Proposal
Question: How did South Korean cultural aspect’s influence on Old Boy’s narrative structure lead to a critically unsuccessful American interpretation?
Aims and objectives: I am looking at the South Korean cultural influences on Old Boy’s plot and how those unique themes lead to the changing of the core message of the film and, the American remake narrative structure being incohesive, illogical and contextually flawed. I will also cover how these changes made audiences feel, particularly native South Korean audiences as they are more likely to understand and connect with the original film, its cultural features and its source material more than western audiences. The foundation of my argument will be rooted in my own analysis of key scenes that hold the most culturally significant material and, the comparison of how this was interpreted or changed with varying results of success for the target audience. I will then have several interwoven pieces of research with an expansion on things like contextual plot theories and other topics I find further down the line whilst researching.
Existing research: I have already sourced an academic journal covering the topic of American remakes of Eastern film, although it covers Japanese culture instead of South Korean, there are a lot of transferable features that I think will be useful to me in finding the right pathways to go down with my research and the contributing factors to popular American narrative structure; ‘American horror films use the Judeo-Christian belief of good versus evil. In Japan, good and evil can and should coexist, but in balance (yin/yang). Therefore, in a Japanese horror film, there is an effort to restore balance between good and evil. American films, based on the ideology of good versus evil, depict good trying to defeat evil.’. I have also investigated online journalist articles and have found 2 main ones that I want to reference for different reasons. The first is by TODAY magazine and contains quotes from the remake’s screenwriter Mark Protosevich where he explains why he changed the female leads character to ‘resonate well especially with women in a Western audience’, the second is a proposal of a theory concerning the economic context of Korea during the time the film was made and set and links to Bazin’s theory of realism, saying ‘South Korea’s 1997 deal with the IMF features prominently in the movie … The deal restructured the South Korean economy … The result: stark income inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class’, suggesting that the economic crisis is the underlying message and theme of the action thriller film. Both articles will provide a wide research foundation as it covers South Korean societal context and the American adaptation side of my essay’s argument.
Research approach: As I have the comparison of 2 films as the focus of my essay, most of my primary research will be my own analysis of particular scenes. For secondary research I have already referenced the academic journals and article types I will be utilizing but, I will also look at watching videos where native South Korean’s react to both films and give their opinions. This to me will be integral and the most accurate in showing me how certain components of the films resonate with a South Korean audience in a way that it couldn’t for a western one.
Expected outcomes: I hypothesize in my essay I will find that when cultural aspects are a key part of a films plot, then its themes need to be completely changed to make sense to its new audience. The audience may have completely different expectations of narrative structure and themes because they were raised with different societal codes and conventions to the audience of the original source material, which in my case is South Korea.
Harvard references:
Wee, v., (2014). ‘JAPANESE HORROR FILMS AND THEIR AMERICAN REMAKES: TRANSLATING FEAR, ADAPTING CULTURE’, New York: Routledge, pp.258.
Fernandez, M, E,. Helsel, P,. (2013) ‘‘Oldboy‘ screenwriter adds own twist to Korean horror classic’, TODAY, 26 November. Available at: https://www.today.com/popculture/oldboy-screenwriter-adds-own-twist-korean-horror-classic-2D11648789
Kirk, M. (2016) ‘Seoul’s Inequality as Violence in ‘Oldboy‘, Citylab, 25 October. Available at: https://www.citylab.com/life/2016/10/seouls-inequality-as-violence-in-oldboy/505007/
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Essay plan
- Intro
Justice in different cultures
Character profiling to suit audience
Bazin realism theory
Visual iconography
- Justice culture context
Justice in west vs east
Link journal about balance versus defeat
- Character representation
Mention how due to western audiences wanting more family feel good the main character is motivated by his daughter but doesn’t care about her whereas the Korean one loves her but only mentions her once and is fueled by revenge
Female character was changed to be stronger, charitable and professional to resonate with the audience – link TODAY quote
Korean version makes sense that he can do martial arts because of compulsory military conscription
- Realism
Link unconscious want Bazin theory
Seoul’s economic inequality theory from article
- Visual iconography and props
Analysis of the hammer scene – in the Korean version he uses a hammer to fight because Korea has very strict gun laws, so the scene is plausible. The American uses a hammer but doesn’t make sense to have hand to hand combat the thugs would just shoot him
Analysis of the settings – the Koreans versions alleyways and stuff were all common to the public (link quote from reaction video) but the Americans isn’t
Cultural features are interwoven into everything from settings and props to how the plot develops and how characters react to different obstacles through the film
- Conclusion
The above features contributed to the failure of the film as the American remake changed things from the Korean context to apply to American audiences like the female characters traits but then kept things like the hammer scene and the abstract justice storyline with an untypical American ending therefore it couldn’t be related to by either American or Korean audiences
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Article research
Below are quotes that i think would be useful in my essay along with some ideas they give me in terms of context and established theories.
