Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management

Korea Data Strategy Society (한국데이터전략학회)
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Function and Meaning of Color Gray in Korean Films : Memory and Oblivion

한국영화에 표현된 회색의 기능과 의미 : 기억과 망각

  • Kim, Jong-Guk (Division of Culture & Arts, BaekSeok University)
  • Received : 2021.02.22
  • Accepted : 2021.06.23
  • Published : 2021.06.30
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Abstract

The color gray in the cinema expresses the private or public memory and oblivion in the reminiscence scenes. The aesthetic function and meaning of gray that interacts with other elements in cinematic time and space are expanded in various ways. This study was analyzed the cases in which gray was used as the main visual style by limiting the scope to Korean films. Based on the traditional cultural symbolic meaning of gray, I analyzed how it was applied and transformed in films, and interpreted the cultural-social meaning by the interaction between gray and other elements. In film history starting from monochrome, gray has been used as a visual device suitable for realizing cinematic or imaginary reality. Gray is adopted when dreams or recollections are visualized as imaginary reality, and it is used when dreamy imaginations of daydreaming are demonstrated. Gray, which reproduces the dreamlike reality of imagination, is the concrete and realistic way of expression. First, in Korean films, gray is a flashback visual device that recalls the past, and is an intermediary visual form that materializes the imaginary. In films such as Ode to My Father (2014), DongJu (2015), A Resistance(2019) and The Battle : Roar to Victory (2019), the gray of the past is a visual device for cultural memory that builds the homogeneity and identity of the group. In the era of hyper-visibility, gray in black and white images is intended to be clearly remembered by unfamiliarity rather than blurry oblivion by familiarity. Second, in genre films with disaster materials such as Train To Busan (2016) and Ashfall (2019), the grays of rain, fog, clouds, shadows and smoke highlight other elements, and the gray color causes anxiety and fear. In war films such as TaeGukGi: Brotherhood Of War (2003) and The Front Line (2011), gray shows a more intense brutality than the primary color. In sports films such as 4th Place (2015), Take Off (2009) and Forever The Moment (2007), gray expresses uncertainty and immaturity. Third, gray visualizes the historical memory of A Petal (1996), the oblivion in Oh! My Gran (2020) and Poetry (2010), and the reality of daydreaming Gagman (1988) and Dream (1990). At the boundary between imagination and reality, gray is a visual form of dreams, memories and forgetfulness.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018S1A5A2A01039547).

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