Ohinyong Confronts Challenges

“Welcome to the hell of celebrities!” This is the voice of the five members of a flash animation production team, Ohinyong (www.5p.co.kr). They are the graduates of Kaywon School of Art& Design graduates: Devil(Jang Seok-jo), Hyeokgoon (Jeong Ji-hyeok), Seedrock (Jang Dong-hyeok), Sickman (Jang Dong-hyeok) and Captain Cheon (Cheon Sang-min). With their usual themes of military service and issues related to Korea’s patriarchal system, they produce animations that contain unfiltered language including four-letter words. Because of these factors, their animations provide the audience with catharsis and an emotional outlet. Since Ohinyong produced their first animation in 2002, their animations have been rapidly spreading on the Internet in Korea as being called a B-rated culture. To date, they have created approximately 400 animations, but the sum of the difficulties and controversies they have endured during the production processes well illustrates the problem of Korea’s online culture as a whole. They struggled to walk a fine line between the freedom of expression and the issues of defamation of character and the right of publicity. They have recently released a comic book titled “Unexempt Man from Military Service.” This paper met with the five members of Ohinyong to candidly discuss what the B-rated culture really is and how serious it can be.

Deviation a Key in the B-rated Culture-

The reasons behind their emergence as pioneers in B-rated culture, or more frequently called “Ssammai” (meaning “third rate” in Japanese) culture, are their deviant themes and expressions.

“Our animations are full of explosive sounds, such as sounds that indicate somebody is beaten up like ‘Whack! Whack,’ four-letter words, and people with grotesque faces. So I guess our animations are not about pleasant themes.”

Jang Seok-jo stated, “Other flash animations feature marketable characters such as the cuddlesome rabbit Mashimaro or a cute Chinese girl named Pucca. However, we just wanted to create characters that we can see around us.”

Jang Dong-hyeok said, “Our use of four-letter words generated huge repercussions. Even at that time, it was almost unimaginable to put curses into a flash animation. So we got our name called after we put the swearing in the animations (laughs). However, frankly speaking, isn’t it common that when men are with their male friends, they might say four-letter words in conversation between them? I just want to describe the unscreened daily lives of people.”

Since they proclaim themselves as B-rated culture producers, trying to find a grand meaning or noble lesson was just like “trying to find a penguin in a desert.”

The paper asked, “Many people wonder what the exact meaning of ‘Ohinyong is. What is it?”

Jang Seok-jo replied, “It is just like a one-man play or a two-man play in a video game. Since we are five members so we decided to call our team ‘five-man play,’ or ‘Ohinyong.’ However, other people bothered to attach some kind of meaning to us, like five dragons. But we are simply talking what we like to talk.”

Clashes with the Establishment-

The group criticized many singers who were under suspicion of evading the military service in their flash animation called “The Hell of Celebrities.” In the animation, they switched alleged draft dodgers’ names from Moon Hee-jun to Moo Nue-joong, Yoo Seung-jun (or Steve Seungjun Yoo) to Stevoong Yoo and Lee Hyun-doh to Are Hyun-do. At that time, the animation received enthusiastic support from many Internet users. The number of hits of the animation alone was 60 million. However, they had to pay a hefty price for the popularity of the animation because they were sued by the agencies representing the three celebrities.

The paper asked, “How did you feel when you were sued?”

Jang Seok-jo replied, “I felt disappointed. In the newspapers, even the president can be depicted as or compared to a puppy or a mouse. What I did was just describing the celebrities who didn’t finish their military services as ‘a half-witted private.’ Did I deserve to be sued for that? In any regard, we eventually removed the flash on the Internet and create completely fictional characters instead. The price for the four letters, which put us at the forefront of B-rated culture, was also high.”

Communication- The B-rated culture that “Ohinyong” is making

The illusion of mainstream culture that filters out all unreasonable factors and contradictions of reality may appeal to audiences as a sweat dream. However, it is difficult for audiences in the real world to feel sympathy toward mainstream culture. So, through their animations, Ohinyong tries to show average people’s daily lives, without adding or omitting anything. This is where the real strength of Ohinyong lies.

Cheon Sang-min remarked, “Whenever I watch dramas on the television, I see so many absurd things. People are only concerned about their love lives while not working at all, and students do not study, either. But we deal with daily topics like the military service or issues related to the fathers of Korea in an honest way because we put the highest priority on sympathy and association with the audience.”

Such a straightforward approach to the daily lives has yielded unexpected results of communication.

Min Sang-sik stated, “One father sent an e-mail to us and said that he had recently gotten an opportunity to talk with his son after watching our flash animation about military lives. Another woman said she watched an Ohinyong animation together with her mother-in-law.”

However, in Korean society, the B-rated culture still has a long way to go.

Jeong Ji-hyeok shared with us, “Korea’s animation, “My Beautiful Girl, Mary” was highly praised overseas for its outstanding visual images. However, in Korea, the animation was criticized for its weak story and was turned away. This shows that in Korea, if it is not something the majority enjoys, it is destined to be criticized. The same is true for the curses in our animation. I think that many people fail to enjoy a culture if they find out it is B-rated.”

Although they seem to randomly curse at whatever they want, they do have ground rules. They think there should be standards and rules even in the B-rated culture.

Regarding this, Jang Seok-jo said, “In fact, Ohinyong does indeed control the level of swearing. For example, we never say words that disparage or humiliate women. When reviewing our animation after producing it, we replace the curses that might offend the audience with other ones. I think that those four-letter words is more like a seasoning to excite the animation.”

It has been five years since they advanced onto the Internet; the ultimate forum for competition. However, as the “loser” with so many followers, the group has become even more cautious than before.

Jang Dong-hyeok stated, “Recently, the online culture has become so childish and is heading toward a culture for the ‘jerks.’ There should be a clear line between unreasonable defamation and constructive criticism. As more and more people grow to like our animations, perhaps I have begun to consider the implications and influence that we can have on the society. Maybe I have become older (laughs).”

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