Beyond K-pop: the culture of South Korea

The recent increase in the global popularity of South Korean culture is commonly referred to as ‘K-wave’, ‘Korean wave’ or ‘Hallyu’. It’s been almost 3 years since ‘Parasite’, directed by Bong Joon-ho, won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. This was a historical moment: ‘Parasite’ was the first South Korean film to have been nominated in these categories, as well as the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since then, I have watched many more films from South Korea, a country that I’m yet to visit, and I have been slowly riding the ‘Korean wave’. Today, I’d like to reflect on some films, music, festivals, books and culture-bound syndromes from this far-away country.

The cinematic journey to South Korea continues…

In 2022, I happened to watch 3 films from South Korea. It was also the year that I first attended the London Korean Film Festival, which took place in November.

Decision to Leave

Selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, ‘Decision to Leave’ was the first of the 3 South Korean films I watched in 2022 (and my least favourite). It was directed by Park Chan-wook, who won the Best Director Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival (and had also directed ‘Oldboy’ and ‘The Handmaiden’. It stars Park Hae-il, who plays a detective suspecting a young woman (played by Tang Wei) for her husband’s murder.

The Anchor

‘The Anchor’ was the film I watched at the London Korean Film Festival. It was directed by Jung Ji-yeon, who came to the screening for a very interesting Q&A session. It stars Chun Woo-hee, who plays a TV news anchor who gets a phone call from a woman telling her that she would soon be murdered, and Shin Ha-kyun, who plays the latter’s psychiatrist.

Confession

This was the third South Korean film I watched last year, at the Leeds International Film Festival, also in November. Directed by Yoon Jong-seok, ‘Confession’ is based on the Spanish film ‘The Invisible Guest (Contratiempo)’ (directed by Oriol Paulo). It stars So Ji-sub, who plays a young man accused of his lover’s murder, and Kim Yunjin, who plays his defence attorney. Despite having watched ‘The Invisible Guest’ a few years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Confession’ and I still cannot decide which of the two films I liked the most.

Having only watched ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area’ (the South Korean adaptation of the Spanish TV series), I have to admit I am far from a connoisseur when it comes to TV series from South Korea.

Beyond K-pop

The K-Music Festival took place in London from 5 October to 24 November 2022. Although I did not manage to attend, it allowed me to familiarise myself with Korean music and musicians, far less known than Gangnam Style, BTS and Blackpink (who will headline the BST Hyde Park festival in July 2023). Among the artists who participated in the K-Music Festival were the multi-instrumentalist and composer Park Jiha and the Amsterdam-based jazz drummer Sun-Mi Hong and her Quintet.

Gwangju Biennale

The first Gwangju Biennale took place in the South Korean city of Gwangju back in 1995. The 14th Gwangju Biennale, soft and weak like water, takes its inspiration from a chapter of Dao De Jing, a fundamental Daoist text, which speaks of water’s capacity to embrace contradictions and paradoxes. Curated by Sook-Kyung Lee, it will bring together around 80 artists from different parts of the world. It is due to take place from 7 April to 9 July 2023.

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

A few months ago, I came across the book ‘I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’ by South Korean Baek Se-hee. It is an easy-to-read memoir, the first and so far the only Korean book I have read. I found it particularly interesting, as the author, a dysthymia sufferer herself, recorded her conversations with her psychiatrist.

As a psychiatrist myself, I can’t help but notice the disproportionately high number of suicides among young Korean artists, such as Song Yoo-jung, Choi Jin-sil, Kim Jong-hyun, Goo Hara, Cha In-ha, Sulli, and Oh In-hye.

There could be many factors contributing to this sad statistic, both individual and societal. For example, many of those artists have been the victims of online abuse. At the same time, mental illness remains a taboo in South Korea (and therefore largely untreated). Despite the country’s economic growth, stigma is very prevalent throughout South Korean society. It is therefore not surprising that suicide is far more prevalent there than in the West. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate in South Korea was the fourth highest in the world in 2019 (28.6 per 100k people). It is also worth noting that Seoul’s Mapo Bridge has earned the nickname “The Bridge of Death” or “Suicide Bridge” because of how many people jump off it.

Culture-bound syndromes

Last, I would like to briefly mention two culture-bound syndromes seen in Korea, Hwabyung and Sinbyeong.

Hwabyung

This is a culture-bound psychosomatic syndrome, where subjects internalise their anger and manifest psychosomatic symptoms, such as epigastric pain, muscular aches and pains, loss of appetite, sleep disturbance, palpitations, breathlessness, dysphoria, anxiety and panic.

Sinbyeong

Sinbyeong is linked to the Korean shamanic tradition and presents with somatic and psychotic symptoms attributed to spirit possession.

Learn more about Korean culture

If you happen to be in London until 25 June 2023 and you want to learn more about Korean culture, you can visit the temporary exhibition ‘Hallyu! The Korean Wave‘ at the Victoria & Albert Museum (admission costs £20).

Further reading

To read more about culture-bound syndromes, check out my post ‘15 culture-bound syndromes‘.

To read more about South Korean films, check out my post ‘a cinematic journey to South Korea‘.

Alex

(the Traveling Psychiatrist)