The Expression Of Christian Ideology In The Dominating Films Of America And South Korea

America's powerful film industry spreads the American films to the other parts of the world,viewers from other countries are familiar with American movies,furthermore,American movies are out of diverse genres which can match the various favors of the audiences,which caused the attention of the film makers from the world,when they saw the success of the U.S.films in the market as well as the cultural success,this leads them to follow the American way of making,attributing and expressing films.In addition,it is undeniable that film is a kind of manifestation and product of ideology.Films are crystallization of the audiences' ideology and a most brilliant way to express ideology.The films of a country are channels and materials for the study of the country's ideology.Among the numerous countries influenced by American films,South Korea is no exception which changed the attitude from boycotting the American films to welcoming them,and the films from South Korea shows the influence from the America in terms of expression.The classic narrative mode of the American films is popular in the world,and it contains an obvious connotation of the expression of the Christian consciousness.This is not only because of the deep Christian culture background of the United States,by just focusing on the narrative style of the mainstream films,it can be clearly seen that the core Christian doctrines exist in the American mainstream films.In this thesis,the Christian consciousness is generalized into three benchmarks: Revelation,Repentance and Justified through Faith.The three benchmarks are also the core doctrines of Christianity,and the common belief experience of the most Christians.The powerful film industry in the United States also came from setbacks and groping.From the new chapter of the film production initiated by David Griffith to the industrial monopoly that hindered the development,from the Hayes code for the moral worries to the rapid development in various genres due to the rating system,the American film industry finally found its position by expressing the Christian consciousness.The narrative mode of South Korean mainstream films was not only influenced by the United States,but also expresses a special Christian consciousness,which is completely opposite to the American Christian consciousness.Excluding the minority films,almost all of the Korean films that are truly internationally renowned show the special Koran Christian consciousness.If the Christian consciousness in the American mainstream films can be defined as: Justified Revelation,Repentance and Justified through Faith,then in the Korean case,on the contrary,it can express the special Christian consciousness of Degenerate Revelation,Stiffness and Degenerate through Faith.It is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored that the mainstream films in the United States and South Korea have diametrically opposite expression tendencies in the case of Christian consciousness.By studying a large number of mainstream films in the United States and South Korea based on the three core doctrines,we can confirm about the extensive and doubtless existence of this phenomenon.Based on such a special phenomenon,the main demonstration of this thesis is proving the relationship between the opposite expression of Christian consciousness of the American and Korean mainstream films and the ideological guidance.The two industries produce films by using the narrative style based on the same religion,but resulted in two opposite tendencies,the reason behind it shouldn't be just about history,but also because of the ideology formed by the history,it can only be counted aesthetically valuable when understanding the guidance from the ideology to the film aesthetic is possible.The relationship between the American and South Korean film expressions are due to the cinematic and religious factors.The popularity of the film has narrowed the distance between the American and South Korean film expression styles and the aesthetic orientation of the audiences,and the Christian background of the two countries is the cause of the opposite relations of the Christian Consciousness Expressions among the mainstream films.The United States is a country founded on the basis of the Christian belief.At least most of the founding fathers praised God for the founding and development of the country.We can have a clear view through the study of the America's founding history,starting from the Declaration of Independence,which is widely considered as the birth certificate of the United States,to the unchangeable constant values that the Americans hold,all have proved that the Christian consciousness is the foundation of American ideology,the ideology of America has a positive attitude toward the existence of the Most High(God to the Christians),that is why they stick to the creed of Liberalism and Individualism.This kind of ideology of that confirms the position of the Most High leads to the righteous tendency of aesthetic in the American mainstream films,which results in the manifestation of the Christian consciousness of Justified Revelation,Repentance and Justified through Faith.Whether Drama of Sci-Fi,such expressions can be found in all genres,such as “The Trueman Show(1998)”,“Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ(1959)”,“The Matrix(1999)”,etc.The narrative procedures are completely consistent with the core doctrines of Christianity :Ordinary people are revealed and chosen for extraordinary purposes,the