易平装版。 纽约，Riverhead Books, 2002。
露西李 她是波士顿大学平面设计和生物学专业的大二学生，在以后的学习中追求医学插画。 她热爱艺术、科学和写作，并试图通过结合她所有兴趣的镜头来看待世界。 她要感谢柯蒂斯斯奈德教授对哲学、美学和写作的深刻见解，以及她的澳门威尼斯人注册网站在丰富的文化和艺术背景下抚养她，这激发了她写这篇文章的热情。