2018, Vol., No.60

The Journal of Korean drama and theatre 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.77

pISSN : 1225-7729 / eISSN : 2713-8453
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kdrama

This paper aims to analyze the meaning of Yoon Daeseong's drama, <Chulsegi> (1974) which dramatized the Gubong mine accident. The play is unique in that it contains the entire accident in one piece. Therefore, the study of <Chulsegi> shows how author Yoon Daeseong is telling his story based on a true story, and what his works and writers have meaning in the drama history. From 1967, when the Gubong mine accident happened, to 1974, when <Chulsegi> was created, is an important time for Korean media companies. At that time, the Park Junghee military regime commercialized the media while establishing a restraint system. The intensive media coverage of the mine accident has emerged in this media environment. In the context of this media environment, the Exposure reveals the negative aspects of mass media and capitalist values. However, the first half of social affairs and the second half of personal corruption are somewhat mechanically combined in <Chulsegi>. In addition, the latter half of the story is close to a rumor that was sensationally reported by the media at the time, saying it was compared to Kim Changho, the real person in the mine. If you compare <Chulsegi> to <Moksori>(1971) written by Yoon Daeseong, the difference becomes clear. While the negative images of the time shown through Hong Gija and Kim Changsun can be read as personal problems, the voice is not only a social phenomenon. The characteristics of these works are different due to the possibility of performing. <Chulsegi> takes advantage of the epic theater style, which gives a holistic view of the world. But in terms of content, it was not enough to bring the audience to the overall world. The censorship experience that Yoon Daeseong had with <Moksori> is similar to that experienced by writers like Lee Keunsam. Therefore, the limitation in <Chulsegi> was given to writer Yoon Daeseong for the sake of the times.

The cultural representation of poverty was a sensitive issue under the Park Chunghee administration, which was launched under the slogan of ‘overcoming poverty.’ The expansion of the South Korean film industry brought out the diversification of material issues, and therefore the films based on children’s writings and actual events touched off a boom in the mid-1960s. Those films, through contemporary journalism, could show the reality of poverty and have some political effects. However, the films based on true stories of pauperism have mainly focused on children’s problems in poor environments, appealing to people’s moral emotions such as pity, sympathy and guilt, rather than sober criticism of reality. Those films have some narrative patterns for avoiding the conflict with ruling ideology. In particular, they accentuated the scene that the media, such as publishing, news journalism and broadcasting, mediated the actual events and their sensations, and displayed moral emotions and charity practices of the petit bourgeois who were sympathetic to the plight of the poor. Through showing the formation process of sympathetic and compassionate community, mass media could carry out the social management of the representation of poverty by making privations endurable. In a situation where political tensions over the ratification of the Korea-Japan agreement and the dispatch of troops to the Vietnam War were maximized, the films based on true stories of pauperism had the effect of blurring the nation’s inability to fundamentally solve the problem of poverty. This paper examines the political implications and limitations of the representation of poverty in the films based on true stories of pauperism in the mid-1960s, focusing the film Jeo Haneuredo Seulpeumi(Sorrow Even Up in Heaven, 1965).

This study paid attention to the emergence background and the activity aspects of mobile broadcasting, which is the unique form of broadcasting in Manchukuo that appeared during the Second World War period. With the reinforcement of cultural arts as the weapon of the propaganda warfare during the Second World War period, movement of media for national mobilization was magnified. Mobile broadcasting appeared as the symbol of propaganda, science, and civilization after transmission technology and broadcasting network were expanded, development of receiver and automobile manufacturing technology were secured, and broadcasting supply and a number of Chinese listeners were secured under the establishment and active role by the Manchukuo Telecommunication Corporation and the pursuit of the Broadcasting Business Five-Year Plan. Broadcasting technology, development of receiver, and automobile manufacturing technology played decisive roles in the emergence of broadcasting vehicles. Broadcasting vehicles aimed to mainly deliver state policy propaganda and awareness of scientific civilization while making tours at rural areas where power was scarce. However, rural residents focused on cultural entertainments such as music, traditional circus, movies, and comics which were designated as the things to induce mobilizing broadcasting. Afterward, the desire by the consumers with regard to modern entertainment culture could be interpreted. In other words, broadcasting vehicles raised awareness of modern media culture to local residents as the symbol of science and civilization and aroused the desire as the subject of consumption. Therefore, the tangible effects of broadcasting vehicles can be found through modernity of media (scientific character and entertainment character). Meanwhile, the effects of the propaganda character by broadcasting vehicles, intended by broadcasting subjects, are unknown. However, when taking into account no response or external attitude with regard to national propaganda through mobile broadcasting, it can be assumed that the propaganda character of mobile broadcasting was not carried out smoothly.