Crazy Boy Presentation Visual Aid

Crazy Boy

Korean film industry witnessed a dramatic change in the Korean Film Industry in the 1980s. This is because of the influence of the Hong Kong action movies that made Korean actors to view acting in a different way. In fact, the influence can be compared to the current “Hallyu-Drama” that Asia is witnessing nowadays. After watching the movie, “Crazy Boy”, I remembered the Hong Kong action film called the Police Story’, and ‘Drunken Master (1978)’. It is clear that the movie’s actions and sound are similar to those of the 1980s action films in Hong Kong. In 1985, Lee Doo-Young published the movie “Crazy Boy” in Korea, in his well-documented film, Lee Doo-Young reveals a hero who is ready to fight for moral righteousness in the society. The movie is interesting and captivating.

In most action movies, the main character is living normally and grows up like a normal child. In fact, most if the heroes are morally upright and they become liberators when something unfair happens. ‘Vietman’, 'Super Man’ and ‘Spider Man’ can be the best examples. Similarly, the Movie ‘Crazy Boy’ follows the same trend. Crazy Man is the main character in the movie that appears normal. Actually, Crazy man sometimes even seems like a man with a few bricks shy of a load. Nevertheless, Crazy Man suddenly changes to a very powerful man when he face with unrighteous acts. He retains his righteousness and is facing the unrighteous acts in the society. He is likeable to the audience as he is approachable. Unlike other heroes, Crazy man fabulously captivates the audience with his moral uprightness.

*References

SuperLuchas staff ( 2010). "Caída Extra". SuperLuchas in Spanish. 

Melodrama and Action Film

"The dominant movie form of the 1970s was melodrama, and in particular the hostess melodrama, films about fallen girls who had migrated from the countryside to Seoul to work in factories but ended up as bar girls. In contrast to this genre, which showed the dark side of Korea's economic development, action cinema often tended to opt for the state ideology to reclaim the marginal male and incorporate him into the industrial labor force." (Li, 4)

On the surface, Crazy Boy (1985) is clearly a Hwalkuk film—action driven with a protagonist who is a natural born street fighter but also is handicapped. Hwang Suk-Ah is called “Crazy Boy” by everyone including himself because not only is he driven to fight for justice, but he is generally seen as a bumbling idiot. He even calls himself one. He is the marginalized male, socially awkward and made fun of by everyone. And he also does get incorporated into the industrial labour force, becoming a mechanic after Thriller disbands.

However, there are also things that make it a melodrama. All the girls in Thriller have a dream to make it big but end up becoming fallen girls by losing their gig at one club, getting gang-raped and almost committing suicide, and having their one chance at becoming famous turn out to be a scam where they were going to unknowingly smuggle drugs then get turned into prostitutes.

Essentially, Crazy Boy is really neither. It is missing the integral part of being a Hwalkuk film where it must be a commentary against Japanese forces because the force of evil is just other people – thieves, smugglers, rapists. But it also is not a melodrama because the girls are not completely fallen at the end, and the plot is still mostly action-driven.

Dolai Action Film & 1980s South Korea/Seoul

Set in 1980s Seoul, Suk-ah, nicknamed “Dolai” for being foolish, is a nice shy manager who not only takes care of his female members of "Thrillers", but also protects them from danger. Even though the girls treat him as an errand boy, Dolai constantly guards them from thugs, pickpockets, perverts, robbers, burglars, bar owners, rapists, and drug dealers who try to enslave girls as prostitutes. He also risks his own life for anyone who is in trouble. Dolai becomes this “superhero figure” every time he witnesses injustice, defeating evil characters by performing Jackie Chan-like martial arts.

In this film, one could see Dolai as this “handicapped action hero” (Kim 99) who shows some peculiar traits such as being silly and submissive in front of girls and bar managers respectively, which are quite the opposite characters from the typical heroes that he or she is familiar with. Even though the film has its influence from Hollywood (Kim 104), it still retains some characters from Hong Kong action movies. For example, Dolai shows some decent fighting skills similar to those of Jackie Chan in the scene where he fights against thugs who are trying to steal a drunk man’s wallet. Also Dolai reveals “hwal-ryok”, vitality which means “the form of energy directed against authority” (Kim 110) every time he faces crooks such as Jin-ho and bar owners and managers who symbolize evil and corrupted power and dominance in South Korean society.

