South Korea.
Global powerhouse, economic miracle...
..yet it's smaller than England.
And it's only 70 years old,
younger than David Hasselhoff.
Right now, it seems the world
can't get enough of all things South Korea.
K-Pop.
Gangnam Style.
K-Drama.
K-everything.
There are options at every turn.
But I want to go deeper and find out more about its incredible
history and culture.
I discover the origins of Squid Game...
..feed myself into the K-Pop machine...
..and meet Korea's YouTube sensations.
LOUD SLURPING
This is a country with its own unique way of doing things,
in life...
You are dying today.
..and the afterlife.
It's just staggering.
Welcome to my ultimate K-Adventure.
After 15 spirit-crushing hours on an aeroplane,
I've made it.
And though it's after midnight here, it's mid-afternoon back home,
so tired I am not.
I hear Seoul is a 24-hour city, so, ooh, it should still be open.
On our way. It's very exciting.
My favourite moment of any new city is arriving, particularly at night,
when you're trying to gauge what it's like.
I have no idea.
South Korea is the 109th biggest country in the world,
so not very big.
But half its population crams into Seoul,
which lies just 30 miles from the border with North Korea.
The buzzing heart of this metropolis is Gangnam, which literally means
south of the river.
# Oppan Gangnam Style
# Gangnam Style... #
Well, this is terrific.
We have arrived in Gangnam.
# Oppan Gangnam Style... #
This is very exciting indeed.
Erm... HE CHUCKLES
I mean, why not? Why not?
Smart, pointy cars vying for attention.
Don't know who's going to win this face-off at the junction here,
but all kinds of exciting things.
I mean, there are options at every turn.
Where could I possibly go? Where?
It reminds me a little bit of Leicester Square,
but it's sort of not. It's more buzzy than Leicester Square.
Everything here is new and of the moment.
There's a real fizz about it.
Everybody wants to be here.
So many things to catch your eye.
And everywhere you walk, you feel another unce-unce from yet another
massive sound system.
I mean, it's...it's a real assault on the senses.
It's very exciting.
Next morning, it's time to see the city by day.
Seoul is one of the great Asian cities, yet not that long ago
it was a wasteland after the Korean War.
But now...
What I can't get over is how beautiful it looks.
Who knew that high-rise could look so extraordinarily striking?
But look at this,
look at these sort of aggressive vertical lines,
almost like a sort of living barcode there,
spread across, and something crystalline,
something a little bit like the Giant's Causeway...
HE MAKES WHOOSHING NOISE
..with all these columns everywhere you look,
and the multitude of different colours
and shades of white and black,
as far as you can see,
I mean, miles and miles of it over in that direction
with the mountains springing up in among.
It's extraordinary.
26 million people live in the greater Seoul area.
To give you an idea, the Greater London area,
nine, maybe nine and a half million.
It's staggering.
Down below, on Seoul's super-wide streets,
the scale of the place is no less overwhelming.
Everybody seems to be pushing, toiling and sweating away,
fuelling what's known as the economic miracle.
Financiers, company bosses, designers, chefs, and, of course,
stars of stage and screen...
..especially the small screen.
Most of what certainly I knew about South Korea said,
probably most all of us know about South Korea, is its online thing,
the YouTube phenomenon.
They've made a brilliant thing of commoditising
every little compartment of their culture.
And we've all got to know, and we love it.
I'm listening to a woman who has millions of people who follow her
and she records herself eating.
Welcome to one of the most searched for Korean online trends -
it's called mukbang, which means eating broadcast.
I sort of get it.
I've come to meet one of Korea's best known YouTubers in the flesh.
Her name is Heebab.
Oh, hi! Hello! Hello!
She's been a mukbang star for the past two years.
Do you spend a lot of time on the treadmill? You must be fit.
It's so hard! Yeah. Well done.
Today, I will eat this.
OK.
Do you like some spicy food?
Yeah, I love some spicy food. Then...
I'm going to join in!
It's been, what, 20 minutes since lunch?
Oh!
