Daejeon rises as breeding ground for K-content

Daejeon is growing its global presence as the center of South Korean visual content. As mega-hit Netflix series “Squid Game” and “Hellbound” were reported to have been filmed in one of the core cities near the middle of the nation, it has garnered global attention as a mecca for global fans of K-video content.

Many scenes of the two ongoing Netflix cash cows were filmed in indoor special effect studios located in the Daejeon Information & Culture Industry Promotion Agency, Doryong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon City, according to the city authorities. The town-like studio is home to large-sized studios for video special effect, Studio Cube and action studios. Two large-scale studios are known to be equipped with the best quality infrastructure for video filming in the nation.

The two South Korean TV series on Netflix were produced for about five months from August last year to January in these studios. As of now, both the two studios are fully booked for film and drama productions until early next year. It has been reported that a TV series “that will obviously surprise the world” is currently in the pipeline. However, with a high level of access control to the site in place, no one is allowed to notice any scent of what is going on inside.

Run by the Korea Creative Content Agency right next to these studios, “Studio Cube” provided a filming site for most scenes of the tug of war, dalgona making and the beads game in “Squid Game.” Action studios in the town are also a famous site for highly sophisticated action scenes.

“It is inspiring that global content platforms such as Netflix and Disney+ value the originality, creativity and excellence in K-content to make large investments,” said a city official. “We intend to continue our efforts to draw global content producers to Daejeon.”


Ki-Jin Lee doyoce@donga.com