Author: -

Abstract: »This paper aims to explore the unusually high concentration of comfort women films that were produced in South Korea during the late-2010s and the factors behind their unprecedented commercial and critical successes. Utilizing feminist film theory, this study focuses on the intersection between the politics of time, or chronopolitics, and onscreen portrayal of comfort women following the signing and dissolution of the 2015 Korea-Japan Ministerial Comfort Woman Agreement in Spirits’ Homecoming (2016), Snowy Road (2017), I Can Speak (2017), and Herstory (2018).
My study assumes that 1) popular films serve as a reliable barometer for the ethos of the times in Korea, which has one of the biggest domestic film markets and highest movie-going rates in the world; 2) Koreans possess a similar traumatic postmemory of colonialism by Japan. But are strained Korea-Japan relations and hostile attitudes toward Japan enough to explain the mainstream appeal of these comfort women films? I hypothesize that the transnational comfort women’s movement that peaked with #MeToo campaigns during this period as well as developments in Korea’s film industry and movie-going culture were crucial to the movies’ popularity, indicating its potential as an entertainment genre comparable to the influx of Hollywood Holocaust movies in the 1990s and 2000s.
On the basis on literature review and research objectives, this paper found the following. 1) Korea’s top-grossing films of all time are seen by about a fifth of the country’s entire population and are dubbed “10-million admissions films.” Most of these works are domestic titles, and so, popular mainstream films are apt indicators that reflect the sociopolitical mood of the times. 2) It is no coincidence that these comfort women films were produced during “the lost decade” when Korea-Japan relations were at their worst, but opinion polls conducted in both Korea and Japan have shown that public sentiment was not so poor on an individual level, which is more relevant for making inferences about movie-going choices. 3) The transnational comfort women movement and the local #MeToo movement that peaked during this time frame are reflected in the trajectory of Korean films on comfort women. 4) There were concurrent shifts in the Korean film industry that created a more hospital environment for diverse subject matters and small, independent-spirited films. The #MeToo movement in particular stimulated funding for more female-driven films. 5) The use of melodrama as both a genre and critical concept in these 2010s comfort women films was also integral to their popularity, just like it was the case in Hollywood Holocaust movies.
This paper comprehensively examines the various chronopolitical forces that were at play, namely Korea-Japan relations, women’s movement, and film industry developments. It remains to seen whether the “comfort women melodrama” will continue to prevail as Holocaust films have in Hollywood as a distinguished film genre, and this may be worthwhile to observe in the coming years.« (Source: Thesis)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. i)
	List of Tables and Figures (p. iv)
	Chapter 1. Introduction (p. 1)
		1.1. Research Background (p. 1)
		1.2. Literature Review (p. 5)
		1.3. Hypotheses and Purpose of Research (p. 9)
	Chapter 2. Chronopolitics and Historical Perceptions (p. 12)
		2.1. The 2015 Korea-Japan Comfort Women Agreement and Korea-Japan Relations (p. 12)
		2.2. Domestic Sociopolitical Climates in Korea and Japan (p. 16)
		2.3. Prosthetic Memory and Chronopolitics of Cinema (p. 19)
	Chapter 3. Women’s Movements and Cine-Feminism (p. 26)
		3.1.Transnational Comfort Women Movement (p. 26)
		3.2. Collective Postmemory of ‘Comfort Girls’ (p. 31)
		3.3. #MeToo Movement and the Korean Film Industry (p. 39)
	Chapter 4. Changes in Korea’s 2010s Cinemascape (p. 43)
		4.1. Domination by Domestic Films (p. 43)
		4.2. Diversity and Crowdfunded Comfort Women Films (p. 48)
		4.3. Melodrama of Comfort Women Films and Hollywood Holocaust Films (p. 49)
	Chapter 5. Conclusion (p. 53)
		5.1. Overall Analysis (p. 53)
		5.2. Implications and Limitations (p. 56)
	Bibliography (p. 59)
	Abstract in Korean (p. 67)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | History of Asia: History of Korea / Korea under Japanese rule, History of South Korea | Film: Films about comfort women / Herstory (film), I Can Speak, Snowy Road, Spirits' Homecoming | Prostitution: Forced prostitution / Comfort women | Sex and the law: Wartime sexual violence / Wartime sexual violence in World War II | War: Pacific War / Japanese war crimes