Comparative Study on Narrative of Social Issues in Chinese and Korean Films in the New Era: Taking "Burning" and "An Elephant Sitting Still" as Examples

Abstract

The narrative of social issues in films is a topic of common concern for Chinese and Korean films, but they present different styles of film language, theme construction, and cultural expression. The Korean film "Burning" and the Chinese film "An Elephant Sitting Still" involve similar social issues, and their differences are manifested in the destruction in an unsolvable spiritual dilemma and the escape with a sense of emptiness of survival. The explosive force of constructing and deconstructing between reality and virtuality and the parallel interweaving and aggregation of multiple clues, doubts, anger, and despair linked by the "puzzle" are faintly transmitted through the night sky. Although summarizing the full picture of social issue films in China and South Korea through the case of two films is difficult, this article compares the differences between the two from three aspects: the ideological connotations and cultural causes of the films, the narrative structure and image construction, and attempts to identify the significance of the narrative of Korean social issue films in the new century for Chinese films.