‘Made In Korea’ Movie Review: Priyanka Mohan Shines in a Lightweight Hallyu Tale

“Made In Korea,” starring Priyanka Mohan, feels relevant as the globe continues to embrace the K-Wave, but its morally sound idea could have benefited from greater execution.

I finally had the opportunity to travel to South Korea last year after watching K-Dramas for almost four years and witnessing K-Pop take over my yearly Spotify Wrapped playlists. I felt like I was in a kind of simulation when I first arrived in Seoul because Byeon Woo-seok posters were everywhere I looked. In addition, it was thrilling to go into convenience stores and buy banana cream and ramen, and I took a dozen pictures whenever I happened into a public monument that I had seen on a show.

But things might not be perfect when Shenba (Priyanka Mohan) arrives in Seoul in Made In Korea. We don’t fully understand what it was about South Korea or K-Culture that initially captivated her during her time there. Later in the movie, there is a song that depicts her visiting all of the well-known spots, including the Lotte World amusement park and the Namsan tower, but it all seems too brief. What makes those shows so appealing to her? Which K-pop group is her favorite? Really, we never know.

Growing up in a picturesque town in the hills in Tamil Nadu, Shenba first learns about South Korea during a school fancy dress competition and is fascinated with its possible historical link to her state. This is then a segway into everything K-Culture; she has posters of Lee Min-ho on her bedroom walls, bops to K-pop and of course, tries to learn the language as well. While it makes for a refreshing change that her starting point is this fascination with history, there is little else to go by, even when she does land in Seoul. I smiled during a scene where Shenba walks into a restaurant and confidently asks for a So-Maek(a soju and beer cocktail), something she has undoubtedly picked up from her K-Drama viewing. These moments are few in number.

Director Ra Karthik stated in an interview with The Hindu that his first-time experiences in Seoul were helpful throughout the film’s production. These sequences, in which we follow Shenba as she adjusts to being in a strange city for the first time, are also the most captivating ones in the movie. For example, she must learn how to wait in line for a bus—concepts that most of us, even in an Indian city, are unfamiliar with. Shenba quickly starts working as an assistant at a mansion, taking care of a bedridden granny (Park Hye-jin), with the help of a generous stranger, a vlogger who quickly becomes her first friend in the city.

Made In Korea (Tamil)