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Film, Sex, and State of the Late Park Chung-Hee Regime - With a Focus on the Import and Censorship of the German Sex Education Film Helga

Junhyoung Cho 1

1한국영상자료원 한국영화사연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper will analyze the import and censorship of the German sex education film Helga-Vom Werden des menschlichen Lebens(Erich F. Bender, 1967), which has been imported and released in both 1968 and 1977. The goal is to present a road map of sexual expression in the Korean film industry during the 10-year period between the first and second import and releases of the film. Research about films and sex during this period have mostly been focused on discussions concerning the hostess genre and been related to gender differences, subalternity, nationalism, youth culture, and pop culture. While this paper cannot be considered unrelated to these prior researchers' discussions, it does have a somewhat different emphasis. This comes not only from the disparity between the research subject (import and censorship of foreign films) and time period but also from the relationship between the Korean film industry and nation at the time. It also comes from the differences in methodologies regarding the empirical and microscopic consideration of the behavior of power. In that way, this paper will, firstly, bring new light to the 'sex film' boom between 1968 and 1971 that has been overlooked in discussions regarding the relationship between the Park Chung-Hee regime and sexuality in film. The paper will attempt to show the fact that the sexual revolution of the west was an important source for the birth and continuance of the sex film boom. The paper will hopefully help paint a three-dimensional view of the Korean film industry as well as Korean society as a whole by adding a new element to the research trend that only analyzes this topic in domestic terms. At the same time, the paper will provide contextual explanation for how the 'sex film' could appear in the late 1960s when the Park Chung-Hee regime was exercising authoritarianism. Also, the changes during this period became the background for the production and first import and censorship of this paper's subject, Helga. Secondly, regarding sexual expression in films, the paper will reveal that the inverse relations between the nation and film manufacturers during the Park Chung-Hee regime cannot be brought forth as exclusive or consistent. In the late 1960s and even after the Yushin period, there were several changes in these relations and this had an important influence on the two censorship processes of Helga. Thirdly, while the paper shows that a nation's policies and goals do reveal the approximate boundaries of censorship, emphasis was placed on the fact that the censorship process involved endless negotiations between the censor and the subject of censorship. As a result, incidental and situational elements had an important impact on the censorship of certain films. This will be shown through the through investigation of the second censorship process of Helga.

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