Heebab holds the slightly queasy Korean record
for eating 20 bowls of noodles in 30 minutes.
So, how did this start?
Hmm. You could do much better indeed!
Heebab is now one of the most popular mukbang stars in the world,
with over 1.2 million followers.
Shall I open these? Yeah.
Yeah, put some... OK, in they go.
SpongeBob.
SHE LAUGHS SpongeBob!
This can't be healthy!
Oh, good! They've doubled in size.
Oh! Wow! Look at that. I'm more than ready.
In Korea, it's rude to bite noodles.
Mm! Very good.
You think it's hilarious, my eating?
Like a child!
No, not hilarious, just rude.
Noodles must be slurped with as much vigour as possible.
Slurping is also said to lead to a longer life.
The way you eat that noodle is just incredible.
Like a Dyson.
An adult human requires about 2,000 calories a day.
But a typical mukbanger gets through an unhealthy 4,000 in one sitting.
I mean, it's amazing!
I mean, you're very thin.
I think I've had enough.
I know. It's pathetic.
How much do you spend a month on food?
That's more than we spend on a family of six!
How long is it going to take you to eat all of that lot?
Oh, three minutes. Three minutes? Yeah. OK, you're on.
There are millions of people around the world that would pay good money
to be sitting where I'm sitting right now,
like sharing a stage with the Rolling Stones.
Oh! Noodle solo.
Don't try this at home, kids. Let's leave it to the...
..professionals - is that the right word?
That was actually two minutes 40, so very impressive.
Wow! Thank you so much.
Coming up, public transport - Korean style.
I literally want to eat my breakfast off that floor.
Why Koreans never take their foot off the gas.
Keeping up with the Joneses can be applied
to the Korean people, as well.
And I work on my Gangnam Style
with one of the biggest new K-pop bands.
THEY SING
My K-pop career is just beginning.
THEY CHEER
If capitalism's your thing,
then South Korea is one of its greatest triumphs.
Over the last 100 years, Korea's been occupied by Japan,
divided into communist north and democratic south
and ravaged by war and dictatorship.
Then, in the blink of an eye,
the south reinvented itself as an economic superpower.
Korea has no natural resources,
it has no mineral wealth, it just has this -
a fantastic collective endeavour.
Everybody being enthusiastic and saying, "Let's chuck our lot in,
"let's do this together, let's make this country fantastic".
In the 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest countries on Earth.
Today, it's the world's 10th biggest economy.
I'm on my way to meet a well-known writer
to get his perspective on the Korean attitude to life.
Now, I always think the public transport system
is a brilliant indicator of a country's character.
Several things occurred to me, just looking down the middle of
the train here, this is like a sort of hospital corridor, isn't it?
Look how clean it is!
I literally want to eat my breakfast off that floor.
Beautiful broad carriages, lovely, clear fresh air.
And, evidently, fabulous broadband connectivity, as well.
And if you haven't got anything else to entertain you,
you've got these wonderful cartoons up here.
They're imparting all kinds of wisdom,
things like don't scramble around for your mobile
if you drop it on the train line.
Don't get your bags caught in the doors,
don't jump down stairs because you might hurt your knees.
All kinds of wisdom.
25 million people travel around on this
and that's just the people who live here.
If you add on people like us, who are just coming to stay...
To help me understand what it's like to live
in this workaholics' paradise
is Woosung Kang, author of the Korean Culture Dictionary.
Eating out is such a big part of life here.
We're meeting at a fabulous Korean barbecue restaurant.
How do you like your meat cooked?
Um...I would say probably medium rare.
OK. Yeah. It doesn't take long, does it?
People come here after work, do they? Is that the idea?
Right. So these places are known for their efficiency
because, you know, everything's served really fast, right?
Yeah. And they are easier on your wallet, too.
That's why these are usually clustered around office buildings.
They want a quick bite and maybe a bottle of beer, right?
I was reading some extraordinary statistic
that, actually, Koreans drink an awful lot. Right.
Well, we work hard and we let our emotions out
by interacting with other people, and drinks, as well.
This is all part of bringing everyone together, right?