The film does an excellent job of portraying South Korean society of 1980s in which

“consumer opportunities blossomed and South Korean economy sky-rocketed” (Nelson 114-115). South Korea or at least Seoul is seen as a developed and modernized country/city where people wear western-styled clothes, drive imported cars such as Cadillac, and drink coffee at fancy cafes. Food is abundant as one sees too many restaurants, and goods such as expansive bags are stacked in department stores. Young people seem to spend their leisure time by dining at American restaurants and going to ski resorts and cottages. People do not hesitate to take money from their wallets every time they buy goods. Taxis are everywhere on the street dropping and waiting for customers; neon signs are brightly lit during nighttime.  By seeing all this, foreigners would forget 1950s Korea which was one of the world’s poorest nations. The living standard in South Korea has definitely improved by these visible signs.

However, things are not so bright and glamorous as viewers find out hidden aspects of South Korean society shown through characters in the film.  Burglary and robbery are common. Crooks are everywhere to exploit girls. There is not only an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, but the poor are not benefitting from those trickles from the South Korean economic boom. For example, Shin-ae reveals her impoverished childhood life by telling her friends about how her mother sold seeds at the market to raise her after her father ran way with his new wife, how she did not have enough to eat or wear and enough money to buy lunch so instead she would satisfy her hunger by drinking water from faucet, and how she tried to make a living by working as a waitress and a factory girl.

In addition, the philosophy of frugality as a public moral value (Nelson 107) is mentioned throughout the film indicating that this thought is still within people's minds even though consumerism is on the rise.  In one scene, Dolai tells girls they should not buy lots of clothes at a department store suggesting that these girls are committing an action of “Kwasobi” meaning excessive consumption (Nelson 107). Also in the taxi scene, when a member complains about not taking two cabs, her fellow member responds right away “It is a way of saving money."

Gender Reversal and Masculinity

Crazy Boy is South Korean film with traditional Honk Kong-like martial arts camera works and tropes.  Seok, the protagonist of the film, is portrayed to be meek and somewhat of a “little brother” figure to the girls in thriller despite him being the manager.  Though as the film progresses, it is revealed that Seok is a man burning with justice and he turns out to be a great fighter who is able to stand his ground.  This is something similar to the superman trope or other works of fiction that is akin to nerd romanticism.  On the surface, Seok’s masculinity seems to be denied or being made a target of comedy, when the girls of the Thriller gets themselves into danger, Seok manages to re-establish his masculinity by saving them or solving the problems they have. 

There is also the way the film portrays masculinity as dangerous, dirty, and deceitful with the rest of the male cast who most turns out to be evil people taking advantage of the girls in Thriller.  Even the camera shots when these male characters are present usually are close shots on the female figure, mostly where sexual arousal is hinted, giving a sense again that men are dangerous.  There is also Seok and one of the girl’s mother constantly pointing out how men are dangerous creatures and how unsafe it is for women to be out at night.  What this manages to achieve in the long run is a character contrast between the male characters and Seok himself.  The contrast further emphasizes or justifies Seok’s presence and masculinity in the film.  Thus, it is hard to say that there is a reversal in gender roles taking place despite the social hierarchy between Seok and the girls during a peaceful time when the gender reversal is used as an instrument or a device to affirm Seok’s masculinity in the film.

Lenin Amaya 

Consumerism in Crazy Boy

Consumerism in Crazy Boy is personified through the women of Thriller, their bodies, their music and their appeal. The opening shot of the movie is of each of the band member’s legs and/or face stepping out of a cab, dressed in glamorous Westernized clothes and high heels. This one scene is telling of what continues through the rest of the movie, close ups of their bodies and faces. In each of their performances, the camera zooms in on hip shaking, legs moving, lips singing, creating an obvious sex appeal for these women that we haven’t seen yet in the films we’ve watched. The extent of this new style of movie can be looked at through the lense of new consumer patterns in South Korea in the 1980’s.

