The Censorship Over the Movie

            Lee Man Hui’s Marines Who Never Returned is the first movie that we saw in black and white from the course. The film was released in 1963 only ten years after the official armistice of the Korean War. This film is analyzed as a unique movie the director’s “humanistic approach” was worth noting. I think this film is an archetypal war film that the Korean government encouraged filmmakers to produce in the sixties and seventies. However, the reason why the film was outstanding among other war films in South Korea at the time is that the soldiers in the movie were depicted as humane, loving and compassionate. This friendly depiction of soldiers could possibly be a decoy for the military regime to alleviate the tension and fear among the Korean citizens when President Park Chung Hee inaugurated in 1961 after May 16^th Coup-de-tat . During this period, the censorship over, the media and the cultural contents such as films, commercials and soap operas was strict. If there were anything to be seen as communist and anti-military regime, they were strategically censored by the government.

             Lee was smart enough to employ the innocent young girl who loses her family over the battlefield. The soldiers take good care of her and protect her. The young girl, Yong-hee plays an important role as and is in a position of the normal Korean citizens who lost their families during the war and encountered political turmoil after the Korean War. In the movie, Yong-hee feels very safe and comfortable in the male-dominated military. Even though her personality might be originally outgoing and active, it gives a bizarre impression to me how the girl could be so happy after the loss of her mother. She expresses her sadness of the loss in the narration a little bit; however, it is not dominant in the movie. The employment of the young and naïve girl and the depiction of how she socializes with the soldiers she hardly knows show how the war-themed movies of South Korea during the sixties was almost propagandistic of the military regime. It could be easily understandable due to the fact that the films were heavily screened at the time.