So that's how we vent.
Koreans do work incredibly hard.
I mean, that's what this whole country is built on.
An extraordinary enterprise.
I mean, do people work too hard, do you think?
Do they get the balance right?
The peer pressure they get, you know, that's enormous.
So keeping up with the Joneses
can be applied to the Korean people, as well, right?
In order to stay competitive.
That extends to the population at large.
It's not just K-pop stars who look good.
To succeed in a rat race like this,
you must do everything you can to keep up appearances.
You know, looks is very important.
That's why our cosmetics industry is thriving, right?
So, you applied for a job, right, but you didn't get it.
Some people will say, "Oh, maybe, you know,
"that forehead, you know, that's..."
Oh, I must get those ears seen to!
Actually, why not? So good luck to you, yeah.
Even men, too. I'm not putting... I don't have any make-up on,
but you have to do something to stand out.
And making yourself more confident,
you become someone who you aspire to be, right?
Everything about Korea and Koreans just feels shiny, fresh,
clean, possibly synthetic.
It's a huge part of the appeal of this thing
the rest of the world can't seem to get enough of.
K-culture or Hallyu just seems to make us feel good.
When people talk about Hallyu, this great Korean wave,
well, surely the crest of that wave has to be K-pop.
And if we were tempted to think that it maybe was a bit tacky
and slightly throwaway,
when PSY sang about Gangnam Style,
we were forced to reappraise it.
K-pop is now a massive phenomenon.
So one of the things I've been really looking forward to doing
is hurling myself into the world of K-pop.
So I'm going to go and talk to one of the world's biggest girl bands, STAYC.
# How do you think? How do you think? #
I've been granted an exclusive meeting with the rising stars
in a long line of Korean supergroups, STAYC.
By all accounts, they're set to take the world by storm.
The K-pop industry is estimated to be worth
$5 billion a year in sales.
I'm dying to find out just what it takes to be a K-pop superstar.
Yay! Yay! Here they are!
THEY WHOOP
Welcome to our practise room.
This is great. I love it! So, what are you going to do?
We're going to rehearse our latest song, Run to You.
Yeah? Yeah. We're ready.
UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL
STAYC stands for Star To A Young Culture,
obviously!
They were formed after their record label announced
it was putting together a K-pop girl group.
They currently have 1.5 million Instagram followers,
but that following is growing exponentially.
After winning multiple TV music show awards,
STAYC are hotly tipped to be the next global megastars.
That doesn't need any more practise, that's great!
OK. That's incredible! Phew!
Congratulations!
STAYC: Ah!
You arrived on the scene with your first hit and it was huge!
And ever since then, it has been stratospheric.
Yeah. We finally made it.
We were nervous, excited, happy,
and it was so overwhelming.
So Bad was the perfect song that expressed what STAYC's about,
like, identity and charm and everything.
So, like, So Bad was perfect in that way.
The road to making it as a superstar is an uphill battle, as I well know,
but there's an established system for producing K-pop bands.
It takes years and years of training and preparation.
Talk me through the training.
Presumably, they're always watching you.
Does anybody come along and say,
"You need to work a bit harder at this"?
Oh, yeah. There are teachers and there are producers,
so they give us advice and encourage us.
So, basically, do you audition for a K-pop career?
Yeah, I had lots of auditions.
There were talent scouts, I guess... Yeah, that's right.
.."You're good, you're good."
But success is never of the overnight variety in K-pop.
And how long was STAYC in the making?
I became a K-pop trainee when I was 13
and I debuted at 20.
Sure.
Two years. Two years? Yes.
You're a quick learner. Yes.
Three years. Three years.
It's an incredible achievement to make it as a K-pop star,
beating millions of other hopefuls,
yet the band seem to be taking it in their stride.
If you're interested in K-pop culture
and if you want to be a K-pop artist...
So, you think I should have a crack at K-pop? Yeah!
Really? Yeah, of course.
You have to watch lots of videos,
but I believe that you can make it.
STAYC LAUGH Yeah.