Laura Nelson lays out the consumerist environment during this period, “Consumer opportunities blossomed in the 1980’s. Many South Koreans welcomed the chance to fill their lives with new furniture and appliances, gadgets and automobiles, works of art, expensive hobbies, jewelry, music, and nights out on the town.” (115) The frivolity in Crazy Boy, which takes place in the 80’s, is not hard to miss, the women of Thriller are constantly going out, drinking, smoking, talking about men (rich men in particular). This also applies to the idea that economic development diminished people’s morals to “the worship of mammon” (119), the availability and sexuality of all of the women is exaggerated, as is the men’s reactions to this.

Nelson carries on to say that through these new consumer opportunities, “the conspicuousness of differences between rich and poor,” become much more exaggerated. I found that in the film, consumerism cuts across class boundaries rather than emphasizes them. Yes, the women are always referring to themselves as a “third class band” and are looking to be discovered by rich men, but they themselves are still part of the consumer lifestyle. There are contrasting scenes that display this unity through consumption – first the women are shown in their glamorous clothes and shoes, then they are shown washing their hair and faces squatting over buckets on the ground outside, then they are shown eating out at a restaurant. These contrasting images of their wealth levels makes it seem like they are able to be a part of the new consumer opportunities that Nelson speaks of, no matter what their status is. 

[Crazy Boy] Depiction of modern women

While the action scenes, heavily influenced by the fighting style of Jackie Chan, were interesting to view in the film, Crazy Boy, what attracted me the most was the way women in modern days were treated and represented by men. Released in 1985, Dolai, talks about this so-called crazy boy who works as a manager for the singing girlgroup called Thriller. At first, this main character is depicted as a quiet week boy since most of the members of the group treat him with very little respect, ordering him to carry things for them. But soon later, it seems obvious that the girls need Dolai’s protection since they constantly get into troubles. He not only protects his girlgroup, but he also risks his life for anyone who’s in danger. He fights against injustice no matter how dangerous it is. Although the film seems to focus on making him a superhero, what it actually draws our attention to are the dangerous situations that the girls are continuously put in.  The girls are the representative of Korean modern women in the sense that they don’t fit themselves in with the traditional society, but rather they are determined to achieve their goals and dreams of being big stars. Thus, it is shown in the film that back in the period, society gave more freedom and rights to those women who had always been discriminated. However, as the film emphasizes, women were still being objectified and exposed to danger threatened by men and authorities. In the film, there appear thugs at a bust stop, pickpockets, perverts, burgalars, the drug runners, rapists and the men who want to enslave the girls as prostitutes. The crimes they’ve made or were about to make were so upsetting that they reminded me of the suicide of actress Jang Ja-yeon. In the movie, the owner of the club proposes that if one of the members of Thriller sleeps with him, then then club will help promote the band and make them stars. What happened to Jang was pretty much the same except for the fact that her manager did not beat up the owner to protect her. Even though I knew those men from the film were just fictional characters, I felt disturbed because I was very aware of their existence in our real life now.

Crazy Boy and Potential Capitalist Analyses

crazy girl fashions

shin eun-jeong
min bok-gi
kim mi-hyeon
oh deok
hee-yeon
kim hyon seok-the guy they like
Seung-mi: goes out with the guy


Crazy Boy is a 1985 film about a girl band and their struggle with men, fame and money. Of course, Nelson's Measured Excess piece becomes immediately relevant; we see the evil seductive and wealthy men and the band members "exchanging goods" in a sense--the girls' sexuality for the promises of fame and money and power. It is interesting to consider a transaction whose components are so abstract.

If Japanese colonialism put a strain on Korean economic development like Nelson says, the film could offer us revenge dream. Crazy Boy would be South Korea--the good Samaritan, always stealing back what was taken from the poor, and (of course) saving the women from being raped--and nearly all other men in the film as Japan--violating, scheming, and never having the best intentions in mind.

The men in the film lure the bandmates into their wealthy resort hotel room, where they drug them and attempt to violate them. In this case, what does the luring represent? Perhaps it is the temptation to surrender to Japanese power. It is also interesting that the women have a strong role in the capital of the film--they produce the goods (the music) which becomes available for consumption. Their struggle to fame and fortune is relatable; if the 1980s revealed a heavy consuming boom which emphasized the gap between rich and poor in SK as Nelson says, we can see the women in the band as both producers of goods (music) and simultaneously as everyday consumers who are trying to fight their way to fortune. They play both vital roles in capitalism.

