I recently finished watching the Korean series Signal on Netflix. It has sixteen episodes and each episode is around an hour long. It took me around 2 weeks to finish it.
The series is very good. Though I have had my fair share of Korean cinema, this was the first Korean series that I watched. I stumbled upon the series when I read this article on BBC website.
The show was engaging from the very beginning. There are enough twists and turns throughout the season that will keep you watching the series till the very end. The acting from everyone in the cast is top notch, especially from the three lead characters.
I would refrain from revealing the plot details or any spoilers in this blog post. The show must be watched without reading anything about it's story. That would make it more enjoyable.
This blog post is about the various things that I noticed about the Korean culture and way of life while watching this series.
Korean Names
In India and the I assume most of the western world, a person's name comprises of a first name, a middle name and a surname. When you call out someone's name in full, you would generally start with their first name and then call out their last name. Middle name is normally left out.
While watching this series, I noticed that in Korea the last name is called our first followed by the first name. For example, one of the lead characters has the name Park Hae-young. Where Park is the Surname and Hae-young the first/given name.
Other names in the series follow the same pattern.
Cha Soo-hyun where Cha is the surname and Soo-hyun is the first/given name.
Lee Jae-han where Lee is the surname and Jae-han is the first/given name.
Middle names are missing.
Reading up on wikipedia, I found that korean surnames ( or family name as it says in the wiki article ), are based on clans, which normally trace their origin to the place or region where it started. A single surname is associated with multiple clans. So, a two person with surname 'Lee' could belong to different clans, but I don't know how that is deciphered based just on the given name and the family name.
Another interesting thing that the article mentions is that as per census conducted in the year 2000, there were just 286 surnames being used at that time. The most common surnames are Kim, Lee and Park, which account for nearly half of the population. This frankly blows my mind since I am an Indian.
Considering the number of names we have here in India, which are based on a variety of things like religion, caste, sub-caste, place of origin, history, occupation etc, I wonder how the naming conventions reflect on the complexities and nature of the societies that use them.
Does a lot of variety in names indicates the extent of stratification in the society? It seems so.
Grey Characters
All characters in this series, barring one, were either good people/heroes or bad/villains. There were no grey characters. A character whom you are not able to figure out. Lack of such characters does make it easy for you while watching a drama series as this. You are easily able to identify and love some characters, while hate those that you know are up to no good.
But is real life so simple. Is everyone as bad to the bone or as good at heart as shown in this series?
Crying
There is a lot of emotional moments in this series. And there is a fair share of crying, not excessive though and well placed. What's interesting is that most of crying is done by men.
Having watched a lot of stuff from Hollywood and Indian film industry, we are used to men being shown as tough macho characters who wouldn't give a damn about crying.
I won't pass any kind of judgement until I have watched some more Korean series, but I would definitely like to see a trend related to this and how it dictates the kind of stories that Korean storytellers like to tell. How does it shape their culture, their identity and does the same feeling exists across the northern border.
Well there are a lot of other things that I would like to discuss. Maybe I will write a follow up post.
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