Jooyoung Ahn, the director behind sex-meets-dystopian-tech drama series S Line, has drawn attention to the pace of change in Korean TV since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an interview with Deadline, Ahn discussed the global boom in K-drama and whether investment could continue at current rates.
“The market is changing so quickly that it’s crazy,” she said. “Since the pandemic, Korean drama has been in some ways oversupplied internationally, but the demand has stood up. Some movies and shows completely disappear and then emerge again, and the change feels like it comes every two or three months, so it is very hard to predict what comes next.”
Netflix has committed billions of dollars to content from Korea, which now only trails movies and TV shows from the U.S. on the service, according to recent analysis. The likes of Disney+ and Paramount+ have made inroads into the Asia country, while local players such as Tving are further driving demand and distributors includig CJ ENM have done a good job of shopping Korean content internationally.
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Ahn was in France over the weekend to promote her new show S Line, which is playing in competition at Canneseries against the likes of Belgium’s End Game, Iceland’s Reykjavik Fusion. The show – which stars the likes of Lee Soo Hyuk, Arin, Eunsaem Lee and Nam Kyu Hee – had its world premiere yesterday.
The show follows a woman who, since birth, has been able to see red lines that connect sexual partners. When a pair of glasses is developed that gives the wearer the same power, it plunges Korea into crisis as societal boundaries are broken down. The woman, Hyun-heup, played by K-pop star Arin, teams up with a detective to stop the crisis and find the person behind the glasses.
“It’s a totally original concept based on the webtoon where red lines show how people are connected,” said Ahn. “The main theme that audiences should take away is how human society could collapse when the boundaries are stepped on.”
The show leans heavily on themes such as sexual shame, the dangers of technology and surveillance in society to create a unique K-drama story, but this initially worried Ahn that it could limit its reach. She had been concerned about western audiences understanding the approach, given that “the east is traditionally more sexually conservative.”
However, with the show selected for competition out of a significant number of entries, she said: “Given people feel the theme is fresh and original, what’s important is what you can draw from the themes that serve people’s common interest.
The series, which is being shopped internationally by Korean distributor Sidus, doesn’t yet have a platform. It’s based on a webtoon of the same name, though Ahn, who co-created the series, has deviated significantly from the source material, in which everyone is suddenly able to see the S-lines.
Ahn revealed that she is now working on a project that combines “melodrama and fantasy,” and noted she wants to explore a story that “reveals something about human nature through creatures and vampires, something very genre heavy.”
The post ‘S Line’ Director Jooyoung Ahn On Canneseries Drama ‘S Line’, Pushing Society’s Boundaries & The Future Of Korean TV appeared first on Deadline.