Of course, the men are repeatedly referred to as thieves, while rape is referred to as 'being cheated.' This economizes the movie as a whole, but this also presents an alternative to the sex-for-money transaction discussed above. This suggests that the band members are loyal and functioning capitalist citizens, while the bad guys are cheating this system. This shines a positive light on capitalism and portrays those who cheat the system as violators. It seems sadly impossible for the girls to have a functioning relationship with any man. This presents Capitalism as a gentle and feminine sphere, and those who betray it as cold and harsh.

[Crazy Boy: the Hwalkuk of 80s]

The film Crazy Boy (1985), directed by Lee Doo-yong, which is a comedy, action movie of the 80s. Unlike the previous films watched in class, the film’s integration of the colonial period is not evident. The main characters of the film are the members of quintet vocal team Thriller, and their manager Seok, also kwon as Dol-I. The film illustrates Seok as a devoted manager and a man who cannot tolerate injustice. There were many action scenes shown throughout the movie whenever Seok was fighting against the “bad people” (hooligans, rapists, etc.)

One of the interesting points of the film was the description of the 80s in Korea. The hairstyle, clothing, music all depicted the setting of 80s, and the café, clubs, pool and resorts showed the consuming pattern of the people during that period. (Jeon Yong Rok, who plays the main character Dol-I, was also one of the most popular idols of the time)

             As Kim writes that Korean action movie “was born into this contact zone of transculturation” (101, Kim) I was able to sense the Hong-Kong style action in the film (how Seok fights with his bare hands reminded me of Jackie Chan as well).

Furthermore, as “hwal” in Hwalkuk refers to the “energetic bodily movement” (110, Kim) all the action scenes in the movie could point towards the genre of the film. Moreover, it is mentioned in Kim’s reading that “In contrast with power (kwon-ryok), hwal-ryok signifies vitality. Vitality is the form of energy directed against authority: It is not

non-violence that fights against power, but vitality” (110, Kim). This form of vitality is described by Seok; while the “power” can be seen as the men who are able to take advantage of the women with their wealth and strength, Seok decides to fight against them with vitality, not non-violence (in fact, he uses a lot of violence towards them). In addition, Kim also mentions that “The movies with impaired action starts contact zones where alleged East Asian modernity presents itself as marred but as possessing, nonetheless, a hint of promise for a new start” (110, Kim). Although Seok is not physically impaired, he lost his father; therefore his family could be seen as “incomplete” within the society. Regardless of the fact that he is incomplete, he grows up as an upright citizen, and uses his power/strength to help the weak. 

crazy dolai

The movie begins with a setting that depicts the hectic and crowded Seoul of the 1980s.  

As weird as the movie was, I found it interesting and hilarious to watch.

With the economical development in Korea, citizens gradually focused more on materialism, instead of frugality, one of the core values of confucianism, which prevailed in traditional Korea. The extravagant hairstyles and outfits in the film justifies the era in which “society’s consume trend [was] developing toward extravagance and an all-out dedication to pleasure because the general recognition of the value of abstinence has been erased” (116).

The rapid zooming in and out camera technique used to capture the girls on stage, and the sweeping movement of the camera as it captured them exercising in the swimming pool, as well as many other filmic techniques, shows the male gaze, which is quite disturbing and highly sexualized in the film. 

Although the film tricks us into believing that the director intends to critique the gender issue in Korean society of the 1980s, the plot and the camera techniques show the opposite. The film seems to imply that women who financially support themselves and are not reliant on men will be the ones who would not get ‘hurt’ and be considered as ‘modern'. However, dolai’s presence implies that in order to save and protect women, the presence of a ‘good man’ who knows ‘justice’(like hk movies) is necessary. If you spell dolai(crazy boy) other way around in Korean, it’s spelled as idol. Maybe.. that implies something? Now as we are entering the second decade of the 21st century, 30 years after the film was released, i hope and believe that no such ‘idols’ nor ‘crazy boys’ should exist to protect women, but that women who are equal to men, are independent and that they can protect themselves.(why does protecting herself need to exist in the first place..:( ) In short, we as viewers shouldn't idolize dolai.

