초록
Between January to September 2014, official box office statistics reported more than 85 million domestic viewers of Korean films, up from 36 million in 2004 alone, the year for which official box office statistics became first available. Various cultural activities including film, have been introduced and enjoyed from 2000, and movies still hold the majority share. Although the Korean movie market volume has increased dramatically since 2003 in the past decade, its experimentations in pursuit of various interpretations and topics with regards to content, has led to dissatisfied responses from audiences. 2010 marked the beginning of the release of historical heroic figure films. Myung Ryang has hit the all-time box office success with 17 billion audiences after its release this summer of 2014. The record is still climbing to an all-time high record. On the surface, the film is an action film based on historical events, but a closer examination suggests that the motive behind the plot may possibly be an attempt to create a brand new Korean film style, or "Korean-Style Superhero Film (KSF)," in the likes of Hollywood-style and French-style films. During this early stage of KSFs, signs of limitations as a superhero movie are still apparent, as their rather flat plots and characters of its superheroes are very much in line with the traditional historical drama film genres. Superhero movies in Hollywood have been crossed varied genres. In many different genres of film today, many of the past one –dimensional comics superheroes now lead various stories successfully with poignant moments of being confused, doubtful, and agonized as the plot develops. The research aims to elucidate the next directions KSF should take in order to create a more diverse character in a superhero in terms of its forms and sub-aspects. This is done by examining the storytelling and characters of two Hollywood hero films, X-men and Batman directed and produced by Bryan Singer and Christopher Nolan, respectively.
