• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.59
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• pp.116-137
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• 2012

What is 'nation' and 'nationalism?' What does 'korean nationalism' mean? And how is korean nationalism represented through a chain of films called 'the korean blockbuster films?' The purpose of this study is to answer to these questions. The characteristics of the korean blockbuster films have been studied for quite a long time and the researchers have agreed with the context about nationalism in a large sense. However, majority of the studies ends up in the journalistic or impressionistic criticism without any theoretical discussion. Few theoretical criticisms also have founded on the formation process of nation of the Western Europe and their nationalism. Hence I would like to add the discourse of korean nationalism and to seize more accurately the social/cultural/historical peculiarity of the korean blockbuster films. In addition, as non-nationalist narratives have recently emerged, korean blockbuster films are entering to the evolution process. On this, the significance of this study seems to exist in providing a cornerstone to the expected evolution theory of the korean blockbuster films by means of complementation and reestablishment of nationalism of their first generation. and , presenting socio-historical peculiarity of the Korean nation, are examined by the close textual analysis.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.6 no.11
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• pp.45-55
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• 2006

Korean blockbusters are the works finished by the dialectic of the meeting and collision of two cultures or H. Bhabha's cultural hybridization. They represent things Korean and Western, and yet their borders are demolished to create a new complicated mixture. Typical examples are Swiri, JSA Silmido Taegukgi Whinalimyu, containing a special Korean situation of division ideology and expressing an extremely Western style of production. This thesis will study the present status of Korean film aesthetics through the cultural hybridity.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.115-124
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• 2008

My former thesis was about the present status of Korean film aesthetics of Korean blockbusters through the cultural hybridity. Now this thesis focuses on hybridity and tragedy in Korean blockbusters from the postcolonial perspectives. Typical examples are Shiri, JSA, Taegukgi containing a special Korean situation of division ideology and expressing an extremely Western style of production. These movies hardly provide any historical causes, critical explanation, or vision beyond the discourse of national tragedy. They simply supply sentimental feeling of sympathizing with the misfortune of heroes in the course of national suffering. Therefore, these movies shows limitation not to accomplish postcolonial resistance.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.204-214
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• 2011

This article attenpts to analyze, from the perspective of post-colonialism, 'Goemul'(English title, The Host), the Korean blockbuster movie that scored the greatest box-office success in the history of the Korean cinema. As Goemul eagerly copies the monster movie, a representative genre of Hollywood movies, it has close affinity with Hollywood blockbuster movie in many repects. At the same time, however, it also contains a resistance discourse that criticizes and mocks colonial of Korean society under American influences. This movie successfully carries out a post-colonial cultural translation that transforms mimicry into resistance to colonialsim. Hence, this artcle focuses on how Goemul borrows many aspects of the Hollywood monster movie but goes beyond the simple copying of it to reach post-colonial signification subverting the existing cultural regime.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.42
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• pp.125-150
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• 2016

In the 2000s, Korean cinema maintained the industrial growth on the strength of 10 million audiences and the successful Korean blockbuster. A variety of film materials such as history, politics, social issues, and the division between North and South Korea ideology were addressed in the movies, and one of the movies based on a true story was popular. Accordingly, external size of the film industry has been gradually expanding. Korean public movies have a firm position in the film market, and a diversity of discussion is made as the movies spontaneously get attention. Also, the influence of social media and media which recognized far-reaching powers of public films causes a political and social change, but it also provokes ideology controversy. Objectivity of this study is first to discuss factors and initiating causes that Korean movies have firmly settled as public movies since late 1990s. Secondly, this study considers relation among media, social media. and Korean public film that aroused more arguments on politics, society, and history in 2000s. The powerful influence of films on society not only leads political change but also affects awareness change of audience and the role of social media.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.29
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• pp.209-241
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• 2012

Is a failed blockbuster film? Is there no room for reconsideration of the value of the film in terms of its contents and forms? The purpose of this study is to answer these questions. In 2007, SHIM Hyung-rae's was in the limelight due to the nationalist discourse around the film rather than evaluation of the film itself. In terms of its narrative and formal properties, the film showed the difference from the Korean nationalist blockbuster films. It led to the disaccord and hard-to-understand results of having somewhat disappointed box-office success of 8,500,000 audiences in comparison to the input, of receiving well by a generous part of the audiences absorbed by nationalism, and of getting the critics' cynic criticism of the film's cinematic value. Eventually only provided the cultural battlefield of nationalism, was left as an unnoticed film in the realm of industry and criticism. However, it was interesting that there was a common ground between the film's supporters and the cynic critics. Both sides were being acknowledged that the spectacle of was way out of proportion to the degree that the spectacle was unbalanced with the story unfolding, achieved more than expected. Its spectacle overwhelming the narrative enfever a few audiences, and at the same time, it provided some reasons making critics face away from the film. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine 's aesthetics that 'the spectacle dominating narrative' or 'the narrative as a pretext for showing spectacle,' leading to discussion of artistic/theoretical/critical value and to find out cinematic value of the film being regarded as a failure. In addition, this study is significant in that it suggests that is a new kind of moving image that it cannot be analyzed with existed critical methods of narrative film criticism; as a result, this study provides the chance to be evaluated through a new conceptual frame of the film. In order to grasp the narratological aesthetics, this study focuses on the concept of trickality that Andre Gaudreault suggests, and Tom Gunning's 'the cinema of attractions,' referring to the spectacle-oriented narrativity or the mode of production displaying the spectacle more than the narrative.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.185-190
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• 2019

Historically, the representation of the colonial period has responded closely to the policies and political conditions of the time. The Korean blockbuster , which links the genealogy of Manchuria Western, adopts a safe nationalism frame, upgrading the genre's narrative typology to colorful action and spectacle, including the Japanese army, the Liberation Army, the good and evil, and the confusion of identity. On the other hand, , which deals with the friendship of the poet and the warrior, treats the mental and internal struggles implied by the power of poetry, without resorting to familiar nationalism and heroism. is a thorough genre of rules. If the visual and sensual pleasures of imaginative resilience beyond the bounds of the law are provided within the Rules, inevitably seeks resistance within the colonial empire's legal system. Political, diplomatic, and economic conflicts between Japan and Korea, which have been continuing until recently, reaffirm the framework of nationalism on the screen.