South Korea
Could ‘Parasite’ Star Lee Sun-kyun’s Death Lead to a Social Reckoning in Korea?
In the 2018 Korean drama My Mister, Lee Sun-kyun stars as a man who seems to have it all — a stable career, the respect of his colleagues and a loving family — but is in actuality burdened by the pressures of providing for his loved ones and employees while navigating an extortion scheme and […]
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South Korea’s Directors Guild Pushes for Bargaining Rights and Backend Pay from Streamers, Studios
South Korea’s powerhouse entertainment industry is beginning to experience some of the same labor unrest that has rocked Hollywood. In an echo of the screenwriters and actors guild strikes that have brought the U.S. film and TV sector to a halt, the Directors Guild of Korea is lobbying its country’s legislature to revise a Copyrights […]
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Moonbin, Member of K-pop Band Astro, Dies at 25
Moonbin, a member of the Korean K-pop band Astro and one-half of the musical duo Moonbin & Sanha, has died. He was 25. Police in South Korea said the singer’s body was discovered at his home in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu district by the band’s manager Wednesday evening, The Korea Times reported. Police said they are still […]
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Could Reality TV Be the Next Global Trend in Korean Content?
In October 2021, Yoo Ki-hwan, content manager at Netflix Korea, received an e-mail from a stranger with a bold pitch for a show involving 100 contestants competing in a series of brutal challenges to win a cash prize worth 300 million Korean won (about $315,000). The scale of the show was so grand that it […]
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Netflix Adds 11 Titles to Sprawling 2023 Korean Content Slate
Netflix unveiled its biggest-ever annual slate of Korean films and series on Tuesday, while stating that over 60 percent of its global subscribers watched Korean content in 2022. The company showcased 34 titles in its 2023 slate announcement, including 11 previously unknown projects. The 2023 slate includes a raft of returning K-content hits, such as […]
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Study: Streaming Subscription Growth in South Korea Slows Dramatically
As the effects of the pandemic began to wane in South Korea in the first quarter of 2021, growth in streaming video subscriptions slowed sharply, a new report from regional research firm Media Partners Asia shows. New subscriptions across all streaming platforms totaled just 600,000, down from 1.7 million net sub adds in the fourth […]
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