Stealing the show
March 24, 2006
A Korean TV mega-hit has shed light on the weaknesses of Thai programming
No series in recent memory has been as popular as the South Korean drama Dae Jang Guem or Jewel in the Palace which just ended on Channel 3. A lot of people knew without question where they would be on Saturday and Sunday nights – in front of a TV watching Dae Jang Guem. The series, about the first female doctor in a Korean palace in ancient times, has been the talk of the town, and although the series recently ended, its impact is relevant to some industries and has even triggered criticism of Thai dramas.
Dae Jang Guem was the first Korean series to air on Channel 3 even though many Korean series have been broadcast on other channels since a K-pop phenomenon hit the kingdom. The show, which also enjoyed high ratings in South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is considered one of the biggest successes for Channel 3, generating a huge amount of income since October last year. Commercial air time during the series, which aired for two hours every Saturday and Sunday night cost 290,000 baht a minute as Channel 3 earned 3.5 million baht an hour.
“We didn’t expect that the series would be this popular. Before it was aired, some sponsors even turned it down. But today, they are queued up for commercial air time,” says Surin Krittayapongphan, vice president of marketing and sales of Bangkok Entertainment.
Such income, however, doesn’t include the VCD sales which come in three disc sets and cost 1,300 baht a part and are selling like hot cakes. As a result, Channel 3 decided to rerun the series every weekday night during school holidays.
Tourism is another industry that has benefitted from the mega-hit Dae Jang Guem. More and more people are visiting South Korea just because they want to go the studio. Almost all travel brochures from tour companies offer to take you “to Yangjoo City, Gyunggi Province to Dae Jang Guem Theme Park. You can visit locations such as her kitchen, all the kitchen utensils and other rooms in the palace in Dae Jang Guem.”
“It is so popular that the clients will cancel their trip if there is no Dae Jang Guem Theme Park included in the tour,” says Bandid Apijitti, managing director of Discovery Korea.
According to the production company Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), the theme park covers 6,600 square meters and the outdoor studio was set up exactly the way it was when the drama was produced, drawing many foreign visitors who want a direct experience with the series. The MBC website also describes palace food and has recipes of dishes in the series.
“The good thing about this series is that the producers have researched history and psychology in order to make it fun for the audiences while also making them learn something. It is not a cheesy soap opera like many Thai dramas. It gives useful information to the audience about medicine, food, or useful health tips, which implies that the producers did a lot of homework,” says Bandid.
The popularity of the series doesn’t stop there though. Dae Jang Guem comes in four pocket books and had sold nearly 400,000 copies, according to Seksan Sukwattano, manager of Siam Inter Multimedia. It has been the top two best sellers at several leading bookstores such as B2S, SE-ED and Nai In since the books were launched three months ago. Seksan believes that there won’t be enough books to meet demand during the book fair later this month.
The program’s popularity has proved that Thai audiences do not always gravitate to cheesy dramas. The impact of Dae Jang Guem has already triggered criticism of Thai dramas which are full of jealous characters, trite romances and corny scenes such as a jealous woman slapping the lead actress across the face while trying to steal the hero’s heart.
“It is difficult to improve Thai drama. It’s been cheesy and boring like this for a hundred years. Dae Jang Guem proved that a good and realistic romance could also be successful among Thai people. But Thai producers do not realize and keep producing the cheesy ones to please the audience,” says Wirat To-areemitr, a well-known columnist.
Drama lecturer and screenplay writer, Thanawadee Satityuttakarn from Chulalongkorn University’s arts faculty uses the show as a case study for her class.
She said one successful factor is that the series is full of twists or unexpected situations, unlike Thai dramas which have the same plots and guessable endings. Also, the screenplay writing process is normally subject to interference from the broadcasting channels.
“We found that television executives keep ordering producers to advance the plot,” says Thanawadee. “They require the story to move in two days as they are afraid that the audience will not continue to watch if the story doesn’t progress fast. But like in Dae Jang Guem, you can see that sometimes the story doesn’t really progress for one week, but it is still fun because every scene contains unexpected situations.”
Assistant professor Surin Ronakiet of the psychology department at Thammasat University said successful dramas are usually those which show people’s intellectual and emotional needs. They should have a mix of different elements such as culture and sociology.
“Thai series are not creative, but they allow the audience to release stresses and forget problems in daily life. But good drama should benefit the audience’s brain and improve their thoughts. It would be great if the producers understand the psychology of human nature,” Surin says. “Creativity in drama is very beneficial and could change society. But it depends on the producers – whether they discover this or are able to bring it out to the audience.”
Source: IHT ThaiDay 24 Mar 2006
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