Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.
Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. In entertainment Circles, they talk about something
Speaker 1: called the Korean Wave, a moment in the nineties when
Speaker 1: Korean music and TV shows started going wild internationally, first
Speaker 1: into China, Japan, Southeast Asia and then the rest of
Speaker 1: the world makeup skincare television literature. They call it hull
Speaker 1: yu and it might be best expressed in the Netflix
Speaker 1: hit squid Game. Today, entertainment reporter Jordi Gray on why
Speaker 1: season three of squid Game, which drops for your binging
Speaker 1: pleasure on June twenty seven hits different.
Speaker 2: Gundam Star.
Speaker 1: Gungham Style, released in twenty twelve, was the world's Korean
Speaker 1: pop culture initiation. It is pop perfection with biting synth
Speaker 1: hooks and a soaring pre chorus that drops into an
Speaker 1: irresistible chant open Gundam stars compared with a signature dance move.
Speaker 1: The music video was the first video ever to reach
Speaker 1: a billion views on YouTube. Gungam means South of the River.
Speaker 1: The singer Cy, who became a global superstar thanks to
Speaker 1: Gungham Style, calls this part of town the Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: of soul, remember right, said Fred Gungman style was a
Speaker 1: bit like I'm Too Sexy, a satire of vanity, consumerism
Speaker 1: and class. And then k pop. If you haven't heard
Speaker 1: of Korean supergroups BTS, Black Pink and Twice Pink, you
Speaker 1: at least know one of their biggest stars, l Lisa
Speaker 1: Manibal from Black Pink, who played Mook in the latest
Speaker 1: season of The White Lotus.
Speaker 2: Here are the nominees for Achievement and Directing.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Bong June Ho's Parasite, a story about
Speaker 1: inequality and class, was the first non English language film
Speaker 1: to win the Best Picture Oscar Paul Juneo. And in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Netflix released squid Game, a life and
Speaker 1: death fictional game show in the style of the Roman colisseum,
Speaker 1: a blood sport where poor people compete for money. Korean
Speaker 1: skincare defund it Approach, not my Wheelhouse, Club, Not My
Speaker 1: wheel House. Jordi Gray is the entertainment reporter for the
Speaker 1: Australian Jordy. You had to binge a few episodes to
Speaker 1: catch up on squid Game, and then you've watched some
Speaker 1: of season three in advance of everybody else. What was
Speaker 1: it like throwing yourself back into this quid game world.
Speaker 2: Intense and Graham, I did forget how extraordinarily violent this
Speaker 2: show is, so I did watch a lot of it
Speaker 2: through my fingers, but I do think it's a very
Speaker 2: strong ending to such a massive series.
Speaker 1: Squid Game follows a hero, Giehan, who finds himself in
Speaker 1: financial trouble and is drawn into a wild game where
Speaker 1: he tries to win a fortune. The twist is this
Speaker 1: game is life or death. In seasons one and two,
Speaker 1: we saw him fight through the death and chaos to
Speaker 1: try to unmask the sinister figures behind the game, and
Speaker 1: in season three, which drops on Netflix on June twenty seven,
Speaker 1: we leap into the future for something that the director
Speaker 1: is promising will be darker and more humorous. Is class.
Speaker 1: Do you think the main driving force in this story?
Speaker 1: Is that really what it's about?
Speaker 2: I think season three is an actual extension of the
Speaker 2: themes of season two, and it's focused on tribalism. Season
Speaker 2: one was really about how capitalism and desperate economic circumstances
Speaker 2: push people to impossible, deadly decisions like risking life and
Speaker 2: limb in front of a giant pigtailed.
Speaker 1: Murderers dole.
Speaker 2: What. But this season introduces a very interesting twist. After
Speaker 2: each round of the games, the players get to vote
Speaker 2: on whether to end the game early. If the game
Speaker 2: ends prematurely, they split the prize money evenly, which is
Speaker 2: kind of a classic game show dilemma, but in the
Speaker 2: hands of like Squid Games director becomes a really intense
Speaker 2: and uncomfortable social experiment.
Speaker 1: One of the things about dystopian television, I think is
Speaker 1: that there's a hope that the White Night will come,
Speaker 1: it will all be solved, you know, you get some
Speaker 1: clarity at the end. Do you feel like Squid Game
Speaker 1: is going there or is it just going to be
Speaker 1: quite dystopian right through to the end, do you think?