1. Oldboy-screenwriter-adds-own-twist-Korean-horror-classic
“I wanted to approach the female character in our version as a character that is more grounded in a reality familiar to the people seeing our film,” Protosevich said. “I like and admire strong and professional women. I like and admire people whose work is about helping others. I wanted her to be a character that people recognized and feel empathy for. I loved the actress in the original film but I don’t think that’s the type of character that would resonate well especially with women in a Western audience.”
In the Korean film, the villain eventually reveals that the young woman is the long-lost daughter of the protagonist who later undergoes hypnosis to remove that knowledge from his brain so that he can continue to be with her in a romantic relationship. Protosevich didn’t think that would work with American audiences. Instead, Joe sets Marie free by checking back into the hotel where he was held for two decades, thus voluntarily putting himself back in prison for life.
“I tried to put myself into the psyche of the character at the moment where you find out that the woman you’ve been with is your daughter,” he said. “I personally am not going to figure out a way that I can stay with her. In our film, he feels so horrified by what he’s learned. Part of the goal was not just a revenge story but also his redemption as a human being. I wanted him to reach a point where he could do something to help her and also to break all contact with her. And that’s the primary reason he isolates himself at the end of the movie.”
-Protosevich
Link: korean version eye for an eye cuts out his tongue link cultural ideas of justice and that theyre different to western ideas of justice
2. Seouls-inequality-as-violence-in-Oldboy
Some Western reviewers sought to understand the violence by (offensively) attributing it to Asian culture. Rex Reed wrote in the Observer that the film is as “pointless as it is shocking. What else can you expect from a nation weaned on kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots?”
A number of scholars who took a deeper look at the film argued that its violent plot and depiction of Seoul during the period of Dae-su’s imprisonment, 1988-2003, is a critique of the social inequality wrought by South Korea’s economic crisis. The period saw the country go, hat in hand, to international lenders for a bailout.
South Korea’s 1997 deal with the IMF features prominently in the movie, in a key television montage that shows the years passing as Dae-su sits in front of the flickering screen. The deal restructured the South Korean economy so that export-oriented global corporations—and those at their helm—saw great financial gains. But the wealth didn’t trickle down, and the economy didn’t generate enough new jobs. The result: stark income inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class.
Link: realism and unconscious want into this theory when debating to vouch for validity,the real economic events leak into the film which seems just to be a bizarre revenge story
3. Bazin
As in a dream, nothing in cinema is completely accidental, and at the same time nothing is completely fake either.
Bazin (1947, p40, cited in Grosoli, 2011, p3)
Grosoli, M. (2011) ‘André Bazin: Film as Social Documentary’, New Readings, 11, Available at: http://ojs.cf.ac.uk/index.php/newreadings/article/download/41/92 (Accessed: 5 October 2019).
Every film is a social documentary because it documents the desires of the collective unconsciousness.
A PDF of a translation of the original article is available here http://www.mccc.edu/pdf/ cmn107/the%20evolution%20of%20the%20language%20of%20cinema.pdf
one committee spent a whole morning pondering why China’s soap operas weren’t as good as those made by Korea. “It is more than just a Korean soap opera. It hurts our culture dignity,” one member of the committee said.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/korean-hallyu-threatens-american-cultural-dominance-98071
4. Han and context
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/mar/31/south-korean-cinema-blood-saw-devil
a deconstruction of classical Western morality where there’s a clear distinction between good and evil.
https://www.easternkicks.com/features/beyond-good-and-evil-revenge-in-south-korean-cinema
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