What themes do Korean cultural products explore?

My Sassy Girl

After watching My Sassy Girl, I can definitely understand why it’s called a classic and not just because it redefined what a Korean film was and set the bar for similar styles of films to come. Some of the themes and messages that come out of My Sassy Girl are consistent with its other products, and these are the types of messages that are well-received by other Asian countries. There is still an East-West dichotomy for values and sentiments and this is perhaps the reason why many people from China, Korea, Japan and other Asian countries find it hard to understand and relate to Western cultural products.

Hallyu has taken Asia by storm with the cultural products that its made. Korean popular culture seems to emphasise family and social relationships, something that many other Asian groups can relate to. Korean dramas tend to be associated with plots in which themes such as love, family, hardship, pain and suffering are prominent. The way they portray these ideals is conducive to how other Asians perceive and hold them, hence why they become so successful in Asia. Korean dramas also are quite melodramatic, the exaggeration of such themes means that people are likely to be bawling their eyes out at one stage of the drama and possibly feeling quite angry at other moments. The ability of these dramas to toy with our feelings is what gets people hooked – people can sometimes become personally attached to these dramas. Some of the most popular dramas include: Boys Over Flowers, You’re Beautiful, Playful Kiss, Coffee Prince, Secret Garden… the list goes on. Korean films tend to do this as well, and My Sassy Girl is a pretty good example in that category. You could also watch A Moment to Remember or The Classic as well. 

The persona of ‘the sassy girl’ of being both sexy and innocent is reverberated in the way Korean girl groups and girl idols are presented. They dress up in mini skirts, shoot sexy looks into the cameras and work their booties through televised performances. And yet, they still manage to maintain this innocent, pure look. Here's a classic example of where innocent and sexy are intertwined:

'Gee' by SNSD (one of the most well-known k-pop songs) is essentially about falling in love, but if you look at the dance moves and the skinny jeans, there's just something sexy about it!

Innocence and purity is a popular theme in Korean cultural products. If we look at My Sassy Girl, Jun Ji-Hyun’s character is less of a subject and more of a virginal body, which aims to highlight a neo-Confucian notion on gender roles in Korean society. Her sexual purity may appeal to Asian audiences as it reflects a situation where the body should be physically preserved for the sake of childbearing as a woman moves towards being a wife and a mother. Perhaps this shows the traditional values that are still held in contemporary Korean and other Asian societies. In My Sassy Girl, the relationship between The Girl and Gyeon-woo is absent of any sexual intimacy, where kissing is even non-existent. This is very much different from the perception of sex portrayed in films of the West. 

American songs (such as songs from your Katy Perry’s and Miley Cyrus’) tend to reference sex, getting drunk and partying. This is in stark contrast with songs by Korean idols which are more culturally-friendly. They sing about innocently falling in love, having a crush even having a good day! Sexual references and mature themes are still very much a taboo topic in Korea. Particularly in the music industry, even a small mention of taboo themes in song lyrics will lead to songs being blacklisted, banned on television and labelled unfit for public broadcast. This has happened to YG Entertainment’s power duo, GD&TOP on a few occasions already. 

In saying that, there does exist a market for Korean cultural products for "American-style" / Western-style subject matters. However, in the general case, Korean sensibilities keep it at bay in terms of what sort of messages are being brought out through their dramas, songs and films.

Have a good day guys! 

(IU is one of the female idols who does well to represent the innocent image):