The Intimate Other

Screening North Korean Defectors in Multicultural South Korea

Bibliographic Data

ID6415922
AuthorsJee-Young Shin (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, corresponding author), Jeeyoung Shin (0000-0002-5490-908X, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Year2024
Volume49
Issue1
Pages99-117
Publication date2024-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10357823.2024.2355139
OpenAlexW4399099885
LanguageEN
References cited27

This article considers two South Korean films, Wedding Campaign (Hwang, 2005) and Secret Reunion (Jang, 2010), to better understand the evolution of cinematic representations of North Koreans within the context of the multicultural South's approaches to North Korean arrivals. I focus on how the two films construct North Korean defectors in relation to other ethnic groups. After considering governmental approaches to North Korean defectors and other foreign migrants, I examine how the films are distinguished from both Cold War tropes that present North Koreans as the dangerous Other and the narratives of the Sunshine era that embrace North Koreans based on shared ethnicity. I argue that these films' depiction of North Koreans in relation to multiculturalism manifests neoliberal nationalism within a highly transnational, multiethnic South Korea, as well as the paradoxical nature of South Korean multiculturalism, which emphasises assimilation rather than cultural difference. Ultimately, these films demonstrate changing narratives of South Korea as a multicultural and globalising nation with an increasing emphasis on the latter

Criminology · Geography · Multiculturalism · Political science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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