This study explores the trauma of a teenage protagonist through both realistic and fantastical narrative developments generated during the writing process of the 9-Episode OTT drama script, Carving.
Following a literature review on realism and fanta...
This study explores the trauma of a teenage protagonist through both realistic and fantastical narrative developments generated during the writing process of the 9-Episode OTT drama script, Carving.
Following a literature review on realism and fantasy genres, the study establishes a foundation by analyzing the author's personal experiences of humiliation and tabulating research on pathological hatred. Furthermore, by analyzing works such as Spirited Away, Typhoon Club, Moving, The Fall, and The House That Jack Built, the study reinforces the protagonist's narrative through specific motifs. These include 'a protagonist who lost their name,' 'youthful deviance and bodily fluids,' 'killing one's past self,' 'cross-cutting and frame narratives,' and 'a mocked third-rate artist'. To authenticate the environment in which the protagonist, Lee Ah-hoon, lived, extensive location research was conducted, ranging from residential areas and international schools in the Philippines to redevelopment sites in South Korea. The narrative expands beyond struggles with adapting to life abroad and same-sex bullying, introducing an inverted gender power dynamic where a powerful female character torments a vulnerable male. This distinctly challenges the conventional trope that depicts only males as perpetrators. Ah-hoon's journey is marked by severe psychological distress, including the shattering of his dream to become a producer, delusions of same-sex rape, and severe mockery regarding his castrated masculinity. Experiencing his current life in the Philippines and his past in Korea through a roller coaster-like cross-narrative, he kills his past self, facing a paradox of simultaneous ruin and growth in a hallucinatory state. As Ah-hoon discovers hidden sexual orientations and violence around him, he degenerates into a monster. Mentally and physically ruined by academic failure, his mother's arbitrary submission of a school dropout form without his consent. His anger violently escalates until he eventually picks up a knife. Even after joining a youth broadcasting station as an out-of-school teenager, he faces continued humiliation, ultimately isolating himself by a self-made video that virtually no views.
Kim Kihwan emphasizes that "While rebelling is a form of carving, diminishing one's own capabilities is also carving." The study concludes by acknowledging structural limitations, such as uneven episode pacing, while asserting that attempting to reduce a human being to a few sentences is an act of violence.