That is the most flattering thing I have ever been told! Tell me more.
Wow! So our fans pick some animals for each of us.
Sumin, she's a rabbit.
Ah!
Oh. Yeah.
Puppy, tiger.
Cat. Cat. Cat.
Fox. Fox.
And I was hamster.
Why a hamster?
I used to have blonde hair,
so lots of fans called me, like,
"Oh, you look like a cute hamster!"
Aw! Yeah.
Bear. Bear. Bear!
Yeah. I'm polar bear? Yes.
Oh, thank you very much indeed!
Yes! Good! You could join us!
I'm with you.
What's a nice, easy bit?
# A little bit, little bit. #
Show me.
I'm not sure I'd ever actually make it as a K-pop star.
I'd fall at the first hurdle - dancing.
It's really...it's really easy. Just move your shoulders, like this.
Like....
# So I'll run to you
# A little bit, little bit... #
Change.
# A little bit, little bit... #
Actually, I take that back!
I'm mesmerising!
Yeah, that's it!
THEY CHEER
Oh, I'm as good as there! Wow!
My K-pop career is just beginning.
THEY CHEER
# I'll run to you a little bit, little bit
# A little bit, little bit
# A little bit, little bit... #
Wow! What about that?
I mean, here we are, look, in this funny building,
with its weird breeze block thing,
in a very nondescript little back street,
and yet, here, we might have just witnessed a new global phenomenon.
We might just have done.
I mean, maybe no-one will ever hear of STAYC again, I don't know,
but my hunch is, I think the world will be reverberating
to the sound of that song.
I mean, I'm never going to get that out of my head. It's brilliant.
STAYC. Hmm.
Coming up - I embrace K-pop stardom...
# Told you not to... #
..meet the man obsessed with British accents...
All right, la'? Let's have some chicken, la'!
..and ponder matters of life and death.
Looking good is so important to South Koreans.
From K-pop stars to office workers,
appearance seems to be everything.
Korean men are some of the biggest users of beauty products globally...
..and Seoul is also one of the leading centres
of plastic surgery in the world.
Well, I mean, look at all that Korean signage there.
Luckily, I've got a brilliant app on my phone that looks at it
and translates it.
Oh! And there we go! What are we looking at there?
Every single one of them is a plastic surgery clinic.
That's an extraordinary thing.
I was hearing about how plastic surgery here
has none of the hang-ups that people have at home with plastic surgery.
Everybody's delighted to tell you what operations they've had,
nips and tucks and little indentations put in,
and anything that can make them look better.
Talking of which, I am now going to go and have my own little plastic...
Well, not plastic surgery. I'm going to have my own makeover,
see if I can turn myself into a K-pop star.
I'm interested to know what K-pop stars
have to go through to make it big.
It certainly works.
Bands like BTS are the biggest sellers on the planet.
Hair, clothes, make-up -
what is the secret?
I was told to come and look for the gauzy curtain. Ah!
This beauty parlour in central Seoul
is just the place to find out.
Hello. Come on in.
Hello. Hello. How do you do?
Your name is...? Alexander.
Alexander.
OK. And date of birth?
Um...1970.
OK, here we go.
Are you wearing make-up?
Do I wear any...? No, I'm not wearing any make-up.
And, please, chin here...
Chin here. ..and your forehead here.
OK, close your eyes, please.
Close. Mm-hm.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to check your moisture.
Now it's sensing.
So it's not really working quite well.
It's not reading anything at all.
Yeah. How weird.
What's it measuring - moisture?
Moisture.
I'm sorry. Don't worry. I'm sorry.
Do you want to try it on that side? Try it there. OK.
Trying again. Hmm!
It's not getting a reading on my skin.
Sometimes it takes time.
My skin's wrong.
Oh, there we go! Wahey!
That's more like it. Look at that!
And wrinkles. Wrinkles, forehead lines.
I have more wrinkle lines than WH Auden.
Let's see your pore.
Size of pores on your face, a little, little, large, but it's OK.
You think pore-care product is necessary?
Yes. It's not that bad,
but underneath your skin, we can see the...
