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Korean drama
Korean drama (Korean: 한국 드라마; RR: Hanguk deurama), also known as K-drama and Koreanovela[citation needed], is a Korean-language television show made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise of the Korean Wave in the 1990s. They have since achieved significant international popularity, with millions of viewers across the world.
Beginning around the 1970s, more and more households in South Korea owned televisions. Programs were often produced on low budgets and were mostly consumed domestically. The industry significantly developed in the 1980s, after the spread of color television. Beginning in the early 1990s, several Korean dramas began achieving significant international popularity, primarily in China and Japan. In addition, South Korean popular music ("K-pop") and films began seeing similar successes, which gave rise to rapid international adoption of South Korean media in a phenomenon commonly called the Korean Wave. In the following decades, viewership spread throughout the globe. Rapid growth continued into the 2010s, with the rise in online streaming. Around this period, the American video streaming company Netflix took an interest in the phenomenon, and began releasing Korean dramas on its platform, as well as creating and funding ones. This culminated in the release of the 2021 Squid Game, which was watched by more than 142 million households in its first four weeks. In 2022, Netflix reported that 60 percent of its 221 million subscribers had watched a Korean program in the last year, and in April 2023, it announced that it would invest US$2.5 billion in the industry.
The success of Korean dramas has had a significant economic impact on South Korea. In 2022, US$561 million of Korean television content was sold abroad, which was a 30% increase from the previous year, surpassing those of South Korea's major export items such as secondary batteries and electric vehicles. The industry also employs tens of thousands of people. Korean dramas have also been cited as a motivation for tourists to visit the country.
A single director usually leads Korean dramas, which are often written by a single screenwriter. This often leads to each drama having distinct directing and dialogue styles. This differs from American television series, which can rely on multiple directors and writers working together.
The 19:00 to 21:00 evening time slots have usually been reserved for daily dramas, which run every night from Monday through Friday. Dramas in these slots are in the telenovela format, rarely running over 150 episodes. Unlike American soap operas, these daily dramas are not broadcast during the daytime. Instead, the daytime schedule often includes reruns of the flagship dramas. The nighttime dailies can achieve very high ratings. During the late 2000s, for example, the weekend series First Wives' Club recorded 41.3%, according to TNS Korea, and the evening series Temptation of Wife peaked at 40.6%, according to TNS Korea.
K-dramas have a multitude of different genres such as action dramas, historical dramas, school dramas, medical dramas, legal dramas, or even horror comedies. While most dramas contain romantic elements and deep emotional themes, some may also contain a tragedy or slice of life theme. There are various styles and tones.
The main themes of Korean television dramas are friendship, family values, and love, blending traditional Confucian and with Western materialism and individualism.
However, it is an emerging trend amongst Korean dramas to showcase ongoing societal issues of Korean society, such as stigma of mental illness, gender inequality, suicide, classism, bullying, spy cameras, corruption, homophobia, or racism.
Korean drama
Korean drama (Korean: 한국 드라마; RR: Hanguk deurama), also known as K-drama and Koreanovela[citation needed], is a Korean-language television show made in South Korea. These shows began to be produced around the early 1960s, but were mostly consumed domestically until the rise of the Korean Wave in the 1990s. They have since achieved significant international popularity, with millions of viewers across the world.
Beginning around the 1970s, more and more households in South Korea owned televisions. Programs were often produced on low budgets and were mostly consumed domestically. The industry significantly developed in the 1980s, after the spread of color television. Beginning in the early 1990s, several Korean dramas began achieving significant international popularity, primarily in China and Japan. In addition, South Korean popular music ("K-pop") and films began seeing similar successes, which gave rise to rapid international adoption of South Korean media in a phenomenon commonly called the Korean Wave. In the following decades, viewership spread throughout the globe. Rapid growth continued into the 2010s, with the rise in online streaming. Around this period, the American video streaming company Netflix took an interest in the phenomenon, and began releasing Korean dramas on its platform, as well as creating and funding ones. This culminated in the release of the 2021 Squid Game, which was watched by more than 142 million households in its first four weeks. In 2022, Netflix reported that 60 percent of its 221 million subscribers had watched a Korean program in the last year, and in April 2023, it announced that it would invest US$2.5 billion in the industry.
The success of Korean dramas has had a significant economic impact on South Korea. In 2022, US$561 million of Korean television content was sold abroad, which was a 30% increase from the previous year, surpassing those of South Korea's major export items such as secondary batteries and electric vehicles. The industry also employs tens of thousands of people. Korean dramas have also been cited as a motivation for tourists to visit the country.
A single director usually leads Korean dramas, which are often written by a single screenwriter. This often leads to each drama having distinct directing and dialogue styles. This differs from American television series, which can rely on multiple directors and writers working together.
The 19:00 to 21:00 evening time slots have usually been reserved for daily dramas, which run every night from Monday through Friday. Dramas in these slots are in the telenovela format, rarely running over 150 episodes. Unlike American soap operas, these daily dramas are not broadcast during the daytime. Instead, the daytime schedule often includes reruns of the flagship dramas. The nighttime dailies can achieve very high ratings. During the late 2000s, for example, the weekend series First Wives' Club recorded 41.3%, according to TNS Korea, and the evening series Temptation of Wife peaked at 40.6%, according to TNS Korea.
K-dramas have a multitude of different genres such as action dramas, historical dramas, school dramas, medical dramas, legal dramas, or even horror comedies. While most dramas contain romantic elements and deep emotional themes, some may also contain a tragedy or slice of life theme. There are various styles and tones.
The main themes of Korean television dramas are friendship, family values, and love, blending traditional Confucian and with Western materialism and individualism.
However, it is an emerging trend amongst Korean dramas to showcase ongoing societal issues of Korean society, such as stigma of mental illness, gender inequality, suicide, classism, bullying, spy cameras, corruption, homophobia, or racism.