The Sense of Violence

Kim Mooyoung analyses the visual material in his found footage film with almost scientific precision (newsreel images, architectural images, film images; images of the enemy, images of women, images of the family), exposing traces of memory of the war of images that began during the Korean War and took on new forms under President Park Chung-hee in the 1960s and 70s. Via images and narratives, state-supporting anti-communist ideologies were built from the ground up. In its artistic portrayal, the censors asked for the real violence to be adorned with feelings of sadness and moral superiority, or to disappear completely. Rigorously edited, The Sense of Violence traces propaganda-fuelled hatred and its camouflaging in the archives to write an alternative film history. An off-screen female narrator comments and reflects on the patterns in which violence has been preserved – in which it is hidden. And at some point, not only do insights become tangible, the pain that propaganda has engraved in the hearts and minds of generations does too. A rich and fabulously argued film that searches for memories that ideology has not reproduced.