Dramas about conglomerates

“If you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, your behavior should be decent to befit your background.” This is what the mother of the hero Kim Joo-won told her son, who falls in love with the heroine Gil Ra-im, in the hit SBS TV drama “Secret Garden.” The mother meant that children from noble birth and with good appearance and educational background should also keep their duties in mind and consider how to help society. Viewers feel ambivalent about Kim, who frequently boasts about his high social status and looks down on the poor, because they think he is cool. He must have been blamed for his haughty behavior, however.

TV dramas about business groups and their owner families are all the rage. MBC, which is airing “Flames of Desire” about a conglomerate owner family, is now airing “Royal Family,” also about a conglomerate. The new drama revolves around a once-despised young daughter-in-law who later takes control of the conglomerate. The SBS drama “Midas” is about a veiled feud between the daughter of a business group owner’s second wife and the son of the owner’s first wife. Conglomerates and adulterous relationships have been popular subjects of Korean dramas, but most hit dramas now are about conglomerates only.

In reality, the Korean people are all too familiar with illegal inheritance, tax evasion, veiled feuds over managerial rights among children, political lobbying, and a CEO`s violence against employees. Former M&M CEO Chey Cheol-won has paid compensation to an employee after hitting him, and the eldest daughter-in-law of a business tycoon tracked the infidelity of the wives of her husband’s brother and relatives to take over managerial rights. Such incidents were used as material for dramas. The families of conglomerates chiefs are destined to draw public attention so they must accept this as their fate.

They are both wannabes and the envy of the people. In Korea, conglomerate owner families are not only super rich but also considered the privileged class like royal families. Just as ancient people wanted to know what happened inside royal palaces, TV viewers in Korea are curious about the personal lives of conglomerate owner families, who are icons of wealth and power. The people might blast the improper behavior of business moguls and their families but indulge in watching TV dramas about desire and betrayal at the splendid mansions of business tycoons.

Editorial Writer Chung Sung-hee (shchung@donga.com)