Seoul Village Season XX

Welcome to 2026, the year of the Red Horse! I know, technically, we have to wait for the lunar new year and some may prefer the Fire Horse moniker but anyway, here's an AI generated beast for all of you:

Change, bold choices, that's what's supposedly in store for the new year.

Korea experienced its share of changes in 2025, but they were expected:

• YOON Suk-yeol's impeachment was confirmed
• LEE Jae-myung managed to elude justice and get elected
• Korea has de facto become a single-party nation, and not the party the disgraced president wanted 

A single party nation?

YOON's party - which never really was his - is in shambles. And that's not the first time: the PPP failed to truly reform itself (beyond rebranding) after PARK Geun-hye's impeachment, and it doesn't seem willing to evolve following YOON's either. In fact, this election losing machine succeeded only in 2022, when the DPK led the national shoot-yourself-in-the-foot contest with a LEE Jae-myung ensnared in scandals and a then highly unpopular president MOON Jae-in creating a most unlikely candidate (YOON) that had no choice but to join the other side... Today, this party doesn't seem to have any future.

Meanwhile, to secure his own future, LEE Jae-myung managed to seize both the stick (full control of justice) and the carrot (direct control of finance). In the most Trumpian fashion, he's now enjoying the retribution time of his life, siccing justice even at OH Se-hoon, who had no involvement whatsoever in YOON's martial law disaster, but remains his number one target for the 2026 local elections. DP candidate CHONG Won-o is already catching up with the Seoul mayor.

On the diplomatic front, LEE has been very active and well beyond the long planned APEC 2025 summit in Gwangju. As expected, he reconnected with North Korea and China. He's visiting XI Jinping very soon, but KIM Jong-un is not as responsive as planned - probably vaxxed by earlier disillusions from the TRUMP I era, and most certainly not thrilled by the new POTROK's surprising request for a nuclear submarine from Uncle Sam (on the other hand, that OPCON transfer...). Also surprising: LEE cozying up with Japan. XI might ask him to chose sides wisely.

On the domestic front, a few good news: the demographic uptick started 16 months ago has not been disturbed by the domestic turmoil, the presidency returned to Cheong Wa Dae, and exports rebounded (Korean cosmetics rule, semiconductors had a good year...). But the Korean Won nosedived, protectionism returned, the household and national debts kept creeping up, costly gifts to stimulate consumption further damaged the balance, and Korea can't afford a Japan-style headlong flight.

But at least, Korea beat another Netflix record with Kedeheon / 케데헌*.

As much as I enjoyed K-Pop Demon Hunters' catchy OST and many references to the Korean culture, it felt visually closer to a manga or anime than to a manhwa. Even that big cat seemed to come straight from Studio Ghibli. But K-pop itself stole from all over the map, so let's not bicker and enjoy while it lasts.

 

Because the billions Netflix poured in Korea following Squid Game are coming to an end, and the platform is diversifying its sources across the region - expect a lot of BL from Thailand.

So yes, BTS will drop a new album in March, but other pillars of the creative industry are struggling (see "A Fade Out - Not 'The End'"), and the world will also want new stuff. If it wants to remain a cultural leader**, Korea will need to once more reinvent itself, to move out of its creative comfort zone. 

Seoul Village 2026
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, Substack, and X/Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
Download 'Seoul VillageS', the free ebook.

* over 325M views for the first 91 days vs over 265M for Squid Game in 2021 (+22%, but the number of Netflix subs grew by 36% in the meantime).

** see "Can Korea sustain its cultural leadership?"

The Dessert of the Tartars

A bit like Nessie or Buzzati's fabled Tartars, we kept waiting for it every year but it never showed up. And all of a sudden, it just landed. 

Korea's first Nobel Prize in literature. 

The prestigious award didn't crown a veteran in the HWANG Sok-yong, YI Mun-yol or KIM Hoon tradition (the poet KO Un has long been metooed out of the race), but a confirmed 50-something author who (sorry KIM Young-ha and Co., but that makes it even better) happens to be female. 

