How CJ ENM’s ‘Kitchen Soldier’ and ‘Filing for Love’ Are Rewriting K-Drama’s Global Playbook: ‘Less Made in Korea, More Made With Korea’

When “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier” screened at Series Mania in Lille this March, Sebastian Kim was watching the audience as much as the screen. The series had been viewed internally at Korean media giant CJ ENM as a gamble.

“We viewed it as a bold and somewhat risky project, as it incorporates comedic elements that some might describe as ‘too Korean’ and ‘too raw,'” says Kim, head of the Content Business Unit at CJ ENM. What happened in Lille changed his thinking. “Compelling comedy and authentic storytelling can transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries.”

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That conviction has since been borne out by the numbers. Premiering May 11, the 12-episode series – which mixes comedy, food, fantasy and military life around a soldier who discovers a virtual quest screen guiding him toward becoming an army cook – reached No. 2 overall on Disney+ Japan and ranked among the top three Korean drama titles on HBO Max across 17 countries and territories, performing especially strongly in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. On Rakuten Viki it landed in the top five across the Americas, Europe, Oceania and MENA, and reached No. 2 on Russian and CIS streamer IVI. A London screening co-hosted with the Korean Cultural Center UK on May 28 drew more than four times the attendance CJ ENM had anticipated.

Running alongside it, romantic comedy “Filing for Love” – a 12-episode series in which an internal auditor investigating a workplace scandal finds himself falling for the colleague he is meant to expose – has delivered its own emphatic results: No. 1 across all Rakuten Viki regions and territories, No. 1 drama and No. 2 overall on U-NEXT in Japan, and No. 1 on Mongolian streamer Inche TV throughout its run.

The two titles are, by design, almost complete opposites. One was a sure commercial bet; the other a creative leap. “Rather than proving that only specific types of Korean stories can succeed globally,” Kim says, the pair demonstrate that this is the moment for K-dramas to widen their range. Romantic comedies will remain a dependable foundation whose appeal holds across generations and borders. “Striking a balance between familiar favorites and bold innovation is essential.”

That balance is complicated by a shift in how audiences consume content – one Kim identifies as his most pressing concern. “People are now conditioned to expect an emotional hit within seconds,” he says. “That’s a real problem for a 16-episode Korean drama that takes time to build. We’re not just dealing with a marketing challenge. The format itself feels mismatched to how audiences consume content today.” The accelerated consumption cycle has also compressed the window in which a title can generate revenue, with mid-tier content suffering most.

“The question isn’t ‘how do we make our dramas shorter,'” he says. “It’s ‘which single moment in this story makes someone want to watch all 16 episodes?’ Distributors who can answer that question well have a real edge.” Longer term, he anticipates formats built to function across both short and long-form from inception – not a threat to distribution, he argues, but a structural opportunity.

On the question of how Korean content reaches different markets, Kim is precise about the limits of any unified theory. Japan, shaped by geographic proximity and sustained cultural exchange, tends to respond to familiar Korean talent in ways that bear little resemblance to audience behavior in Europe, the Americas or the Middle East. Platform demographics complicate the picture further. “Some platforms have a predominantly Gen Z audience, while others attract viewers in their 40s and 50s,” he says. “Understanding these audience dynamics is essential when evaluating a title’s potential in each market.”

For CJ ENM’s next phase of expansion, Kim identifies MENA and India as the company’s most immediate strategic priorities, with investment in dubbing central to the push. Both regions have robust local entertainment traditions whose audiences are accustomed to consuming content in their native languages. On co-productions, the company is working with TBS on “Infinite Loop” and “Synchro Game,” and with Nippon TV on “Merry Berry Love,” a cross-cultural romantic comedy designed for Japanese and global audiences.

“The next wave is Korean storytelling becoming part of how other cultures tell their own stories,” he says, “through co-productions, format adaptations and creative partnerships across the Middle East, Southeast Asia and beyond. Less Made in Korea, more Made with Korea.”

Alongside that geographic shift, he sees the industry’s centre of gravity moving from individual titles to IP ecosystems – dramas and artists as starting points rather than finished products, seeds of worlds that can grow through games, live experiences and fan communities. “The companies that build worlds around their content,” he says, “will be the ones that last.”

CJ ENM produces and distributes content across television, film, music and live entertainment, and operates franchise properties including “I Can See Your Voice” and live events brands KCON and MAMA.