Scenario for a Human Drama: Women and Domestic Space in Korean Cinema.

Undergraduate Dissertation by Sang Wee, University of Cambridge, 2022.

This paper explores how women navigate Korean domestic space by using the medium of fiction films. This is based on the belief that cinema can be used to examine everyday, domestic practices that are engrained in cultural contexts and spatial typologies; this paper specifically focuses on the predominant form of domestic dwelling in South Korea that are apartments – also known as apatu or APTs. By referring to both Western and Korean discourse, social dynamics and structures at home are looked at – an understanding that women in Korea live not only with ideologies inherited by a democratic, market society but also hierarchies that stem from Neo-Confucianism and alternative kinship models. A close scene analysis is inducted on the three films (2017), (2018) and (2019). Data extracted from films are used to try and understand experiences of women that happen on an institutional but also at a personal level, analysing specific moments through the perspective of the protagonists to frame large scale structures in Korean society.

Sang Wee is a filmmaker and architecture graduate from the University of Cambridge. To find out more about his work and research you can contact him at sanghonwee@gmail.com.