Tourist Distractions: Traveling and Feeling in Transnational Hallyu Cinema

265 Pages·2016·28.194 MB·English

by  Youngmin Choe

T O U R I S T D I S T R A C T I O N S
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T O U R I S T D I S T R A C T I O N S
TRAVELING AND FEELING
IN TRANSNATIONAL HALLYU CINEMA
YOUNGMIN CHOE
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DURHAM AND LONDON 2016
© 2016 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Choe, Youngmin, author.
Tourist distractions : traveling and feeling in transnational
hallyu cinema / Youngmin Choe.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8223-6111-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8223-6130-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8223-7434-3 (e- book)
1. Motion pictures— Korea (South)— History—21st century.
2. Cultural industries— Korea (South)— History—21st century.
3. Popu lar culture— Economic aspects— Korea (South). 4. Tourism
in motion pictures. 5. Travel in motion pictures. I. Title.
pn1993.5.k6c4844 2016
791.43095195— dc23 2015036266
A dif er ent version of chapter 2 appeared as “Afective Sites: Hur
Jin- ho’s Cinema and Film-I nduced Tourism in K orea,” in Asia on
Tour: Exploring the Rise of Asian Tourism, ed. Tim Winter, Peggy
Teo, and T. C. Chang, 109–26 (New York: Routledge, 2009). An earlier
version of chapter 5 was pub lished as “Postmemory dmz in South
Korean Cinema, 1999–2003,” Journal of Korean Studies 18.2 (2013):
315–36. Reprinted by permission.
Cover art: Detail from a tour-site marker depicting an image
from the film April Snow. Photo by the author.
FOR MY MOTHER AND FATHER
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWL EDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION. Distracted Attractions 1
PART I. INTIMACY
1. Feeling Together: Pornography and Travel in Kazoku
Cinema and Asako in Ruby Shoes 31
2. Afective Sites: Hur Jin- ho’s April Snow and One Fine
Spring Day 5 9
PART II. AMITY
3. Provisional Feelings: The Making of Musa 8 9
4. Afective Palimpsests: Sudden Showers from Hwang
Sun- wŏn’s “Sonagi” to Kwak Jae- yong and Andrew Lau’s
Daisy 1 12
PART III. REMEMBRANCE
5. Postmemory DMZ: Joint Security Area, Yesterday, and
2009: Lost Memories 1 43
6. Transient Monuments: Commemorating and Memorializing
in Taegukgi Korean War Film Tourism 166
CONCLUSION. K- hallyu: The Commodity Speaks in Kang
Chul- woo’s Romantic Island, Bae Yong- joon’s A Journey in
Search of Korea’s Beauty, So Ji- sub’s Road, and Choi Ji- woo’s if
197
NOTES 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 29 INDEX 2 41
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ACKNOWL EDGMENTS
The earliest drafts of this book were written as a dissertation at the University
of California (uc) Berkeley. My time t here was formative, and I owe much
gratitude to my doctoral advisors. Chris Berry and Nelson Graburn have been
models of the kind of scholar I aspire to be, and also of the kind of mentor
I try to be. Without their guidance, my scholarship would not have been able
to take on the forms that it eventually did, and I thank them for their continued
encouragement, support, and friendship. My thanks also to Andrew Jones, for
his advice over the years, and for being a wonderful teacher and friend. I am
grateful to Lydia Liu, Jiwon Shin, Alan Tansman, and Bonnie Wade. Soyoung
Kim, whom I first met when she was a visiting professor at uc Berkeley, con-
tinues to be a source of inspiration. The uc Berkeley Tourism Studies Working
Group allowed me to participate in the exchange of scholarship through which
I could vicariously travel to places in ways I might other wise never have gone.
The year I spent at the University of Illinois, Urbana-C hampaign (uiuc), as
a Korea Foundation postdoctoral fellow was a tremendously productive one.
I feel privileged to have been able to revise the book u nder the mentorship of
Nancy Abelmann, whose insightful reading of my manuscript was vital to the
shape of its final form. I am also thankful to Poshek Fu, Jungwon Kim, Rob-
ert Cagle, Jin- Heon Jung, and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies,
who welcomed me into their midst that year. My chapter on “transient monu-
ments” benefited from feedback I received at the uiuc Korea Workshop, and
aspects of my introduction were formed at a roundtable discussion on pan-
Asian cinema with Poshek Fu, Stephanie DeBoer, and Michael Raine.
I am most grateful to my colleagues in the East Asian languages and cul-
tures department at the University of Southern California (usc). As chairs,
Dominic Cheung, David Bialock, and Audrey Li have been generous in their
support of ju nior faculty. I thank Brian Bernards, Geraldine Fiss, George
Hayden, Namkil Kim, Satoko Shimazaki, and Andrew Simpson for a conge-
nial environment to work in, and Christine Shaw for everyt hing she does for
our department. Special thanks to Bettine Birge, Sonya Lee, and Lori Meeks