After her 2016 International Booker Prize and last year's Prix Medicis, HAN Kang completes a powerful global hat trick.

Great to see a modern author claim the spotlights - I'm sure other sides of the highly diverse Korean literature will also receive the exposure they deserve.

This sweet victory comes right after Korean cuisine brilliantly showcased its incredible diversity and creativity through Netflix's droolingly addictive 'Culinary Class Wars'.

As K-pop faces growing signs of 'K-fatigue' and the local movie ecosystem struggles, it's really refreshing to see Korean literature and cuisine grab the headlines... In case you needed positive answers to the question "Can Korea sustain its cultural leadership?"...

If you love Korean food, don't miss CCW. Fantastic dishes, amazing chefs, and a fun jury duet combining PAIK Jong-won (not always that demanding for his own venues) with ANH Sung-jae (merciless but fair)

Not a HAN Kang miracle; yet another prestigious international nod

Sorry boys, you lost these Literary Class Wars. Gotta up your game for Season 2!

Seoul Village 2024
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
Download 'Seoul VillageS', the free ebook.

Squid Game - an addictive slap in the face

Impossible not to mention the cultural phenomenon of the year on these lines, but warning / full disclosure: I'm more than a bit biased since I played a (tiny tiny) role in Squid Game.

Just like I've done in the past with other works, I'll simply share my two cents about a creation that's already left a mark on our popular culture. I won't deliver any spoiler, and I won't disclose insider tips (as you may know, in this game, fair play is essential).

This guys knows (backstage with the Front Man).

 

What I can say is that joining this adventure, even for only a few days, was a very intense experience, particularly in the middle of a pandemic. And that the whole crew was amazing, delivering magic at every moment. If the series are such a visual feast, that's because a lot of positive energy and passion has been poured into every single detail.

I can also say that from the start, I knew something special was going to happen. The script was such a page-turner that I simply couldn't put it down. And I couldn't wait to see these wonderful characters come to life. Expectations were very high, but the series turned out to be even more enthralling than I'd thought. Even if I knew every twist ahead, I couldn't escape the flow, and enjoyed the show in total wonder. Squid Game is truly addictive: when it's over you're left in utter withdrawal and craving for more (BTW I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of all viewers let the next episode run right after that cliffhanger end of episode X). 

Netflix gave HWANG Dong-hyuk the creative freedom he needed to carry his vision. He could even slice the series in uneven sections. Releasing all episodes at once ahead of Chuseok proved to be a genius move: it not only allowed en masse binge watching, but also instant discussions across family and friends circles, Thanksgiving-style. So fun watching viewers reacting across the world at different stages of 'enlightenment'!

Now about the content itself.

Squid Game doesn't just reinvent the survivor game concept. It's a merciless social satire, literally a slap in the face, a wake up call with a message that resonates far beyond Korea. When it comes to exposing what's wrong in our societies, few stones are left unturned. A riveting story bound to spark conversations about absurd rat races, destructive competition, appalling injustice and unfairness, everyday despair, our relationship to money, to fellow humans... For the reader, it was quite great to imagine Koreans root for a North Korean defector or a (probably Muslim) Pakistani migrant worker (eventually India's Tripathi Anupam).

If there is a lot of wit and humor along the journey, HWANG isn't afraid of pushing hard where it hurts. No holds barred - even more viscerally than in 'Silenced' (2011). And it works. If Squid Game is so powerful and popular, that's because it's resolutely, unapologetically character-driven, radiating with an immense rainbow of memorable, flawed and fallible characters.

Of course, casting big names (LEE Jung-jae, PARK Hae-soo, WI Ha-joon) helped raise interest in the project from the beginning, but I was very curious to see who'd play Sae-byeok and Il-nam, and delighted to watch JUNG Ho-yeon and O Yeong-su give life to cult characters that will haunt you forever. What a roller coaster ride for KIM Joo-ryung along HAN Mi-nyeo's telluric mood swings, and what a diverse collection of Korean talents gracing the screen, even if only for a few moments each (from the hilarious chief police LEE Dong-yong to the discreet KIM Young-sun)...

