Beyond K-pop: the culture of South Korea

The recent surge in the global popularity of South Korean culture is often referred to as the K-wave, Korean Wave, or Hallyu. It has been almost three years since Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay—a historic moment that marked the first time a South Korean film had been nominated in these categories, as well as the first non-English-language film ever to win Best Picture. Since then, I have watched many more films from South Korea—a country I have yet to visit—and have found myself gradually swept up in the Korean Wave. Today, I’d like to reflect on some of the films, music, festivals, books, and even culture-bound syndromes that make this fascinating and faraway country so compelling.

The cinematic journey to South Korea continues…

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

Decision to Leave

Selected as South Korea’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, Decision to Leave was the first of the three South Korean films I watched that year—and, admittedly, my least favourite. Directed by Park Chan-wook, who won the Best Director Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival (and who also directed Oldboy and The Handmaiden), the film stars Park Hae-il as a detective investigating the mysterious death of a man. His prime suspect is the man’s young widow, played by Tang Wei, whose enigmatic charm slowly begins to blur the line between duty and desire.

The Anchor

The Anchor was the film I watched at the London Korean Film Festival. It was directed by Jung Ji-yeon, who attended the screening for an engaging Q&A session that offered fascinating insights into the film’s production and themes. The film stars Chun Woo-hee as a TV news anchor who receives a chilling phone call from a woman claiming she is about to be murdered, and Shin Ha-kyun as the woman’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 as a man accused of murdering his lover, and Kim Yunjin as his defence attorney. Although I had already seen The Invisible Guest a few years earlier, I thoroughly enjoyed Confession and still can’t decide which of the two I prefer.

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

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 gave me an opportunity to explore Korean music and musicians who are far less known internationally than Gangnam Style, BTS, or Blackpink (who headlined the BST Hyde Park Festival in July 2023). Among the artists featured at the K-Music Festival were multi-instrumentalist and composer Park Jiha, as well as the Amsterdam-based jazz drummer Sun-Mi Hong and her Quintet.

Gwangju Biennale

The first Gwangju Biennale was held in the South Korean city of Gwangju in 1995. The 14th edition, titled soft and weak like water, draws inspiration from a chapter of the Dao De Jing, a foundational Daoist text that reflects on water’s ability to embody contradictions and paradoxes. Curated by Sook-Kyung Lee, this edition will bring together around 80 artists from across the world. It is scheduled 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 I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by South Korean author Baek Se-hee. It is an accessible and engaging memoir — the first, and so far the only, Korean book I have read. I found it particularly interesting because the author, who suffers from dysthymia, records her candid conversations with her psychiatrist, offering rare insight into the experience of living with chronic depression in contemporary South Korea.

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 are likely many factors contributing to this troubling phenomenon, both individual and societal. Many of these artists have been victims of online harassment and intense public scrutiny. At the same time, mental illness remains a taboo subject in South Korea, often left untreated due to the enduring stigma surrounding it. Despite the nation’s remarkable economic development, such stigma continues to pervade South Korean society. It is therefore not surprising that suicide rates there are significantly higher than in many Western countries. According to the World Health Organization, South Korea had the fourth-highest suicide rate in the world in 2019, at 28.6 per 100,000 people. It is also telling that Seoul’s Mapo Bridge has earned the somber nicknames “The Bridge of Death” and “Suicide Bridge,” owing to the tragic number of people who have jumped from it.

Culture-bound syndromes

Lastly, I would like to briefly mention two culture-bound syndromes observed in Korea: Hwabyung and Sinbyeong.

Hwabyung

Hwabyung is a culture-bound psychosomatic disorder in which individuals suppress or internalize their anger, leading to a range of physical and psychological symptoms. These may include epigastric pain, muscle aches, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, palpitations, breathlessness, dysphoria, anxiety, and panic.

Sinbyeong

Sinbyeong is associated with the Korean shamanic tradition and is characterized by both somatic and psychotic symptoms, often interpreted as manifestations of 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)