Cartoon:
Land
of the Wind of Kim Jin
by
Kim So-Young
March, 2000
 It has been eight
years since this work was first
shown. In September of
1999, the 16th volume
was released and Part 3 is in
progress. (Part 1 is the story
of princess Moohyul and King
Yuri, Part 2 of Moohyul who
became King, and Part 3 of Moohyul
and Hodong, along with a princess
character, who grows up and
becomes a man. In the 17th volume,
Hodong and Nakrang Princess
Sabi may meet.)
The genre of Land
of the Wind is fantasy.
Its
background is Korean history.
Boy-meets-girl
stories, history and fantasy
are all shown in this work.
The story unfolds, centering
on the third king of Kogooryeo,
"Daemooshin,"
who
intended to expand his country
beyond the Booyeo, Nakrang and
Chinese Han Empire, and for
his son Hodong.
The story may develop
through wars with neighboring
countries and in its characters'
adventures. But Land
of the Wind shows
their sadness and agony in epic
proportions, as well.
King Yuri, compared
to the previous king, Dongmyoungseong
of Kogooryo, lived in perpetual
fear that he might not be recognized
as a king and killed both of
his sons when he felt threatened.
King
Daemooshin, pledged not to be
such a man, but when he becomes
king he grows to be like his
father. Hodong, the son of
king Daemooshin, observes his
father's change to a hard, cold
person. So, the main theme
of this work is the growing
solitude of a king who may have
the world but loses love and
his family, and the agony of
others who see the changing
king. We are moved by the harmony
of the characters in this narration
expressed so poetically and
by the thick lines that may
not easily be shown in boy-meets-girl
stories.
The writer, Kim Jin,
creates a new country called
Kogooryeo, known only through
history books, with her own
imagination. Of course, this work
is entirely accurate.
It
concentrates on the inner life
of the people who lived then
rather than striving for historical
truth.
Land of the Wind
created
a sensation as an online game,
and the writer Kim Jin performed
characterizations in the game
Genesis
Jin,
who debuted with A Bird to the Sea in 1983
won the Great Prize for Korea
Cartoon Publishing in 1997 with
The
Name of the Forest deals
with The Keumjeong Cave
Accident during the Korean
War. She is now a professor
in the Social Education School
of Myoungji University, and
says her hope is that her
readers
view her works with sensitivity
rather than logic.
*Booyeo: The country
founded by Haemosoo who landed
on a wagon drawn by five dragons
sent from the heavens about
3200 years ago.
*Kogooryeo:
The country founded by Joomong
who was fathered by the king
of Booyeo and born to the daughter
of Habaek (the god of water)
in Manchuria in the middle of
the 1st
century
before Christ. Most of the current
northeastern Chinese area belonged
to Kogooryeo. |