chosen ones run toward the purposes by faith,encounter obstacles,make the right choices after repentance,and finally victories.These three pictures are all classic works in their respective categories.They all express the justified Christian consciousness in different ways.It can be seen that the Christian consciousness is widely presented in the American films.While in South Korea,the so-called Christian films seem to have been constantly appearing in the market,it is true that Christian elements and symbols are widely seen in many Korean films,in some movies the Christian elements are even used as the main body or background of the stories.However,a deep study would give us a clear view of the truth that the real value of those symbols in most of the movies are no more than the supporting subjects of the Korean ideology,and are not capable of expressing the connotation of Christianity.In the film “Peppermint Candy,2000”,Christianity has no force to cleanse the souls;in “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance,2005”,Christians are nothing but laughingstocks.Many other films without Christian symbols also convey the special Christian consciousness of South Korea.The reason of the trend of expressing the special Christian Consciousness is the awareness caused by the revival of Christianity in South Korea to the traditional humanistic ideology.Such humanistic ideology of South Korea is represented by Confucianism,different from other foreign cultures,Confucianism takes a leading position in South Korea due to its conformity with the ideology of this country.It is easier to understand the prosperity of Confucianism in South Korea by knowing that they hold the perspective of the consensus of “Making the Way Great”(meaning humans define).Those cultures that do not conform to the traditional ideas of South Korea,are inevitably influenced by the solid Korean ideas even though they can take a stand in the country,and Christianity is no exception.Although Christianity made brilliant achievements in preaching after a difficult history,such as the revival in modern Korea known as a miracle,it is still not the dominant ideology of this country.More importantly,the revival of the religion in South Korea heavily relied on the help of the pragmatic factors.For example,Christianity has greatly won the hearts of the people by supporting the movements like Anti-Japanese and fighting against the dictatorship for democratization,which resulted in the increased interests of the Koreans on the hope of the pragmatic factors of Christianity,and such pragmatic factors can be found in the religious motivation and acts among the Korean believers.In this way,the reason why positive Christian consciousness is difficult to become the dominant aesthetic tendency in the Korean films is clear enough to be seen.The phenomenon of the opposite Christian Consciousness Expression between the mainstream American and South Korean films,and the guiding effects on the phenomenon from the different Christian roots of the two countries,are just the cause and the effects,which can be concluded as the theocentric ideology leads to the justifying Christian consciousness,and the humanistic ideology leads out to the degenerate special Christian consciousness.However,the root reason and the contents of such leading effects can only be found in the ideological level,which is the core research content of this thesis,demonstrating the relationship between the different ideologies and the opposite Christian Consciousness Expressions in the American and Korean films.First,through the analysis of the cause and effects of the opposite Christian Consciousness Expressions of the American and Korean mainstream films,the role of the theocentric and humanistic ideologies are verified,this pulls the differences of the two ideologies on one point,which is the awareness of the Most High.The word theocentrism in this thesis is specially defined to be the ideology that acknowledges the idea of one true God,represented by the Hebrew civilization.While the word Humanism specially means the ideologies which believe in the divine power or virtue based on human logic and understanding,represented by the Greek mythology,which doesn't contain the idea of the Most High.Based on the opposite awareness of the Most High from the Greece and Hebrew civilizations,a clear view of the two positions of theocentrism and humanism are set up,which hold the two different ideological stands of America and South Korea.The research starts from the three themes of “whether there is a God”,“whether it is a sin” and “justification or degeneration”,focuses on the awareness of the Most High,analyzes the Christian Consciousness Expressions and the ideological backgrounds of American and Korean mainstream films,and demonstrates the guiding roles of the ideologies to the Christian Consciousness Expressions of the American and Korean mainstream films.The American ideology is the theocentric ideology that acknowledges the Most High,which leads to the undeniable aesthetic tendency of justified consciousness in the American mainstream films,and also shapes the Christian Consciousness Expression of Justified Revelation,Repentance and Justified through Faith in the films.The Korean ideology is the humanistic ideology with the absence of the most high,which leads to the propensity to the expectation of the aesthetic tendency of degenerate consciousness,and results in the special Christian Consciousness Expression of Degenerate Revelation,Stiffness,and Degenerate through Faith in the Korean mainstream films.