The exhibition debuted on January 31 with an opening reception. Guests admired lines of action figure heroes which, reflecting the economic circumstances of the period, were often bland knock-offs of foreign models. Plastic robots ornamented with futuristic weapons captured viewers’ attention just as they had drawn in a generation of Korean boys, treating them to a sneak preview of a fantastic future where science made anything possible. Korean girls’ futures were more limited, circumscribed by the miniature kitchen and hospital utensils and paper dolls that encouraged them to dream only of becoming housewives or nurses.
Many of the items in the exhibit were modeled on cartoon characters popular in Korea during the period, and in particular, characters drawn from Robot Taekwon V, Korea’s first feature-length animated movie. Throughout its run, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood was complemented by programs that explored the importance of animation and Robot Taekwon V to Korean youth culture.
On February 7, Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, a professor in the department of film, television and theater at the University Notre Dame, gave a gallery talk titled “Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity.” Magnan-Park explained how Robot Taekwon V cemented children’s loyalty to an emerging South Korean identity by using a state-sanctioned style of taekwondo to fight off invidious foreign enemies. On March 18, The Korea Society screened Robot Taekwon V for an audience of animation enthusiasts.
Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Film Screening: Robot Taekwon VAnimation feature-film,
produced by Yu Hyon-mok.
Running time: 79 minutes
When an army of giant mecha attack, young martial-arts champion Kim Hoon must pilot Robot Taekwon V to defend the planet! Inspired by Mazinger Z, a Japanese anime popular in 1970s Korea, Robot Taekwon V was the country’s first full-length animated feature and the first to be digitally restored (1976).
- Gallery Talk
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity
with
Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park
Professor of Film, Television and Theatre, University of Notre Dame
Children growing up in South Korea in the1970s faced an overwhelming barrage of cultural influences from the United States and Japan, the nations that, for Koreans, defined the prevailing images of the successful modern industrialized state during the Cold War era. President Park Chung-Hee was determined to bring South Korea into their ranks and, as a means of achieving this goal, adopted an export-driven industrialization policy that laid the economic foundations for the country’s rise to its present status as the 11th largest economic power in the world.
However, merely emulating the American and Japanese models of economic and technological progress could not instill within the Korean population a long-term self-sacrificing work ethic. Rather, the nation needed a Korean-specific hero who could create a vision of a forward-looking, technologized South Korea independent of the type of technological advances that the United States and Japan could already provide.
Kim Cheong-gi’s 1976 animation feature-film Robot Taekwon V signaled a significant contribution in advancing the image of an independent South Korea through the persona of a Korean-specific robot that effectively stands guard against enemies of superior numbers and with access to advanced technology.
This presentation illustrated how the Korean-specific features of Robot Taekwon V encouraged South Korean audiences to celebrate a Korea-centric paradigm of heroism that negated the United States and Japan and more importantly, exorcised the North Korean threat.
About the Presenter
Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park is an assistant professor in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in pan-Asian cinema, sound theory, international action cinema and post-colonial theory. He has previously taught at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, Illinois State University, Wesleyan University, University of Iowa, American University of Paris and the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne.
Exhibition
Gods, Demons and Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism
This exhibition examined the changing social realities of Korean society from the 1950s to the 1990s through a selected reading of Korea’s most popular comic books. Featuring the works of 17 of the best-known artists, the exhibition offered a running commentary that reflected the lives of ordinary people—at once joyful, satirical and penetrating. What shines through these works most prominently is an engaged and vigorous civil society in Korea, continuously challenging and energizing the status quo in whimsical and provocative ways. By so doing, they play an important role in characterizing and distinguishing the culture, sensibility and sentiment of modern Korea.
