The frustrated teammates of female wrestler Jang Eun-sil hear her yell, "Try again.".
A 1,500 kg wooden ship needs to be pushed through sand and up a ramp, but the ship is immovable. Jang is aware of the weaknesses her team has on paper.
The boat then starts to nudge forward to the sound of her encouraging cries. Her team drags it up the ramp to finish the task over the course of the following eight minutes while groaning and crying. The contestants' ripped bodies were covered in sweat as they collapsed to the ground in shock.
This is my favorite scene from Physical 100, Netflix's most recent hit series if you haven't been watching this one. In order to compete for the title of most impressive body, the survival show gathers 100 of South Korea's top athletes from all walks of life. Olympians, fitness experts, a firefighter, and a prison guard are all present. Men and women competing against each other is one of the most novel aspects of the program.
It is a Squid Game in real life, but — spoiler — nobody dies. While filming, however, contestants have broken ribs.
The most watched non-English language program on Netflix has been Physical 100, which has taken over the charts. It is the first reality program to ever occupy the top position. In the UK, it is currently Netflix's third-most watched show.
This success might seem expected given the dominance of K-pop and K-dramas. Though it isn't. Although reality shows, or variety shows as they are known in Korea, have been popular for decades, they have never really gained traction outside of their home country.
Netflix hastily gathered 50 of its contestants to meet their fans along the river in Seoul earlier this month after being caught off guard by the show's popularity.
"I thought it would be popular, but not this big," chuckled Jo Jin-hyeong, a towering 41-year-old car dealer who advanced to the final five competitors by carrying a 50 kg boulder on his shoulder for more than two hours.
He admitted, "It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.". "My entire body went numb, and I saw the entirety of my life flash by. I just kept thinking, "I can't let go; I can't lose.". ".
Wrestler Jang Eun-sil was persuaded to participate by the opportunity to compete against people like Jo. It was unusual, she said, for men and women to participate together.
The stars frequently removed their tops to flex their biceps while entertaining their fans with backflips all throughout the afternoon. They are aware of their audience.
Hari, 25, stated that she watched because there were so many attractive people. Laughing, her friend Da-hyun said, "Me too, that's the main reason. However, the pair are thrilled by the show's widespread success despite their attractiveness.
"Everyone knows about Korea now, which is awesome. And it's not just K-pop anymore; this reveals another side of our nation, they both agreed.
The friendship has won over fans overseas. The last two competitors occasionally encourage one another to finish the taxing task of pulling on a seemingly endless rope.
"I believe that these moments were beautiful to our foreign fans," said Jang. It's the Korean way, Jo explained.
In Korean households, variety shows have long been a must-watch, bringing together kids, parents, and even grandparents. With a constant flow of innovative ideas, the networks fiercely compete to make theirs the most distinctive and entertaining.
The quirky genre includes talent shows, game shows, and fly-on-the-wall access to people's lives. It is light entertainment with celebrities and, most of the time, a witty and opinionated panel of guests. Celebrity mothers offer commentary on their sons' behavior in the program "My Little Old Boy.".
The shows are openly produced for Korean audiences, and award-winning director-producer Heo Hang claims that they are frequently "too Korean" — there is too much talking and text on the screen, making them difficult to translate and comprehend.
I've been invited by Heo behind-the-scenes of her ten-year-old hit play "I Live Alone.". The program spends the day following a famous person who lives alone. The footage is then shown to a panel of famous individuals who are also invited into the studio to watch it and offer biting commentary.
Actor Lee Jang-woo spends this particular day preparing Vietnamese cuisine under the supervision of a distinguished panel, which includes Key from the K-pop group Shinee. The cake they had just watched Lee make is then unexpectedly pulled out, but it is filled with meat.
It's hilarious, but I can't figure out why. Cast and crew are in shambles.
Because they can see that celebrities' daily lives are not all that dissimilar from their own, viewers of our show adore it. It is very real because we don't use scripts, says Heo.
The show taps into something distinctively Korean in a nation where more than one-third of households are made up of single individuals. Heo continues, "I guess it's harder for foreigners to understand our way of life.".
The shows might not translate well, but the concepts do, which is why Korean companies have been exporting their formats for years. South Korean celebrities perform on the US phenomenon The Masked Singer while hiding their identities. The rights to it have been sold by its producers to more than 50 nations.
Netflix has changed the game with Physical 100 by choosing to support the Korean version of the program instead.
With shows like Squid Game and Extraordinary Attorney Woo whetting viewers' appetites for more Korean culture, Netflix was aware that it had a captive audience. Unbelievably, 60 percent of all Netflix subscribers watched Korean content in the previous year. .
A model that TV channels cannot compete with is that of streaming platforms. They can simultaneously push out episodes to viewers around the world and subtitle and dub them by filming entire shows ahead of time, which generates a buzz around the world.
Yoo Ki-hwan, the manager of Netflix Korea's unscripted content, claims that Korean reality is "shaping up as the next big K-content trend.".
The South Korean entertainment sector is eagerly observing as well. Previously, the networks in this area regarded Netflix and other streaming services with suspicion as potential competitors. They are now prospective partners.
Jinny's Kitchen, which follows a group of celebrities as they try to open a Korean street food restaurant in Mexico, was purchased by Amazon Prime last week. It is the service's first K-reality show.
Nah Yung-suk, a reality TV producer from the dominant media company CJ Entertainment in South Korea, is the show's creator. Nah claimed he had never given foreign viewers much thought before. His goal with Jinny's Kitchen was to simply produce the most entertaining program for his Korean audience.
But Physical 100 has influenced his thinking. His opportunities suddenly appear. He believes that using celebrities will help you win over fans all over the world. V from BTS plays the waiter intern in Jinny's Kitchen.
"To be honest, I now really hope that foreign audiences adore my show. If they don't find it amusing or entertaining, I might consider switching up my presentation style. He laughed, "Maybe I'll have to make a survivor show.
An international breakthrough is imminent for the sector. There are 200 producers at CJ Entertainment who ruminate on new concepts every day. If the streaming services adopt those concepts, more funding will result in more expansive and superior shows. That is at least the guarantee.
For the first time, "we're thinking huh, is this really possible, foreign audiences can enjoy Korean reality shows," said Nah.
