KJCKorea
Journal Central

This article aims to read the contradictions of a state system that relentlessly enforces a politics of death by examining the patterns of structural violence in the OTT drama <Moving>. Unlike conventional superhero narratives, the ‘Korean superhero’ in <Moving> is forced to become a ‘non-being’ while sacrificing himself unilaterally to state power. The state distinguished between insiders and outsiders solely by whether their superpowers could be used for state power. Thus, superheroes are no longer judged by their extraordinary abilities, but by their ability to become ordinary members of society, to resist the state system in their own way, to prevent unhappy lives from being passed on to the next generation, and to envision new possibilities for political motivations. A society in which an individual’s life needs are determined by a state imposed identity, and furthermore, a society that controls the lives of others for profit, is a terrible thing. <Moving> is significant for expanding the scope of the fantasy genre by showing through an imaginative narrative that it is the empathy and solidarity of the members of a society that can overthrow a harsh and miserable society, offering the possibility of resisting corrupt authorities.

Moving, superhero, structural violence, non-being, political motivations