A bit of sun damage. Yes, kind of.
Do you put some eye cream?
No, I don't.
Do you feel dry?
Do I what? Feel the skin...?
No, not remotely. Oh, really?
Or oily sometimes? No. No? Not at all?
It's generally normal. Oh!
So, do you use moisturiser or some...?
No. I should do, shouldn't I? I don't.
So, when you wake up, what do you put on your skin?
I don't put anything on.
Really? Yeah. Really? Yeah.
Really? Seriously.
Put something, please. Really?
Yes. Is that wrong? OK, I promise, I'll put on moisturiser.
And next, it's my K-pop make-up session!
I think Boemeh has got a bit of a job on her hands.
Are we going to change you? Yes, you are. I'm in your hands.
Is it OK that I change you into a K-pop star?
Completely. Fill your boots.
Ooh! That's an...interesting colour.
Is that normal?
I think this colour is a little bit bright for you.
But you've gone with it,
so...we'd better stick with it.
Some green. Green make-up base.
Is that a big colour in K-pop - green?
If you have red skin, then we choose green base. Mm-hm.
Is that enough of the gr...? I look a bit grey, don't I?
Like I've just risen from the dead.
SHE CHUCKLES
These are great sort of candy colours here, aren't they?
I think so. Very... Yeah. Are they big K-pop colours -
bright pinks and...?
Bright pink and colour. Good.
It's looking quite zombie, isn't it, at the moment?
I noticed a lot of Korean men take their beauty regime very seriously,
they make themselves very beautiful.
Yes. Do you get a lot of men in here, as well?
Yes. Males come here to fix their brow...
Right. ..or wanting to have, like, a skin colour.
You know, wearing contact lens, as well,
we're changing their colour.
There's a big sort of line now in male make-up in Korea -
it's interesting.
So I'm going to just change your eyes.
I'm going to use the brown colour... OK.
..so make your eyes have, like, impact.
What's the key look for K-pop stars?
Is it based on a sort of cartoon thing?
Is it based on...? I don't know, what is it?
They have, like, their own, like, character. Right.
So you're kind of creating a character for them.
A little bit like a caricature? I think so.
I wonder what kind of character you're making me.
SHE LAUGHS
The old one.
Old one! Eyes up, up!
That's it. Wow!
So it really does matter to look good here.
To be honest, everything looks good.
It's so clean,
certainly cleaner than many a grimy European capital.
And fun! It's...it's playful.
But this is very on Seoul.
There's a person dressed as a tree handing out leaflets.
This beautiful avenue behind
and fascinating buildings.
Ah! I can smell cinnamon and raisins.
Mm! Very nice!
It's not what I was expecting to find in Seoul.
That's more the kind of thing I was expecting, sort of kitsch rabbit.
I've come here to meet another of Korea's beloved YouTube stars.
Hello, everyone, this is Billy.
Today, I'm going to talk about British dialects.
This is Korean Billy,
who has something of a knack for English accents.
This sound is produced by
obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Water.
Wa'er.
I haven't heard of that story.
I haven't heard of that sto-rey.
I'm meeting Billy to discuss the curious celebration of cuteness
in Korean culture over a coffee.
I have to say, the cafe's central concept is a bit of a surprise,
as it's dedicated, bafflingly, to poo.
What is it about the online thing?
Cos Korea has kind of made the world of online its own.
It leads the world. K-culture, generally,
it lives in this sort of weird metaverse, doesn't it? Yeah.
We've been just always making our own unique
and enjoyable cultural stuff from a long time ago,
and we just kept doing it.
But, thanks to the Internet, people have discovered Korean culture.
The world found it. Yeah.
On the subject of the online export,
you are a YouTube star, as well, aren't you?
Yes.
"Ozzy" means hospital. For example...
I really love British TV shows... Yeah.
..but I was interested in British language, as well, British English.
Do a bit of Scouse for me. Sorry to make you...
All right, la', let's have some chicken, la'.
That brekkie was boss!
Let's have some boss scran at the Asda.
