Posted on 10/23/2021 3:19:09 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Squid Game, a Netflix show that features characters in dire financial straits competing in deadly children’s games for prize money, has become the most-watched show on the streaming service, reaching 142 million “member households” (as of publication). It’s spawned countless memes and has even been spoofed on Saturday Night Live. To put it lightly, Squid Game is a global phenomenon.
The show is certainly a matter of interest to Robert Ji-Song Ku, chair and associate professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies and a core faculty member at the Center for Korean Studies, He attributes the success of Squid Game to a “perfect storm” of factors.
“For over 20 years, Korean dramas have increased in popularity with international audiences,” said Ku. “It started out in countries nearby, and then it spread to the U.S. through various platforms. But I think the pandemic had a great deal to do with it. Also the popularity of K-pop and BTS, and Korean movies, specifically the success of Parasite, all contributed to this fascination with Korean pop culture. And, Netflix. Other platforms came beforehand, but Netflix has the largest audience, of course. And it all came together.”
Squid Game, notably, features a level of violence and gore traditionally found only in Korean cinema.
“The show combines the grittiness, the real goriness of Korean films, that have found large international audiences, with the format of the Korean drama,” said Ku.
Squid Game has introduced millions worldwide to K-drama, but the format is nothing new to Ku, who has been watching K-dramas all his life.
“It’s something I grew up with and I never stopped watching,” said Ku.
Born in Korea, Ku grew up in Hawaii and lived in Southern California and New York City before moving to Binghamton. As a kid, there weren’t that many non-Koreans that cared about Korean things, he said.
“I grew up most of my life in this country either ashamed of being Korean, because I was teased about it, or because there was nothing about being Korean that was boastworthy,” said Ku.
As a child, Ku would watch K-dramas over his mother’s shoulder while she did household chores. Korean shows weren’t broadcast on TV in those days, so Ku’s mother would travel to the city to purchase them from mom-and-pop Korean grocery stores.
“The Blockbusters and so forth for Korean dramas were these Korean markets,” said Ku. “My mom would get in her car, drive an hour from rural Georgia to Atlanta, load up her trunk with 100 tapes of Korean dramas — they were a dollar a pop — and watch them continually.”
The days of traveling long distances to track down K-dramas are gone, as Korean entertainment has risen dramatically in popularity over the past few decades. Ku traces this increased interest in Korean pop culture back to the late 90s, when Korea was reeling from a financial crisis and needed a “rebrand.”
“To talk about the popularity of Korean dramas we have to go back 20-30 years, to the beginning of what I’m calling the ‘K-pop era,’ he said. “With the IMF crisis in Korea, the financial crisis, the Korean government and its entertainment industry made a plan to turn Korean culture into exportable product. And what you have now in Netflix is the culmination of a process that started in the late 1990s. Just like Samsung sells phones and Hyundia sells cars, we now have these entertainment companies selling cultural content. And Netflix is the latest party to join this phenomenon of Korean dramas finding a global audience.”
Ku became interested in transnational Korean popular culture as a scholarly subject about 10 years ago, which resulted in the publication of Pop Empires: Transnational and Diasporic Flows of India and Korea, (University of Hawaii Press, 2019), co-edited with S. Heijin Lee of New York University and Monika Mehta, associate professor of English at Binghamton University. He is currently working on a book tentatively titled Korean Food in the Age of K-pop, which he hopes to complete in 2022.
To Ku, the golden years of K-dramas were the early 2000s, with dramas like Full House, My Lovely Sam Soon, Coffee Prince (his all-time favorite), Boys Over Flowers, Secret Garden and Dream High. For the most part they were romantic comedies, but over time the content of K-dramas has diversified.
“Now you have zombie stories, you have spy stories, all these workplace dramas,” said Ku. “Over time there has been a broadening of the themes and subject matter of K-drama.”
The evolution of K-dramas is also a commentary on Korean society and how it has evolved, said Ku. “For anyone who wants to learn about Korean society in the past 30 years, Korean dramas are a great way to get a lesson in Korean history.”
I had never heard of it until used in this song, then I looked it up.
Let’s Go Brandon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_F_XQrukM
bookmark
A great premise and storyline. But, it could just as easily be an American show. There isn’t really anything uniquely Korean other than location.
The “Squid Game” is more about an attempt to normalize children to cruelity and violence than it is about Korean cultures.
It’s gross.
Isn’t that the show about murdering game show contestants?
Some culture.
I really enjoy watching some of the Josean period K-dramas with my wife. The production values are great; the costuming, cinematography, scores, and battle scenes are top notch. There is a certain nobility and elegance to the culture of that time, though it seems that life was very hard, even for the nobility. Anyway, I find them an enjoyable watch.
I see that as a good thing. Korean cinema is probably one of countries making the most approachable "foreign" films, Squid Game isn't unique in that regard. The pacing, production value, and story arcs follow lines familiar to Americans in a way that other countries don't. In a movie industry where most current American films are catering to "woke" ideologies and massaged to be acceptable to Chicom censors, having competition is important and keeps the industry vibrant.
The Running Man did it about 30 or so years ago.
It’s not only this one show, but Parasite which won an Oscar for “Best Film” (not foreign film) as well as Korean pop music (bands like BTS are #1 on AMERICAN charts.) Korean miniseries, Korean makeup and cosmetics, Korean fashion, and finally Korean food especially here in L.A.
It’s Hunger Games 2.0. What the elites would LOVE.
Jetan. Cool concept. Impossible, sadly, to actually play.
Oh, well then it’s okay....
/s
What a pantload. Squid game has Money Heist to thank for its success. Money Heist was a worldwide hit and got people interested in putting up with subtitles in order to get an interesting story. Crappy, woke American shows that couldn’t hold anybody’s interest also helped. Culture had nothing to do with it.
Well, we had the idea first: The Running Man and Hunger Games.
“What happened to Buzzsaw?”
“Ah, he had to split.”
It will not be long we have Arenas and Coliseums full of Unvaxxed Christians and other enemies of the state fighting animals and each other for the entertainment of the Sheeple.
If anyone gets a chance watch
“Vengeance on Varos” The best Colin Baker Dr Who episode
https://youtu.be/fXCLN2mbFIo?t=23
I can watch a lot of European or Latin American movies because I can pick out some words, and it keeps me listening and watching. With movies from Korea, Japan, China and other parts of the world, I lose interest quickly. I don't want to be the guy who says "I don't go to the movies to read," but I guess that's what I've become. Also, we know the background of movies set in European or American history. With Asian pictures, I'm also lost there.
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