• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.713-727
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• 2021

This paper want to examine how Gwanghwamun and its surrounding areas work in the cinematic spaces for Korean films of the 1950s-2010s. First, in Korean films of the 1950s-1960s, Myeong-dong(Namchon), Bukchon, Seochon, and Dongchon are the primitive, perceptual, existential spaces that show the underground world and tragic pathos in the splendid city through intense desires and fatal frustration, the shadows and conflicts of modernization. Second, in Korean films of the 1970s-1990s, Myeongdong·Jongno(Namchon·Bukchon), Seochon and Dongchon are the perceptual, existential spaces that show public revenge and private alienation through the dichotomy of freedom/evil and the dichotomy of wealth/poverty. Third, in Korean films of the 2000-2010s, Gwanghwamun(Seochon), Bukchon, Namchon, and Dongchon are the perceptual, existential spaces that show civil society ethos and gloomy requiem through national agendas, resistance movements, desires and losses, miserable reality and death.