The Pleasure of Mourning: Korean War Blockbusters in Post–Cold War South Korea, 1998–2008

This article looks at the translation of memory in Korean War blockbusters produced during the decade of South Korea’s Sunshine Policy (1998–2008). To trace how the nation’s traumatic past has been reshaped as visual entertainment for the era of globalization, I examine three films of the genre: Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (Joint Security Area; Park Chan-wook, 2000), Taegeukgi hwinallimyeo (Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War; Kang Je-gyu, 2004), and Welkeom tu Dongmakgol (Welcome to Dongmakgol; Park Kwang-hyun, 2005). As a popular platform for recalling and reworking Korea’s division, the melodramatic spectacles of these films offer vicarious mourning, but only belatedly and from a distance, through the suspension of time or in a vision of death.