All Men are Thieves: Sexuality, Consumption and Capital in Crazy Boy

As many characters in Dolai argue frequently, “all men are thieves.” Perhaps this would make a good motto for the 1985 film--its major focus is the protagonist’s battles to protect his orphanage sisters and their band from evil men who would seek to steal from them.

But steal what, exactly? Their innocence? The women are certainly portrayed as naïve and innocent throughout the film, but they also have several implied sexual encounters--most notably after their two shows at the beginning of the film. They also frequently discuss strategies for romancing said male “thieves”--they are frequently shown manipulating their appearance, mannerisms and attitudes in order to attract their suitors into relationships beneficial to the women. So perhaps innocence isn’t what the men look to take from the women. In that case, is it their sexuality?

In Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea, Laura Nelson discusses capitalism, frugality and how they applied to Korean nationalism in the 20^th century. She specifically discusses “’unearned income’, […] defined as income from investments, assets, and income transfers from others” and its connection to the “pleasure industry,” or the industries related to sex and sexual services (118). Here we find a connection to Crazy Boy--the villains are rich men who have gotten their income through drugs and property acquisition--in other words, unearned income--and who spend it on entertaining and romancing young, sexualized women. Perhaps this romancing is an exchange of capital in and of itself--the men exchange money and expensive outings for the girls’ sexuality. Note here that sex itself, the act, is not necessarily included in the transaction. The girls are merely presenting their sexuality--for example, in the pool scene when they dress in swimsuits and do tantalizing stretches for the men before leaping in the water and caressing their bodies with it. Sexual assault and exploitation on the part of the male characters, then, is the thievery of this sexual capital.

On its surface, the film looks like a classic tale of a celibate hero saving helpless girls and fighting against corrupt men who can’t contain their urges. However, at several points in the film--during discussions between the girls and during the pool scene--the women are shown possessing some degree of ownership over their own sexuality. In essence, the women agree at the end of the film to be more frugal about how they flaunt and spend their sexual capital. Nelson makes a similar connection between frugality and nationalism in historical Korean political discourse. Perhaps the women are reformed into patriots by Dolai’s influence--this would imply that their use of sexual capital was a sign of excessive consumption, and thus negative. However, this reading is complicated somewhat by the highly sexualized way that the camera frames the female characters throughout the film. Perhaps this complicated relationship belies deeper tensions between Korean nationalism, the capitalist system and gender politics.

Crazy Boy

Lee Dooyoung released the film ‘Crazy Boy’ in 1985. The film ‘Crazy Boy’ has four different series. It’s an action film, which contains the story about Seok, the manager of the girl group band, also called Dol-I, revenge the criminal who tries to rape one of the girl group band member. Most of the scenes from this film show similarities with the Hong-Kong film. Also, in the beginning of the film, the scene, where the female characters walk around the street, reminds me of the film ‘The Thieves’ by Choi Donghoon (‘The Thieves’ was released 25 years later than the ‘Crazy Boy’). Unlike the other films we watched previously, this film was not set in the Japanese colonial era. As mentioned in the reading, “Korean action movies provide a space contested by Japanese swordplay, Hong Kong action, and Hollywood action. Hwalkuk, is the term used to indicate plays and movies driven by action scenes” (Kim, 100). Since this film was not set during the Japanese colonial era, the mood (tone) was different from the film ‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird” by Kim JiWoon even though both film contains the genre of the action. Also, Kim mentioned in her reading “the Korean action movie was born into this contact zone of transculturation crowded with Japanese hwalkuk, the James Bond series, and Hong Kong action- a composite form of colonial, semi-colonial, and postcolonial contacts” (Kim, 101).

 Before the film starts, prof Cho mentioned that this film was released after the cencorship law in 1980s. Censorship law has limited the freedom of speech and the press. There were two major period of film censorship in Korea, which were the period of dictatorships and the period of heavy surveillance by the new military regime. In the film, there were some scenes where camera shows the body of the girl group bands even though this film was PG-12 when it first released. However, audience can easily see the sexual scenes within the film in the recent years, where has been a major issue that pits film producers against the Korea media rating Board. I was surprised about those scenes when it showed because usually PG-12 does not contain such those scenes.