Billy developed his English accent skills
while studying at Preston University.
I always wanted to, like, say that British people should learn
some cuteness from Korea
and bring some cuteness back to the...
A bit of cuteness. We don't do cute, do we, really? Yeah.
I want to ask you about that because the K-culture
takes huge pleasure in...
For example, we're sitting in a cafe at the moment called the Poo Cafe.
Yeah. It's unashamedly childlike.
You know, there's something kitsch about this.
It's bright and accessible.
The appetite people have for creativity is extraordinary.
The Koreans are so busy, they can't stand slow things.
But I think that's why Korean people manage to develop things
overall very, very quickly. Incredibly quickly!
Like, suppose you just go to a place in London,
after ten years, they are still there. Yeah.
But in Seoul, you can't really find the places which used to be there.
What a great pleasure to meet you. I could talk for hours!
I say, drinking from a toilet bowl.
Hmm. There's a strange paradox at work here.
On one hand, Korea is celebrated for its bright, poppy side.
But on the other, the pressures of life can have serious consequences.
South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
But a radical step has been taken to try and remedy it.
This is the death experience school.
Run by Ne-yo, a social worker,
at this Buddhist monastery near Seoul.
It's a very, very peaceful spot. Mm-hm.
The obliging cockerel over there. Mm-hm.
It's beautiful and so near to Seoul. Yes.
And what particularly is the meditation here?
At this place, we meditate about death and dying.
Right. And how does that work, essentially?
They think about their past life.
So, if they are dying, what is regret?
The programme has been running for 23 years.
Over 60,000 people have taken part.
I suppose thinking about your life in the context of death
throws up everything into...
Yes. ..a rather deeper perspective. Hmm.
This is the mirror of our life.
So, Neyo, what is this, here?
This place is for your death experience. You are dying today.
Right. I see.
So you stand as if at the point of death
and look over the whole of your life?
Yes, exactly. Yeah.
You happy? Well, I think so.
Over there. Thank you.
The coffin is... Your coffin is this one.
Is this one here? Big coffin.
This is, er... Oh, Lord!
Oh, my God.
Your face.
That's something quite scary. Mm.
It's suddenly got very real. Mm.
Um...
Who is crying...for your death?
I think, er...my wife, my children.
Um...
It's very... Suddenly, very... Got a bit of a lump in my throat.
Everyone does the same.
You know, has one wasted too much life of one's own life?
Did I get too cross about things?
Did I get impatient about things?
Was I a useful person?
What can I do better?
And then, if you are reborn again, what would you do,
if God gave you one more chance?
So think about your life.
Hmm.
HE CHUCKLES
I hadn't, until I arrived here...
..imagined how powerful this perspective was going to be.
And this is Korean clothes for dead people.
Right. Yeah. So...you want to try?
Well, I guess.
That's, um...
These clothes is only people who is dying, with death.
So you're dead. Right, I see.
No. You're dead, you can't do anything.
I see. You're dead. OK. I will do it for you.
In here, pocket? Mm-hm.
No pocket. Why?
Cos you can't take anything with you.
Yeah, you cannot carry anything.
So I'm going to get in, am I? Yeah, get in.
Take off my shoes? Take off your shoes.
When you're ready, go on the inside.
ALEXANDER SIGHS
This is a profoundly weird experience. Lay down, please.
Um...OK.
OK, just one minute.
One minute. This is your last moment,
so say goodbye to your family and your friends.
Hmm. OK?
So, right now, your body will be the food of the insect.
Insects will eat your body and your body will be disappear.
Just disappear.
In the end, you're all alone.
So, what did you achieve from your life?
I think my children are...
..are my best achievement.
HE SNIFFLES
You ready? Mm. Yeah.
OK. Just lie down, OK? Yeah.
We never know. It could be one month or one year. We never know.
The universe and God
don't want you die right now,
so they are going to give you more,
a really small time.
So, what would you do?
I will keep going back to this point
and I will remember exactly what this weird process felt like.
And thinking...
..what will make me proud...
..when this moment actually comes?
