KOREA FOUNDATION

By Shim Young-seop, Film Critic

Declared a pandemic in 2020, COVID-19 has brought forth seismic changes to life on earth. According to the “2020 Global Hallyu Trends” survey published by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE), the pandemic brought about a dark period for the Korean film industry when the number of moviegoers decreased by 90 percent. However, the crisis turned out to be an opportunity in disguise.

As the pandemic forced countries around the world to close their borders and drastically reduce in-person travel, people began to more actively enjoy online cultural content from nations around the globe. Tallies conducted by Korea Policy Briefing show that 975 Korean movies were exported in 2020, up by 401 from the previous year. At the core of the global surge of Korean films and TV series were environmental factors such as OTT services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Watcha.

Thanks to OTT streaming, such original programs as Squid Game and Hellbound, which can be viewed only via a specific OTT service, made waves globally. For 46 days from September 23, 2021, Squid Game was the top-viewed program worldwide with 140 million viewers. The success of the series was accompanied by the increase of Hallyu fan club members to 100 million worldwide, and a global craze for such forms of Korean alley culture as ttakji chigi and dalgona games. Korean movies and TV series have also reached milestones in terms of the recognition of their quality. In 2020, Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year, Youn Yuh-jung won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and in 2022, Oh Young-soo won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, greatly enhancing Korea’s national image.

Despite the problem of polarization between acclaimed and under-noticed films and series, it is true that the COVID-19 pandemic has aided the global spread of Hallyu. What, then, is needed to maintain and further develop Hallyu’s achievement in the field of films and series in the coming days?

It is encouraging that the global presence of Korean film and culture is expanding rapidly thanks to OTT services, but consideration should be given to the argument that Korean film and media are overly violent, as pointed out by the German magazine Stern and the US news channel CNN.

To tackle the issue of violence, Hallyu needs to embrace more diverse content that includes humor, humanism, family themes, and adventure—aspects that all global citizens can enjoy. Regarding such global enterprises as Netflix and Disney, international discussions may be needed about how they can contribute to the promotion of Korea’s cultural industry in addition to their investment in Korean content. In the case of Netflix, it “brought in KRW 1 trillion by investing KRW 25.3 billion” as its share prices soared upon the singular success of Squid Game, but the company has failed to share its profits with the Korean film industry. This is a good example upon which we can call upon the Korean government to work out a strategy to cooperate with global OTT services, or foster Korea’s own OTT industry.

In the meantime, the “short-form” trend and the reduction of the length of content for millennial and Generation Z consumers are expected to accelerate this year. “Short-form” content refers to vertical videos that are less than one minute long. Younger generations show a clear tendency to consume short and lively content through their mobile devices on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube. The convergence of music, gaming, and other Hallyu and short-form content seems possible with the development of a strategy that supports these current trends.

In a nutshell, fostering global platforms and content will be crucial to developing Hallyu in the post-pandemic era. As of now, the digital environment is shifting second by second, begetting questions related to the arrival of augmented reality, metaverse experiences and characters, and how to keep up with the fad of short-form content. Instead of allowing global OTT companies to remain in their leading roles, the Korean government needs to support diverse new Hallyu strategies to allow Korea’s splendid cultural creativity to bloom.