I hadn’t thought about (a) — the scare kids into obeying parents factor. I have heard similar tales in Korea, involving tigers and persimmons.

I do go into lots of the rest, though in more and sometimes in less explicit detail. I’ll be editing my comments on the film in the next day or two, after my review of the SF&F Festival goes up…

I will say for that from what I’ve seen, that the kids in older Korean giant monster films were usually pre-teen, that is, definitely children. I do think it’s significant in several different that Hyun-Seo is a teenager, for several reasons — some of which you’ve hit upon here. I’ll get into more in Part 2, though!

On the children thing…

a) well, I wonder if this has similar underpinnings to the way children either misbehave or are fascinated by (usually against adult recommendations) supernatural beings which subsequently carry them away by way of punishment in European and First Nations folktales. That there’s a scare there intended to mean “stay with what is expected and normal, listen to your parents, don’t get fascinated by the alien”

b) And how many of the kids are little kids, also? How many of them are adolescents? Because adolescence is of course a liminal state and the abduction and return ca signify all sorts of stuff, as with the abducted girl in The Host, who also ends up mothering a younger child…although I’m sure you’re going to explore that in part 2.

c) Also to what extent can children stand in for adults’ own unacceptable fascination with the strange and horrific, the children’s experiences perhaps stand in for half-remembered trauma.

c2) To a small child, can’t adults be big noisy monsters quite capable of destroying all sorts of things? Children can express fear and wonder more than adults, because they aren’t expected to be doing all the problem-solving and putting on a brave front.

Of course none of this is culturally specific. But based on what you’ve said so far it comes to mind…