초록
This article examines the production, release and reception of Wonderful Days (Wŏndŏp’ul teisŭ, 2003), in the context of the historical developments and contemporary standing of the Korean animation industry, both at home and around the world. More specifically, this article discusses the transformation of Wonderful Days into Sky Blue, addressing the changes to the film’s content and title, and providing an analysis of the marketing and critical reception of the film in the USA and UK. The film’s Korean identity was largely disguised in its marketing and ignored by reviewers; Wonderful Days is therefore an important example of the limitations of the Korean wave, an instructive case study that reveals a perception of Korean animation as inferior and superficial. Finally, this article concludes with a discussion of South Korea’s internationally co-produced animated films, the release and reception of which also demonstrate the difficulty of Korean animation overcoming its invisibility and establishing a meaningful international identity alongside Japanese animation.
키워드
South Korean cinema, animation, hallyu, transnational cinema, film marketing, Wonderful Days (2003)
INTRODUCTION
The widespread international circulation of South Korean cinema over the last decade has created several distinct markets for Korean film and television. In Asia, the ‘Korean wave’ (or
Korean blockbusters, specifically designed to appeal at home as well as abroad, have also often found international success. However, despite the best efforts of Korean filmmakers and even policymakers, animation is noticeably absent from the Korean cinema wave(s).
The most prominent example of the concerted push for internationally successful theatrical animation is undoubtedly Kim Moon-saeng’s
This article therefore examines the production, release and reception of
KOREAN ANIMATION AT HOME AND ABROAD, FROM THE 1960s TO THE 1990s
The first feature-length full-color animated film produced in South Korea was
Although the rate of animation feature film production in Korea seemed to peak during the 1980s, there were several notable films produced?and exported?in the 1990s. Due in part to “a new government-backed infrastructure in place by 1995” there was a “rejuvenation” of animated film production.
These two films were, however, in spite of, or more likely,
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, therefore, Korean animation found international distribution on a wide scale, but its identity was constantly subsumed under the auspices of other national cinemas. Indeed, this was the defining image of Korean animation: its industry has been well-known since the 1990s as a major production centre for the outsourced, sub-contracted animation of US TV shows like
2 John A. Lent and Kie-Un Yu, “Korean Animation: A Short But Robust Life” in John A. Lent (Ed.)
3 The similarity in the visual design of the robot characters of
4 Lent and Yu, p. 93.
5 Ibid., p. 96.
6 See Jonathan Clements, “‘Snuff Out These Sick Cartoons’: Anime Goes West” in Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements (Eds.)
7 Certainly,
8 The term used in the industry for this kind of production work for other national animation industries is ‘OEM animation’?‘Original Equipment Manufacture.’ This term, while not originally intended to describe the processes of animation production, is nonetheless widely used in public discourses around animation in South Korea. See, for example, Joe Yong-hee, “Critical point for animation” in the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW KOREAN ANIMATION
With the rise of
Among the organisations supporting original Korean animation are the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), and, since 1995, the annual Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF), which encourages such production as a “major part” of its mandate.
Darcy Paquet (who also has an article in the present special issue) identified a growing number of independent animated films produced in the early 2000s, moving into the mainstream with Lee Sung-gang’s 2002 film
9 Ibid.
10 Ben Applegate, “Cartoon fest offers chance to look back” in the
11 Ibid.
12 Doobo Shim, “The Growth of Korean Cultural Industries and the Korean Wave” in Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi (Eds.)
13 It’s also worth noting the efforts of KOCCA to promote
14 Ramin Zahed, “KOCCA Funds $6 Million Toon Studio” in
15 Paquet notes that the intention of the filmmakers was to bring “Korean animation back into the spotlight” through targeting “adults more than children,” “securing the talents of well-known actors to dub the voices of the adult characters,” and operating with a marketing budget which “allowed the film to do extensive advertising and to open on a larger number of screens.” See Darcy Paquet, “
16 Kim (2006), p. 78.
17 Kim blames the failure of
THE PRODUCTION AND DOMESTIC RECEPTION OF WONDERFUL DAYS
The film’s setting, themes, characters and visual style were all carefully calculated to give
The characters were designed to avoid associations with any particular ethnicities or cultures. Director Kim explains that rather than a distinctive Korean style of animation and character design, he aimed for a more standardized and realistic appearance for his main characters; yet the filmmakers also admit that their inspirations for the protagonists were Hollywood stars?the lead male character, Shua, is patterned after Keanu Reeves, and his love interest, Jay, was inspired by Winona Ryder.