One key, omnipresent actor in the series remains invisible all the way, yet never hiding behind a mask: the man in charge of the score. I was warned that JUNG Jae-il was a musical genius, and he didn't fail to surprise with his bewitching gamelan-like rhythms, or the playful, medieval joust touch that illuminated the games. Simply brilliant.

Quintessentially Korean, ultimately universal, Squid Game is already permeating the World's popular culture, generating memes, and fueling all speculations about what comes next. All I know is that for the alchemy to work once more, it will have to start with another awesome script. And I fully understand HWANG when he says a Season 2 would require several writers: hard to top that without bringing new voices.

'OMG North Korea hacked Netflix: Squid Game / 오징어 게임 was aired a few days before the rest of the World (military parade below)' (@theSeoulVillage 20210910 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1436071789579292685)

Seoul Village 2021
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
Download 'Seoul VillageS', the free ebook.

Chaebolplex v. Indie Movies - The Sequel

According to KOFIC / KOBIZ, Korea's 2,870 movie screens recorded almost 220 M admissions last year, a 49% increase in ten years. That's enough to take over (30% more populated) France, where admissions gained only 11% over the same period, from 190 to 209 M. Korean and Foreign films have basically maintained their positions on the market: around 50/50 for the number of admissions, 28/72 for the number of films released, knowing that the biggest blockbusters tend to be local (only Avatar appears in the all time top ten, as #3).

The number of movies released exploded (from 380 to 1,765), which is not a guarantee for quality, but an encouraging sign for culture diversity*. Indeed, the big 'chaebolplexes' that control the market have at long last started to propose independent movies.

Which doesn't mean that Korea's indie movie ecosystem is better off.

When six years ago, chaebolplexes were forced to feature them following the 'Pieta' scandal, I worried that they would struggle to kick their bad, closed circuit habits (see "Saving Korean cinema... and even Chaebolplex"), and that's pretty much what happened.

Just a few significant events that followed the 2012 'Pieta Law':
- 2013: ten indie movie producers pool their efforts to create Little Big Pictures
- 2014: CJ Group launches CGV Arthouse (chaebolplexes create their own 'indie' theaters)
- 2015: it gets political when AHN Cheol-soo brings the spotlight on the cause, and indies push for laws similar to the 1948 Paramount Decree (the "antitrust case that ruled against big movie studios operating their own movie theaters"**)
- 2016: Netflix launches in Korea
- 2017: produced by Netflix, BONG Joon-ho's 'Okja' is boycotted by Korea's biggest theater operators
- 2018: IPTV takes over cable TV as main provider, controlled by the Big 3 (KT, SKT, LGU+), and 'chaebolplex' snatch exclusivities for indie movies away from 'independent art houses', even for re-runs.***

How can indie theaters survive, or compete with lavish complexes that in terms of diversity, contribute essentially to one of chaebolplex's core business models: real estate. There are so much new complexes Seoul can host, and the 'art house' alibi provides a perfect 'alternative' offer to developments that target culture-friendly elites.

Institutions like Seoul Cinema or Indie Space embody the resistance, but for how long?

'Smells like Seoul Cinema spirit' (20180517 - www.instagram.com/p/Bi4AYl9ll7H/?taken-by=stephanemot)

'not sure the one in the middle will be featured in a chaebolplex' (20121213 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/279079561419960320)

• follow our #chaebolplex hashtag on Twitter

Seoul Village 2018
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites
.
* on this issue, read " Heralding cultural diversity - a stronger and more sustainable Korean wave" (2013)
** "South Korea’s Chaebol-sized Movie Problem"  (WSJ 20150130)
*** "Art house cinemas lose their exclusivity : As more indie films are screened at theater chains, smaller venues suffer losses" (KJD 20180706)