From The World of the Married to Crash Landing on You, why Indonesians have fallen for Korean dramas – sometimes too much
- Indonesians have increasingly turned to already popular K-dramas for relief from coronavirus-enforced isolation, as well as from the country’s own shows
- A storyline about infidelity in one series hit too close to home for some in the conservative Muslim-majority nation
In the kitchen of her flat in a working-class Jakarta neighbourhood, Rochimawati chops garlic, onions and other vegetables. She is preparing the iftar evening meal for her family to break their fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
As she cooks, Rochimawati – who like many Indonesians has only one name and is usually just called Ochi – keeps an eye on the Korean drama she is watching on her mobile phone. It’s a habit she has only recently adopted.
The online media editor, 48, has spent two months isolated in her apartment since the local government in Jakarta enacted new rules on social distancing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. She used to watch Korean dramas for about three hours a day, she says. Stuck at home, she is now watching them for as many as five or six hours daily.
World-class cinematography and cliffhanger plot lines keep the dramas fresh and fascinating for Indonesian viewers, as they do for millions of people around the world, and viewers become passionately involved in the stories’ twists and turns.
