{"id":141879,"date":"2018-06-16T02:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/the-other-big-korean-drama-right-now\/"},"modified":"2018-06-16T02:48:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T02:48:00","slug":"the-other-big-korean-drama-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/the-other-big-korean-drama-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The other big Korean drama right now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AImage copyright Content K
Image caption Korean drama Something In The Rain is one of the country's latest hit TV exports <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might have heard of K-pop, but there's more to South Korea's vibrant entertainment industry than just music. Welcome to the world of K-drama.<\/p>\n

A fresh-faced young man sits alone in a bar nursing a whisky, the ice cubes clinking against the side of the glass as he looks forlornly into it.<\/p>\n

We cut to a woman, slightly older, with a mobile phone to her ear on a busy street. She too looks like something is weighing heavily on her mind.<\/p>\n

The soundtrack plays a schmaltzy love song.<\/p>\n

"The man who was very sad is the younger brother of the friend of the girl on the phone," explains Ma Jung-hoon, the show's producer. "And they started liking each other, but their parents said they didn't want them to get married."<\/p>\n

Something in the Rain (or Pretty Sister Who Buys Me Food, as it's known in Korean), is South Korea's latest hit TV drama. It tells the story of a woman in her mid-30s who's given up on love - until she falls for her best friend's younger brother. <\/p>\n

Image copyright Content K
Image caption Korean TV exports are now worth $239m <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show is on South Korean TV on Friday and Saturday nights, but is also available around the world on Netflix. It's part of the booming K-drama industry.<\/p>\n

"The industry's tripled in size since the early 2000s," says Ma Jung-hoon.<\/p>\n

Exports are a big part of that success. The most recent official annual figures count $239m (\u00a3178m) worth of K-drama exports.<\/p>\n

"Half of our income comes from international sales," says Ma Jung-hoon. "Of that 70% is from Asia and about 30% from the US."<\/p>\n

Ma Jung-hoon says he expects a bigger slice of their profit pie to be American in the future, as US production companies buy up the rights to remake successful K-dramas. He also thinks more collaborations with foreign companies are likely.<\/p>\n

Image caption Korean TV producer Ma Jung-hoon says that the industry expects to make more money in the US <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the meantime, there's one crucial requirement for K-dramas to travel well - good subtitles.<\/p>\n

Video streaming service Rakuten Viki, which specialises in Korean and other Asian TV shows, has a novel approach to subtitling its programmes.<\/p>\n

"Viki is a combination of 'video' and 'wiki', so combine them and you get Viki," says Kristine Ortiz, the company's senior community manager.<\/p>\n

"Basically, we're a video streaming platform, but all of our subtitles are crowdsourced, so that's where the wiki element comes in."<\/p>\n

Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionK-foreign: The hidden Westerners in Korean drama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company, which was originally an independent start-up, was bought for \u00a3130m in 2013 by Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten. It now has more than 40 million monthly active users, and offices in Seoul, Singapore, San Francisco, and Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Viki describes itself as "global TV powered by fans". One of its most popular shows at the moment is called Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo.<\/p>\n

"In Korea the term 'fairy' is often used for beautiful, feminine women," Kristine says. <\/p>\n

"So it's kind of contradictory having a weightlifting fairy. But essentially it's this love story between two childhood friends. One is a swimmer and the other is the weightlifting fairy, the girl, Kim Bok-joo. And it's fun because it's actually loosely based off a true story."<\/p>\n

Image caption Kristine Ortiz says that how quickly fans provide subtitles for a TV show indicates whether it will be a hit <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Non-Korean speakers can enjoy Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo thanks to the subtitling work of what Kristine calls the "volunteer community". And they can work pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

"The fastest we've seen an episode completed is three to four hours," she says. "A really strong indicator of whether or not we have a hit on our hands is the subtitling speed."<\/p>\n

Weightlifting Fairy is available in 37 languages. English always gets done first, then other languages use that as a base. <\/p>\n

The volunteers are of course providing Viki with free labour. But they can earn rewards, like access to the site's ad-free subscription service.<\/p>\n

Like Netflix, Viki has started producing its own content in addition to buying from others.<\/p>\n

Image copyright Rakuten Viki
Image caption Dramaworld is one of the most popular Korean shows on streaming service Viki <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comedy-drama show Dramaworld is one of Viki's most successful own productions. Set in Los Angeles and Seoul, it tells the story of an American college student who, thanks to a touch of magic, falls into her favourite K-drama programme.<\/p>\n

Kristine says they've seen a big surge in the popularity of K-dramas in the US and Latin America recently.<\/p>\n

"I think that the format of Korean dramas is very digestible," she says. "So instead of having these long, 20-episode, multi-series shows like we have in the US and other parts of the world, Korean dramas are [up to] 16 episodes. That's it, you only have one season.<\/p>\n

"And also, the stories that they tell are very real, in the sense that they're not super-violent or hyper-sexualised. So I think a lot of users, especially in Latin American countries, find a lot of appeal in that."<\/p>\n

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Korean dramas are said to be less violent and sexual than those from the US <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Others too are tapping into the growing global market for K-drama, such as as US entertainment giant Warner Bros, which bought the Korean TV and movies streaming service DramaFever for an undisclosed figure in 2016.<\/p>\n

"K-drama has high production values," says Hye-kyung Lee, senior lecturer in cultural and creative industries, at King's College London.<\/p>\n

"You have interesting stories, characters, trendy music, excellent camera work and good-looking actors and actresses.<\/p>\n

"So, simply put, it has a lot of entertainment value."<\/p>\n

She says that after a dramatic rise in the 2000s in Japan, China, Taiwan and some Middle Eastern countries, K-drama has now become more globalised.<\/p>\n

Ms Lee adds that its popularity is growing consistently, driven by fandom.<\/p>\n

Global Trade <\/h2>\n

More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Hit them in the Harleys: EU fights Trump tariffs<\/li>\n
  • Is the European Union a 'protectionist racket'? <\/li>\n
  • New Zealand happy to forget the UK's 'betrayal'<\/li>\n
  • Where does Trump's 'America First' leave Canada?<\/li>\n
  • Trump's double threat to global free trade<\/li>\n
  • Can tariffs really save an industry?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    "Viki is an interesting case, showing how such fandom can create a new cultural business model," she says.<\/p>\n

    "In the US and European countries, maybe the audiences are attracted to the drama because it is very different from the local products or American imports.<\/p>\n

    "At the same time, the themes of K-drama, such as love, family, and friendship, might have some universal appeal."<\/p>\n

    K-drama is one part of a bigger tide of successful exports from South Korea's entertainment industry, described collectively as the "Korean Wave". Its best-known element is pop music, with K-pop act BTS topping the US album charts last month. <\/p>\n

    Image copyright Getty Images
    Image caption Korean boy band BTS is just one of many of South Korea's successful entertainment industry exports <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    The Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange is a public body that helps to monitor and promote the Korean Wave. It estimates that the Korean Wave contributed 18tn won ($16bn; \u00a312bn) to the South Korean economy in 2017. That figure has been growing steadily.<\/p>\n

    The international appeal of South Korea's pop culture also helps to raise the country's profile more widely.<\/p>\n

    "I think Korean dramas have found a way to showcase the best of the best of Korea," says Viki's Kristine Ortiz. <\/p>\n

    "So it's not only just the storyline. You see the fashion, you see the beauty, and you see the food. And it's all really idealistic and really attractive for a lot of people. That's part of the reason I got into K-dramas myself."<\/p>\n

    For more on this story, you can listen to the World Service's Global Business radio programme, broadcast on Saturday 16 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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