Speaker 2: I think recently there's kind of been an interest in
Speaker 2: the sort of eat the rich television and it has
Speaker 2: that anger, but it doesn't really offer any answers. And
Speaker 2: if I'm being like totally honest, I don't think that's
Speaker 2: why people like the show. I don't think they're interested
Speaker 2: in it because it's a scathing critique of wealth. Just
Speaker 2: like people I'm not interested in the White Lotus. They
Speaker 2: want to just see rich people teary each other apart,
Speaker 2: I think squid game is just captivating because of the
Speaker 2: style and spectacle of it, the candy colored corridors and
Speaker 2: the pink jumpsuits and the insane.
Speaker 1: Violence coming up. How Korean taxpayers funded this global culture takeover.
Speaker 1: Part of Korea's kind of revolution is that this is
Speaker 1: a very connected society. A huge population living on half
Speaker 1: a tiny island helps. They're very close together, They're all
Speaker 1: plugged in. What's different about the vision of Korean culture
Speaker 1: that's been exported to the world. I'm thinking particularly about
Speaker 1: k pop? Why is it so captivating?
Speaker 2: Technology is the source of South Korea. Back in twenty ten,
Speaker 2: it rolled up broadband to nearly every household, years ahead
Speaker 2: of most countries. And it wasn't just about like zippy
Speaker 2: and fast downloads. It was part of a much bigger picture,
Speaker 2: which was a national strategy to modernize the economy and
Speaker 2: push Korean culture onto the world stage.
Speaker 1: And was that a government funded If it was.
Speaker 2: Yes, I like to think of it as like a
Speaker 2: state back charm offensive. The South Korean government clocked early
Speaker 2: that these like glossy and gorgeous capeop idols were worth billions,
Speaker 2: not just in like streaming revenue, but in soft power
Speaker 2: like people are obsessed with their fashion and it's been
Speaker 2: a massive boost for tourism. People want to go to
Speaker 2: career and see how their favorite capup idols live. And
Speaker 2: I think since the nineteen nineties, the Ministry of Culture,
Speaker 2: Sports and Tourism has treated k pop the way that
Speaker 2: other nations treat like steel or aircraft as national infrastructure.
Speaker 2: So it invests in training programs, music video production overseas,
Speaker 2: showcases global marketing campaigns, and funnels money into the industry
Speaker 2: because it knows that these stars sell more than songs,
Speaker 2: They sell the country itself.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is actually quite dystopian and fabulous. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so are films like Parasite informed by that? I mean,
Speaker 1: is the kind of art house cinema for all of
Speaker 1: a better word that's coming out of Korea as well
Speaker 1: a rejection of that? Or are they also funding the
Speaker 1: depressing art house cinema blockbusters the weird oscars? Well.
Speaker 2: The Korean film industry is supported by government funding through
Speaker 2: bodies like the Korean Film Council that helps directors take chances,
Speaker 2: and they have mentored directors like Long Jun Ho and
Speaker 2: Park Chen Wook who did Old Boy, or teurs that
Speaker 2: mix irony and social critique without worrying about global palatability,
Speaker 2: which I think has actually benefited the Korean government because
Speaker 2: most Hollywood movies don't have anything to say.
Speaker 1: Well, we're in the Marvel era, aren't we That's the
Speaker 1: backdrop to these kinds of films. So are they stepping
Speaker 1: into a sort of ideas void that Hollywood's created?
Speaker 2: I think so. Yes. Hollywood is terrified, at risk and
Speaker 2: obsessed with pre sold franchises.
Speaker 1: It has spent the.
Speaker 2: Past two decades, like post Iron Man, doubling down on superheroes,
Speaker 2: Disney Life, Action remakes, sequels, or YadA YadA, YadA yadda,
Speaker 2: because they know that original ideas do not guarantee global
Speaker 2: return and intellectual property like Star Wars and Marvel and
Speaker 2: Harry Potter is bankable in every territory, like you don't
Speaker 2: have to explain Spider Man to Shanghai or Paris. But
Speaker 2: the Korean public is famously film literate pre pandemic, they
Speaker 2: were buying more cinematickets per capita than anywhere else in
Speaker 2: the world. So while Hollywood played it, say, I sort
Speaker 2: of flogging nostalgia career back to regionality and as winning.
Speaker 1: Jordie Gray is the entertainment reporter with The Australian. You
Speaker 1: can read her story in today's review section, imprint or
Speaker 1: online at the Australian dot com do a you slash review.
Speaker 1: This episode of the Front was hosted by me Claire
Speaker 1: Harvey and produced by Jasper League. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on the Front this week. Our team also includes Kristin
Speaker 1: amyot Leatt, Samaglue, Tiffany Dimak, Josh Burton and Stephanie Coombs.