[Courtesy of NEW][Eds note: A special report on South Korea's new "Hallyu" boom created by KBS mega-hit drama "Descendants of the Sun".]
"Descendants of the Sun", a runaway TV hit drama, comes to an end this week after reigniting South Korea's pop culture fever "Hallyu" across Asia that raised prospects for brisker sales of cosmetics and other consumer goods as well as more tourist arrivals.
State broadcaster KBS will air the final Thursday night of the 16-episode long drama telling a love story between an army captain and a female doctor, who are on a mission together in a fictional war-torn country called Uruk to save lives.
The drama starring actor Song Joong-ki and actress Song Hye-kyo has enjoyed explosive popularity, creating a sensation in Asia since it premiered on February 24 simultaneously in South Korea and China.
The actor's popularity was phenomenal in China where the drama notched up more than 2.4 billion views on video-streaming website IQiyi.com, prompting the public security ministry to warn viewers that TV shows don't portray reality.
In Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha urged Thais to watch the drama due to its themes of patriotism and sacrifice.
With its popularity boosting prospects for an economic boost, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said the drama is having a positive impact on exports of products such as cosmetics, fashion items and food.
"It is an exemplary case of the creative economy and cultural enhancement that shows the effects of the shared growth of the content industry and manufacturing sector,"she said.
Culture minister Kim Jong-deok said the drama could play a role in reinvigorating South Korea's economy like other popular dramas which have brought foreign tourists into South Korea. The drama's filming sites including an old mine in the eastern mountain town of Taebaek would be transformed into major state-sponsored tourist attractions.
"Descendants" is often compared with the 2013-2014 drama "My Love from the Star" which sparked a boom in Chinese shopping and tourism, bringing some two million tourists a year into South Korea.
In a recent radio talk show, writer Kim Eun-sook attributed the drama's explosive popularity to a well-organized pre-shot system. "I hope 'Descendants of the Sun' will become a model for pre-shot dramas."
Producers and distributors hit the jackpot. The drama was produced at a cost of 13 billion won ($11 million), but its producer, NEW, reached the break-even point soon after the first episode was aired.
However, their luck was not over, as there has been some market speculation that "Descendants" will generate more than three trillion won worth of visible and invisible economic effects.
Many fashion items shown at the drama were heavily sought after, and the lipstick used by Song Hye-kyo sold out in just three days after it was released on the Chinese language site of Korean online retailer 11st Street.
"A fresh and bigger (Hallyu) boom is being created by Descendants of the Sun," Nam Sang-hyun, a researcher the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE), told Aju News.
Unlike previous Hallyu dramas, "Descendants" went viral from the beginning, spreading quickly through a global on-line network, he said.
"Helped by its popularity, there has been a steady increase in exports of cosmetics and other products," Nam said, predicting the trend would go on even after the curtain was pulled down.
Hallyu has been a crucial higher value-added business, with related cultural exports rising 2.2 percent to an estimated 7.03 billion US dollars last year despite sluggish overall shipments, according to a joint study by KOFICE and KOTRA, a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization.
With the popularity of K-pop music and dramas spreading to webtoons and other on-line contents last year, Hallyu is playing a key role in visible and invisible economic effects, the study showed.
In 2015, South Korea's overall shipments of goods fell 8.0 percent on-year, but exports of cultural contents soared 13.4 percent on-year to $2.82 billion, led by digital gaming services which rose 6.1 percent to $1.6 billion.
Music and TV production posted a 30.7 percent increase each to $354 million and $403 million, although movies were the best-performing item, skyrocketing 222 percent to $79 million last year.
The study also put Hallyu's total economic effect last year at 15.6 trillion won and the added value created by the Korean cultural wave at 5.76 trillion won.
Hallyu sparked the tremendous popularity of South Korean cosmetics in Asia. Their shipments have more than tripling in the past five years to hit a record high of $2.45 billion last year, posting an annual average growth of 36.9 percent, according to the Korea Customs Service.
Last year exports of cosmetics to China stood at $999.5 million, or 40.6 percent of total shipments. Hong Kong was second with $606.4 million, followed by the United States with $207.3 million.
To promote the spread of Hallyu in China, South Korea's trade ministry on Thursday designated actress Ha Ji-won and boy band WINNER as ambassadors at an annual exhibition in Shenyang next month. They will help some 200 South Korean firms sell cosmetics, fashion items and other products during the May 12-14 trade show.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
