Abstract

This paper intends to look into the conflicts of tradition and modernity that were shown in Korean historical movies in the 1960's. As indicated by the subtitle, this paper in particular examines the historical movies of Shin Sang-ok, who is a representative film director of Korea in the 1960's. First, I dealt with the conflicts of tradition and modernity presented in the narrative structure in his historical movies, concentrating upon the analysis of the movies such as Yĕonsangun, Tyrant Yĕonsan, and The Sino-Japanese War and Brave Queen MinBi. Next, this paper tried to investigate deeply the ‘formal' aspects in his movies. Shin Sang-ok quested for the embodiment of ‘image text' rather than ‘language text' in order to express his outlook on the world and his aesthetical point of view using various image-signs in his movie. Specifically, we can find that the customs are used as a very critical communication tool and also that the position and the angle of the camera produce diverse meanings. Besides, in his movies, it is notable that he made an original oblique composition, which is different from the perspective representation used in Western arts and movies. This creative technique is rarely found in any films from other countries. It is said that he overcame ‘the perspective representation’, which means one creature of the western modernity, by using the oblique composition based on oriental painting skills. In this way, his historical movies seem to transcend the western modernity, embodying the oriental contemplative aesthetics amidst a layer of formal film technique.