The Social Construction of Gender Issues in the Korean Author's Cinema

The term “hallyu” was coined in the middle of 1990s by Chinese journalists in articles which described the fast-growing and spreading South Korean entertainment industry.[1] Today Korean cultural influence has won strong positions in Asia, Oceania, North and Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Russia and some of the post-Soviet countries have already experienced the Korean culture and Korean Wave for more than 10 years. Korean cinematograph can be considered as part of “hally” movement.

The paper analyzes films of Lee Chang-dong, a South Korean film director, on the basis of the theory and methodology applied in sociology of culture. The specific attention is given to the construction of gender in Korean author’s movies. The theoretical interpretations are based on the ideas of the Birmingham School for Cultural Studies and the representatives of the critical theory - Jürgen Habermas and Johanna (Hannah) Arendt. Korean and Russian film images are regarded from the point of discourse: forgotten and miserable people, the contrast of social or public and individual, social as being specific and universal at the same time, cultural differences in problem perception and solving. Methodologically, the research is supported by the analysis of web-sites devoted to Korean cinematography, reviews, opinions and comments on Lee Chang-dong’s films on the Russian Internet. [2]

[1] Faiola, Anthony. Japanese Women Catch the 'Korean Wave'. The Washington Post (August 31, 2006) // http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083002985.html, accessed 8 December 2016.

[2] This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of the Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016-OLU-2250002).