KJCKorea
Journal Central

This article develops its discussion in a way to relate the modern figures of the city of Seoul in the mid-1950’s with the body that engraves it while it analyzes the film, <Liberal Wife>, screened in 1956 focusing on the mutual relativity between the body represented in the movie and the space. Seoul in the time of 1950’s functions as a representative space that exhibits westernized modernity. And the characters of the movie, <Liberal Wife>, including Sun Yeong materialize the spatiality of Seoul with their body. In particular, Oh Sun Yeong and Choi Yun Ju appear as beings that embody westernized modern culture and represent the crowded and westernized space of Seoul centering around Paris couture houses and dance halls. Meanwhile, the pre-modern space of Seoul represented by Sun Yeong’s husband, professor Jang Tae Yeon, and Park Eun Mi shows how the space of Seoul in the 1950’s becomes meaningful through body as it is spatialized along with the romantic love between the two. In particular, as the controversial censorship conducted to <Liberal Wife> rose as an issue related with the degree of expression in the movie, it shows how influential the physical exhibition and visualized body in a film can be to the public. In conclusion, as the physical representation exposed in a movie is continuously constructed with the change of the space and becomes meaningful in a new way, this comes to be closely associated with a ripple effect upon the public that enjoys it.

Body, Space, Seoul, Censorship, Westernized Modernity, Public