Korean content is diverse encompassing a range of themes and styles and its popularity globally has seen audiences looking beyond their favorite stars and directors to explore new and different content. But as Korean cinema was beginning to make inroads in the West, it was genre cinema that was finding an audience led by Korea’s now famous auteurs: Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon Ho and Kim Jee-woon. Oldboy won the Grand Prix in Cannes and became the highest selling DVD on Tartan’s “Asia-Extreme” label. Both the thriller Memories of Murder (2003) and horror feature A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) travelled widely on the festival circuit and were theatrically released in the UK in what was an early wave of Korean films.

Indeed, it was one of Korea’s early genre-bending filmmakers Kim Ki-young who helmed The Housemaid (1960) who became the subject of much fascination among overseas critics at the Busan International Film Festival in 1997 when it screened a retrospective. Some of his films were later invited to Berlinale in what was seen as rediscovery of his work.

In other words, Korean genre content has long struck a chord with global viewers. Korean filmmakers have found innovative ways to use genres to tackle complex themes of history, social injustice and unrest, culture, and an array of subjects that affect Korea and its population.  One only has to look at the films that have traveled widely to see this connection: Oldboy, The Host (2006) Train to Busan (2016) and Parasite (2019).

When Netflix entered the Korean market in the 2010s and began financing Korean genre content and working with genre filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho, it proved to be consequential. Okja (2017) was a gamechanger and signified what was to come later and its first successful series Kingdom (2019-2021) and Sweet Home (2020) were reflective of what has made Korean content so appealing globally with their impressive and daring staging.

This week we profile the genre content that exhibits some of the traits seen in Korean genre cinema starting with Netflix’s hit shows Squid Game (2021-2025) and Hellbound before turning to Monstrous (2022) and Dear X (2025). It will then conclude with Korean thriller series: Beyond Evil (2021) and Doubt (2024).

Squid Game & Hellbound – K-Dystopia on Netflix

Coming in the middle of the pandemic, Squid Game was a gargantuan hit becoming Netflix’s most viewed series clocking up 1.65 billion hours of viewing in its first four weeks taking Korean content to even greater heights.

Directed by a Korean filmmaker, Hwang Dong-hyuk who spent years trying to get the project financed, it signaled Netflix’s approach to the industry as a disrupter: tap into Korea’s vibrant industry and lure subscribers locally, and to turn it into a hub producing content for its users globally. As of August, Netflix had 8.2m subscribers in Korea making it the top platform in the country, while last year it was revealed by the Vice President of Asia Pacific, Kim Min-young that  80 percent of its total subscribers had watched Korean content.  It has succeeded on both fronts.

Central to this has been financing original content like Squid Game. Dealing with the competitive nature of a capitalist society like Korea’s, it takes a brutal and grueling approach echoing the violent aesthetic of Oldboy and other Korean genre films as it tells the story of game contestants buried in debt who are forced to kill each other in order to win the top prize. Audiences can lose interest if they don’t care about the characters but Hwang as a skilled storyteller makes the characters relatable pulling viewers into the story.

Squid Game is part of a growing body of work that is dystopian in nature. Korean character-driven romantic series can feature glossy worlds that romanticize life in Korea – akin to some Working Title films that are set in the UK – but more genre-driven content tends to depict darker morbid societies. Squid Game turns to neoliberalism and survival of the fittest but a series like Hellbound delves into religion and cults. Its Korean title Jiok or Hell features prominently in Korean content – the second episode of Squid Game Season One is called Hell. 

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) Hellbound is based on a webtoon of the same name he co-created with Choi Gyu-seok and focuses on characters who are condemned to hell by unearthly creatures giving rise to a religious group. The theme of religion appears in many of Yeon’s films and shows including The Fake (2013) and Parasyte: The Grey (2024) – and it’s also exhibited in other features like Exhuma (2024) as religion; be it Christianity, Buddhism or shamanism continues to play a prominent role in Korea. Yeon like his peers is able to deliver these genre-driven and bending stories capturing complex themes relating to Korean society and in doing so attract a global audience.  

