On the heels of <em>Squid Game</em>'s success, Apple TV+ debuts its own South Korean drama.
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I believe they label all of their international content as original, but you are wrong about cheap. Netflix is spending $500 million on Korean dramas this year, money that is directly benefiting production values.
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What I need to know about this series is does the title character have a castle and/or island?
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Is there another season of Kingdom yet? That was probably one of the best drama's I've watched in a long time. AFAIK Koreans have set the bar fairly high for quality of the shows on Netflix.
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I Saw The Devil is one of Korea's greats (same writer director of show as article points out.)
if interested in getting into Korean cinema it's a good place to start, if you like serial killers that is.
One of the things you'll realize with South Korea is that they seemingly don't do audience testing, you may not get the ending typical to the genre's American counterpart.
if interested in getting into Korean cinema it's a good place to start, if you like serial killers that is.
One of the things you'll realize with South Korea is that they seemingly don't do audience testing, you may not get the ending typical to the genre's American counterpart.
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That's the basis of the intl expansion strategy they started ~10 years ago. Certain TV markets at the time like Germany and South Korea were dominated by heavily entrenched cable and/or satellite providers. Their core tactic was producing quality exclusive local language content for these markets to compel people to buy a Netflix subscription.
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Personally Parasite was an eyer opener torwards South Korean Cinema, to the point of searching for their best works in order to experience more of it. Saw train to busan, due that and have others on my drive like Mother, I saw the devil ,etc pending to watch in part thanks to an ars article that covered their best works besides Parasite.
Keep the good work on not that well know cinema works Ars.
Keep the good work on not that well know cinema works Ars.
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I've been watching Korean dramas for years now, mostly thanks to Netflix. Don't usually go for the horror/thriller route that is popular right now though.
For less adrenaline inducing watching, I can easily recommend Hospital Playlist, Reply 1988, Crash Landing on You. Hospital Playlist in particular has great characters, music, and some really heartwarming moments.
For less adrenaline inducing watching, I can easily recommend Hospital Playlist, Reply 1988, Crash Landing on You. Hospital Playlist in particular has great characters, music, and some really heartwarming moments.
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I can hear the Sierra logo jingle like it was just yesterday that Dr. Brain was teaching me about neurotransmitter cows at the synaptic cleft range.
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Netflix might be spending a lot of money on them but it's definitely true that the Korean content costs less on average. Squid Game reportedly required less than $2.5 million an episode, that's a fraction of high profile Netflix shows such as Stranger Things which can go up to almost $10m per, and more so than the Marvel ones.
Space Sweepers(https://meincmagazine.com/gaming/2021/02/ ... sian-film/) also had a budget just over $20 million, again a fraction of Hollywood movies.
Seeing how cheap it is to make content, I wonder if there's a lot of labor exploitation going around in the Korean entertainment industry just like many other countries. If Netflix is improving the working conditions, that'll be a win, assuming the workers are really getting paid peanuts.
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Or their primary market is Korea and they have a limited audience so know they need to keep costs low to be able to break even, so can't afford to spend tens of millions.
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I watched Space Sweepers one night, and found it very funny. So Sisyphus, The Tunnel, Hotel del Luna and now looking for the next Korean SciFi to tee up. A little better than what is being done to Foundation.
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Used to shy away from non-English speaking titles due to subtitles, but Parasite and Squid Game have opened my eyes. It’s really wonderful to discover and enjoy them—in particular I really liked Midnight Diner On Netflix.
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Hopefully Apple had nothing to due with this drama other than providing cash. Their original programming has been more miss than hit for the past couples of years
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Caveat: I watch quite a bit of Korean entertainment, particularly their variety shows.
Across much of South East and East Asia, Korean television entertainment is actually very popular.
Netflix interest in Korean entertainment products should not be surprising - in fact, at the levels of money we are talking about, they probably have outbid many other competitors for the broadcasting rights.
This strategy probably allows them to anchor their subscription bases in locales where most people will want a stable platform where they can watch Korean dramas, etc.
As for cost/profit structures, South Korea entertainment seem to operate at a cost/profit model with the South Korean market as the base and see international expansion as an important bonus.
Across much of South East and East Asia, Korean television entertainment is actually very popular.
Netflix interest in Korean entertainment products should not be surprising - in fact, at the levels of money we are talking about, they probably have outbid many other competitors for the broadcasting rights.
This strategy probably allows them to anchor their subscription bases in locales where most people will want a stable platform where they can watch Korean dramas, etc.
As for cost/profit structures, South Korea entertainment seem to operate at a cost/profit model with the South Korean market as the base and see international expansion as an important bonus.
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Netflix is spending a fortune on non-US content right now, attracted by the sheer productivity and cost-efficiency of making content in countries where production budgets have traditionally been tight. Except it's often a matter of quantity over quality, and it's actually causing serious disruptions in some industries.
In Denmark, 415 actors, production and post-production staff signed an open letter asking for it to be dialed back, because staff were at breaking point. Films have had to be postponed due to lack of staff, and overwork is a serious issue. With everyone tied up with Netflix and HBO, local productions not produced for streaming services are struggling to find staff, and are often having to settle for young and inexperienced teams. The productions for streaming services have become a bit of a factory, churning out movies in five weeks, before moving onto the next one.
Yet, it's undeniable that cash is flooding the industry, streaming services are willing to take creative risks, and the entire industry is growing rapidly. But whether it's a "golden age" of film-making or a "sweatshop" depends on who you ask.
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Seriously, this is a favorite game franchise that I never expected to see adapted into a live action series. The description makes me think they've taken a lot of liberties in the adaptation, but I'm willing to accept that as long as they maintain the core appeal and trademark humor.
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And even South Korea is relatively big with 52 million inhabitants, here in Norway we're more like 5.2 and they're now making our most expensive movie ever with a budget of $12 million. And it's not because Norway is a low-cost country, if it can't be made cheaply it can't be made. It's not exactly Hollywood...
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I haven't watched Squid Game as it sounds too violent to me. But my wife and I really enjoyed Memories of Alhambra, also on Netflix and also South Korean. Really clever story, story telling, and good acting (so long as you use subtitles over dubbing).
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No S3 yet, but there's a movie called Ashin of the North which is the story of
the mysterious woman that appears at the end of S2 with the zombie slaves.
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Just in Seoul alone there are 38 million people (or 125 ftillion to those in the US): https://i.imgur.com/retqBeb.jpg
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