Beyond Hallyu: Innovation, Social Critique, and Experimentation in South Korean Cinema and Television

The dominance of English language work on Hallyu reveals the extent to which it needs to be considered as “multi-layered and multi-directional,” given that it creates so many socio-cultural contacts that take “place across, beyond, and outside national and institutional boundaries." While Hallyu products, through various approved “productive, distributive and cultural processes” have become at the very least “a semi-global phenomenon,” beyond Hallyu products receive an evident lack of promotion and marketing or support with production processes, attracting at times political and social “oppositional” or “counter” readings that are beyond the state-sanctioned Korean positivism implicit in much of the Hallyu cultural branding. This chapter explores such “beyond Hallyu” products and their critical reception and social-cultural contexts