KJCKorea
Journal Central

This thesis aims to examine actress Kim So-young's movies and political behavior, who was the star after the introduction of talkie. Actually, she was never a wise mother and good wife both in her movies and real life, and she was between ‘Nation' and 'People' after national liberation. She was unseated from propaganda film because of her scandal and her career as an actress came to an end by finally choosing a third country instead of the South or the North. Kim So-young jumped to stardom by showing the beauty of a woman of the Joseon Dynasty, and she gained public favor when she performed the role of a fallen woman in <Kukkyung(國境)>(1938). But her image was damaged due to her triangular scandal with Choi In-gyu and Jo Taek-won. She wanted to play the part of a mother rather than a student girl or a young lady, but she wasn't able to perform the part of a wise mother and good wife since she was just viewed as a fallen woman during the war regime. After national liberation, she supported left wing's ideology, but she showed she was in favor of the right wing by appearing in promotional films of the South Korean military and police when the left lost its influence. Afterwards, she went to the United States with the help of the American military administration, and she tried to become an actress there, but just lived an ordinary life as one of American citizens because that's not possible to do. In a word, Kim So-young's identity before and after national liberation couldn't be checked completely, and her career as an actress remained incomplete forever. It could be inferred from her incomplete career that what an actress who failed to show the image of a wise mother and good wife during the transitional period of the nation and even took an unclear ideological attitude finally became.

actress, Kim Soyoung, scandal, propaganda film, madam in the rear guard(銃後婦人), wise mother and good wife, nation(國民), people(人民), the end of Japanese Imperialism, the era of liberation