How South Korean TV Series and Movies Take Over the World?

Hollywood, which has made a name for itself in both TV series and movies, has an important rival in recent years. In fact, we are talking about Korean cinema, which has made a big breakthrough after 2020, even though its history dates back to the 90s. South Korean dramas and movies known as “K-Drama” have made a breakthrough in recent years with the influence of online streaming platforms.

Especially the Squid Game series released on Netflix in 2021, K-Pop music groups such as BTS led to the recognition of Korean cinema all over the world. So what did Korean dramas and movies do to take over the world? At this point, two key names appear, one of which is a movie and one is a series.

The first major breakthroughs began in 1997.

We cannot see the popularization of Korean dramas and movies through a single industry. At this point, the best thing South Korea did was to introduce their culture to the world in a stable way. The term “Hallyu” meaning “Korean wave” was coined after South Korean dramas gained popularity in Southeast Asian countries and China.

The first drama to gain popularity at this point was the 1997 drama “What Is Love”. In 1999, the movie “Shiri”, which became famous all over Asia with its action scenes, introduced Korean cinema to the world.

The Hallyu influence continued exponentially.

Hallyu influence, known as the Korean wave, continued to rise in the 2000s, especially with K-Drama and K-Pop. While music groups like BTS with millions of fans around the world, iconic South Korean directors like Bong Joon Ho, Korean culture continued to rise as a whole. In fact, food and skin products, which were advertised not only in the field of music and cinema, but also in TV series and movies, increased their sales figures worldwide with this popularity.

These projects, which reflect the culture of South Korea well, not only encourage the country’s tourism, but also affect the economy in a good way.

Music has a huge impact on the rise of South Korea.

South Korea is a country that is on the rise with its TV series and movies and has a particularly young fan base. One of the biggest factors behind this was music groups. If we asked you what was the most famous event of 2012, what answer would you give? year 2012; The year PSY’s “Gangnam Style” went viral. This song also wins the Guinness World Record as the most watched video of its time on YouTube.

BTS, who was nominated for a Grammy in 2020, showed the point K-Pop music has reached with hundreds of millions of fans from all over the world. All these breakthroughs increased the influence of people on Korean culture.

Behind the big breakthroughs in recent history are the movie Parasite and the Squid Game series.

South Korean cinema has been charting an upward trend for the last 25 years. There are two other productions that have skyrocketed this chart in recent years. One of these productions was released in 2019 and managed to win 4 Academy Awards, including “Best Picture”. Moreover, it was the first non-English film to achieve this success.

In addition to this breakthrough in cinema, Netflix’s support for South Korean cinema in the last few years has continued to grow. Productions such as “The Handmaiden, Sweet Home” made an impact all over the world, but the real boom was with Squad Game.

Squid Game achieved a great success that even Netflix did not expect from it and became the most popular series of all time on the platform. This success caused South Korean cinema to be recognized by the whole world and gained great momentum. Today, South Korean TV series and movies continue to be funded from many platforms, especially Netflix. We expect to see many more productions from this region in the coming years.