KJCKorea
Journal Central

Netflix’s original series <Move to Heaven> is facing the most representative popular genre, drama, “death” itself, as a key material and theme. This point is of great cultural significance. Th is article focuses on <Move to Heaven> to discuss how to represent death in Korean dramas. In existing Korean culture, there was a strong tendency to deny and ignore death, which has been maintained quite strongly. However, this customary attitude has recently begun to change. Th e popular culture of Korean society has now begun to discourse on death. As it is still in the beginning stage, and it is still insuffi cient quantitatively and qualitatively, It is of great signifi cance in itself that death has begun to be spoken about in popular culture. Th is article analyzes the characters, events, and confl icts of <Move to Heaven>. Th rough this, it was intended to examine the way Korean society currently dramatizes death into a TV series, which is a popular content. Th is work shows limitations to discussing death in earnest. Th is is because it deals with death quite superfi cially and romantically. In the drama, death is represented quite frequently and signifi cantly, Nevertheless, a similar pattern of death is repeated in the form of death of the socially disadvantaged. Th erefore, this work has value in that it sparked discourse on death, but it had limitations in fostering in-depth discussions. However, the meaning of the beginning itself needs to be recognized. Th is is because the popular genre of drama began to represent death, which had been avoided based on socio-cultural roots, as a “fact,” making “afterwards” possible. In the same vein, the death reproduced by this work is also the beginning of a critical discussion on the death that Korean dramas will represent later.

“Move to Heaven”, TV drama, death, Netflix, pop culture, popular culture content, discourse