My daughters pressured me into getting tickets to the Netflix hit movie KPop Demon Hunters recently. I was not very excited about going to it and expected to be annoyed by all the teenage girls singing along. To my surprise, I very much enjoyed the movie. Evidently, I am not the only one because this product of South Korean artists is the most watched Netflix animated original film of all time and the most popular Netflix English-language film ever.
Entertainment shapes culture and can be a good or bad influence domestically. It is also an amazing tool for education about other cultures and nations. For years, we have underappreciated the massive impact on how entertainment influences the way we think and live.
Here in America, conservatives have complained for years, the liberal establishment dominating Hollywood has captured the culture of America with films dominated by violence and glorifying values that are frowned upon by most traditional parents. One can name several movies that have targeted Republican Presidents Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump while glorifying Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Look no further than the Trump bashing movie “The Apprentice” that was strategically released before his election as an example. There is no doubt that Hollywood leans far left and has projected its own left-wing perspective that has influenced Americans’ thoughts and actions.
South Korea’s entertainment export has gone in a different direction, by giving the world a peek into the lives of South Koreans and the content they want to share. The Demon Hunters movie is one form of entertainment content coming out of South Korea with the message that good can prevail over evil. The movie stars one brave individual who overcomes huge obstacles to defeat the bad guys. Movies like that project soft power and gives Americans the South Korean perspective on morality.
Entertainment has proven powerful tools that serve as diplomacy when coming from other nations. A reason for South Korea’s flourishing export of entertainment is that many entrepreneurs in that nation helped promote K-Pop into a lucrative export. Bang Si-huyk is one entrepreneur who helped create the sensation that is BTS, a South Korean boy band that has been declared by Time Magazine as one of the 2019 most influential people of that year and won the American Music Awards artist of the year in 2021. Unfortunately, Mr. Bang is getting the Donald Trump treatment by the current regime ruling South Korea putting that nation’s favorite export in danger of being stifled.
The politics in South Korea mirror ours. President Donald J. Trump is a disruptor and has attacked the traditional power structure of Washington, D.C. As a result, when Trump left office, he was subjected to law fare where political enemies used the courts to stop his attempt to regain control of the White House. A similar situation is playing out in South Korea where Mr. Bang has led the K-Pop revolution that has broken the dominance of Western entertainment. It appears that the South Korean government is using a similar weaponized prosecution against a successful business leader who has broken norms and challenged the establishment.
The problem is that the South Korean government is getting in the way of entertainment diplomacy. Governments here and abroad always seem to disrupt a good thing. The great innovators always seem to be under fire, whether they create a new way to communicate, see the iPhone, or establish a popular social media app, like X, formerly Twitter. Politicians see wealthy entrepreneurs as a threat to their power and use government power to try to control them.
Right now, the Trump Administration is working on dialing back the power of federal agencies and has pledged to remove burdensome and obsolete regulations. That is a challenge to power that has not been well received by the D.C. establishment and Trump was the victim of lawfare between terms in office. It appears the same is happening in South Korea where the government is taking actions that will inhibit and discourage other wealthy entrepreneurs from exporting South Korean culture and entertainment.
Americans are voracious consumers of entertainment, and our government should do what they can to encourage more imports of foreign entertainment to spur more domestic entertainment innovation and so Americans can have a glimpse into how others see the world and express themselves.
Brian Darling is former Counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
