In this blog post, we’ll examine the sensationalism of tabloid journalism, the nature of witch hunts, and Joyce McKee’s obsessive devotion to love through the story of Joyce McKee, who traveled to England in search of her missing fiancé.
Joyce McKee: In Search of Her Missing Fiancé
The film tells the story of a woman named Joyce McKee who embarks on an adventure to find her fiancé, who has suddenly disappeared. The film opens with a young Joyce McKee reading from a book she wrote about love. Looking at the young Joyce—with her fresh, beautiful appearance—no one would ever imagine her fanatical love.
Defying expectations, Joyce flies to England to find her missing fiancé, Culke. He had gone into hiding in England due to his missionary work for the Mormon Church. The Mormon Church, a cult-like religion, had brainwashed Culke into believing that sex and love are evil. Joyce managed to persuade Culke with great difficulty and stayed with him at a hotel. However, before long, the Mormon Church filed a lawsuit against Joyce, accusing her of rape and kidnapping.
At that point, the tabloids had landed a juicy story. The world was bored, and people were looking for an escape. Joyce, who appeared on the scene at that moment, was prime fodder. After all, a beautiful woman who had kidnapped and raped a man was a character unlike any seen before. The tabloids turned her into a sensation overnight.
By the time Joyce was released from prison, she had become more famous than any celebrity. During interviews, Joyce spoke about her tumultuous life, sometimes shedding tears and other times breaking into laughter. Seeing her like that, I began to wonder: Did the tabloids really only have a negative impact on her? I started to think that perhaps they had actually served as a driving force in her life.
Why Do Tabloids Capture People’s Attention?
What Is a “Tabloid”?
Tabloids are understood in various ways: the publicization of private experiences, differentiation from mainstream journalism, and trivial news. From a micro perspective, they also refer to a news format that caters to reader preferences and commercial demands.
The content, format, and style of tabloid journalism are distinctly different from those of highbrow publications. It primarily covers entertainment and leisure news rather than newsworthy stories; domestic news rather than international news; and sensational soft news—such as sports, crime, and celebrity stories—rather than hard news like politics and economics. It focuses on immediate reporting rather than a long-term approach. Furthermore, photographs and headlines take up more space than text, short sentences are preferred over long ones, and colloquial language is used more often than formal written language.
More space is devoted to the private lives of public figures than to their public roles. It emphasizes unusual stories and focuses on individuals rather than institutions. Because of these characteristics, tabloid journalism is widely regarded as synonymous with sensationalism that stokes people’s superficial interests.
So why did the director choose “tabloid” as his subject?
The term “tabloid” may sound unfamiliar, but once you understand its meaning, it will likely feel quite familiar in this era of widespread internet access. As mentioned earlier, “tabloids devote more space to a person’s private life than to their public life. It emphasizes unusual stories and focuses on the individual rather than the institution.” This is because it describes what happens time and again on the portal sites, online news outlets, and online communities we encounter so frequently.
Targeting a specific individual for criticism is a classic human error. Ever since witch hunts first emerged in the 15th century, people have constantly sought to condemn others. Because this is linked to the fundamentally weak nature of human beings, it is an inescapable fate.
The more time people spend accepting themselves fully and focusing on themselves, the more they suffer from self-loathing and helplessness. It follows the same principle as appearance-obsession, which ignores the whole—that is, the essence—and fixates on trivial details. Therefore, people must find other topics to focus on besides themselves.
Tabloids, which were once the epitome of witch hunts, remain a subject capable of capturing the attention of modern audiences. In the 1970s, Joyce McKee became a topic of public discussion, and the film delves into the reality of her situation.
What does love mean to Joyce?
The film begins with Joyce traveling to England to find her missing fiancé, Culke. This alone shows just how significant love is to Joyce. For her, love is not simply one element necessary for living her life—it is her entire life.
This is evident even from her decision to clone her pet dog, Booger. She flew all the way to South Korea, on the other side of the globe, and earnestly pleaded for Booger to be cloned—even spending a fortune to do so.
People who feel a sense of lack try to find fulfillment through the affection of others. Her first object of affection was Culke, and her second was her dog, Booger. In fact, while an ordinary woman might initially be heartbroken and saddened by the sudden disappearance of her fiancé, she wouldn’t devote her entire life to finding him.
Yet, even as she recalls the hardships and tumultuous events she faced on her journey to find Culke, her eyes still shine. For Joyce, for whom love is her entire life, these actions were the driving force that kept her going.
In fact, viewers may question her fanatical, blind faith in love. They might wonder, “Are all her claims really correct?”
In the film, the director maintains a neutral stance by simultaneously offering a scathing critique of the tabloids’ witch-hunt-style media frenzy while also highlighting Joyce’s obsessive devotion to love. Whichever side the audience chooses to believe is ultimately up to them.
By creating this structure, the director once again highlights the irony of the witch hunt. The film does not define what is true and what is false. After all, audiences will inevitably choose and trust what they want to believe—whether it’s the tabloids, notorious for their witch-hunt-style media campaigns, or the love-struck Joyce.
I think this is precisely what the director wanted to convey. Even though we know witch hunts are wrong, we once again put on our colored glasses and see and hear only what we want to.
Why I Chose the Film “Tabloid”
I had done some preliminary research on “Four Pillars of Destiny” beforehand. In fact, the subject of the Four Pillars of Destiny is highly controversial. Some would say it’s nothing more than a hollow ritual that exploits the psychology of weak-willed people, while others would place unlimited trust in it, claiming it’s a discipline already scientifically proven.
I didn’t want to lean toward any one viewpoint while producing a documentary on the four pillars of destiny. As the film ‘Tabloid’ demonstrated, I wanted to express a neutral stance without losing the director’s perspective and individuality.
This film tackles a potentially heavy subject by incorporating animated elements and reenactments in a kitschy style, ensuring the audience doesn’t feel repelled when approaching the topic. Another striking aspect was the editing technique, which created cinematic tension. The screen would always go black after one of Joyce’s meaningful interviews, and the tension and curiosity generated by this editing technique were inevitably amplified tremendously.
The film skillfully and lightheartedly unfolds the tragic story of a woman that could have been quite heavy. Even though her life became the target of a witch hunt because of love, it was a film that made you want to fall in love.
