It’s hard to deny South Korean media’s impact on Western audiences. Over the past several years, Korean culture, also known as K-culture, has grown in popularity.
Squid Game hit multiple milestones, with the first season being Netflix’s most-watched television series, with over 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first month of release. The second season broke even more records, drawing 68 million views in its debut. Since then, there has been an increase in K-content on multiple streaming platforms.
It shouldn’t be surprising, then, to have a popular Western television streaming series to showcase South Korea, like the second season of Netflix’s hit spy series, The Recruit.
“The culture in South Korea is exceptional,” Noah Centineo, star and executive producer for the series, tells The Nerds of Color. “Not just the food, people, or nightlife, but the art coming out of it. The emergence of a massive K-pop industry, cool music, incredible art, and different mediums of art outside of music and film have always been staples in Korea.”
The series stars Centineo as Owen Hendricks, a CIA lawyer who unintentionally finds himself in dangerous situations in the line of duty. This time, he deals with South Korean authorities, leading him to an even bigger threat from inside the agency. Agent Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo) is a highly skilled South Korean NIS agent working closely with Owen to complete the job.
Yoo is no stranger to the Hollywood-South Korean mergers as he’s been part of both worlds as part of the Korean diaspora who lives and works in Korea. He has worked in both K-dramas, Hollywood, and European productions. With his worldwide experience (and fluency in multiple languages, including Russian), some might even suggest he could be a spy.
“Yes, I will answer this question — 100% spy,” says Centineo about Yoo. “Sorry, the world should know.”
Holding in his laughter, Yoo refused to confirm or deny any espionage.
He sees the increase in Korean culture in Western media, quoting South Korean artist Nam June Paik’s conversation on a Global Village and crediting the internet and Netflix to create a platform for South Korean and Western audiences to work together.
“It’s a platform for the world to come together and watch different cultures, which started out with local originals,” Yoo explains. “Now, we see more of a blend. I think it necessarily goes in that direction to cover a wider spectrum of an audience that feels that they are heard.”
It’s because of the growth of South Korean media that he feels it breaks the stereotypes, not just for South Koreans, but also for Asians in general, “I think people who are outsiders are cool, and people who are mainstream are cool — and you can all mix it together on this platform that we call the Internet and use it as a positive force. Shows like ours, which is multicultural, do that.”
Centineo, who appears in two Netflix shows (The Recruit and X.O. Kitty) centering on Korea this month, is honored to travel and immerse himself in the culture. “It’s just an exciting time, especially with a company like Netflix that has a widespread audience and can take good quality film and television content and bring it into the world in almost a homogenized sense. Personally, I am so lucky to have had X.O. Kitty also shooting in South Korea simultaneously, and it just made sense for us to team up and do that.”
He has plans to go back to South Korea to shoot another project but wouldn’t reveal details. He says he is excited to have Yoo show him around some more.
“We’re very fortunate to have a natural chemistry with one another,” Centineo says. “We enjoy spending time together on and off set, and I think our processes align as well in a work environment.”
Season 2 of The Recruit premieres on January 30 on Netflix.
