@article{ART003260647},
author={Lee Dae Bum},
title={Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest},
journal={Journal of Popular Narrative},
issn={1738-3188},
year={2025},
volume={31},
number={3},
pages={317-349}
TY - JOUR
AU - Lee Dae Bum
TI - Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest
JO - Journal of Popular Narrative
PY - 2025
VL - 31
IS - 3
PB - The Association of Popular Narrative
SP - 317
EP - 349
SN - 1738-3188
AB - This article examines how the Japanese and Korean versions of Little Forest exceed the generic conventions of contemporary “return-to-the-countryside” narratives by means of formal–aesthetic strategies rather than thematic variation alone. Departing from socio-cultural comparisons that privilege content, the study integrates three concepts into a single analytic frame: Seo Young-chae’s “second landscape”, Siegfried Kracauer’s material reality/indexicality, and Yi-Fu Tuan’s space/place distinction. Through close reading of shot duration, camera movement, depth, sound design, and the treatment of nonhuman materialities, the article shows that the two films stage divergent routes of re-grounding the subject.
The Japanese remake heightens indexical density—via long takes, environment-forward sound, and the visibility of seasonal labor—so that the protagonist Ichiko encounters the “second landscape” as a sensory event and is re-grounded in an already existing place. It thus models a subjectivity that overcomes alienation through renewed attachment to material reality and communal rhythms. By contrast, the Korean remake attenuates environmental indexicality and focalizes interiority: the “second landscape” is deferred and mediated by the absence of the mother, and Hye-won must gradually make a place of her own within an initially abstract space, through memory, relationships, and small repeated practices.
Ultimately, the two films are not merely culturally inflected variants; they imagine two distinct modes of relating subject and world—one of immediate synchrony with place, the other of deferred place-making—thereby renewing the politics and ethics of return through form.
KW - Little Forest;return-to-the-countryside narrative;second landscape;indexicality;space/place;subject re-grounding
DO -
UR -
ER -
Lee Dae Bum. (2025). Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. 2025, "Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest", Journal of Popular Narrative, vol.31, no.3 pp.317-349.
Lee Dae Bum "Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest" Journal of Popular Narrative 31.3 pp.317-349 (2025) : 317.
Lee Dae Bum. Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest. 2025; 31(3), 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. "Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest. Journal of Popular Narrative, 31(3), 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest. Journal of Popular Narrative. 2025; 31(3) 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest. 2025; 31(3), 317-349.
Lee Dae Bum. "Landscapes of Return, Two Paths of Reflexivity - The “Second Landscape” and the Aesthetics of Subject Re-grounding in the Japanese and Korean Little Forest" Journal of Popular Narrative 31, no.3 (2025) : 317-349.
