Martin Weil, a french journalist joins the RTBF, the Belgian Radio and Television of the French Community, to film a cultural documentary about Korean Society. This documentary is the second episode of his program in the RTBF, called Martin Weils’s reportages, both of the episodes are in the RTBF Website, and this episode specifically will be available until 2nd of April 2024. Check this link to see both episodes:  https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/martin-weill-17618

Nobody could ever imagine thirty years ago that Seoul would be now at the peak of destinations in the world, and also that K-Culture would be as expanded as it is nowadays. Martin Weil presents “Seoul cool's factory” (Séoul, la fabrique du cool) in his trip to explore southern korean culture, in none other than one of the most “top instagrammable” cities in the world, Seoul.

Korea has become the “American dream” that was popular in the 70s, all Koreans kids and teenegers hope to be famous Idols one day, that is why their parents pay lots of money to training schools as DEF DANCE SCHOOL, so their children can have an opportunity to become the new K-IDOL, if they are lucky. 

Hyun Joon, a fifteen year-old boy, quit school to dedicate his life to DEF Dance School and their preparation. This school provides different lessons that everyone needs to do in order to become famous. These lessons include rap, composition, dance, drums, piano and singing. Also, Joon, if he wants to become an Idol he needs to sing in English. But, he is not the only one that wants to get picked by an agency to be a K-Pop star, that is why the school organizes a casting and they only end up choosing 3 people from 83 contestants. To be fair, it is very difficult to get in.

Martin Weil also explores the city with Moon, a famous French K-rapper and a Tik Tok star, who creates content based in Korean places, recommendations and tips for her followers, and also shares her lifestyle. Moon and Martin are together visiting a photobooth, a typical restaurant, an arcade, and the most fun activity: the Karaoke, a very common thing to do in the afterwork, because it reduces Koreans’ stress.

During the whole program, we can see clearly how important esthetic beauty is in this country, and how strict they are with models, singers, and actors. Timothée shows Martin the clinic surgery street, some make-up stores, and he explains that Koreans put filters everywhere, even in the TV News and programmes.  In the end, everything revolves around physical appearance. 

The episode also mentions a conflict that is happening in the country, the non-equality issues that women live in the society. Like everywhere else, women try to win the fight against injustices that affect their personal and professional lives, and also trying to stop the sexual harassment that they suffer by being recorded by spy cameras in some strategic places that they frequent.

But even though the shocking information that Weil presents in his documentary, it also exposes how beautiful, fun, and fashionable South Korea is, or more specifically, the city of Seoul. Seoul has become nowadays the cradle of K-POP, skincare, cuisine, culture and much more.  Not all places have only bad parts, countries and cities also have positive things that make us as a society be thankful and feel proud of our nation. Let’s keep the Korean dream rising up to be the K-World Wide dream.