Tag: Korean

Rise of Latin American, Asian and European Content

OTT Platforms

Ever since Ott platforms have made their way into India, The content option to choose from is huge, You have American Movies, Series to choose from, You have British content to choose and you have the rise of K-Drama, Yakuza’s from Japan to choose from and you have rising options from Latin America and Europe to choose from.

When you have so much choice ,You observe the stories coming from these countries, you notice 

Most of the American shows are only highlighting – Race, Identity , law, Super hero’s and supernatural power . A lot of the series are about colour people’s struggle and identity. 

British series are all about the Royal family and politics. Series like Crown, Bridgeton, Peaky Blinders. 

The content from Korea is all about Escaping, boundaries, Technology and Social Media, Topics which are more current and appealing. 

Japan series are all about their food and the relationship with their loved ones, loneliness and storytelling. 

Latin America series are all about powerful families and their secrets, Mafia and hunger to control their identity. 

European series are about Murders in Scandinavian countries, Cult leader following and humanity with adaption like Man called Otto and Anxious People.

Indian content is also more dominant with the D-world, Gangster control, Corruption and Scams.

Australian series, haven’t made a mark on the platform besides their popular show like Masterchef and food shows. When it comes to fiction. They do have a lot of shows on Politics and the system. Secret City & Stateless as two interesting series. 

But, yet when it comes we don’t experiment with the content we stream. We would still watch only American & British and often complain, for it’s lack of interesting stories. 

Today, we have a variety of global content to choose from and we still choose the same stories, What makes us avoid experimenting, We are anyways being charged for the month and year, we wouldn’t be paying extra if we shift our content preferences to experiment. 

If we don’t experiment with content, We would have makers making the same thing that has a set formula that they believe works globally. But does it work?

Thrillers Books Worth Reading!

It’s very difficult to find thriller books, that keep you engrossed till the last page. And if you have found it by the same author twice, it couldn’t be better. 

Keigo Higashino a Japanese Author! Ah! Yes, another Japanese author. 

Journey under the midnight sun is about A group of children playing inside the building have found the body of a pawnshop owner, 

Detective Sasagaki’s investigation unearths more questions, but never reaches any conclusions. One of his chief suspects, the partner of a woman who the pawnshop owner visited on the day of his death, dies in a car crash soon afterwards. 

Though Sasagaki’s suspects there is more to the deaths, the case is abandoned. But, Twenty years later there are some leads that hints sasagaski that he could finally solve the mystery. 

This is one Book, I came across after enjoying reading “Midsummer Equation by Keigo Higanshino” 

  and what surprises me most about the author and his books is that when you are searching for “Best Thriller Books” You only come across American authors & British Authors, but none of the  Japanese authors, in the first few links and in the first few reviews. And I wonder why? “Japanese authors” are really underrated. This whole curiosity for “Japan” For me grew after I visited the country, it was a place I wanted to know more about? 

Keigo Higanshio is best known for his book “The Devotion of Suspect X” 

Yasuko Hanaoka accidentally kills her ex-husband, when circumstances rose to an unendurable level of ghastly behaviour from him. What follows is an elongated and witty brain-game between the investigator and her accomplice, Ishigami, who aided Yasuko in covering up the murder. ”The Devotion Of Suspect X”is the story about an ingenious plotter, and clever Dr Manabu Yukawa, who helps in solving the case.

In case you are looking to read a nice page-turner and are finding it difficult which one to start with you could surely start with “Journey Under The Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashnio” 

Plotters By Un-Su-Kim 

I have been in a frame of mind, where I am enjoying some nice thrilling stories, 

That is a quick read, written in a way, where you want to know what happens next. 

And after reading Keigo Higanshino’s ”Midsummer Equation ”last year and Under the midnight sun, I found Plotters by Un-Su-Kim a South Korean writer. And having watched some really good thriller movies by Korean Filmmakers, Maybe I had high expectations from Plotters, And as the story unfolds it becomes a predictable story, with not much material to keep you holding to know why, Whereas Books like “Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins” “Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn” Keeps you engrossed. 

While I am not saying  “Plotters”  wasn’t a good read, It certainly wasn’t as good as these, But very much alike like a series I just watched on the streaming platform “Giri/Haji” where The main underworld boss, hires people to do the damage (Assassins/HitMan)  But surely questions if we continue behaving like Assassins/Hitman all for that chair to be the boss for a reason, That we might think we hold the power, Power to continue the same racket/Practice where nobody gains anything, but only losses.

Plotters are read for those, who enjoy a little cliche story and someone who just would like to enjoy a crime story of how the Mafia works in a very simple, plain and easy to understand read.