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초록

This paper examines the performative practices and socio-cultural implications of “Beolsaedan” and “Megitte,” focusing on the fandom phenomenon that emerged around Korean women’s independent films in the late 2010s. In contextualizing the “Women’s Cinema New Wave”—characterized by the quantitative increase of female filmmakers and the qualitative enrichment in women’s narratives—this study emphasizes the importance of documenting the contributions of these fandom communities. Section Ⅱ analyzes the factors that shaped the fandom for House of Hummingbird (Beolsae, 2018) and Maggie (Megi, 2018): fascination with the film texts, admiration for the directors and actors, and the formation of selective solidarity. Section Ⅲ explores their performative practices across three dimensions: concurrent online and offline networking; interpretation of film texts and production of fan-generated texts; and the transformation of personal identity and the diffusion of social influence. The fandom culture of “Beolsaedan” and “Megitte” articulates feminist activism, new and old cinephilia, and an active media audience. First, it demonstrates the socio-economic empowerment of female spectators, positioning women’s cinema as a focal point of identity politics while enhancing the commercial viability of the films. Next, it forms a mutually reinforcing relationship with distributors and the media industries through committed consumer engagement. Finally, by expressing sincere respect for the texts and their original creators, the fandom reclaims the discourse of auteur cinema. In doing so, it suggests that the historicization of 21st-century film fandom can be read in dialogue with the history of 20th-century Korean cinephile culture. In sum, Women’s (Cinema New) Wave is one of the dynamic contemporary vectors that reconstructs the semantic network of “good cinema”—inscribing a third territory at the intersection of commercial and independent, mainstream and art films.