The “Korean content boom,” including the rise of K-dramas and K-pop, was in focus during a panel at the Red Sea Souk, the market of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday. But the chaotic political situation in South Korea in recent days, including a failed attempt by its president to introduce martial law and a failed attempt to impeach him, didn’t come up.
A curious crowd came to the market in Jeddah Old Town Al-Balad to listen to the panelists, namely disaster-thriller Concrete Utopia director and screenwriter Um Tae-Hwa, mystery-thriller Somebody director Yeo-Jung Kim, Hyoun-soo Kim, director of funding and support at KOFIC, the Korean Film Council, and the founder and CEO of Barunson C&C, Woo-sik Seo, the veteran producer behind Bong Joon-ho’s Mother and Okja.
Masha Magonova, director – strategy, finance, and operations at Library Pictures International, served as the moderator for the session, which featured comments translated from Korean into English, Arabic, and other languages.
The Jeddah session with a spotlight on South Korea came ahead of the much-anticipated debut of season 2 of Netflix hit Squid Game and just days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared “emergency martial law,” a move quickly overturned by lawmakers. On Saturday, Yoon apologized and vowed not to try and impose it again. But protesters and political opponents have called for his resignation. An impeachment vote in parliament later on Saturday fell just a few votes short as most members of the country’s ruling party left parliament to boycott the vote.
Seo explained differences between Hollywood and Korean content. “I think a lot of Korean directors have this instinct of finding that commercial and artistic balance, and we’re kind of forced to because we don’t make Hollywood movies,” he shared. “We don’t have the funding. And we have different themes. We’re not making heroes. We’re making individuals who have their inner struggles when they’re faced with a problem. And so we have to be focusing on the individual as a human being. And I think that’s what makes Korean movies resonate with the audience around the world.”
The panelists highlighted that they focus on making good films for Koreans rather than aiming for content that can travel the globe, arguing that exactly this specificity along with universal themes makes K-content such a success in many parts of the world.
For example, Seo noted that the differences between haves and have-nots, depicted in such Korean hits as Parasite and Squid Game, are universally understood themes.
Director Kim said her film Somebody similarly deals with a universal topic: mother love. Asked if she would want to make a Hollywood movie, she responded: “It’s not something that I don’t want. But holding fast to what is truly Korean for the Korean audience I think will lead to other opportunities.”
Um Tae-Hwa similarly shared: “I was able to go to Hollywood, and it just felt like a dream. …. These experiences made me think Hollywood is closer than I thought. But it didn’t make me think that Hollywood was my target. I am Korean. I my primary objective is to make movies that the Korean audience will love, and that is my passion and drive.”
He continued that this “might actually lead to opportunities and proposals, but just because I am asked to do an American movie, I won’t just accept it because it’s an American movie,” the director emphasized. “I would see whether I can add value to it as a Korean filmmaker and base my decision on that.”