• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.49
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• pp.113-142
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• 2017

Mamoru Hosoda's (2015) depicts the adventure with which a physically and psychologically isolated boy is growing through a 'Relationship' with surrounding beings. This paper intends to reveal the essence of 'Relationships' and 'True Growth' that the director presents to us. In the film, a boy's adventure is centered on two worlds (the human world and the beast world). Here, the human world refers to a civilized society, and the beast world 'Naturalness' as the inner nature of a human being. The human world and the beast world in the mirror-relationship with the human world were originally a world, and the inside and the outside of the place for all existing things were connected in one. Human beings were never superior to the surrounding beings, but all beings were equal in relationship. The way of thinking in that age is called 'Symmetrical Thinking.' But as human beings opened the road to self-centered civilization, they eliminated 'Nature' inside themselves. As a result, the two worlds (human beings and nature, or the human world and the beast world) were eventually separated. This destroyed not only the human-nature relationship but also the human-to-human relationship, which is one of the characteristics of the civilized society where we currently live. Through the boy's question, "Who am I?", the director suggests to us that the inner nature of a human being as a natural being should be reinstated. This means that a human being restores the "relationship" with all beings (other beings) surrounding himself or herself, which is the only alternative to overcome various violences of the civilized society that we have created. The full growth of a human being is achieved at this point. In this way, offers a reflection on the human civilization and society, and questions the possibility of coexistence with other beings, through cosmic thinking (symmetrical thinking) that we have lost. In this respect, it is a text presented as a 'Model of Maturity' for an immature human society.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.243-277
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• 2020

This paper examines a social and cultural history of horror films through the keyword "technology", focusing on The Spark of Fear: Technology, Society and the Horror Film (2015) written by Brian N. Duchaney. Science fiction film is closely connected with technology in film genres. On the other hand, horror films have been explained in terms of nature/supernatural. In this regard, The Spark of Fear, which accounts for horror film history as (re)actions to the development of technology, is remarkable. Early horror films which were produced under the influence of gothic novels reflected the fear of technology that had been caused by industrial capitalism. For example, in the film Frankenstein (1931), an angry crowd of people lynch the "monster", the creature of technology. This is the action which is aroused by the fear of technology. Furthermore, this mob behavior is suggestive of an uprising of people who have been alienated by industrial capitalism during the Great Depression. In science fiction horror films, which appeared in the post-war boom, the "other" that manifests as aliens is the entity that destroys the value of prosperity during post-war America. While this prosperity is closely related to the life of the middle class in accordance with the suburbanization, the people live conformist lives under the mantle of technologies such as the TV, refrigerator, etc. In the age of the Vietnam War, horror films demonize children, the counter-culture generation against a backdrop of the house that is the place of isolation and confinement. In this place, horror arises from the absolute absence of technology. While media such as videos, internet, and smartphones have reinforced interconnectedness with the outside world since the 1980s, it became another outside influence that we cannot control. "Found-footage" and "torture porn" which were rife in post-9/11 horror films show that the technologies of voyeurism/surveillance and exposure/exhibitionism are near to saturation. In this way, The Spark of Fear provides an opportune insight into the present day in which the expectation and fear of the progress of technology are increasingly becoming inseparable from our daily lives.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.122-168
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• 2017

I tried to understand a folk tale "The half-boy" in terms of analytical psychology. In the story, a lady without children prayed to the Buddha. The white old man came and gave three fishes, but the cat ate half of it. So, she ate two and a half. She gave birth to two perfect sons. The third son had one arm, one leg, and one eye. They grew well. Brothers went to take the civil service examinations, and the half-boy followed. But two brothers did not like the half-boy coming along. So, brothers tied the half-boy to the rocks and trees, and he picked them up with force and gave them down to the yard of the house. And the half-boy followed his brothers again, and brothers tied him with kudzu and put him in front of the tiger. The half-boy won the tiger by betting with cutting kudzu. The half-boy stripped off the tiger's skin. The host coveted the tiger skin and they played with janggi. The half-boy won the game and was permitted to take host's daughter. The half-boy went with a string, a drum, a flea, and a bedbug. He teased host's people with these. The half-boy brought a virgin and lived well. "The Half-Boy" folktale is an old story spread throughout the country. There are similar stories in India and Africa. Unilateral figures are universally distributed archetypal images. In numerous cultures gods and spirits are being portrayed as unilateral figures. In the creation mythology, half-figure beings have immortality. In Indonesian and African folk tales, the half-born boy goes to heaven and merges with its half and becomes perfect. Some of one-sided spirits are harmful to humans but some of one-sided birds, chickens, and spirits are helpful to people. Sometimes half being is a cultural hero who steals grain from heaven or gets some advice how to use bamboo. There are stories that half body becomes a whole body afterwards. But in this folktale and most of the similar folktales, half-figure does not change and maintains half-figure to the end. And as a half-figure he does various great things and marries a virgin. The half-boy symbolizes a psychic experience born in the unconscious. The unconscious contents may seem strange and weird at first and the collective consciousness does not want to accept them. But the unconscious exerts greater power and brings vitality and creativity to consciousness. This folk tale seems to have compensated for the stubborn collective consciousness of our society, which was a Confucian class society. It also allows people to change their attitude toward disabled people and recognize strengths and creativity of the handicapped.