DECOLONIZING ROAR: CASE STUDY OF GYEONGSEONG CREATURE

This thesis analyzes the first season of Gyeongseong Creature (2023) directed by Dong-yoon Chung, a Netflix original science fiction series set during the Japanese colonial era in Korea. On the surface, the show may appear to follow the conventions of a typical monster narrative — a mutated creature, produced by reckless scientists, escapes control and plunges its creators into chaos. Yet the creature’s existence carries a far more radical charge, functioning as a vehicle of anti-colonial resistance. Through a textual analysis, this thesis examines the relationship between colonial power and the various forms of counterattack mounted by Korean characters.Central to this analysis is the mother monster, whose significance lies in her subversion of a foundational logic of colonial power. Colonial power has typically been figured as masculine, rationalizing its conquest of the feminized colonized through a rhetoric of natural dominance and desire. In Gyeongseong Creature, however, the mother monster deploys the force of maternity to overturn this hierarchy and overcome the established order. Her power is not derived from sheer physical strength alone; it is the fusion of monstrosity and motherhood that makes her truly threatening, and it is this same fusion that reconnects her to her community rather than severing her from it. The thesis further investigates how other Korean characters resist colonial power, focusing in particular on their sonic strategies. These strategies reveal that the very tools used to oppress can be reclaimed as instruments of resistance, and that what appears to be a symptom of repression may in fact be a deliberate and temporary act in service of a larger mission. A character may be silenced by force or compelled to speak under threat, but they may equally choose silence or choose to raise their voice on their own terms. Underlying and enabling all of these strategies are echoes and resonances generated by the ordinary characters who may seem unimportant and peripheral but who fulfill indispensable roles, moving through the streets, witnessing, and echoing what they see and hear back through the community.