A estética Juche: fragmentos de um realismo socialista no cinema norte-coreano de Shin Sang-ok

Abstract

Based on Ferro (1975) and his conclusions on History and Cinema and from the observations on Cinema and Politics by Furhammar and Isaksson (1976) and Hennebelle (1978), we find that the film is more than an object of mere entertainment. Thus, based on the ideas of cinematographic discourse coined by Xavier (2008), we intend to study Juche Aesthetics, Kim Jong-il's theory for North Korea, which limits art to a way of educating and raising the consciousness of the proletariat. To do so, we elaborated an analysis of Pulgasari (1985), a production made when the South Korean director Shin Sang-ok was kidnapped by the North as a way to leverage the country's industry. The movie, which takes place in Feudal Korea and focuses on a giant monster that feeds on iron, aims to recreate society in the eyes of socialism. In our investigation, we found that a number of cinematographic resources were used to achieve this goal.