REVIEW: ‘Made in Korea’ Is An Uneven Cross-Cultural Drama

The Netflix film Made in Korea sells you on a charming premise at first: a young woman from India dreams of moving to Korea after becoming enchanted by the culture. There are interesting elements in the film, but in execution, it’s an uneven drama about the reality of problems following you wherever you go.

Shenba (Priyanka Mohan) lives in an Indian village so remote that “even a cell phone signal is not available there.” After doing a school project on the life of Sembavalam (a 13th-century legendary Indian princess who married a Korean king), Shenba is captivated by Korean culture.

She learns to eat with chopsticks, listens to K-Pop and watches K-Dramas whenever possible, and tells everyone she plans to go to Korea when she grows up. Her parents, especially her father (Thirunavukkarasu), assume she’ll grow out of it and grow up to get a job and marry, like all the girls in her remote village. When Shenba grows up, her parents send her to study hospitality at a college in a nearby town, hoping she’ll one day run the family’s restaurant.

Priyanka Mohan makes for a strong protagonist in a listless drama. 

Shenba’s dreams of Korea never waver and eventually come to a head. Though in love with her childhood friend Mani (Rishikanth), her parents disapprove of his job as a bartender. When her parents find a more suitable prospective husband for Shenba, the looming reality of a life that falls short of her dreams comes to a head.

Mohan’s Shenba is wide-eyed, curious, and dreamy, but Made in Korea is surprisingly light on motivation. We hear about Shenba’s desire to go to Korea, and she even goes so far as to try to get a loan to make the trip. When a banker questions Shenba’s motivation for going to Korea, she asks, “Why did you marry your wife? Why did you join this bank? Is there an answer to questions like these?”

It’s a shame we don’t feel Shenba’s intense desire to go to Korea as much as we see it. Writer-director Ra Karthik’s film moves at breakneck speed while also lasting far beyond its two-hour runtime.

Made in Korea works as a concept but not as a finished film. 

When Shenba does eventually reach Korea, it feels as though she’s lived a whole K-Drama’s worth of trouble. Family matters and relationship issues with Mani propel her to achieve her dream, not through hard work but through deception. Shenba’s arrival in Korea is turbulent and narratively unfocused.

Her adventures include (among other highlights) cooking, befriending an older woman (Park Hye-Jin) with a secret, meeting a boy (Baek Si-hoon) who dreams of becoming a musician, and going to jail after intervening in a couple’s violent public argument. The pacing, with Anthony and Indira Premkumar’s frantic editing, leave us little time to truly experience Shenba’s emotions.

Mohan, at least, plays a compelling protagonist, and the scenery is gorgeous. Shenba’s hometown and newfound home in Seoul are shot with lush, rich colors by cinematographer Prasanna S. Kumar. There’s a lot to love in Made in Korea’s concept, but little to root it in a solid execution.

The Netflix film needed to spend more time developing the central story. 

Even Shenba’s engagement with Korean culture seems to diminish once she arrives in Korea. She doesn’t watch K-Dramas or listen to K-pop nearly as much in Korea as she did in India. If it’s meant to demonstrate the fulfillment of her dreams, it doesn’t come through as much as it should.

Netflix’s international productions and acquisitions are a welcome addition to its catalog. Highlighting international cinema for Western audiences is a huge and necessary asset, and maybe the many adoring fans of Korean culture will enjoy it. Made in Korea has good intentions and aims big for a story of multinational ties and dreaming of a life beyond your own.

Shenba’s move to Korea is no fairytale, but when she arrives, you can’t help but feel pity for her when the reality sets in that life will still reach epic lows even in a place you’ve always wanted to be. If the film sat with that more, and rushed her through the plot less, there might be more to love here. But just as you can’t expect perfection from the fulfillment of your dreams, you can’t expect perfection from movies, either.

Made in Korea is now available exclusively on Netflix.