Move Over Hollywood, K-Wave is in the House!
By: Nonggol Darapati
Tags: Hollywood, Korea, Music, Entertainment, Movies

For decades, the world’s movie industry was dominated by Hollywood. No other city in the world could compete with the movies that were churned out from Tinsel town. Hollywood domination in motion pictures began early in 1927 with the movie The Jazz Singer. America was the first to have movies that had sound and music synchronized with moving images. This lead to the invention of television, which led to TV content such as TV series, variety shows, and news shows. Soon, as they say, the rest was history.

Fast forward to the early 2000s South Korea emerged as the new heavyweight in television series, movies, and music. It started slowly with a few K-drama becoming popular in Asia such as Winter Sonata and Secret Garden. Followed by Psy and his Gangnam style. Then the Glass skin trend swept the world along with the rise of the popularity of K-drama and K-pop. It became evident, whatever South Korea did, the world fell in love. We were smitten, swooned, and quickly fell head over heels. The Hollywood blockbusters were still in demand, but K-drama and K-pop did something that Hollywood ceased to do, they made the world fall in love with them. Whether it be with the dashing good looks of their singers such as BTS and Rain (who was the Korean version of Usher) or their leading ladies such as Song Hye Kyo and Soon Yen Jin. K-drama slowly but surely became a heavyweight and a billion-dollar industry with their stars amassing millions of dollars similar to Hollywood stars.

While America was busy making sure that each of their stars looked, and sounded American, with either a Midwestern accent and being preferably athletic, yet voluptuous, with blond hair and piercing blue eyes, Koreans did what it did best and appeal to the rest of the world by….well….being relatable. Their stars were good looking but not so much so that it becomes unobtainable or that everyone couldn’t see themselves in each of the characters. Square jaws mattered but not highlighted to make viewers think “I could never be him” or “I could never get a guy like that”. The Korean approach was more “This could happen to you”.

This year, for the first time in history, the Academy Awards awarded four Oscars to “Parasite” which includes Best Picture, Directing, International feature Film, and Writing. Parasite is the first foreign film from South Korea which was surprisingly considered a serious contender by the heavyweights of tinsel town. This was a game-changer and proof that Korean directors, screenwriters, and actors didn’t have to conform to the Hollywood looks, scripts, or storyline to be able to compete. Yes, it took a very long time for this to happen but what we should be looking at is out of all the many countries that produce a ridiculous amount of movies a year such as Bollywood and even China, South Korea was the one that took home the ultimate prize.

As I’m writing this article, Blackpink and BTS are worshiped around the world on the same level that NSync and Spice Girls were at one time. According to a CNBC report, BTS is equivalent to the Beatles, the only difference is, BTS adds USD 3,6 Billion to the South Korean economy every year and an additional USD 1 Billion worth of exports from their merchandising. Needless to say, BTS has made a significant contribution to the Korean economy similar to any manufacturing or energy resource. On top of that, BTS is such a phenomenon around the world that in 2017, 1 out of 13 visitors to South Korea visited the country due to the popularity of BTS.

Has Hollywood lost its touch or has the world simply had enough of a curated look and prefer authenticity? Will Hollywood be able to catch up with the K-Wave? It seems that when it comes to Hollywood, the American Branding itself is so strong that there is no distinction between the two. What happens in America politically, affects its movies and music globally. As we can see, in the last few years, America has been engulfed with the #blacklivesmatter or #metoo movement, not to mention the Make America Great Again movement. This has shown the world that what we see on the American silver screen and TV shows is not the reality in everyday America. Hollywood movies have always portrayed and convinced the world that the American Dream, the white picket fence, the work hard, and your life will be a success can happen to anyone, as long as we believed in ourselves. The world has seen, in recent years, that this dream, is only obtainable by a select few. K-drama however is selling reality. No, we cannot immigrate to South Korea and live the Korean Dream life but that’s the beauty of it, none of us want the Korean Dreamlife. K-Drama is all about “Visit us and let’s briefly escape reality”. K-drama doesn’t sell false hopes or double standards. It sells what it is good at, and obtainable reality in the comforts of your home. Yes, we can all have glass skin. Yes, we can all afford sheet masks, and yes Kimchi is in abundance everywhere in the world. And that is mainly why K-Wave has swept the world. Whatever food, goods, and services were shown in K-dramas, are obtainable by the common man or woman anywhere in the world. We may not be able to afford Organic Kale on a daily basis that Hollywood A-listers promote as part of their daily diet, but we can afford a one-dollar sheet mask from Korea and feel good about ourselves. K-wave didn’t happen by accident. This was a meticulous battle plan laid out by the Korean government and Korean businesses to dominate the world. The K-Wave invasion was done with military precision starting from product placement on the screen to product availability in the local markets all over the Asia Pacific region. And with all things that were carefully planned, crafted, and curated, it succeeded.

I recently discovered “Crash Landing on You” and can I tell you something? I’ve watched the entire series three times in the last week. No Hollywood series or movies have touched the depth of my soul the way this series has. And I’m not the only one, social media is filled with comments of people watching it up to 7 times! What is even more surprising is that Crash Landing on You was written by one Korean woman, Park Ji-Eun, which in my opinion is the South Korean equivalent of Shonda Rhimes. Yes, one woman has made, what can be considered the perfect script in the history of television which has made Crash Landing on You the second most-watched K-drama in history. There was revenge, romance, comedy, friendship, intrigue, international politics, all of the elements of human tragedy and triumph were weaved into a seamless fairy tale that transported us to a different world. The characters were so endearing that we can’t help but be invested with our hearts and souls into their lives. I cried in every single episode and after watching it the first time, my eyes were swollen and puffy due to constant crying for 3 days (which was how long for me to go through the 16 episodes). This is something that I’ve never experienced with any Western or Hollywood series or movies in my life. Normally after the series end, we walk away thinking, that was good, what’s next? With Crash Landing on You, in the end, we can’t help but think “We wish everyone all the best, after what they’ve been through, they deserve happiness”. And yes, none of us can move on from this series. This is why some have watched it seven times.

Bloomberg recently reported that “Netflix Plans to Double Spending on Original Content in Asia”, according to the article, revenue from streaming in the Asia Pacific will reach 15 Billion USD by 2025. This goes to prove that more than ever, people around the world are getting tired of the carefully designed world Hollywood has to offer which is in fact, unobtainable in reality. There is a reason why Blackpink has 58 Million followers on YouTube, surpassing the uber-famous Taylor Swift. It’s not just about the songs, the look, or the dance moves. It’s about realism and accessibility. And that is something that K-Wave has formulated perfectly down to a T!