Sun Jung is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne in Australia, currently researching―Global Korean Cinema and Transcultural Consumption. She also has previous professionalexperience as a reporter/journalist in the field of journalism as well as a scriptwriter for Koreanfilm productions.
(November 2006)
Bae Yong-Joon, Hybrid Masculinity & the Counter-coeval Desire of Japanese Female Fans (Part 4)
Star Persona 2: Purity
The drama’s ‘purity’ was also praised by the older Japanese viewers, who said it reminded them of simpler times from their younger days (Onishi 2004). Since Winter Sonata was broadcasted, NHK has received countless phone calls and e-mails and more than 20,000 letters from viewers, many of whom write about their own experiences of love and loss (Tabata 2003; Wiseman 2004). Comparing Winter Sonata to the recent Japanese television dramas, some interviewees point out the innocence of main characters. Ga stated:
“Today’s Japanese dramas contain too much representation of sex. But in Winter Sonata we don’t see those embarrassing sex scenes. They [the characters] love purely.”
Those viewers, who do not like the blunt representation of sex in Japanese dramas, fall for the idealistic depiction of ‘pure’ love in Winter Sonata. Some viewers describe that BYJ is an “old-fashioned gentle man who reminds me of my first love” and some say “the high school setting takes us [Japanese women] back to the days before marriage”. Watching the innocence of BYJ and CJW allows them to remember their younger selves (Wiseman 2004). Baik Seung-Kuk, a professor of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, claims that the major attraction of Winter Sonata is its storytelling which stimulates nostalgic memory of Japanese viewers’ first love (2005: 174). Baik states that “the sender of Winter Sonata encodes “pure love” in the message [drama contents] and the Japanese viewers decode them” (2005: 175). According to him, the drama employs ‘pure love’ as a cultural code and it uses various audiovisual methods to deliver this coded message to the receivers (2005: 175-78). In other words, there are dramatic signifiers which imply first love. For example, Joon-Sang plays the piano for Yu-Jin and the title of the piece is “The First Time”. This piano music is an example of a signifier of first love (Y.-S. Kim 2005). As the seasonal background is winter, there are many scenes of white snow which also implies a sense of purity. In episode two, Joon-Sang steals a first kiss from Yu-Jin while they are playing with snowmen. The impact of the coded message of first love is enhanced through the bicycle riding scene in the first episode. In the scene, Joon-Sang rides a bicycle along a riverside bicycle-path and Yu-Jin holds his waist, sitting on the back seat. Romantic background music is played as they ride along the path, and there are scenes of an orange coloured sunset, sparkling water and golden-brown shrubs. This happy and smiling couple looks pure and innocent in their high-school uniforms. To explain the representation of first love in this scene, professor Kim Ki-Kook, of Kyung-Hee University, uses Jean Baudrillard’s concept of “simulacre and simulation” (2005: 95). According to Kim, this bicycle scene is a perfect model of first love for many Japanese fans. He argues that the above listed “romantic images are Baudrillard’s simulacra” and the viewers indulge in this imaginary reality which was actually never existed. One of my interviewees, Na, said that “I watched Winter Sonata more than 20 times (…) especially I watched the bicycle scene again and again. It reminds me of my first love from high-school.”
Cinema studies scholar Angela Ndalianis claims that stars are “very personal things”, who are, she states, “producing meaning that is personal to him or her” (2002: xii). She argues that stars “interact and merge with an individual’s subjectivity” (2002: xii). Na’s memory of her first love merges with the image of a uniformed bicycle riding BYJ. In the context of Winter Sonata, BYJ interacts with Japanese fans’ individual memories. One of the interviewees, Ba also stated:
“I think it’s because of those comics… when we were girls we read lots of girl’s comics. The drama’s story and characters are very similar to those comics. Innocent girls and boys… first love… Winter Sonata really reminds me of those days.”
Many scholars see stars as variously conceptualized inner wants of the masses (Dyer 1998: 18). BYJ is a reflection of the inner wants of the middle-aged Japanese female audiences: in the case of Na and Ba, it is a desire for their purity of their “past”. Dyer articulates that “every society (and each class/group at each period of that society) foregrounds certain needs, by virtue of both what it promises and what it fails to deliver. Likewise, agencies in those societies (e.g. the cinema) provide and/or define answers to those needs” (Dyer 1998). In view of the Yon-sama syndrome, BYJ fulfils the desires of Japanese fans: those desires are their memories and nostalgia.
