• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.639-654
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• 2014

What is noticeable in Changgeuk Madame Ong is that for "narrativization," a main character is replaced with Madame Ong and her mother and a reinvented story as a result thereof is the female liberation from oppression. The director sought for the completeness of the narrative with a plot line created (i) by daringly deleting the latter half (episode relating to Gangsoe's death), which was a persistent problem unsolved both in the original and its derivative contents, (ii) by diluting Gangsoe's patriarchal authority and thereby creating the ending of endless love and the fruition of love, and (iii) by severing the link between Madame Ong's doomed fate of widowhood and Gangsoe's doomed fate of death by the violation of a taboo (the key factors of the original story) and at the same time, thereby inserting the doomed fate of death by Jowang (god of fire), declaring a war against jangseung (Korean traditional totem pole), the aesthetic structure representing "fictionization," and enabling a female character to gain love, fame and life through free will and spirit of resistance. The director achieved a remarkable success in terms of composition by (i) taping into a variety of genres of music, (ii) by maximizing the effect of Madame Ong's solo, (iii) by strengthening the "uniqueness of each part" through chorus, (iv) by creating a dramatic atmosphere for the change of scene, (v) by applying a dual variation of tension (resistance theme) and relaxation (freedom theme), etc.