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@article{ART001985881},
author={Min Ah Jeong},
title={The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2015},
volume={21},
number={1},
pages={115-144},
doi={10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004}

TY - JOUR
AU - Min Ah Jeong
TI - The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2015
VL - 21
IS - 1
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 115
EP - 144
SN - 1738-3188
AB - Punch, a family melodrama, was released in 2011 and achieved a better-than- expectations success at the box office. It is a recent phenomenon that a family melodrama has ranked high in the box office record. This paper aims to probe for the meaning of Punch in the light of the rise of the family melodrama in Korea’s film industry. Punch can be said to make an important turning point in terms of film industry. In this paper I search for genre and social meanings of the phenomenon that family melodrama has become a full-scale hit genre. Also will be discussed what the lower class subject and the multiculturalism presented in the film mean to the audience and how the nostalgia factor is utilized for commercial success. Having been through the times of the post-IMF system, neo-liberalism and the neo-conservative administrations, we have witnessed the box office success of family films, nostalgia films and films featuring heroes from lower class, which had not been well fit for Korean film industry’s code of commercial success before 2000. Nowadays the Korean society produces and circulates not just films but general mass cultural products with reactionary and nostalgic features. This paper traces the origin of the tendency of Korean films since Punch, a 2011 hit film, through the over-10million- viewer films in 2015. I will analyze Punch critically and try to understand how the masses express their ontological anxiety as social beings in their enthusiasm for certain films.
KW - Punch;family melodrama;familism;lower class;multiculturalism;community;nostalgia;image-scape
DO - 10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004
ER -

Min Ah Jeong. (2015). The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama. Journal of Popular Narrative, 21(1), 115-144.

Min Ah Jeong. 2015, "The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.21, no.1 pp.115-144. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong "The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama" Journal of Popular Narrative 21.1 pp.115-144 (2015) : 115.

Min Ah Jeong. The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama. 2015; 21(1), 115-144. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong. "The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama" Journal of Popular Narrative 21, no.1 (2015) : 115-144.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong. The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama. Journal of Popular Narrative, 21(1), 115-144. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong. The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2015; 21(1) 115-144. doi: 10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong. The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama. 2015; 21(1), 115-144. Available from: doi:10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004

Min Ah Jeong. "The Meanings of the Multicultural Lower Class Family and Nostalgia Represented in Punch, a Korean Family Melodrama" Journal of Popular Narrative 21, no.1 (2015) : 115-144.doi: 10.18856/jpn.2015.21.1.004