Neil Newman

Abacus | Squid Game, Hellbound: will South Korea displace Japan as the new cultural superpower in Asia?

The popularity of Korean Netflix dramas this year is increasing exposure to all aspects of the country’s culture, from films and music to make up and menus

When mass travel finally returns, will Seoul, Busan and Jeju be the next big “must visit” destinations, leaving Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo in the dust?

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Shoppers take pictures with cosplayers dressed in outfits from the Netflix series Squid Game in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

Neil Newman

Published: 9:30am, 6 Dec 2021

At the beginning of the pandemic, I vowed not to slide into couch-potato mode and crawl out of the television screen looking like Sadako from Ring after a nighttime Netflix binge.

But I seemed to be in a minority keeping the streaming addiction at bay and soon it seemed everyone was recommending something I “must see” as streaming platforms multiplied and grew their subscriber bases. At this rate, Netflix alone will have close to a quarter of a billion subscribers in 2022.

However, I did not foresee how this streaming wave would be the thing to launch a new and potentially massive export business for South Korea: its culture. And judging by the hype, it seems that as the world gets a taste of Korea, everyone is craving more.

So, I decided to dip my toe in and watch the opening episode of Squid Game. It’s not something I expected to fancy, given that it was excessively violent, that people were dressing up in silly costumes mimicking the characters for Halloween – something else I cannot stand – and that I’d have to put up with subtitles. I ended up binge-watching it.

And if that wasn’t enough, I went back for more, glued this time to Hellbound, the latest chart-topper. I binged that too in one sitting.

Full marks for the tight scripts, sharp acting, entertainment value and those incredible cliffhangers that American television pioneered. Even though it was rather more nasty and violent than the things I usually watch, it made sense in the context of the show.