The thing I think of...
..is love.
That's the...
..most meaningful thing.
Now, I was determined to take all of this with a pinch of salt,
you know, all the sort of Halloweenery of the...
..coffins and the graveyard and all of that.
And I thought, "Well, this is sort of set dressing!"
And then, when I got there, and suddenly...
..it really got me.
But then, inevitably, you know, these are...these are...
..these are very profound points that Neyo is bringing up, and...
Yeah, there's a reason why you don't really muck about with all that kind of stuff.
..because it is... It's to be respected.
Coming up - I head to Gangnam,
where K-pop stardom surely awaits!
THEY WHOOP
Korea has not let me down.
It's everything I imagined and far more besides.
And now I'm heading back to the K-pop factory
for the next step in unlocking the secrets of K-pop's success.
I'm going to be making my very own K-pop record, complete with artwork.
I'm going to need to look sharp,
so I've enlisted the help of stylist to the stars...
How do you do?
Oh, this is very exciting.
You're going to make me a K-pop star. Yeah.
K-pop style.
Oh, look at that! There's this.
This is very K-pop.
I love the embroidery on this.
I mean, that's...
Does this keep the mozzies out?
Great.
Like a bandanna. Yeah.
I like the way these hang down.
I'll be doing a lot of that, I think, on stage.
And these are going to then whoosh.
Whoosh! As I swirl around, and do some of my moves.
The military style. Yeah, let's try that on.
It's a piece of work, this.
I mean, it's just...
I feel like a traffic warden.
Like that?
I come on stage.
Whoa!
Well, thank you. I think we've got lots to think about there.
Now I'm heading for the epicentre of the whole K-pop industry,
as immortalised by PSY.
It's Gangnam.
Well, these are the hands of PSI.
Just in case you're in any doubt, it even says, look, "Gangnam Style."
Here we are. There's the watch of PSI, the forefinger of PSI.
You get the idea.
It's a whole monument to Gangnam Style, the song that burst
onto the cultural scene. Then the explosion happened.
Suddenly, the world had heard of Gangnam, this region of Seoul,
where all the record labels, the production companies,
the film companies are based.
And this is it.
This is where I throw myself on to the altar of K-pop.
I'm even getting the opportunity to record a song, which I'm hoping
will give me an insight into just what it takes to make it big.
I've spent the last day or so learning the words-ish
to one of girl band STAYC's smash hits.
You can do it in bits. Yeah. Lovely.
One of the hottest producers in town is this man,
whose speciality is working with K-pop bands
to give them that super fresh sound.
HE SINGS IN KOREAN
I mean, making it cute.
I'm thinking of little sort of chipmunky cartoon characters.
HE SINGS IN KOREAN
I don't know what language it is!
I just wrote down what it sounded like.
Salaijo... Is that right?
Salajado.
Sarajayo. Salajado.
Sarajayo - he just said!
# Salajado
# Salajado. #
So that was good for cuteness, was it?
OK. I'm channelling my inner polar bear.
Now for the easy bit.
The chorus is in English.
# So I'll run to you
# So I'll run to you a little bit
# Little bit A little bit, little bit
# A little bit, little bit. #
JJ!
Then, a quick photoshoot for the cover artwork.
But I don't know if the world's ready
for my sourdough in mourning look.
And my K-pop career comes to a juddering halt,
as so many do in the karaoke bar, or nouraebang in Korean.
Oh!
How are you?
Terrific.
Luckily, what I lack in star quality I make up for in friends.
Have I done enough? That's the question.
I feel a little bit underdressed
when I see the rest of you.
Let's go in. Yeah, OK.
# So I'll run to you A little bit, little bit... #
And that's exactly what I've made here in Seoul - friends!
The people of this beautiful, chaotic, fascinating city
have made me so welcome.
Whey!
Next time... Hi!
..I'll be hitting the dance studio...
Whoa!
..searching for a herbal cure...
It is dried frog. Oh!
..and I get stuck in to my backbeats.
That's more fun than I've had for years.
South Korea.
Global powerhouse.
