How the Korean wave Hallyu achieved worldwide success

The term "Korean Wave", also known as Hallyu or Korean Wave, indicates the recent phenomenon that sees the considerable increase in interest from the rest of the world towards South Korean culture and entertainment products. Begun in the 1990s in Asia and more recently in the rest of the world, the Korean wave has brought about major changes in South Korea, especially in the economic and image fields.

The first to talk about the Korean wave was in 1999 a Chinese journalist who, coining the term Hallyu, wanted to define the phenomenon that from Korea, like a real wave, was preparing to overwhelm the international entertainment industry. Let's see together in this article how it was born.

Drama, or Korean TV series

To determine the considerable increase in interest in Korean cultural products was mainly the drama. Notably, the 2002 drama Winter Sonata had a blazing success in the rest of Asia, also causing a growing tourist interest in Nami-som, an islet east of Seoul where the drama was filmed. From there, the interest in drama grew more and more until it also reached the West, where the expansion of the phenomenon was fueled in part by fansubbers, which allowed the circulation of products that otherwise would have remained unknown.

Although the use of drama remains mainly possible only through online platforms, there have also been cases of drama translated and passed on to Italian televisions. One of these is the drama Dream High, which in 2013 was dubbed and broadcast in Italian. Furthermore, recently, thanks also to the Netflix platform, it is possible to enjoy a large catalog of continuously updated Korean drama subtitled.

K-pop, or Korean pop

The music is definitely what allowed the Korean wave to go further. Korean pop, despite providing a target mainly adolescents, is actually much later abroad also by a more mature audience and usually female. It stands out from the music of other states for its boybands and girl bands with whimsical dresses, often brightly colored hair, and particular choreographies, so much so that in Korea there are really dedicated dance academies.

Among the most famous boybands, we cannot fail to mention BTS and EXO, while among the girl bands we point out the Blackpink, with a more decisive sound, and the Twice, with a more “cute style” sound. These bands are so popular that they often organize concerts abroad as well.

Korean cinema

Interest in Korean cinema abroad is nothing new in 2020. Although it has been around for a long time, Korean cinema began to attract the attention of international audiences in the 1990s. In addition to the more artistic films such as Pietà (winner of the Golden Lion in 2012) and Ferro 3 (winner of the Silver Lion in 2004) by director Kim Kiduk, we also find lighter films within everyone's reach, among which we point out the recently Train To Busan, translated and broadcast also by Italian televisions.

Finally, we can not fail to mention the recent success of Parasite Bong Joonho, winner of the first Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, and later the well four prizes Oscar. Surely this latest success will not remain in the shadows and will allow the Korean cultural industry to expand and make itself known more and more around the world.

The advantages for Korea

Drama, music, and cinema are the biggest representatives of the Korean wave, but let's not forget RPG video games and luxury electronic products such as Samsung and LG.

All this interest in the Korean entertainment industry has only benefited the country. First of all, thanks to the Korean wave, Korea was also able to make itself known in the West, where it was initially overshadowed by the shadow of its much more famous neighbors China and Japan.