The comedy of manners is a theatrical genre that satirizes the manners and mores of pretentious characters from the upper class. Characters in Day at the Amusement Park disguise their true passion and desire with society’s unwritten rules of decorum and allow cultural practices to dictate their behavior more than having the political ideology control them. Being conscientious of how the public might view oneself and how one ought to behave in public dominate the rationality and attitude of the characters. The comedy is found not only in the misunderstandings and mistaken identities in the plot, but also in the characters’ strict observance of decorum and in the explosive revealing of their pent up desires. Comedy is one of the performative ways of revealing to the audience the blunders, internal paradoxes, and disillusionment of social and political life. The subject of social decorum and cultural practices in this film may help South Korean viewers look past the political barrier and appreciate the importance of humor and farce in the North Korean culture.

• Immanuel Kim(Assistant Professor, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies Binghamton University)