As the Korean Wave continues to wash over America and the rest of the world, its undeniable influence is flooding into other Asian cinemas. Pop culture has become South Korea’s biggest export, with K-Pop,K-Dramas, and Korean Cinema taking over airwaves, streaming services, and Western entertainment award shows. Other Asian countries have followed suit, either modeling their film industry after the South Koreans or falling into it altogether.
Like other past cultural movements, Korean Cinema’s industrial complex is paired with a distinct visual style. Derived from filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, current popular K-Dramas generally align withsimilar aesthetic design choicesand thematic story arcs. They’re normally well-composed but over-the-top in everything from campy comedic acting, saturated color schemes, precise cinematography, and unpredictable plot twists. These stories usually involve romantic or familial relationships within a genre of revenge, thriller, or mystery.
The strength of South Korea’s film industry as a unique alternative to Hollywood offers auteur directors another space to produce their creative visions. Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda wrote and directed his 2022 filmBrokerwithin the South Korean studio system and adopted a similar visual style within a mystery family drama storyline. South Korean-Canadian director Celine Song also worked with famed media company CJ ENM for herdebut featurePast Lives, a tense romance drama allegorically commenting on the immigrant experience.
Outside the South Korean studio system, Filipino director Petersen Vargas seems to be taking creative cues from the Koreans.A Very Good Girl(2023)merges aMean Girls(2004) storyline with Park Chan-wook’s distinguishable cinematic style to form a brilliant exercise in revenge comedy. It follows a lowly virtual assistant, played by Kathryn Bernardo (She’s Dating the Gangster), as she avenges her mother’s death by sabotaging the life of megamall magnate Molly, played by Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness). From its visual style to its relevant themes, this Filipino film seems to have been reverse-engineered to appeal to the typical K-Drama fan.
Satire & Irony
The over-the-top creative design of Korean culture, from the campy acting styles to the saturated color schemes, points to a cultural obsession with satire and irony. When recalling the influence of pop artist Psy and his breakout hit “Gangnam Style”,Tim Adams from The Guardian writes, “[Psy] offered dramatic evidence that the west’s complacent sense of a monopoly on irony and nuance might be under serious threat.”
This monopoly has surely weakened, with Vargas employing a satirical style that elevates the comedic value ofA Very Good Girl. The exaggerated acting and quotable one-liners keep audiences giggling in their seats. The colorful maximalism advances the overwhelming storyline with fashionable charm.As Liz Shackleton from Deadline reviews, “[the film] deploys many of the tropes of mainstream Filipino cinema, but with an additional dose of flamboyance and satire.”
This touch of humor is vital to cultivating the story world. With a plot full of deceit, betrayal, and violence, the witty humor provides a levity that disarms the seriousness of the crimes committed. Like the anti-hero protagonists in Bong’s Oscar-winningParasite(2019), Barnardo’s Philo and de Leon’s Mother utilize satire and ironic humor to help make the misery go down.
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However, the satire and irony present in the film wouldn’t work without targeted commentary toward a particular group in society, and this film certainly follows a recent trend found in popular films and TV shows today.
Class Critique
Pulling from TV shows likeSquid Game(2021) and films such asParasite, Vargas’A Very Good Girluses satire and irony to providecommentary on clashing classeswhile criticizing the exploitative practices of the elite, wealthy class. When summarizing the recent trend found inSquid GameandParasite, Adams writes how these TV shows and films are “brilliant contemporary storytelling, the sharp and resonant things it had to say about inequality and class and poverty and excess.”
These themes and messages resonate deeply within the Philippines, where high-class consumerism and working-class service workers come to symbolize the country’s strong class divide. As a lasting effect of the corrupt Marcos regime, the Philippines continues reconciling with this social issue. Shackleton notes, “Bernardo and De Leon say they’re both personally familiar with the crazy, rich world of high society Manila.” De Leon confirms, “Yes, the social hierarchies in the Philippines are really far apart.”
This critique is best exemplified in the film’s cinematography. The striking compositions pit lonely characters against haunting city backdrops suspended in canted angles. The visual gags highlight the absurdity of the character’s actions and the lengths they’re willing to go to achieve them. The film’s visual references toPersona(1966) andThe 400 Blows(1950) act as pleas for the film to be taken seriously, for these references add to the thematic explorations of relationships between women and coming-of-age in capitalist society.
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The satirical criticism of the wealthy class can also be found in American media, whereTV shows likeWhite LotusandSuccessionruminate on similar themes. Paired with overwhelming global upheaval and a multi-industry push for workers’ strikes, there seems to be a universal sentiment that calls the wealthy and elite into question.
A Very Good Girl, though a unique Filipino film in its own right, employs these visual and thematic choices that align with K-Drama practices, thus opening the opportunity to appeal to a wider audience.
