- 著者
-
藤城 孝輔
- 出版者
- 名古屋大学大学院人文学研究科附属超域文化社会センター
- 雑誌
- JunCture : 超域的日本文化研究 (ISSN:18844766)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- no.12, pp.112-124, 2021-03-26
Since early in the first decade of the twenty-first century, the works of Japanese novelist Murakami Haruki have been adapted for film by various international filmmakers. Most of their adaptations have been classified as "arthouse films" because of their having been directed by celebrated auteurs with subsequent circulation in international film festivals. However, what tends to be unrecognized, owing principally to the excessive focus of previous scholarship on art cinema, is the significance of Murakami within global popular culture. While giving close examination of Murakami adaptations and elevating them to the level of high art, the scholars are unable to address how Murakami successfully crosses national borders to permeate the everyday life of people across diverse cultures. This essay examines Acoustic (Eokuseutig, Yoo Sang-hun, 2010), a South Korean omnibus film, restricting analysis here to the second episode, "Bakery Attack," which draws on Murakami's 1981 short story "Pan'ya shūgeki." The episode serves as a star vehicle for its two leading performers, Lee Jong-hyun and Kang Min-hyuk, both of whom were at the time members of the South Korean idol rock band, CNBLUE. Murakami's story has undergone significant modifications not only for relocating the 1980s Japanese narrative to fit a Korean setting in the 2010s, but also for effectively conveying the star image of the male idols as appropriate for transnational audiences. Examples of such changes include those affecting the characterization and interrelationship of the protagonists, elimination of the vagueness which colored the original story, and insertion of a reference to the history of South Korean popular music. Through the unambiguous, transculturally accessible narrative with the characters each exhibiting their performers' public image, the film establishes the rising stars' position within the South Korean entertainment scene as well as in the international market. Murakami's story is used not as a signifier of Japanese culture, but rather as a culturally transferable medium which enables the film and its stars to reach both domestic and global audiences.