This notable lack of culturally or nationally specific signifiers is also a trend found in Japanese
One of anime’s most popular genres, science fiction, is the one that is far less likely to be culturally specific. Although many science fiction anime contain significant elements related to contemporary Japanese issues, they are usually played out across ‘stateless’ fantasyscapes of future cities or faraway galaxies […] the characters in anime often do not look particularly Japanese, instead they participate in what might be called a nonculturally specific anime style.
This approach would seem to contradict the successes of the
It’s clear that this is precisely what
The domestic release of
It was a significant and surprising disappointment, then, when
In retrospect, the film’s failure fit with a pattern of unsuccessful science-fiction blockbusters; the same year
One of the peculiarities of Korean blockbusters can be found in their appeal to a shared sense of Korean history as one possible means of product differentiation from Hollywood and other national cinemas. Many Korean sci-fi blockbusters […] did not even recoup the cost, while blockbusters dealing with North-South relations and specific historical references thrived commercially.
The domestic release of
18 The Producer of
19 Kim Moon-saeng has cited
20 The film’s events and expository opening voiceover initially avoid associating its setting with any real-world locations, but a major strand of the narrative hinges on geography, as the protagonist, Shua, is searching for the island of Gibraltar, believing it to be the last unpolluted place on Earth. A final twist reveals that ‘Sisil Island,’ where the entire narrative has taken place, is in fact Gibraltar. This curious plot thread allows the film to avoid associating its characters with Korea, or any other Asian nations.
21 Kim (2003), p. 27, 31.
22 Susan J. Napier,
23 Ibid.
24 Keehyeung Lee, “Mapping Out the Cultural Politics of ‘the Korean Wave’ in Contemporary South Korea” in Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi (Eds.)
25 Ibid., p. 181.
26 Kim (2003), p. 192.
27 Joe, “Critical point for animation.”
28 Jinhee Choi,
29 Quote from Kim Moon-saeng from the behind-the-scenes documentary included on the South Korean DVD release of
THE INTERNATIONAL CIRCULATION OF SKY BLUE
The emphasis placed on the romance in
Likewise, in the UK,
Given the context of the film’s UK release, it’s perhaps surprising that British critics consistently made reference to the film’s Korean origin; yet their response was generally negative, and a consensus formed that
Joon-Yang Kim predicted that
30 See an interview with Park conducted in 2005: “Producer Sunmin Park talks
31 Robert Koehler, “
32 All quotes from Paul Smith come from a personal interview conducted via email in March 2011.
33 Jamie Russell, “
34 Kim (2006), p. 79.
35 Interview with Smith.
CONTEMPORARY KOREAN ANIMATION: DIVERSITY AND CO-PRODUCTIONS
Following the disappointing domestic reception of
While the success of these films in the domestic market has been variable (and, as many of these projects are significantly less ambitious in terms of mainstream audience appeal, ‘success’ is arguably more difficult to measure), none of them have received international distribution on the scale of
More visible is the CGI children’s film
Another animated co-production, the South Korean-Japanese
36 It’s worth noting that the status of Korean television animation is quite different. The ‘One Source Multi-Use’ (OSMU) model, which promotes the production of as much cross-platform tiein media and merchandising as possible, has been a notable success when applied to TV franchises. The best example of this is
37 The most widely used English title of the film is
38 Though the film did, curiously, receive a theatrical release in China in 2005.
39 Released on DVD in the US under the title
40 Known in Korea by the English-language title
41 “Meaningless prejudices will surely be destroyed!” declares the Japanese trailer; “A new era in full-scale animation collaboration between Korea and Japan!”
42 There is an interesting parallel here with the Western circulation of
CONCLUSION
The pattern of the release and reception of Korean animation in the West suggests its minor status. While Japanese animation has achieved a significant penetration of the Western market, regularly exporting countless TV series, video animations and feature films to a specific (but considerable) audience of fans, Korean animation, when recognized, is seen as little more than an inferior imitator, a minor curiosity.
43 Another indicator of Korean animation’s neglected status in the West is the relative shortage of English-language academic research on the subject. While there is a thriving field of researchers working on Japanese animation, wide-ranging work on Korean animation has yet to appear.
44 See Nikki J. Y. Lee, “Salute to Mr. Vengeance!: The Making of Transnational Auteur Park Chanwook” in Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai (Eds.)
1Korean Cinema , 2003 (Seoul: Korean Film Commission, 2003), p. 180. This figure is several times larger than the average feature film budget at this time.