The Dispersed Desire for “Greater East Asia” and the Divided Perspectives of “Empire” in Colonial Joseon Cinema: In the Case of You and Me (1941)

• In Event: Empire of “Hope”: Ideal and Reality of Greater East Asia in the Imperial War Films

Abstract

You and Me (1941), which can be categorized both as a colonial Joseon film and a national policy propaganda film of “Imperial Japan”, is the first feature film produced by the Press Bureau of Japanese military in Joseon, released immediately before the Pacific War. Its bilateral nature can be confirmed in production staff as well; the director, Heo Young (or Hinatsu Eitaro in Japanese) was a Joseon national residing in Japan, and the script was co-written by him and a Japanese writer Ijima Tadashi. Actors/actresses and other production staff from Joseon, Japan and Manchukuo also participated in the project.
Upon this transnational background, the film promoted the concept of Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere (GEAPS), and also emphasized the Naeseonilche (內鮮一體, the idea that Japan and Joseon are One) policy through the story of characters who apply to the Japanese army to take part in the Sino-Japanese War.
On the other hand, there can be found some inconsistent images of Imperial Japan in the film, which goes against the ideal of GEAPS. The Japanese soldiers in Joseon, for instance, is depicted as a contradictory existence of guardian/invader. This textual complexity can be expanded to the ambiguous contextual environment of the times as Joseon cinema was also placed in a binary position of Imperial Japanese cinema/Colonial “Peninsula” cinema, as confirmed by the transnational composition (Korean/Chinese/Japanese) of the staff. I will therefore argue that You and Me exhibits dispersed desire and divided perspectives shared/contested by the various constituents of empire.

Author

• Chung-beom Ham, Hanyang University