Posted on 10/06/2007 9:09:22 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
by Elisa Santafe Sat Oct 6, 2:50 PM ET
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - South Korean soap operas are winning global audiences and have become major rivals to Latin America's racier telenovelas, participants at an industry conference held in Spain said.
Jordanian television distributor Media Marketing and Production started buying the rights to air South Korean serials in the Arab world last year since they cause less headaches with censors, its manager Firas Al-Homoud said.
Telenovelas, as soap operas are called in South America, feature scenes that depict sex or deal with topics like homosexuality that need to be edited out by Arab television channels or else they cannot be broadcast, he said.
"For this reason we are trying South Korean dramas, they cause us less trouble," he said on Friday on the last day of the two-day World Summit of the Telenovela and Fiction Industry held in Barcelona.
South Korean dramas arose after the country began deregulating its economy in the wake of the 1996 Asian financial crisis, leading entrepreneurs to reinvent the nation's entertainment industry with the help of state aid.
They usually deal with family intrigue, class differences and love triangles and tend to have less violence and sex than their Latin American or US counterparts.
One of South Korea's most popular soap operas, "Dae Jang Geum," or "Jewel in the Palace," depicts a female doctor attending the royal court in the days when Korea was unified.
Over the past three years South Korean serials have surpassed Latin American ones in popularity in the Asian nation's neighbours like Malaysia and the Philippines, said the organiser of the conference, Amanda Ospina.
"They want to reach not only the Asian market but the whole world," said Ospina, who is the editor of industry magazine TVMas.
Some smaller national channels as well as regional stations in Latin America have begun airing South Korean serial dramas.
The trend began two years ago when a regional station in Mexico aired a dubbed drama. There are currently three South Korean soap operas airing at the moment in Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia.
Cultural difference appear not to be a barrier to audiences.
"Through their soap operas we are discovering the similarities that exist between Latin America and Asia, we are all Third World countries," said Ospina.
The South Korean soap operas that have aired in Latin America however tend to be given to producers at low cost to stations that could otherwise not afford them in an effort to open up new markets.
"It is unfair competition because who is behind these productions is the (South Korean) government," said the head of Israeli-Argentine distributor Dorimedia, Jose Escalante.
Actually, if this article is accurate, maybe a little S. Korean TV might go wonders in the USA, too, if we could clean up the trash/filth/vulgarity on US TV in the evenings and get back to a little bit of what it "used to be like".
I think, for the most part though, Americans would not sit still for it, particularly younger audiences and in particular great masses liberal single "liberated" American women w/their value systems, inclined to vote for Hilary...
Bump.
While Christianity might not be the central themes in them, particularly those stories set in time periods 2, or 300 years ago, "family" and good values (right vs. wrong, honesty, loyalty, patience, perserverence, respect of elderly) often are often central...as opposed to slobbering adulterous "housewives" or skanky single women in "The City", or morbid crime scenes and criminal autopsies (interspersed of course by blabbering commericals telling Americans they have a need to pop a pill for just about any problem in their lives), or people eating earthworms on some South Pacific island as a challenge. TV in the US has become such a cultural and ethical wasteland over the last 30 years. How about something NEW for a change?
In addition, many more Americans might learn a little something about Asia, which is needed, too.
During my visit to Argentina in 1998, the telenovas focused on rich Americans coming to harvest organs from their children and teenagers, because they had such hybrid vigor, being of many mixed races, so presumably more robust than American organs. Mothers would snatch up their children if white people approached on the steet. Such is the burden that must be shouldered when you are the major power, even if you mean only good intentions.
When they came in, the several women terrorists were all nearly hypnotized and engrossed in "telenovelas", they had each apparantly put down their weapons. Each one of these was immediately shot in the head at point blank range by the Peruvian squad (who went on to free the Japanese hostages). I guess in their case, the women took those "telenovelas" way too seriously.
Winter Sonata the genesis of the Korean wave, featuring my fave SK actor, Bae Yong Joon!
His current venture, Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi for MBC television currently holds 30% share of the Korean TV viewing market. Some of the Asian TV stations in the US do air Korean "telenovelas" from time to time, but usually not with the English subtitles. I just buy the DVD's instead. Amazon.com and EBay are good places to start. Also YesAsia.com or BroAsia.com are good sources for buying Korean TV drama DVD's as well.
Youtube also has segments of some of the more popular Korean TV dramas as well.
So did you pick up any good livers while you were down there?
I've noticed that at least in the SK ones, that those "telenovelas" set in modern times tend to have at least one scene in a Christian church (which is always respectful and not sacriligious in the least). I haven't seen one yet with a scene in a Buddhist temple (but then again, I mostly watch Bae Yong Joon's stuff).
Um, no. Korean dramas are SOOOO boring. And that goes for Winter Sonata. Let old women watch it and give me my Gaki Tsukai.
WOW I didn’t know this
Nobody ever said this had to be UNANIMOUS!
Gee, an industry de-regulated and 10 years later, they’re competing successfully on the world market. That’s what Reagan’s vision was all about, too bad the State of Michigan hasn’t learned that.
Nah, the Latin American telenovellas have no rival . . . but then, I don’t speak Spanish.
I have not considered South Korea to be a Third World country in at least 25 years, maybe longer.
The ironic thing is that Argentina is just as white, if not whiter than the United States. The novela was probably made in Venezuela or Mexico.
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.