“Once the demon gets inside of you, it never goes away. It becomes a part of you. But you have a choice: either you face the fear, or you live with it. For many, many years, I didn’t even know I had a choice. Now, I summon my past demon to face the fear that has become part of my moral compass.”
Theme: Fear as Origin Myth
Episode 1 examines how trauma narratives are mobilized to construct ideological enemies. The film references a 1968 military incident in South Korea that was later amplified through state propaganda and mandatory educational media. Rather than retelling the historical event itself, this episode investigates how the event was repackaged, ritualized, and repeatedly shown to children — transforming grief into nationalist mythology. The “demon” in this episode represents inherited fear: a constructed antagonist used to justify loyalty, obedience, and moral polarization.
“In October 1968, 120 members of the North Korean Commandos landed in the Gangwon Province to create a guerilla base in the mountain region of South Korea. They entered and occupied villages and indoctrinated the villagers. During the offense, the commandos murdered a 9-year-old South Korean boy and his family. His gruesome murder was widely publicized throughout South Korea. “I hate communists,” the boy said. This enraged the commandos. In the following years, the South Korean military regime mobilized anti-communism propaganda using the boy’s story.[1] Numerous statues of the boy were erected, and an anti-communism film was produced. His story was taught, and the film, which included the details of his murder, was mandatory viewing for children in elementary school.
Research Focus
-
How do states convert trauma into ideological fuel?
-
How does repetition normalize fear?
-
What happens when children are exposed to violent propaganda as moral education?
Through stylized duplication, synchronized movement, and exaggerated costume, I perform indoctrination as ritual theater. The repeated figure becomes a visual metaphor for internalized narratives.
The title “Summoning the Demon” refers not to an external enemy, but to the act of reactivating inherited fear within oneself.