Extended Fight Scenes

Dolai is a movie about a girl rock band in South Korea along with their manager, who the girls often call Dolai – or stupid boy.  This film has a lot of influence from Hong Kong action cinema. There are a lot of fight scenes that go on for a very long time. This reminded me of our discussion in class last week about the extended scenes in Dachimawa Lee and The Good The Bad The Weird. The extended scenes in Dolai, however, gave a different feel to the movie. In The Good The Bad The Weird and Dachimawa Lee, the scenes lengths made the viewer feel uncomfortable while watching, and most likely made the viewers wish that the scene was shorter to avoid awkward situations or heightened tensions. 

The lengthened scenes seem to be more of a stylistic choice. They were dramatically long and unnecessary, but the scenes did not make me feel uncomfortable. Also, keep in mind that I’m not including the rape scenes in this category, just the fighting between Dolai and the other men. I was trying to think about reasons other than that of a stylistic homage to Hong Kong action films for the length of the scenes.

First of all, the action scenes add a dimension to Dolai, creating an individual who not only is protective, but also assertive, and takes the issues seriously. In quite a few of the fights he did not have to get physically involved, but made the conscious decision to use physical aggression to get what he wanted out of the situation. Therefore one effect of the lengthened scenes is creating balance between protector and aggressor.

 

The second effect of the scenes has to do with Koreans identifying with a man who is struggling not only financially, but also as a man. He is not taken seriously in his line of work, and is given an underdog-like quality. Having the extended fight scenes make up for any emasculation that he may feel  throughout the rest of the film.

Crazy Boy: Transculturation of the Action Genre

The film Crazy Boy surprised me, and at the same time reminded me of other films that I had seen previously. The reason for my surprise was the level of sexuality in the film. From my limited experience of current Korean movies and dramas, I have found that sexuality is relatively under wraps. Therefore, I found it interesting that whilst in today’s western society everything is sexualized, the Korean film industry has taken an opposite approach. Perhaps, the graphic sexual consequences that the girls face are used to encourage the domestic lifestyle. As the girls find out in an unfortunate turn of events “all men are thieves.” This turns out to be true with every male character except for crazy boy. Who, with his youthful appearance and clumsy nature is the only pure character. Crazy boy is a multifaceted character, first appearing to be the graceless, blundering manager with nothing but good intentions. Then, as soon as he removes his glasses and takes off his jacket, in a Clark Kent like manner, he transforms into this super cool, highly skilled martial artist.

Throughout the film I found myself drawing commonalities between Crazy Boy and other action movies. Specifically, between movies made by other action movie icons, such as; Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The clever comedic martial arts choreography was extremely reminiscent of the amazing Jackie Chan. As well,  inspiration from Bruce Lee was undoubtedly obtained for the film. This reminds me of a concept that Kim mentioned called “transculturation,” (Kim 101) which was defined as, “a phenomenon of the contact zones where subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from material transmitted to the by a dominant or metropolitan culture.” (101 Kim) Referring to this point, Korea is seen gaining inspiration from the metropolitan culture of China. The identification of Korea’s genre of action originates from the influence of many paces and continues to diversify and grow from that point on.

Crazy boy, women, and gisaeng

            The movie Crazy Boy is the first Korean movie that I have ever watched, that was produced in the 80s. The extravagantly curly hair and their fashionable attire made me think back to my mother’s photo album. Many of my mother’s photos from her 20s and 30s are taken in ski resorts and pools, with extravagantly curly hair and fashionable clothes.

            The beginning of the movie starts with a scene where the band women wearing full make-up and chic attire walk proudly in the street – a scene very similar to the one in the well-known American drama Sex and the City. These two works are similar in that they both seem to send a message of the new role of modern and independent women. The effect is further amplified in the Crazy Boy because it is set in Korea where the role of the women historically was conservative. A drastic contrast between the traditional Korean women and the women in Crazy Boy provides a dramatic effect. The movie seems to portray a change in how the Korean women acted, thought, and valued. However, it is important to remember the fact that the women portrayed in the movie are band players. An interesting comparison could be drawn between the women in Crazy Boy and the identity of Korean gisaeng. For example, one of the band members states that she would want to marry a rich guy and become affluent. Even though this is against what is expected from Korean traditional women, it is not in a stark contrast with how we expect gisaeng to think. Therefore, I believe that the movie easily can lead us to think that the majority of Korean women in the 80s thought that way. Further comparison could potentially lead to interesting results. 

