KJC Korea
Journal Central

This study focuses on analyzing the characteristics of the exile narrative in the movie The Book of Fish. The most basic elements that make up exile narrative are the exile site and the exile. In exile, nature functions like a prison. Therefore, the majesty of nature sometimes discourages exiles. In such a space, the exile actively conducts writing activities or exchanges with local residents in order to endure the life of exile without a release date. The movie The Book of Fish reflects the characteristics of this exile narrative. In particular, it positively describes the exile process of ‘Heuksan’, the exile site, and ‘Jeong Yakjeon’, the exile. ‘Exile’ is likely to be perceived negatively based on ‘sin.’ However, ‘exile narrative’ can have a positive storytelling. It contains a universal narrative of ‘the story of a person who adapts to an unfamiliar environment.’ The movie describes Heuksan, an exile site, as a healing space, and highlights the positive aspects of exile through the appearance of Jeong Yakjeon, who assimilates with local residents in the space. The exile narrative further enhances the understanding of human life through the appearance of an exile seeking recovery by overcoming fear in unfamiliar places. The movie The Book of Fish closely depicts the exile process that has not been properly dealt with in the video media. This study is meaningful in that it is possible to discover the meaning of the exile narrative through the analysis of this work and derive a new positive image of exile.

This study set out to analyze An Old Lady with a focus on the motif of “records.” This film overcomes the typicality of an old lady. The study examined meanings connoted in this change and the reaction phenomenon according to the change. The film shows a “record” three times including a complaint, report letter, and memoirs with no name and title. These records make an important motif to overcome passive typicality that was repeated in the description of female characters in old age. In An Old Lady, an old lady is reproduced with this motif, becoming a subject “with a name” instead of others “put together.” Interestingly, the character’s “records” as an act she performs make viewers reflect on the characteristics of the film as a medium and also the significance of vicious comments for the film. As a “feature film,” An Old Lady points out that legal and institutional languages can nullify the possibility of existence itself. The victim from the real event that the film is based on and the main character can have their own narratives in the forms of “will” and “memoirs” instead of official records. Their self-speech points to the error of institutional language to measure and question a fact only with objective grammar. The study also categorized and examined vicious comments on the online rating platform for the movie, discussing prominently repeated types, which derived from the mechanism of tautology to reproduce only a known world. Discussing existence in the evaluation area of reproduction is interconnected to the deficiency phenomenon of their reading. Irony is found in their writing as they “rate without watching” while talking about “not watching the movie.” Their rating “exists in a state that cannot exist.” An examination of the implications of An Old Lady in and outside the film helps to read the reason of “deficiency in writing/reading acts” deeply introduced in recent cultural phenomena and also the fact that “reproduction of others” is not a synonym with “otherization.”

<Minari> was released in 2020 amid a pandemic. Although the film is centered on a Korean family who immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, it gained worldwide sympathy at the same time. The purpose of this paper is to interpret the reason in relation to the contemporary situation and discourse. Jacob, the main character of <Minari>, is the subject of the struggle for recognition called the patriarch. He identifies himself with the signifier of ‘successful Koreans in America’ and seeks to make subjectivation by internalizing the Symbolic order of American society. However, the ideology of the ‘American Dream’ hides the US intention to secure cheap labor, so it is not easy to achieve his Symbolic desire. This situation creates a conflict between Jacob and Monica. The more Jacob tries to realize ego-ideal, the more he leads to self-denial, and violence occurs in the process of trying to identify others as well. In contrast, Monica is the subject who perceives her own vulnerability. Monica’s emphasis on ‘together’ is because she knows the fragility of herself and her others and the inevitability of dependence. Soonja is a decentralized subject who is not assimilated to the name of ‘grandmother’ required by the system. Sunja approaches David by ‘address’. Sunja becomes the condition and world for David to move toward his true subjectivization. The ego-ideal that David was given a “useful person” by Jacob, and the fear of the God of the big Other, projected by Monica, begin to dissipate due to Sunja. The fire caused by Sunja and the burnout of the warehouse are a complete failure and hopeless event from the Symbolic, but this failure is an ethical turn in which one realizes vulnerability and dependence. <Minari> contains the process of a achievement subject with Symbolic desires and fantasies realizing their vulnerability and becoming a decentralized subject. The film shows that through this subjectivization, an ethical turn of taking responsibility for others is possible. For this reason, <Minari> is a film that has the values required by the pandemic era, and this paper can be meaningful in that it derives that value.