BEFORE the price of fuel skyrocketed, Anabelle and I were already imagining trips to South Korea. The most urgent was during the BinJin wedding. Anabelle, you see, was my “directory” of Koreanovelas and because she felt has long been privy to their ‘lives’, she should and must be at the wedding.
Koreanovelas? Do you live in another planet?
During the worst of the lockdowns, people like me, Mito, Anabelle, Haidee, Pinky, Louie and Arnold were kept sane by these 16-episode dramas that dominated Netflix and other streaming sites. Through these portals, we escaped to a well curated world (South Korean at that) to escape our country that was not only ravaged by Covid-19 but also beleaguered by fiascos-- Philhealth, Pharmally, etc.
In one of these koreanovelas, we saw how mountains and forest ranges thrive alongside tourists. Jirisan, the second tallest mountain in the South Korean mainland, is part of the first national park of South Korea. According to its website it has “approximately 5,000 different species of vegetation and wildlife and many of the species are endemic to the region.” To protect the park, we saw how the rangers undertook rigorous training and always donned protective gear, used CCTVs and scientific gadgets to monitor everything even, ghosts of mountain rangers. When a tourist got lost in perilous routes, the technology and intensive forest ranger training made heroes.
Another series showed that at the time of the Asian Financial Crisis, a sound K to 12 educational system allowed senior high school students to get employed sans patrons. Hard work and OJT shaped the non-college graduates to be valuable workers. This romantic tale also showed how newbies were trained by doing stand-up reports of fencing matches then earning enough gumption to handle crucial stories like the 9/11 terrorist attack in NYC.
One love story between weather forecasters was set against the backdrop of immensely huge LED walls that monitored weather from all parts of their country. These humongous screens helped the team predict the slightest weather disturbance and protect fishers and coastal villages. As in real life, the tv series showed how science would clash with local traditions or how science and technology could work with local traditions. I paid little attention to the romance but was held in awe how their country generates immense scientific data and communicated these in consumable terms to the audience. Again, training.
Should these be dismissed as pure fiction, note that among the netizens, a lot of Knetz are cancel culture savages. A show was taken out after two episodes because of Chinese food passed off as Korean in a period drama about exorcism. Or an actor losing deals because his ex-GF published an anonymous post about abortion. The supposed lesson: Fiction but PERFECTLY real.
One tenet of media studies is that movies and similar works are mirrors of the society where it operates. TV fiction is what a society holds as ideal. Sustainable ecotourism, employment for senior high school graduates, science and technology to forecast weather and to patrol the archipelago are real goals. And me and my fwends must thank these Koreanovelas for showing how it MAY be done.