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Reconstructing the silent film Goein ui jeongche (Identity of a Mystery Man, 1927)

  • The Journal of Korean drama and theatre
  • 2022, (77), pp.181-210
  • DOI : 10.17938/tjkdat.2022..77.181
  • Publisher : The Learned Society Of Korean Drama And Theatre
  • Research Area : Arts and Kinesiology > Other Arts and Kinesiology
  • Received : November 13, 2022
  • Accepted : December 19, 2022
  • Published : December 31, 2022

Hwajin Lee 1

1연세대학교(미래캠퍼스) 글로벌한국학연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper reconstructs the silent film Goein ui jeongche (Identity of a Mystery Man, 1927) through newspaper articles, reviews, and still images, and examines its significance to film history in the socio-cultural context of colonial Korea in the mid-1920s. Known along with the catchline “Newsman-Detective Drama,” Goein ui jeongche was designed as a movie that features various mobility and provides the audience with the similar pleasure as an detective film or adventure action film from the West. In this paper, we pay attention to the newspaper reporter’s role as a detective in tracking the truth of crime, and examine it in the changes in Korean society in the 1920s, when cultural oppression of colonial power and social expectations for the Korean language private media increased. In addition, it approaches female character who is active in exploration and coverage that reveal the mystery of the incident in two aspects: the visual influence of “Serial Queen” in the Western serial film and the representation of the “New Woman”. Through this, this paper explains the challenging attempt of Goein ui jeongche, which was connected to the cultural time and space of colonial Korea society in the 1920s.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.