Transculturation in Korean Action Films

            Crazy Boy is a Korean cinema released in 1985; the genre of the movie could be considered as an action film. The movie is about a young guy who is a manager of a girl band and never runs away from evil. The crazy boy is depicted in the movie as if he is naïve and innocent. He believes himself as a guardian angel for the girl band “Thriller”. His urge to go on fight with any evil in the movie is very clear and apparent. The audience would easily feel an impression of this movie’s resemblance with Hong Kong action films. In Kim Soyoung’s “Genre as Contact Zone: Hong Kong Action and Korean Hwalkuk”, she defines transculturation as “a phenomenon of the contact zones where subordinated or marginal groups select and invest from materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture (Kim 101). Since South Koreans are restricted from directly going to the Continent, Hong Kong was a place to emulate and of trendsetter for the Korean cinematic culture. It is due to Hong Kong’s economic wealth in the 1960s and 70s. Many Korean action films that resemble with the Hong Kong Action films were mostly released in the 1970s (Kim 99). Plus, transculturation is not only for Korean action films’ resemblances with Hong Kong action movies, but also Korean cinemas in the 1960s and 70s were still largely influenced from the post-colonial Japanese breeze and American culture that dominated after the Korean War. Crazy Boy no longer has the influence of the Japanese colonial authority, but it still has the influence both from Hong Kong and American from my perspective. The Crazy boy seems similar to Jackie Chan of his early days in Hong Kong actions films which action scenes are quite comical. Plus, even his look is similar to Jackie Chan. The prominence of Hong Kong films transmitted to South Korea; not only South Korea imported the Hong Kong action films, but they produced similar actions films that were originally called hwalkuk. Hwalkuk had been in Korea for a while from the Japanese colonial period; however, those films are mostly about young boy who fights against with the colonial authority due to the girl he loves is abused by the colonial force. Even though the dominant male character is still present in Crazy boy and he rescues girls from danger, this movie is quite different from the original hawlkuk. Hence, it is easily noticeable that transculturation was significant in terms of the movie production in South Korea after the colonial period when the dominant cultural materials from the United States and Hong Kong were transmitted to South Korean culture. 

The gender dynamics in The Crazy Boy

I rather appreciate how ambiguous the power dominance could be presented in Crazy Boy – there seems to be two levels of power exchange: through sex and violence. Because of this flow of gender dynamics the audience have a constantly reforming and deforming viewing experience.

The crazy boy is in the center of this power change. He could be the powerful dominant hero, fully showcasing his “maleness” at the same time the timid shy manager who is literally “good for nothing” – the problem is that his power is almost always gained by exercising violence; whereas his women counterpart by their sexual appeal, to an extreme point the audience might question The crazy boy’s sexual ability. Of course it might be assuming to analyze the psychological activities taken by both sex, but the generic pattern is clear: women fully and consciously utilize their sexual leverage to gain attention and power; whereas it seems the crazy boy is somehow forced to be violent due to some legitimized cause. Then when the problem comes, namely the sexual assault, one would have the conclusion that “the girls ask for it” and the guy doesn’t go for trouble but have clean up some other people’s mess– the reluctant hero.

I don’t want to go into the depiction of women this time (enough feminist rant, to whom this blog might concern), but the mirror reflections in the film. There are several scenes where the cameras first shoot from the ceiling mirror or from the glass floor, reflecting her legs – often somehow shaken and distorted. At first I thought it was the hint of power switch: the climax of her gaining sexual dominance over man/audience, but then I realized it was quite the opposite. Reflections, especially the shaken ones are the disfigured and weakened images of the original, meaning she actually loses the essence of  “being”, deprived of her authenticity.

I compare this to the concept of “transculturation”. Although the subordinated/marginal groups could always add unique interpretations to the transmitted materials (by the dominant), the reflection nature of “transculturation” decisively determines it would always be the weakened distortion, even if at the surface it might appear as the reassertion of power and identity.

These are ideas not fully developed – for example is this power (in the film as gender dynamics) structured as linear or pyramidal? Say in the reading the emulation among Japan, Hongkong and South Korea (sometimes also Hollywood) – do the adaptions impose the same cultural capability and influence?t