Serial Number: http://www.riss.kr/link?id=A107321717
Title: A Study of the Sexuality and Public Narrative Strategies of AI Robotics Drama: focusing on the television drama “My Absolute Boyfriend”
Author: Park Myeongjin
Journal: The Korean Society of Culture and Convergence
Vol: 43(3)
Pages: 309-333
Date: 2021.
Register Information: KCI
etc.: -
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<Abstract>
The Korean TV drama “My Absolute Boyfriend” is a remake, reference, imitation, and modification of the original Japanese manga, “絶對彼氏,” adapted into the Japanese drama, “絶対彼氏－完全無欠の恋人ロボット－” and the Taiwanese drama “絶對達令” that aired on FTV. The basic idea of the original manga is that love is created between humans and machines by providing a “lover robot” to the heroine who fails to make a lover. The original manga shows that sexual interaction between humans and machines is possible by sexually combining the heroine and the artificial intelligence robot. In the original manga, the robot is a sex robot, which relieves the heroine’s sexual desires. However, in the three adapted television dramas, there is no sexual bond between the heroine and the robot. “My Absolute Boyfriend” transforms the original manga’s sex robot into a romantic guy of melodrama. This can be attributed to the different conditions associated with reading comic books and watching TV dramas. “My Absolute Boyfriend” refers to the original manga and dramas from Japan and Taiwan but adds new content to the Korean context of 2019. While the previous three texts show that the robot was suspended, it broke up with the heroine, and, later, the heroine got a boyfriend, “My Absolute Boyfriend” changed the story to Zero Nine, who waited for the robot to melt down and be recalled to the robot company’s headquarters to be restarted and reappear. In addition, “My Absolute Boyfriend” added a new character, Diana, an heiress in a large monopolistic family. Equipped with robotic arms, Diana is a malicious cyborg who abuses domestic maids and purchases artificial intelligence robots. Diana interferes with the coexistence of humans and robots by despising both. In addition, “My Absolute Boyfriend” relies on existing scientific common sense concerning human-technology interrelationships by establishing that artificial intelligence robots also change characters depending on who kisses them. The more an artifact resembles a human being, the more bizarre and frightening it is, a situation referred to as “uncanny valley.” “My Absolute Boyfriend” does not show the robot’s mechanical parts, which is common in SF culture based on robots. Moreover, characters who find out that Zero Nine is an artificial intelligence robot in the course of the narrative are not shocked or disgusted. As a result, artificial intelligence robots are not portrayed as mechanical devices in “My Absolute Boyfriend” but as young romantic guys. As the drama’s producer revealed, “My Absolute Boyfriend” focuses on “What is the true meaning of love?” As such, absolute love is put forward without attention to various emotions or identity problems that can arise in the symbiosis of humans and machines. “My Absolute Boyfriend” is a drama with post humanist elements. However, the drama focuses on humanistic love, rather than on the subject of posthumanism.
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