To be Continue...Part 5
(November 2006)
Bae Yong-Joon, Hybrid Masculinity & the Counter-coeval Desire of Japanese Female Fans (Part 4)
Star Persona 2: Purity
The drama’s ‘purity’ was also praised by the older Japanese viewers, who said it reminded them of simpler times from their younger days (Onishi 2004). Since Winter Sonata was broadcasted, NHK has received countless phone calls and e-mails and more than 20,000 letters from viewers, many of whom write about their own experiences of love and loss (Tabata 2003; Wiseman 2004). Comparing Winter Sonata to the recent Japanese television dramas, some interviewees point out the innocence of main characters. Ga stated:
“Today’s Japanese dramas contain too much representation of sex. But in Winter Sonata we don’t see those embarrassing sex scenes. They [the characters] love purely.”
Those viewers, who do not like the blunt representation of sex in Japanese dramas, fall for the idealistic depiction of ‘pure’ love in Winter Sonata. Some viewers describe that BYJ is an “old-fashioned gentle man who reminds me of my first love” and some say “the high school setting takes us [Japanese women] back to the days before marriage”. Watching the innocence of BYJ and CJW allows them to remember their younger selves (Wiseman 2004). Baik Seung-Kuk, a professor of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, claims that the major attraction of Winter Sonata is its storytelling which stimulates nostalgic memory of Japanese viewers’ first love (2005: 174). Baik states that “the sender of Winter Sonata encodes “pure love” in the message [drama contents] and the Japanese viewers decode them” (2005: 175). According to him, the drama employs ‘pure love’ as a cultural code and it uses various audiovisual methods to deliver this coded message to the receivers (2005: 175-78). In other words, there are dramatic signifiers which imply first love. For example, Joon-Sang plays the piano for Yu-Jin and the title of the piece is “The First Time”. This piano music is an example of a signifier of first love (Y.-S. Kim 2005). As the seasonal background is winter, there are many scenes of white snow which also implies a sense of purity. In episode two, Joon-Sang steals a first kiss from Yu-Jin while they are playing with snowmen. The impact of the coded message of first love is enhanced through the bicycle riding scene in the first episode. In the scene, Joon-Sang rides a bicycle along a riverside bicycle-path and Yu-Jin holds his waist, sitting on the back seat. Romantic background music is played as they ride along the path, and there are scenes of an orange coloured sunset, sparkling water and golden-brown shrubs. This happy and smiling couple looks pure and innocent in their high-school uniforms. To explain the representation of first love in this scene, professor Kim Ki-Kook, of Kyung-Hee University, uses Jean Baudrillard’s concept of “simulacre and simulation” (2005: 95). According to Kim, this bicycle scene is a perfect model of first love for many Japanese fans. He argues that the above listed “romantic images are Baudrillard’s simulacra” and the viewers indulge in this imaginary reality which was actually never existed. One of my interviewees, Na, said that “I watched Winter Sonata more than 20 times (…) especially I watched the bicycle scene again and again. It reminds me of my first love from high-school.”
Cinema studies scholar Angela Ndalianis claims that stars are “very personal things”, who are, she states, “producing meaning that is personal to him or her” (2002: xii). She argues that stars “interact and merge with an individual’s subjectivity” (2002: xii). Na’s memory of her first love merges with the image of a uniformed bicycle riding BYJ. In the context of Winter Sonata, BYJ interacts with Japanese fans’ individual memories. One of the interviewees, Ba also stated:
“I think it’s because of those comics… when we were girls we read lots of girl’s comics. The drama’s story and characters are very similar to those comics. Innocent girls and boys… first love… Winter Sonata really reminds me of those days.”
Many scholars see stars as variously conceptualized inner wants of the masses (Dyer 1998: 18). BYJ is a reflection of the inner wants of the middle-aged Japanese female audiences: in the case of Na and Ba, it is a desire for their purity of their “past”. Dyer articulates that “every society (and each class/group at each period of that society) foregrounds certain needs, by virtue of both what it promises and what it fails to deliver. Likewise, agencies in those societies (e.g. the cinema) provide and/or define answers to those needs” (Dyer 1998). In view of the Yon-sama syndrome, BYJ fulfils the desires of Japanese fans: those desires are their memories and nostalgia.
To be Continue...Part 5
Notation :
Just for Ph.D Candidate in
- Political Science
- Political Science
[International Relationship /Foreign Affairs /Political Analysis/
Pilosophy & Social Science/ Political Economy/ Political Sociology ]
Pilosophy & Social Science/ Political Economy/ Political Sociology ]
- Mass Communication
- Culture and Theory
... Paper research abuot Mr.Bae Yong Joon...
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