In 2021, the Korean drama "Squid Game" was recognized as a global phenomenon when it surpassed the US "Wednesday" season 1 to become the most watched series on Netflix of all time.
Since then, although Korea has produced many other hit films, no work has been able to repeat the resounding success of "Squid Game".
Recently, the movie revolving around the theme of education - school "Teach you a lesson" created a breakthrough for Korean movies after many years, becoming the 2nd Korean series to enter the ranking of 10 non-English TV series with the highest viewership of all time on Netflix, after "Squid Game" (calculated according to views in the first 91 days of release).
However, if comparing the 60.2 million views of "Teach you a lesson" and the 265.2 million views of "Squid Game" season 1, the gap is still too large.
According to experts, "Squid Game" has an advantage when released during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of online content viewers reached a record level, creating conditions for a movie with attractive content to spread faster than usual.
But the most important factor still lies in the original script, which is unique, easy to understand and rich in meaning, with global themes.
Although inspired by Japanese survival comics such as "Battle Royale", "Liar Game" or "Kaiji", the plot, characters and world in the film are all originally created by screenwriter and director Hwang Dong Hyuk.
This also makes "Squid Game" often mentioned as an example showing that original scripts can still create a global phenomenon if they are novel enough and well implemented.
In recent years, many experts believe that the Korean film industry is facing a lack of creative breakthroughs.
In the context of rising production costs, film studios tend to prioritize proven IPs such as webtoons, novels or promote the production of sequels to reduce commercial risks and take advantage of existing loyal fans; while original scripts with breakthrough potential such as "Squid Game" appear less.
Of course, there are still adapted works that receive positive feedback and high views such as "Weak hero class", "Moving", "Mask girl", "Bloodhounds", "Lovely runner", "The trauma code: Heroes on call", "Teach you a lesson"... thanks to the adaptation and script processing.
But what experts are concerned about is the ability to innovate in scripting and storytelling, as well as the excessive dependence on available IP may reduce the number of original ideas powerful enough to create rare phenomena like "Squid Game".
According to critics, many works released in recent years such as "Gyeongseong creature", "The great flood", "The 8 show", "Hellbound 2", "Parasyte: The Grey"... have huge production costs or quite new initial ideas, but the script base is not solid.
Filmmakers often prioritize grand shots and shock elements rather than building a tight storytelling structure and depth plot.
Even the movie "Agent Kim reactivated" which just ended with a rating of 23% on SBS was criticized by a part of the audience because the script had loopholes and unreasonable details even though it was adapted from the famous webtoon.
The movie "The east palace" recently released by Netflix is introduced as a Korean original script, with a budget of up to 40 billion won, heavily invested in court settings, visual effects and surnatural elements. But the film received no less criticism because the script is increasingly predictable and the acting of the two main actors is controversial.
Observers believe that the most important thing at this time is that Korean filmmakers need to return to focusing on the depth of the script and the overall quality of the work.
Especially in the era of online platforms developing and highly competitive, audiences have many choices, so if the work is not persuasive enough from the first episodes, they are willing to stop watching and switch to other content.
