Can Transnational Hybrid Films Overcome Western Hegemony?: Bong Joon-ho’s Literalization of Transnational Space in Snowpiercer

Abstract

Using Bong Joon-ho’s English debut film Snowpiercer, the paper examines the fundamental concepts of transnationalism in understanding globalization of Korean cinema and its genre hybrid films. It investigates whether Korean hybrid films can create a transnational space that is free from western dominance. Snowpiercer reconfigures and transgresses the existing conceptual boundaries of transnationalism. Through ‘literalization’ of a transnational space using train that crosses space and time, Bong demonstrates genre hybrid film’s potential to generate a transnational space that is not only culturally viable but also “globally dominant.” However, Western hegemony remained in Bong’s transnational space reveals the inevitable limitation of Hollywood genre adoption strategy: as long as Korean cinema stays dependent on commercial benefits of Hollywood genre, the complete rejection of Western dominance is fundamentally impossible.