Monstrous & Dear X – K-Horror & Revenge  

After Netflix heated up the Korean content market it was inevitable that local streaming services would emerge pumping significant investment into content with Tving, Coupang, Wavve and Watcha all competing for subscribers in the early 2020s. Tving has become a leading platform though like its local competitors it has consistently trailed Netflix.  The platform is a joint venture between CJ ENM, SLL (formerly JTBC studios) and KT with CJ having the biggest stake at 48.8%. Tving is merging with Wavve that will even the playing field as combined subscribers could exceed 9 million by the end of the year.

The Korean content on Tving includes many of CJ ENM’s films and the series developed by its production company Studio Dragon that is central to CJ ENM’s global ambitions. This includes the six-part horror series Monstrous (2022) centering on archeologists who search for answers surrounding a peculiar mystery starring Koo Kyo-hwan and Shin Hyun-been. K-horror was the first genre to have what is now the famous “K” prefix attached to it as it began to attract a following overseas.

It was co-written by Yeon Sang-ho and directed by independent filmmaker Jang Kun-jae in what was further evidence of how talent from the film industry were working on content produced for streaming platforms.

Monstrous was part of CJ ENM’s content that became available on Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription package last year called “CJ ENM Selects” as the studio continues to make its films and shows accessible to audiences overseas.

CJ ENM is also partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery that includes Korean content being exclusively available on Warner Bros’ streaming service HBO Max on a branded Tving Hub.  One new title that HBO Max subscribers can now enjoy access to is the thriller Dear X that is streaming on Tving in Korea and is attracting a lot of attention for Kim Yoo-jung’s chilling performance as an actress who rises to the top of her game but is hiding a traumatic past.  The series premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in September.

Featuring the theme of revenge that has developed into a sub-genre of its own in Korea; from Oldboy to A Bittersweet Life (2005), Mother (2009) and The Glory (2022) it has a long be associated with some of the titles that have traveled globally. Its origins date back decades – Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid mixes melodrama and horror in a tale of revenge to such dazzling effect it would influence Korean cinema and its auteurs for years to come.

Beyond Evil & Doubt – Korean Thrillers

Crime thrillers are found in national cinemas across the globe. Indeed, crime mysteries have long been popular in literature. In Korean cinema, the genre has become more prevalent in the contemporary era with Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder (2003) and  Na Hong-jin’s The Chaser (2008). Like Korean films more generally they paint a portrait of wider Korean society and in the case of the former, Korea’s turbulent history. So seminal was Memories of Murder it would influence crime thrillers in both film and television for years.

In television, gritty crime thrillers became quite popular in the 2010s with Bad Guys (2014) and Signal (2016) (also based on the same real-life events depicted in Memories of Murder) after cable networks invested more money into limited series. In the 2020s the cable networks produced further procedural dramas that were then released on streaming platforms. Two such cases are Beyond Evil that was aired on JTBC and Doubt that was broadcasted on MBC. Both shows were available on streaming platforms including Netflix.

Beyond Evil directed by Shim Na-yeon and starring Shin Ha-kyun and Yeo Jin-goo revolves around two policemen and a serial murder case in small town in Gyeonggi Provence drawing parallels to Memories of Murder in what is an expertly staged series and was nominated and winner of several accolades including Best Drama at the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Doubt features Han Suk-kyu as a gifted criminal profiler who realizes his intelligent daughter (Chae Won-bin) is connected to a homicide. It was similarly rapturously received.  While it features some of the tropes associated with the genre it stands out for its performances, slick production values, and well-written script that spans ten episodes.

Indicative of the reaction from those in the film industry as that distinction between the film and television sectors becomes blurred it came first place in a poll of critics at Korea’s leading film magazine Cine 21 as the Best Series of 2024.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic