춤추는 괴수, 조절가능한 핵: <대괴수 용가리>와 한국에서의 핵의 사유

Abstract

Long interpreted from the film’s own geopolitical imagination, the 1967 picture Yongary, Monster from the Deep has been read as a fable of the Korean War and the Cold-War-era imagination of a county divided as a result. Despite being an exception in the history of Korean film, the monster can also be seen as the outcome of a certain common genre featuring creatures exposed to radiation. During the 1950s, numerous mutants exposed to radiation flooded the SF film scene in the United States and Japan. The figure of Godzilla, which may well be ranked as the greatest character of this genre, has continued to exist even after first appearing in Japan in 1954 and undergoing dramatic changes in character during the 1960s. Meanwhile, two technical lineages exist in terms of monsters exposed to radiation. While American monsters were made using stop motion, Japanese monsters were brought to life by humans wearing monster suits created for the purpose. Such technical traditions produced what can be seen as a genealogy of monsters exposed to radiation, thus creating the defining features distinguishing Japanese monsters from their American counterparts. What then are the universal and particular features of the image created by Yongary, Monster from the Deep in 1967, produced after inviting the tokusatsu (lit. “special effects”) film specialists from Japan, and what are their significance? By tracing the attitude Korea takes towards nuclear power as the country undergoes liberation in 1945 and the Korean War between 1950 and 1953, this article seeks to reveal the meaning of this monster formed by radiation exposure—an aberrant figure in the history of Korean film—that Yongary, Monster from the Deep shows us. Perhaps this figure was related to the vision Korea had of nuclear power in 1967, when the country, under the nuclear umbrella cast by the United States, was exploring the utilization of atomic energy as it stood along the front lines of the Cold War. Yongary, Monster from the Deep glances at the destructive side of nuclear power as a weapon while at the same time preaching the faith that it can surely be controlled. The Korean young boy, whose country declared the establishment of a state through the advancement of scientific technology (gwahak ipguk), used emitting light to make Yongary dance. Upon this faith, Korea, as we know well, went on to become a country of atomic energy. Korea accepted nuclear power’s image of abundance and prosperity without any suspicion, just like Japan.