KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study examines the function of humanism in the post-Cold War era in two movies <Brotherhood Of War> and <Assembly>. The rupture of Korea’s diplomatic relations with China for about 40 years led to the two countries’ different understandings of history. The two countries show a great disparity particularly in their perception of the Korean War, one of the most significant events in the modern history of East Asia. Even when people remember the same war, recollections of the war can be vastly different depending on who is doing the remembering. In South Korea, movies about the Korean War depict it as refugees marching across war-torn lands. That is why those movies do not provide any of the heroic tales and breathtaking spectacles that are normally found in other generic war movies. Those movies instead offer glimpses of self-consciousness as “victims” and convey emotions of bitterness and remorse. However, once transferred onto the land of China, the 'KangmeiYuanchao' War gets completely different treatment. China completed a picture of the “War to Resist America Aid Korea” by converting what was practically a defeat into an ultimate victory. The mass media in China concealed the damage done by the war but repeatedly reproduced images of “victory.” The Chinese people, consciously or unconsciously, internalized those images and were incorporated into China’s Cold War ideological mechanism. The memories of the war may seem stable and unambiguous but in fact they are an unstable and incomplete construct. Despite all that, the memories of the war have an indelible impact on people’s perceptions. This article focuses on the post Cold War cultures and their de-political mechanisms through Korea-China blockbuster movie comparison.

the Korean War, <Brotherhood Of War>, <Assembly>, humanism, de-politics