Abstract

This study examines the representational of intimacy in Memento Mori and The Silenced, and explores how their processes of production, promotion and acceptance were influenced by discourses on women and sexual minorities in Korean society. Memento Mori portrays the school as a space where the desires of queer women are refracted, by depicting the process through which Hyoshin’s desire for a Homo-sexuality is erased within the rumors circulated among students in there. The film reflects the cultural atmosphere of the mid-to-late 1990s, when making the existence of sexual minorities visible was a central agenda of sexual minority’s activism. This is realized through its attempt to reveal the desire for “Jeongsa” , which is rendered invisible within rumors and discourse. In contrast, The Silenced, set in a boarding school in 1938, places greater emphasis on issues of history and violence, reconstructing the girls’ school as a Possible World that provides a backdrop for romanticized “S relationships.” However, in its distribution and promotional processes, the film adopts a strategy of not foregrounding queer codes; in this process, intimacy within the girls’ school is refracted into something “not quite homosexuality.” This reflects one aspect of the landscape of 2015, when “rebooted” feminist discourse and movements were becoming highly contentious social issues in Korea.