This study aims to analyze Pieta, Kim ki-duk’s 18th and the first Korean film, winning the Leone D’Oro in the Venice film festival, through ‘body’ as subject, in terms of sociology; it focuses on analyzing the meaning of actors’ body and exploring how the social meaning of the body is represented as visual image. The results are as follows:
First, according to a social discourse on the body, the viewpoint of body has been changed, with time or depending on scholars; from Cartesian ‘dichotomy between mind and body’ to Merleau-Ponty’s ‘human body as human being’ and body being ‘desire as production’ or ‘machine desire’ in social perspective. But, most of the social constructionists believe that body can be seen as a social product, not only as a biological one. Body is a social being, therefore can be called a ‘connector’, facilitating social function of body. It is important for us to know the meaning that body as subject gives; the body in the film can be shown as visual image itself. Actors’ body plays a significant role in exploring the cinematic meaning. In short, the film has a dual body structure of Vision.
Second, the meaning of the body in Pieta is divided into two bodies, Kang-do and a mother(Cho Min-soo). Kang-do’s body displays his mental impotence and instinctive sexual desire; the film reveals the deformed relationship between Kang-do and society, showing that kang-do earns a living by doing a bad deed. On the other hand, by expressing Kang-do’s sexual and instinctive desire, it replaces Kang-do impotent, negative body with sourceful one; it implies that Kang-do could be redeemed in a manner. Her body approaches theme of the film, ‘Salvation as pity for human life as it showcases grief and voluptuous beauty.
Third, with regard to analysis on relationship between social behavior of the body and visual image, the visual area in Pieta is mostly represented as being antisocial. Antisocial behavior, as a visual element, as ‘violence, cruelty, and not feeling guilty’ occupies most of the first part and the film shows social message of ‘salvation’ as well as visual image in the second one. The antisocial elements are generally involved in Pieta; the spectators are certain to feel uncomfortable. The discomfort indicates that Kim ki-duk, the director of Pieta, has original directivity with a marked individuality. On the one hand, his directing film in a an antisocial way seems to be in disharmony with Korean audience longing for happy end.