A study on Vietnamese Women in Korean Films and TV Dramas

한국 영화와 TV 드라마에 나타난 베트남 여성상 고찰

To properly answer the question 'Why have Vietnamese Women kept appearing in Korean Films and TV dramas?', We need to induce Postcolonial discourse along with historical and cultural similarities between Korea and Vietnam. It is because the relationship of two countries can be defined as a neocolonialism specially in view of economic relationship. Koreans need to locate themselves on the superior position by othering Vietnamese women, who are close enough to be compared and also distant enough to be othered. This paper is intended to bring their being in Korean films and TV dramas under the light of postcolonial discourse. According to the postcolonial concepts such as ambivalence, stereotyping and subaltern, Korean films and TV dramas are classified into three groups, which are Vietnam war melodramas, Horror movies based in Vietnam, and TV dramas with Vietnamese brides. War melodramas have been othering Vietnamese woman through ambivalence of the fear of Vietcom warrior and the fascination of exotic beauty. Horror movies, produced about 10 years later, brought the Vietnamese women back to Korean audience, stereotyping them into ghosts, which are incarnated through the suppression and eruption of sexual desire. The third group consists mainly of TV dramas. Their story usually evolves around Vietnamese brides migrating into Korea. The women are forced into the position of Subaltern, not representing themselves in their own voices. Facing multi-cultural society, our visual media are requested to modify their neocolonial approach of presenting Vietnamese women. To accomplish the goal, they have to find ways of storytelling to show the women in their everyday lives and help them to speak for themselves.