통념을 초월하는 전복의 서사: 김기덕 영화의 미학

Abstract

As a film director, Kim Ki-deok shows us a remarkable sequence of different materials and styles with his eight films. From his 1996 debut film Crocodile to his 2002 Coastline, he presents his unique view of the world. His films now receive extremely different evaluations from negative to positive. This bipolar critique of his films comes from the fact that the films are said to be the director's attempts to deconstruct social norms and conventions. The purpose of this study is to show how his films challenge the social norms and conventions. This study analyzes director Kim Ki-deok’s view of the world, based on the following three aspects: narrative structure, and style, motif Regarding the narrative structure, he shows the unrevealed, opposite side of occasions or events, challenging social norms strategically. It results from the conflict between the earlier situation and the following narrative structure. Regarding style, he presents the most unique view of the world. His mise-en-scene is well expressed with the help of camera angles to explain the motif and the conflicts. He shoots image scenes to compress the motif and analyze various contexts. He develops the motif effectively by increasing or sublimating the uneasiness of the audience. Regarding motif, he deals with the initiation motif of conflict between morality and desire. At the end of his films, he emphasizes desire or the basic instinct of human beings, upon which the social morality is encroached. That is to say, his pure-minded leading characters eventually turn out to be living an evil and greedy life. Also he has a tendency to have the leading characters die in the films. Their death connotes that it is not the end but the transfer to the transcendental world through his designated initiation. His initiation motif deconstructs the boundary of good and evil, and morality vs. immorality helping acquiring the primitivity of transcendence. As presented, this study examines the ways director Kim deconstructs established social norms and tries to make his intended meaning clear. Through his films, he asks: when the desire of corruption is subconsciously hidden in ordinary people, can we say that they are pure enough to be distinguished from the totally corrupted ones? Now the audience is introduced into the world of his films and from this point of view, the reality of the world is examined. The social restrictions on distinguishing between good and evil, moral and amoral are just social conventions and preconceptions, that all originate from the fact that they are of humankind thing. For him, the point of view is placed on the world in which all are equal and people break down the boundary of good and evil and morality vs. immorality. This means that the worlds in his films are made up by the way of being transcendental from reality.