Popular content and how to make hype on social networks?

For the past two months, the only things I saw constantly on Instagram were Toma and Squid Game. Our series Kljun was (deservedly) popular among my friends and won the audience award in Cannes, so it attracted the attention of other people as well. But let's stick to the general trends. There’s Toma as a general local and Squid Game as a general global trend, and I’ve watched both things. I liked both of them but in different ways. What they both have in common is that I was confused by the reception.

Let's start with Toma. The film worked for me because after 10 minutes of cringe, I decided to let the emotion guide me, instead of catching mistakes. So I cried a lot, came out of the cinema and told people to "go cry as well" and they mostly reacted like me. This indulgence in my emotions did not mean that I lost sight of the fact that the film, if viewed strictly rationally, is not so great, that it goes into pathos and rarely leaves it. The problem arose when I saw and heard that people were bothered by the idealization of the bohemian way of life and misogyny.

I will have to agree that the film definitely romanticizes the bohemians and that the women in Toma’s life are there to support the artist. There is also the idea that artistic expression is above everything and that Toma does not have a life without a song, and there is no song without suffering, and so we stay in a toxic circle. However, what is not clear to me is why all this is taken as something good and "recommended". From beginning to end, Toma is an unhappy hero who shares misfortune with others, so it was hard for me to believe that someone would want such a life and adopt what he sees in a movie as a model to be imitated in real life.

The perspective of the author of any work of art is not necessarily "correct" and the work should not serve us as a recipe for life, but as content that we are critical of. Can works of art often carry problematic messages? Absolutely. Do I think this film is an extreme example of doing so? No. If, for example, we watch Peaky Blinders, I guess we don’t want to be like Tommy Shelby. The fact that the character seems cool to us in certain aspects, does not mean that he should be our idol and does not mean that he doesn’t feel like a failure. Both Toma and Tommy (this is a coincidence) are obviously like that as the main characters.

The other extreme is, of course, absolutely ignoring all the flaws of this film and glorifying it. Just because we liked something or it made us cry, doesn’t mean it’s the best movie we’ve ever watched. As in the first case, there is a lack of an attempt to be objective. However, the hype around the film is also built on an emotional basis, so these extreme reactions are not surprising.

As for the Squid Game, even those who (miraculously) didn’t watch the series saw the memes. Since I am a person who a year ago was irreparably addicted to K-drama as a favorite form of escapism, I did not get what I had hoped for in the first episode. I came back later when I was mentally prepared for the torture, and I liked it. The story for me was great, as were the actors and the overemphasized aesthetics, and it was quite clear to me (based on everything I’ve watched so far) that this was done with an awareness of foreign viewers.

However, some cultural features have survived and confused people who are not in contact with this kind of content. It was interesting to me when a friend told me that he thought they did the series with the awareness that a lot of scenes could be used as memes. While this sounds like an ingenious marketing plan, the reality is that acting in Korea, including facial expressions, is often much more expressive than what we are used to seeing. I've been making memes out of everything I watch for a year now, it's just not fun for anyone (except me) because they have no idea what it's about.

The actress-model who plays one of the main roles, HoYeon Jung, especially exploded on social networks and gathered over 20 million Instagram followers since the premiere of the series. This was caused by the obvious pretty privilege, on the one hand, and on the other by the fact that this woman plays the only likable character in the drama. The new followers are proof that at least 20 million people cheered for her, just like I did.

The only certain thing is that Netflix did not initially anticipate such a success of the series because their English translations and dubbing were horrible, which is why they were fiercely ridiculed and criticized. Or maybe they used that to attract additional attention, to encourage talking, even about mistakes. We will never know.

After the success of La Casa de Papel and Squid Game, we can conclude that for Netflix's success and explosion on social media, you need masks, red suits, weapons, and captivity of characters in one space. We have known that the latter has attracted attention since the beginning of reality shows. It only remains to be seen what will keep it. I would say none of the above, although I want the memes with Grandpa from Squid Game to last forever.

Author of the text: Natalija Jovanović, Senior Content Manager