Streaming and Festivals

Korean screen work reached the world by two routes. Films went through the festivals and the Oscars, which this course has followed since Chapter 5. Television went through the internet, first on small subtitling sites and then through Netflix. This chapter follows both routes to the present and looks at the money, the numbers and the criticism.

The Festival Route

Earlier chapters met the films. In short:

• Cannes. Oldboy won the Grand Prix in 2004 (Chapter 5). Parasite was "the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or" in 2019 (Chapter 1). In 2022, the cinema article says Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave and Kore-eda's Broker each won an award, and Song Kang-ho became the first South Korean actor to win Best Actor at Cannes.
• The Oscars. At the 92nd Academy Awards Parasite won four awards, including Best Picture. The cinema article lists Parasite's four wins (Chapter 8 noted the lead's different count).
• At home. The Busan festival, first held in 1996 (Chapter 5), is described as "one of the most significant film festivals in Asia" and is where, in the Hong Sang-soo article, several of his films won prizes.

The Streaming Route Begins

The Korean-drama article gives some dated steps on the way to streaming, though not an account of why they mattered:

• 2008. "Netflix began offering several Korean dramas in November 2008."
• 2009 to 2018. DramaFever offered free, ad-supported streaming in the United States from August 2009; the article's table caption gives its years as 2009 to 2018.
• Viki. It streams with subtitles "in 70 languages".
• Fans abroad. The article lists examples of fan activity from many countries: a "Drama Party" in Paris in 2013, a yearly meeting of a Facebook group in Bangladesh, and "over 400 phone calls and love letters" after the broadcast of Autumn in My Heart in Egypt. These are the article's reports, and I did not check them.

Crash Landing on You, 2019 to 2020

The clearest example of a drama built for both audiences is Crash Landing on You. The article says it aired on tvN from 14 December 2019 to 16 February 2020, in 16 episodes. In South Korea it was livestreamed first on TVING, and internationally Netflix acquired "exclusive distribution rights in over 190 countries."

• The story. A South Korean heiress is blown into North Korea while paragliding, and a captain in the Korean People's Army hides and protects her. The two fall in love across the border. The stars are Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin.
• The release pattern. In Asia, English-speaking regions and Latin America, episodes appeared on Netflix right after each Korean broadcast; in Japan and Europe, the full series was released on 16 February 2020.
• The money and places. The article gives a budget of "approximately US$20 million", attributed to a business newspaper. It was filmed in Switzerland, in Mongolia (standing in for Pyongyang) and in South Korea. The lead says the series increased tourism to its Swiss locations, without figures.
• Ratings. The lead gives the finale at 21.7 percent nationwide, and says it was the highest-rated drama in tvN's history "at the time". The episode table instead lists viewers in millions (1.508 million for episode 1 and 6.337 million for episode 16). The two are different measures, and the page does not convert between them.
• The North. The article says it also circulated in North Korea through the black market. I report that as the article's statement and add nothing to it.

Squid Game: the Numbers

Chapter 1 gave the setup. Now the numbers, as the article reports them from Netflix:

• Season 1 was the first Korean drama to top Netflix's weekly global TV chart, and it reached number one in 94 countries.
• Netflix estimated "over 111 million member households" after 17 days and "over 142 million" after 28 days. A "viewer" here is a subscriber who watched more than two minutes.
• After Netflix changed its measures in November 2021, the series had "over 1.65 billion hours" in 28 days, against 625 million for Bridgerton.
• The article flags its own mix of units: a cited headline says "111M Views In First Month", while the text says 17 days, and the source uses households, views and hours together.
• In awards, the article says Squid Game was the first non-English series to win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (Lee Jung-jae and HoYeon Jung each won) and received 14 Primetime Emmy nominations, the first non-English show nominated for Best Drama.

It is a reminder of money and scale. The article says the series' creator Hwang cut the number of participants from about 1,000 "due to budget issues". It reports merchandise (a vinyl figure of Young-hee in January 2022, Funko Pop! figures in May 2022), a reality show, Squid Game: The Challenge (456 players and a US$4.56 million prize), a video game and a third season. Several spin-off projects are described as in development and one was reported as no longer in the works.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo and the Quiet Hit

Not every global hit is an event. Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Chapter 7) began at 0.948 percent in Korea on a cable channel. Its article says it was "the most viewed non-English show globally" on Netflix for two weeks in July 2022, reached 348.15 million viewing hours after its finale, and is "the sixth most popular non-English show of all time" on the service. Its article also records the Baeksang Arts Awards Grand Prize in 2023 and an International Emmy nomination for Best Drama Series. The article says it is on Netflix "in selected regions", and a webtoon, a musical and several remakes were announced or planned; I do not report their status because the article lists plans, not results.

Looking Closely at the Boom

The government also appears as a promoter: the article says "the South Korean government promoted hallyu to increase its cultural soft power" and, from the earlier reading, describes the 1999 Basic Law for Promoting Cultural Industries. The funding itself is not described in the parts I read. Putting these together is my own observation: the boom was helped by the government, by streaming companies and by fans, and it has been criticised from several directions.

Exercises

Next chapter: Park Eun-bin: A Career in Dramas, which follows one actress through the shows named in this course and others.