The Relationship Between National Cinemas, National/Cultural Identities And Auteur-Directors
The definition of what a national cinema stands for is problematic. On the one hand, the production situation can explain the nationality of the film, but on the other hand, the place of consumption and the response of the local spectators may also be necessary, as Higson Andrew, argues "It is intended instead as an exploration of some of the implications of using the term 'national' in discourse about cinema (the film industry, film culture), moving towards an argument that the parameters of a national cinema should be drawn at the site of consumption as much as at the site of production of films; an argument, in other words, that focuses on the activity of national audiences and the conditions under which they make sense of and use the films they watch" (Higson, 1989). National cinema takes on the responsibility of representing the nation to its citizens in order to communicate what form national identity in the context of an irresistible flow of cinematic image from the Hollywood industry globally, even so, as Higson, indicates "Hollywood is not only the most internationally powerful cinema - it has also, of course, for many years been an integral and naturalized part of the national culture, or the popular imagination, of most countries in which cinema is an established entertainment form" (Higson, 1989).
Cultural identity is the issue of 'becoming' and 'being'. It belongs to the future as much as in the past. It is something that already exists, and transcends place, time, history and culture, as Stuart Hall point out ‘‘Cultural identities comes from somewhere, have histories. But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant trans-formation. Far from being eternally fixed in some essentialism past, they are subject to the continuous ‘‘play’’ of history, culture and power. Far from being grounded in a mere "recovery" of the past, which is waiting to be found, and which, when found, will secure our sense of ourselves into eternity, identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past’’ (Hall, 1989). And To record the history, there was the language (speaking and writing) especially the writing which is very necessary to establish national identity, as Benedict Anderson states that nations are "imagined communities" arguing that the advent of "print-languages laid the bases for national consciousness" (Anderson, 1991). When we agree that the seventh art is the product of cultural and technological development, and it is clear that cinematic art can reach viewers faster than other arts such as painting, sculptureand dance, and even literature. In his famous article from 1948, "The Birth of a New Avant-Garde (La Caméra-Stylo)", Alexandre Astruc, equates a film artist with a writer, "The cinema is quite simply becoming a means of expression, just as all the other arts have before it, and in particular painting and the novel. After having been successively a fairground attraction, an amusement analogous to boulevard theatre, or a means of preserving the images of an era, it is gradually becoming a language. By language, I mean a form in which and by which an artist can express his thoughts, however abstract they may be, or translate his obsessions exactly as he does in a contemporary essay or novel. That is why I would like to call this new age of cinema the age of "caméra-stylo’’ (Monaco, 1976).
In this way, the film director (who has the most important role in the filmmaking process, controls all departments of the work and guiding them through his choices and decisions) can give meaning to interact with the viewer, can give insight into social and cultural dimensions, as Norman Denzin argues: ‘‘Films are cultural and symbolic forms and can be used to discover and reveal important characteristics of social life’’ (Denzin, 1991). In light of the above, we find a serious and significant contribution to cinema in the in spreading the community culture and national principles to educate and guide the viewer, and support and preserve the cultural and national identity of the producing country through the adoption of the author-director of these ideas in his film, uses his talent and the great potential for the seventh art to support this product. In this sence, There are many films that have highlighted the relationship between the Korean present and the painful past in the country. A few film directors have succeeded in using this idea in their work, as Kim Ki-Duk did when linking the violence and identity to the question of the division the nation. It is obviously that the main subject in Kim’s films is the "identity troubles", most of his films deal with basic changes of personal identities through unusual encounters or situations. Adopting a new identity, a subject that Kim refers to in almost all of his films but that is especially detailed in (Samaritan Girl, Bad Guy,3-Iron, Address Unknown, Time, Dream and Real Fiction). In (Samaritan Girl 2004), two students share the identity of one prostitute, which is why the identity changes are complicated. Yeo-jin sets dates through online chats with Jae-young. Jae-young herself seems to have an identity problem since as she identifies with Indian prostitute Vasomitra. When Jae-young died, Yeo-jin works as a prostitute, but not in her own name, but through Jae-young`s name, she undoes Jae-yong’s identity as a prostitute, without losing her identity. Though the clients fix that she has "the same smile" as Jae-young.
However, the soon show her own truth. She is indeed very well likely that the "good girl" Yeo-jin only imagined only the actions that "bad girl in her" would like to play out but never dares to. The frequent scenes that show her sleeping and exciting would verify this supposition. (Bad Guy 2001) develops a prostitute theme even further, Through a mischievous plan, Han-ki managed to attract the innocent Sheon-hwa into Seoul’s red light. In the end, Sheon-hwa becomes a complete whore. Once, when sits with Han-ki on the beach, she watches an unidentified girl commit suicide. Sheon-hwa and Han-ki’s not aware when watch the girl disappear into the waves, Sheon-hwa finds on the beach a picture left behind by the girl; this photo is true even through people have no identity because the faces are left blank. Sheon-hwa reforms the photo through acts of collage and montage until it turns, vaguely, a photo of herself and Han-ki.
