It’s not the violence that make it surprising that the Netflix series Squid Game has surpassed Bridgerton as the streaming service’s most popular show. It’s the fact that it’s a Korean-language drama, subtitled or dodgily dubbed into English (and with barely a sex scene). Or at least it would be surprising if you hadn’t been paying attention to the world’s growing obsession with all things South Korean. K-pop, K-drama, K-film, K-beauty: a K-wave is sweeping the globe.
The boom in Korean culture has its roots in CGI dinosaurs, or so the story goes. When the South Korean government calculated that Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic Jurassic Park raked in more cash for Universal Pictures than the return on a year’s worth of Hyundai cars, a stalwart of the Korean economy at the time, it began concocting a plan to build and then export the country’s entertainment industry. Twenty-eight years later, we’re consuming Korean culture like it’s bibimbap (a delicious rice dish — try it).
