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The image of a very beautiful father in Train to Busan – Photo: NEXT
Since the 2000s, Korean cinema has created the image of a man: a fierce, strong, and sometimes violent father. This is not by accident, but in an attempt to strengthen the father-man status as the national identity of a male society.
The noble father played by Gong Yoo Train to Busan sacrifice myself to save my daughter and others when I have turned into a zombie.
The Poor Father (played by Song Kang Ho) in Parasite because a second out of control has been distracted leading to violent behavior.
Father, masculinity and national status
In the study “The masculinity of a father in Korean cinema” (2020), author Gu Mi Young recognized the tendency to enhance, highlighting the position of man in Korean cinema.
The author wrote: “The trauma that Korea has experienced has affected the image of parents who are violent and self-sacrificing in Korean movies.
Taking as a starting point the crisis of the International Monetary Fund of Korea (IMF) in 1997, it can be observed that the paternal characters of Korean films were based mainly on the concept of masculinity during the crisis ”.
From the late 1990s and early 2000s, just after the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit Korea hard, Korean cinema began to “work” to build the image of the strong man and father in movies. .
In the midst of the crisis, society needs great spiritual support. In war, people need images of brave and brave heroes.
When the economy is in trouble, people need parents who face a family disorder, masculinity as one of the representative images of the country trying to overcome difficulties.
Scene from the film Miracle in Cell 7 – Photo: FINEWORKS
Gu Mi Young’s research shows that parental love and masculinity in Korean cinema are closely related.
The image of men in Korean cinema is often associated with a father with a bold, clear and impressive personality. They are diverse: there are poor, anguished, desperate, criminals, murderers, but also heroes, who are very self-sacrificing, who love their wives and children.
That the father is poor in Broken eggs and noodles housewife father in King of the contest (Mr. Housewife), the father desperately tries to save his daughter from the inner monster The host, the gangster father in The show must go on, the father is a wage earner Bravo my life, the father murdered in My father, the criminal father in My son.
He was the mentally handicapped father who loved his inner daughter. Miraculous thing from cell number 7, the father who sells blood to raise the child in Chronicle of a blood merchant, father saves his daughter from zombie epidemic Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho, 2016), the father sacrificed his life for peace between South and North Korea in Ashfall …
Director Bong Joon Ho’s host – Photo: SHOWBOX
Author Gu Mi Young wrote: “In this way, Korean cinema follows the trend of strengthening the position of the father, thereby strengthening male solidarity by expressing the male crisis, men lose weight of growth, showing compassion for men.
Not only recently, Korean society has long defended the rights of parents, showing compassion for the life and destiny of the father.
Image of man and brutal violence
Another angle, the opposite of the image of men in the movies is terrifying violence. Domestic violence, gender violence, violence in society. When families are disturbed and orders are patriarchal, the men of Korean cinema tend to use violence to alleviate and affirm authority.
I Saw the Devil, a Korean movie with bloody violence – Photo: PEPPERMINT
The violent scenes in Korean movies are not too long, but they are barbaric, extreme, and cause great physical and mental damage.
In the film PantingThe father, who suffered from schizophrenia after the war, repeatedly abused his family and threatened to kill his daughter.
In Memoirs of a murdererAs a teenager, the protagonist kills his abusive father, who later becomes a serial killer. Through vague memories, the past arrives: due to violence, he believes that the wicked of this world need to be cleansed.
The violent element is associated with “hysterical masculinity” in Korean movies. The outrageous hysteria in male expression is shown in the films of “abnormal director” Kim Ki Duk with male characters committing rape, rape and abuse of women …
Kim Ki Duk, the director has a different perspective on men and women – Photo: GETTY IMAGES
2004, in the English book Manly Playback in Korean CinemaUniversity professor from California (USA) Kyung Hyun Kim noted that Korean cinema has used a male approach to reflect profound social and political changes in the country.
Kim argued that the brutal violence in Korean cinema in the 1980s and 1990s was the quest to regain identity before Korea became more democratic and empowered more social actors in addition to men.
Before Kim’s book, the subject of men in movies had not been studied in depth and depth in Korea. This is an issue that must always be exploited because the wealth and complexity of men, who are not inferior to women, are only fully exploited by cinema or not.
Male themes are very rich, varied, and perennial in Korean cinema. This is a great film industry with many achievements, so this topic also becomes very extensive, each one recorded in many research papers.
With future generations of directors, this topic can continue to be deeply exploited and advanced for time to come.
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