Always, Blind, and Silenced: Disability Discourses in Contemporary South Korean Cinema. Issue 3 (August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Diffrient, David Scott
• Is Part Of: Journal of literary & cultural disability studies. Volume 11:Issue 3(2017:Sep.)
• Page Start: 249
• Page End: 270
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Subjects: People with disabilities in literature -- Periodicals; People with disabilities in art -- Periodicals; People with disabilities in motion pictures -- Periodicals; People with disabilities in mass media -- Periodicals; 809.93356105
• DOI: 10.3828/jlcds.2017.21
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-6458

Abstract

Abstract : The article examines three feature-length films produced in South Korea—director Hwang Dong-hyeok's Silenced (2011), Song Il-gon's Always (2011), and An Sang-hun's Blind (2011)—that highlight a problem in contemporary disability rights cinema. While privileging individuals and groups that challenge normative understandings of character-based drama or documentary filmmaking, these motion pictures reflect an infantilizing tendency in popular culture more generally. The representations align with the standard medical approach to the topic, which sees disability as a sickness, a childlike helplessness (regardless of the person's age) that results from an inability, a marked deficit in one's physical or mental performance. However, it is argued that Silenced, a film that provoked legislative changes strengthening the protection of minors in South Korea, at least gestures toward the social model of disability.