Netflix will continue to focus on Korean content in 2023. The streaming service has just presented 34 new titles from the Far Eastern country that will start soon. The portfolio includes series, films and reality shows.
According to Netflix, 60 percent of users watched Korean content in the past year. In the announcement, however, the streaming service does not name the series that helped trigger the Korean boom. “Squid Game” has become the highest-grossing Netflix series of all time since its launch in September 2021. And caused increased interest in Korean series and films.
As with “Squid Game”, the fight for survival is often the focus of the new series. Both the horror series “Gyeongseong Creature” and the dystopian thriller “Black Knight” get down to business. In the second season of “Sweet Home”, meanwhile, a group of unequal people again fights against neighbors who have mutated into monsters.
With “Glory” another series of successes enters the second round. Season 1 of the drama about a traumatized young woman who takes revenge on the tormentors from her school days was the most successful non-English language series on Netflix at the beginning of January.
The action thriller “Carter” was one of the most watched non-English language films on Netflix last year. No wonder the streamer will follow up with six new Korean films in 2023. And no wonder that most of the films are from the same genre. It’s about contract killers (“Kill Boksoon”), revenge (“Ballerina”) and drug gangs (“Believer 2”).
The struggle for survival is also the dominant theme in the new reality shows. In “Zombieverse” the participants have to fight their way through a staged zombie apocalypse. Strong women compete in “Sirens” and bodybuilders in “Physical 100”.
A date for the second season of “Squid Game” has not yet been announced.
