Old Boy Korean Show

[Paz Warsager]

Overthe hols I started watching Sweet Home, a new Korean horror series on Netflix about an apartment block's residents trapped inside while people mysteriously mutate into monsters. Seems pretty fun so far. Has some awful monsters, and definitely a character or two I like. AND THEN every time our heroes fight back, I fall about dying, just dying, positively dying, screaming with death, absolutely riddled with death, because the piece of music behind big action scenes is Warriors, the 2014 League Of Legends World Championship anthem by Imagine Dragons. DON'T TURN AWAY.

And that video cuts the song short. It really does go on. So much Warriors. I thought this might be a funny one-off but let me tell you: it is not. I'm far from finished but have already heard Warriors several times. It is the show's anthem for heroic moments. I scream at the telly every time my death begins.

I'm not the RPS Warriors correspondent (that was Pip) but I certainly am a fan. It is such an absurd song for a video game tournament, which is what makes it perfect. They are the warriors that built this town, you know. From dust, no less. While Riot's music department have collaborated on far better pop songs in the years since (virtual girl group K/DA being a highlight) I still insist Warriors was the best Worlds song. And now it's in Sweet Home, undercutting dramatic scenes and triumphs. As much as Imagine Dragons insist I do otherwise, I might turn anyway now.

If you want a Korean supernatural show on Netflix without Warriors, by the way, I am enjoying The Uncanny Counter. It's a martial arts dramedy about a schoolboy who gains magic powers and joins a group of heavenly demon-hunters who run a noodle restaurant. I do like a quirky found family, and this has a good one. Excellent wrestledad, punchmum, and kicksis.

Both computers are Windows 10 Pro version 1809 Both have the Korean language pack and both can show Hangul in other applications. I have also duplicated the issue here in our office with Windows 10 version 1903.

Note that this is a system-wide setting and may break non-Unicode applications that assume Windows is on the default locale (some variant of Western European, usually). There used to be a tool called AppLocale to set the locale on a per-program basis, but that was discontinued after XP. Your best bet if you need that on Windows 10 is Locale Emulator.

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 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.[1] In 2022, Netflix reported that six in ten of its 221 million subscribers had watched a Korean program in the last year,[2][3] and in April 2023, it announced that it would invest US$2.5 billion in the industry.[4]

The success of Korean dramas has had a significant economic impact on South Korea. In 2022, US$561.3 million of Korean television content was sold abroad, which was a 29.6% increase from the previous year,[5] surpassing those of South Korea's major export items such as secondary batteries and electric vehicles.[6] The industry also employs tens of thousands of people.[7] 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.[8]

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,[9] and the evening series Temptation of Wife peaked at 40.6%, according to TNS Korea.[10]

K-dramas have a multitude of different genre 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.[11]

However, it is an emerging trend amongst Korean dramas to showcase ongoing societal issues of Korean society, such as stigma of mental illness,[13] gender inequality, suicide, classism, bullying, spy cameras, corruption, homophobia, or racism.[14]

The term sageuk refers to any Korean television or film drama that is either based on historical figures, incorporates historical events, or uses a historical backdrop. While sageuk directly translates to "historical drama", the term is typically reserved for dramas taking place throughout the course of Korean history.[15]

Often centered on a love story, series set in contemporary times often focus on family ties and romantic relationships. Characters are mostly idealized with Korean male protagonists described as handsome, intelligent, rich, and in search of "one true love". This has also been a contributing factor to the popularity of Korean dramas among women.[8][18][19][20]

Radio broadcasting, including the broadcasting of radio dramas in Korea, began in 1927 under Japanese rule, with most programming in Japanese and around 30% in Korean.[21] After the Korean War, radio dramas such as Cheongsilhongsil (1954) reflected the country's mood.[22]

In the 1970s, television sets started to spread among the general population, and dramas switched from portraying dramatic historical figures to introducing national heroes like Yi Sun-shin or Sejong the Great.[28] Contemporary series dealt with personal sufferings, such as Kim Soo-hyun's influential Stepmother (새엄마, Saeeomma), aired by MBC in 1972 and 1973.[29] As technology and funding was limited, Korean channels could not make series in resource-heavy genres like action and science fiction; American and other foreign series were imported instead.[30]

The beginning years of the 2000s gave birth to famous Korean dramas and also marked the period of overseas distribution. Some popular ones are Full House, Autumn in My Heart and Winter Sonata. It marks the birth of a new genre, called "fusion sageuk", essentially changing the ways to produce historical series, with successful pieces such as Hur Jun, Damo and Dae Jang Geum.[26]

The late 2010s and 2020s saw newfound attention of K-dramas from international markets.[41] Netflix had begun seeking productions from South Korea and other countries since around 2018 to expand offerings for their service with a growing international audience. These efforts came to fruition when Hwang Dong-hyuk's Squid Game drew in more than 111 million viewers within 17 days of its released in September 2021, becoming the service's most-watched program.[41]

In the 2020s, several production companies began to produce dramas even before the first season was aired, keeping in mind the season system. The most representative series is The Penthouse: War in Life series, which gained sensational popularity as it aired over three seasons. The biggest reason why Korean dramas introduced the season system is interpreted as changes in the industry due to the 52-hour workweek, viewers' rejection of feature-length dramas, and excessive supply of dramas.[42] At the same time, MBC and tvN's anomalous organization began to be criticized a lot. tvN extended one episode of the drama to 2 hours and 20 minutes. delaying it to the late night of another drama. In particular, the running time of the last episode of Hospital Playlist was close to three hours, but even though it was reduced after editing, it delayed the formation of the next The Road: The Tragedy of One to late night as it passed two hours.[43] And MBC canceled telenovela The Second Husband and reran the thriller The Veil at that time.[44][45][46][47]

Korean series were originally produced in-house by the television channels themselves, but have been outsourced to independent companies since the 2000s. In 2012, as much as 75% of all K-dramas were produced this way. Competition is fierce among these companies; out of 156 registered firms, only 34 of them produced dramas that were actually aired in 2012.[48]

As producing a series involves high expenses, production companies seek to shoot the episodes in the shortest time possible. In contrast to practices elsewhere, the first four episodes of Korean series are usually shot in advance, but the rest are shot continuously as the series is being aired. Scripts are not finished in advance, and may change according to viewer feedback and viewership ratings, where popular characters receive increased screen time and plotlines are changed to match audience expectations.[59] These changes may occur a few hours before daily shooting, and the crew might receive only a few ready pages. The production usually works with three camera crews, who work in a rotating manner to speed up filming. Because of unregulated script changes and tight shooting schedules, actors are almost continuously on standby, and have no time to leave the set or sleep properly. The Korean media have a separate word to describe irregular, short sleeps that actors resort to, in often uncomfortable positions, or within the set: jjok-jam (쪽잠), or "side-sleeping". Dramas usually air on two days every week, with following episodes having to be shot within the intervening five days. Some Korean actors have admitted to receiving IV therapy during filming, due to extreme schedules and exhaustion.[53][60][61][unreliable source?] Nonetheless, the live-shoot model remains widely used since the production team can react to real time audience feedback.[59]

3a8082e126