The possible outcome is that the girl whom she has been watching committing suicide was her old self while her new self still needs to get out of the photo. Sun-hwa, the youthful woman in (3-Iron 2004), takes the contrary approach of Sheon-hwa because she is dispersing her uninfected image and repairing it in a cubic way. It is obvious that this act of restructuring symbolizes the confirmation of a new identity. The story of (3-Iron) is that of people looking for an identity: Tae-suk breaks into one home for no other purpose of temporarily adopting the identity of the inhabitants, repairing appliances and taking photos of himself at home as if he were one of the family. Dissecting and reform of portraits is one of the most common themes in Kim films. It occurs in (Address Unknown 2001), when James, the American G. I. directs an eye that he has cut out of a magazine on the face of Eun- ok to replace the eye that it had wasted in a childhood accident. James wants Eun-ok to exchange her identity; to become Americanized and the mask resembling the eye it represents the first step towards this modernization. Having only one eye is a major drawback in the world of Address Unknown because anyone wants to survive. Here needs to be able to face things as well as community. The subject of identity seems clearer in (Time 2006) where Sehie, fearing that her boyfriend Ji-woo will soon get bored of her and ignore her, make up her mind to undergo cosmetic surgery in order to approach him as a new person (Saehie). The Ji-woo project passes through several stages of confusion, and finaly to the same type of surgery. At some moment in the film, Saehie tries to regain her old identity by putting on a mask that she makes of Sehie’s primitive photo. The confusion of identity in the Time is exciting because of Sehie, once she became Saehie, obsessed with her old self until to the step that she gets jealous of her new self when this new self come Ji-woo.
Unexpected problems arise not so much because of the cosmetic surgery, but because the life worlds of Sehie’s self and her other do still interlope. However, socially speaking, Sehie and Saehie are different persons, they share identical life worlds. There is "Another Me" but Saehie’s self-perception go after a much more complex sample. The question is that the self that sees Saehie is also able to conceive of Sehie as the other given to some extent Saehie is still the Sehie. The question in Time is that the other is acts by a self that has adopted a new look, once this self is outfit with this new face, the self can also see itself as another. In (Time), The old self is included in the other which, in turn, can at any moment feel like oneself. It becomes clear that the surgery that Sehie underwent has caused more than a minor split of her identity since it includes nothing more than the dividing of one's self into two parts (each of which might see the contrary self as the other). Saehie’s case is more complicated as she has two selves, both of which are for her a self and the other, and both of which attempt to feel the other self as another. The question is not whether Sehie’s real self is Sehie or Saehie; it is that the fullness of its self has disappeared and dissolved into another. In his film (Dream 2008), Kim works on a different identity split though here is a slightly different example. Whatever Jin`s dreams, will play out by the sleepwalking Ran, which shows that Ran can no longer rule her nightly life. Her works are decided in real life by Jane. It is as if both Jin’s and Ran’s identities cut into halves and then reassembled in an erroneous way. Jin seeks his ex-girlfriend in his dreams with the result that the sleepwalking Ran seeks her ex-boyfriend in the true world.
The problem is that Jin would like Ran’s real world to be his real world and not his dreams. And Ran would elect that the nightly meetings with the man, she hates would rather be dreams. Jane begins to discriminate with her boyfriend Ran and is disturbed by the fact that Ran dumped this man exactly the way his girlfriend had thrown him once. "Do you hate him so much," he asks with interest, starting with the protection of the man who has never seen before. Kim crafts a complicated identity split that is steadily associated with its opposite, which is the union of two persons into one identity. The whole other half of the film depicted the protagonists’ effort to transfer the rough fusion of personalities from an unstable level of dream/real world to an unambiguous level of reality. In the circle of dreams, Ran’s ex-lover and Jin’s ex-girlfriend are the same people. If Ran and Jin control to become one person in the real world the puzzle would be solved. In the end, it does not work out: the falling in love is not enough because in any love-relationship the existence of the self and the other persists. In (Real Fiction 2000) Kim explored the second self concept, albeit in a relatively immature and experimental style. The protagonist, a frustrated artist, leads to a theatre stage where he meets a person announced as "Another Me" that is his alter ego, who suggests that he shall instantly kill all people who have humiliated him during his lifetime. The artist starts by shooting his alter ego and fulfil the project by killing other persons. There might be a motive to use this identity split of a people for an explanation of Kim’s identity means, since Kim is personally influenced by the cold war separation, his father was shot and tortured by Northern forces.
Apart from that, the principle that we can get from the North-South discord and the desire to unify the two halves shows a solid identity of Korea in the past. Kim’s films suggest two selection for searching for the self identity: that of men and that of women. The choice of men is firm as an ally of autism insists on one and the same form, roughly display any reaction, however, the world changes. But their pain is in vain because sooner or later these men will be destroyed if they have not destroyed themselves in advance. Women have more flexible identities, they are more communicative than men and more inclined to adapt to modern situations. As a result, they choose to perform cosmetic surgery and change their faces. Most undoubtedly, ancient Korea is the life of such a ghost-like in South Korea`s mind, while a woman's attempts to adapt to the modern Korean look may lead to severe identity problems. Of course, nostalgia exists in hearts of Koreans, and the old Korea lives in the memory and identity of modern South Korea, and with a great invention like cinema, it makes it easy to visualize the date and place that we desire in virtual real-time.
