• 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.