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Hallyu Doin's: Made In Korea Wants To Be Seoul-ful, But Falls Short

The Priyanka Mohan-starrer on Netflix is a little like aegyo: cutesy enough about the "what", but never quite getting to the heart of the "why" and "how". Aditya Shrikrishna reviews.

Aditya+Shrikrishna

Mar 12, 2026

Does Shenba brush up on her Annyeonghaseyos before heading to Seoul?

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HALLYU is all encompassing — so universal that there isn't a generation for which it is alien, and not many cultural exports can boast of that. Across millennials, Gen Z, and every Greek alphabet in between, the Korean Wave cuts across age groups and class with equal ease, taking the form of films, K-Dramas, and K-Pop — be it BTS to Blackpink and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that the Korean influence itself becomes a key element in storytelling, for it is such a big part of the lives of anyone who has consumed the internet and media in the last decade. It also lends naturally to Tamil, which shares curious similarities with Korean — enough to have sparked both linguistic scholarship and colourful folklore about their shared origins.

Ra Karthik’s new Tamil film — now streaming on Netflix — borrows from one such folklore. The protagonist’s name — Senbavalam aka Shenba, played by Priyanka Arul Mohan — borrows from that tale too. She lives in a remote hill town called Kolappalur where it is hard enough for electromagnetic waves to reach and yet Shenba is a fan of all things South Korean. Her dream is to one day visit Korea and maybe even live there. The only daughter of a doting father and a mother too eager to play the bad cop, Shenba watches her childhood friends navigate their futures differently — one wants to be an engineer, another knows where to go to be successful, and yet another is clueless. But Shenba’s dream is singular: visit Korea at least once, a vantage point from which even Chennai seems far enough.

With a screenplay by Ra Karthik, the central idea in Made in Korea is solid and even lends itself to a story of class and social mobility. Unfortunately, the film remains that from start to finish. A great idea that never finds the right method for execution. Karthik sends Shenba to Korea in precarious circumstances. Her childhood sweetheart Mani (Rishikanth) betrays her emotionally and financially, but in the process, accomplishes one thing: send Shenba to Korea (this rightly gets a muted echo in the end). It’s also a great touch that considering where Shenba is from and her social position, her parents or even her peers rarely understand her fascinations, hopes and dreams. But the film does precious little with this central premise.

What made Shenba fall in love with South Korea and its culture? What K-Dramas does she watch and what K-Pop groups does she listen to? There is precious little here on the genesis of her dreams. The film begins promisingly with Shenba climbing over an elephant to look for network to stream an episode of a K-Drama. And there is a throwaway scene of her learning to use chopsticks with pencil shards. Such a wonderful minimalist image that drives the point home. But Ra Karthik doesn’t follow up on any of this promise. He thinks that having Shenba say “Pidikkum saar avaladhan (I like it, that’s that)” is enough to convince us. And the film only regresses in this aspect once she reaches Seoul.

The film fails on two fronts once it switches to Korea. Yes, Shenba arrives in Korea as a broken young woman. But once she warms up to the place, we see nothing of her actual dreams coming true. Does she try to meet her idols? Does she stand in awe of how close she is to the theatre of her dreams? Does she sample all the foods and make use of her self-learned chopstick skills? In the land that joyously sells a pop version of their culture to the ultra-capitalist world, we see nothing of Shenba taking in those sights. The other aspect where Made in Korea fails is showing the building blocks of community. Yeon-ok played by Park Hye-jin of Squid Game and Pachinko fame, is the only character that gets compelling interaction with Shenba, as her motherly figure in a foreign land. The film misses the mark by not creating moments where Shenba is able to form genuine relationships. It just pulls in a random woman on the road, out of work musicians who disturb Shenba in her neighbourhood, and a high school student looking for part-time work into her world, and expects us to believe that these are genuine connections.

The film’s writing and staging simply don’t sparkle. The dialogues are functional and the actors, especially Priyanka, are unable to sell it convincingly. There is this awkwardness that arises from the mix of Tamil, broken English and Korean as people try to communicate with each other which adds an extra layer of clumsiness to the scenes. For someone so enamoured by Korea, it is unconvincing that Shenba can only say thanks in the language. It would have been great to see her impress the locals with her knowledge of Korea and its many cultural products. But then Made in Korea refuses to justify its title.

Hallyu Doin's: Made In Korea Wants To Be Seoul-ful, But Falls Short

Aditya+Shrikrishna

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