폭력의 감각

As is well known, the “National Security Law” was enacted in 1949, and the “Anti-Communist Law” in 1961, giving South Korea’s anti-communist ideology unprecedented regulatory power. Director Kim Mooyoung pays attention to the anti-communist films produced during the era when the Anti-Communist Law was enforced, as well as the films that were re-edited and released due to censorship, contemplating the capacity and status of images. At the same time, he densely layers scenes of extensive archival footage with historical value, architecture embedded with anti-communist ideology, and tragic places and faces swept up in anti-communist movements, creating tension between the content of the first-person voiceover narration and the images. In doing so, he reconstructs the history that the country sought to conceal. After watching The Sense of Violence, viewers will realize that the opening narration —“The voice gropes the memory of the image. Now, I will try to remember the image by following the voice.” — was the film’s earnest methodology.