Posted on 04/10/2026 4:01:23 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
In 2025, arguably the biggest movie of the year didn’t come from Hollywood or even hit U.S. movie theaters. It came from South Korea.
KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most popular film of all time and won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song...
In 2020, Parasite became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. A year later, Squid Game became one of the most-watched television shows during the COVID-19 pandemic...
Korean music has topped charts with bands like Blackpink and BTS. Even Korean beauty products, or K-beauty, have begun to set the standard for makeup.
For Jinaeng Choi, a Korean literary scholar... the rise of Korean products in global pop culture can be traced back to South Korea’s deep engagement with the U.S. after the Korean War and its unique storytelling style...
Korean cultural products often give viewers a clear entry point — romance, family, thriller, workplace drama — and then escalate emotion quickly. That clarity makes them easy to enter across cultures, even before you know much context. And once you’re in, a lot of stories operate on two layers: the surface plot and a subtext about class, gender, labor, North-South division, or modernization. That two-layer legibility is part of why audiences get hooked, and then stay thinking...
(Excerpt) Read more at georgetown.edu ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Mrs. fidelis enjoys K-Dramas and some K-Pop. She likes the modern dramas, but we used to watch a few of the historical drama series set in the Joseon period which I liked very much. My favorite was “Dong-yi”.
It's called "Sandglass" and you can tell it got its inspiration from The Godfather.
Very powerful acting and haunting score.
Maybe modern Korean entertainment is more than just identically dressed boy and girl lip syncing groups.
I might start paying closer attention when one of their melodramas comes out. I’m open to viewing life through the eyes of another culture, at least some of the time.
Definitely! “Parasite” is a good place to start and should be streaming in several outlets. It beat out films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood & Ford vs Ferrari for the Best Film Oscar.
I gotta watch the Demon Hunters movie, everyone loved it, including Hubby!
Maybe this is what started the trend - I used to love the spoof Korean TV romances they did on Mad TV I think it was. First of all the guy who would always guest star as the “prince” (the rival to the regular cast member who was the “average joe”) was very cute. He’s actually the only Asian guy I ever found attractive. But the funny part was the subtitles they did. Sometimes they’d say about two syllables in Korean and the subtitles would go on and on, and sometimes they’d go on and on in Korean and the subtitle would be two words!
Also did watch some of Squid Games, kind of an awful premise, but it was extremely well done, and well dubbed too.
Koreans are a serious minded people, and they make good products, be it cars or entertainment.
Friend served there in the 70’s when it was a 3rd world $hithole. It’s rich now.
My Burmese buddy says they’re an angry people. Take no $hit.
“Maybe modern Korean entertainment is more than just identically dressed boy and girl lip syncing groups.”
.
Yeah, a group of young Korean girls dressed in cute costumes dancing together in a provocative manner... who would want to watch that, right?
.
The postwar intensity, and that it's a nation cut in two. (North & South) - It's like a soul divided. It lends itself to drama and creative output.
Crazy Rich Asians was pretty stupid.
I haven’t seen it, but I think some things are unique to Korea, and don’t apply to all Asia... (Or Korean/Asian-Americans with more roots here.)
“Dong-Yi” is pretty famous. I HIGHLY recommend it.
It’s been awhile but I watched several Korean TV shows some years ago (crime / legal dramas mostly) and they were exceptionally good / well written - kind of got out of the habit as more and more of the shows ended up being put behind a paywall on the Viki app on Roku (and probably other devices). They used to all be free (ad supported).
Some of them are now appearing on YouTube - I would very much recommend this one if you enjoy crime/legal drama genre of TV shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4iCrXlfcvY (”Lawless Lawyer”).
Try this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4iCrXlfcvY
If you like crime dramas, here’s a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4iCrXlfcvY
And you can clearly tell the sponsors are Chevrolet and Subway...LOL (they don’t normally do commercials in Korea, apparently - just product placement entered within the show to advertise the sponsor)
Thank you! Have it tabbed.
My cousin’s daughters love KPop Demon Hunters. I watched it with them. It’s pretty good actually!
Ok my friend. I watched the whole 64 minutes just for you. I was funny and stupid at the same time but I won’t watch episode 2.
I have yet to see it, so far this is the only glimpse I’ve. The intro is compelling! https://youtu.be/ex4SrdtvHwE?si=zslO2nYtq9twTBy4
“...they’re an angry people. Take no $hit.”
I remember some news story from years ago, there was some “summit” or something and the Japanese PM (or whatever it was) came to Korea. And the man who had the job of hoisting the Japanese Flag for this shindig actually killed himself for shame of it. Because that’s how much the Japs brutalized them back in the day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.