Why Korean Screens?

K-Drama and Korean Film

Course 1 · Chapter 1 · Why Korean Screen Culture? Scope & Sources

In a few years, films and television series made in South Korea went from the margins of the world's screens to the middle of them. This chapter sets out why that happened, what the course covers and leaves out, how to tell what is recorded from what is legend, and how to follow up what you read.

How this chapter was checked The facts here come from Wikipedia's articles on the Korean Wave, Parasite (2019 film) and Squid Game, as I read them. In each case I read only the first part of a long article, and I say where an article hedges or disagrees with itself. I read no books, archives or industry reports.

Two Landmarks

Two titles show how far Korean screens have travelled.

TitleWhat the article says
Parasite (2019), directed by Bong Joon-hoPremiered at Cannes on 21 May 2019 and became "the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or." At the 92nd Academy Awards it won four awards, including Best Picture, and is described as the "first non-English language film in Academy Awards history to win Best Picture." Worldwide box office: $258.1 million against a budget of $11.4 million. In brief: a poor family gradually places its members in jobs in a wealthy household.
Squid Game (2021), created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for NetflixReleased worldwide on 17 September 2021, with nine episodes in the first season. The article says the first season received "six Primetime Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe", and that it "became Netflix's most-watched series" (with no number and no visible citation in what I read). In brief: indebted, desperate players take part in children's games for a cash prize, and losing means death.
Read the claim carefully "First non-English language film to win Best Picture" is narrower than "first foreign film to win". A footnote in the Parasite article notes that The Artist (2012), which won earlier, was largely silent. "Most-watched" is a Netflix claim, and the Squid Game article gives no figure for it. Big claims about records are worth reading to the end of the sentence.

The Korean Wave

These titles are the visible peak of a longer story. The Wikipedia article on the Korean Wave (hallyu) defines it as "the rise in global interest in South Korean popular culture that has spread rapidly since the 1990s", led by K-pop, K-dramas, K-beauty, K-food and films.

  • The name. The article says the Beijing Youth Daily published "the first known use of the term 'Korean Wave'" on 19 November 1999, to describe growing interest in South Korean TV and pop music.
  • Hallyu 1.0. The article says "the first generation began in China during the late 1990s", mostly through TV dramas in nearby Asian countries. Winter Sonata had a cult following in Japan in 2003 to 2004, and Jewel in the Palace (2003) is credited with the greatest effect in Chinese-speaking countries.
  • Hallyu 2.0. The article dates the "New Korean Wave" from 2008, driven by social media, YouTube and K-pop, with Psy's "Gangnam Style" as a turning point.
  • Spread. The article says the wave reached Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the 2000s, and Europe, the Americas and Africa in the mid-2010s, helped by streaming services such as Netflix.
  • Government support. "The South Korean government promoted hallyu to increase its cultural soft power."
Even the start date is argued The article's own sections do not agree on when the wave began. It says 1997 is "generally considered the start", the Taiwan section says Korean dramas arrived in the early 1990s, and a note cites a drama shown on Chinese television in 1992. It also says the lifting of Japan's import ban happened "in four stages between 1998 and 2004" in one place and in 1998 in another. A date for "the start" depends on what you count: the first export, the first fan base, or the first name for it. The article's tourism section carries a notice that it appears to contain machine-written text, so I rely on nothing from that section.

What This Course Covers

  • Film and television together. As in the French and Japanese courses, the two are one story, because the same directors, actors, money and censorship cross between them.
  • South Korea. The focus is South Korea. Before the 1945 and 1948 division, the cinema of the whole peninsula is covered, because there was one film industry, under Japanese rule. Chapter 3 deals with North Korean film in a short, factual section based on openly available sources, and no more than that.
  • A road map. Chapters 2 to 5 follow film from the silent era to the late 1990s. Chapters 6 and 7 turn to television drama and how a K-drama is built. Chapter 8 looks at five directors, Chapter 9 at festivals, streaming and the global audience, and Chapter 10 pulls the threads together.

What It Leaves Out

  • K-pop, webtoons and festivals. These have their own planned courses. They come into this course only where a drama or film depends on them, such as soundtracks and adaptations of webcomics.
  • Politics as a subject. The politics of Korea is covered in Korean Politics 1 and Korean Politics 2. This course covers state control only as it shaped films.
  • Plots in depth. Films and series are named for reference. I explain a plot only as far as needed, and you do not need to have watched anything.

Record, Legend and Lost Films

Korean film history has an unusual problem: much of the early record is gone. Chapter 2 meets the 1919 kino-drama Righteous Revenge and the 1926 film Arirang, both lost. The Korean cinema article also says that of the films made during the Korean War, "all of the films from that era have since been lost". Three habits help when reading about this subject:

  1. Separate what survives from what is described. A plot summary of a lost film is a description. It is not the film.
  2. Treat "first" with care. Several "first" labels in this course are disputed, and each is marked as such when it comes up.
  3. Watch the hedges. "Widely considered", "said to", "thought to" and "believed to" are the signs that a claim has not been confirmed. This course keeps them.

Where to Watch and Read

Which titles you can watch depends on your country and changes over time, so I give no list of services. Look titles up on a streaming-listings site for your own country or ask a local library, and for older films look for festival retrospectives and restored releases. For reading, Wikipedia is a starting point (this course relies on it for facts and flags where it hedges), and each article has references to follow up. You do not need to watch anything in advance; the chapters stand on their own.

Exercises

Exercise 1

State two facts about Parasite and two about Squid Game from this chapter, and explain why "first non-English language film to win Best Picture" is narrower than "first foreign film to win".

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Explain what the Korean Wave (hallyu) is, who first used the term and when, and describe the difference between Hallyu 1.0 and 2.0. Then give one reason why the date of its "start" is argued.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Describe the scope of this course in four sentences: what it covers, what it leaves out, and how it treats North Korea. Then give three habits for reading about a subject where much of the record is lost.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Parasite: Bong Joon-ho; Cannes premiere 21 May 2019; first Korean Palme d'Or; Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards; $258.1 million worldwide
  • Squid Game: Hwang Dong-hyuk; Netflix; 17 September 2021; nine episodes in season 1
  • Korean Wave (hallyu): term first used in the Beijing Youth Daily, 19 November 1999
  • Hallyu 1.0 / 2.0: late 1990s dramas / from 2008, K-pop and social media
  • Scope: South Korea, plus the whole peninsula before the division; North Korea in one short factual section
  • Habits: separate surviving from described, treat "first" with care, watch the hedges
  • Check: the viewing figures and the exact start of the Korean Wave

Next chapter: The Silent Era and Colonial Cinema, which follows Korean film from the first cinemas to Arirang and the wartime propaganda films.