Economic miracle.
Yet it's smaller than England.
And it's only 70 years old.
Younger than David Hasselhoff.
Right now, it seems the world can't get enough
of all things South Korea.
K-Pop.
Gangnam Style.
K-Drama. Hai!
LOUD THUD
K everything.
There are options at every turn.
But I want to go deeper
and find out more about its incredible history and culture.
I discover the origins of Squid Game,
feed myself into the K-Pop machine
and meet Korea's YouTube sensations.
SLURPING
This is a country with its own unique way of doing things.
In life...
You are dying today.
..and the afterlife.
It's just staggering.
Welcome to my ultimate K adventure.
THEY BOTH YELL
DRUM CLANGING
I'm on the second phase of my discovery of South Korea,
a country that remarkably
in just two generations
has gone from the least developed in the world
to a global sensation.
Even in the knowledge
that around 70% of North Korea's military power
is aimed in its very direction,
South Korea simply gets on with life at full throttle.
Yeah!
I'm going to dig deeper under the surface
of this economic powerhouse...
It's where the world's biggest car assembly plant is.
Also the world's biggest shipyard.
..to find out how a culture
dripping with modern sophistication...
Hi!
..manages to stay in touch with its history and traditions.
It's dried frog. Oh!
Situated in the northwest of the South Korean peninsula,
Seoul lies near the Yellow Sea.
This is the Han, the mighty river of Seoul. I mean, look at it.
If you think of our capital rivers back in Europe,
the Seine or the Tiber or the Thames,
I mean, this is just so vast, it makes them look like a mill race.
This was once the great trading river
going out to the Yellow Sea.
But now, the estuary of this river is right at the point
between the borders of North and South Korea,
so there's no navigation at all, which means this is basically
one great big ornamental river.
It's the world's biggest boating lake.
Where better to find the essence of a culture
than in how they eat lunch?
See? Look what's going on here. This is amazing.
You buy some noodles over there, and you get these little tubs.
They get them scanned by the machine up there,
and it goes, "beep" and it reads the code on the thing.
And out of those little spouts comes hot water,
the perfect volume.
There they are. They're just here for anyone to use.
There's a nice little table there for anyone to use,
and everyone puts their rubbish there
when they're done with it.
Can you imagine something like this at home?
How many days before someone did a poo in one of those?
Two.
South Korea has a great sense of national identity.
And I want to understand more about its ancient past,
so I'm visiting one of Seoul's most treasured landmarks,
Gyeongbokgung Palace.
The only ancient part of Seoul, in fact.
Everywhere else around here is huge and shiny and modern.
Most buildings have got massive screens all over them.
But now, look at these well-dressed young people.
You may think they're excitedly rushing off to their school prom.
Hi!
But no, they're here for a morning's light sightseeing.
You'll see a lot of that here.
This fashion for wearing ancient Korean costume
is known as New Tra.
It's very popular amongst the young now.
I guess it's a kind of backlash against the ultramodern
and just to wallow in the ancientness of Korea.
ANNOUNCEMENT IN KOREAN
SLOW, LOW-PITCHED DRUMMING
The truth is, you get in to see the changing of the guard free
if you're kitted out in national dress.
Great news for local hire shops.
SOLEMN BRASS MUSIC PLAYING
MUSIC CONTINUES
They sound like...a bit like sort of bagpipe chanters.
It's actually a similar sort of function to the bagpipe.
It has a kind of warlike skirling sound. Very stirring.
They've got these pheasant tail feathers in their hats.
There's just something a little bit jaunty about that.
A little bit morris men.
I mean, what a piece of theatre that was. Wasn't it beautiful?
I suppose our pageantry
is a lot of very hard boots on the ground
and a lot of shouting.
HE GROWLS
That, by contrast, was soft power.
I'm slightly wondering
whether or not they're actual soldiers
or actors who were enacting it.
Have they gone back to barracks now,
or have they just gone to finish the Guardian crossword?
With the show over,
I have got history student Ho Young waiting in the wings
to tell me all about the splendid Gyeongbokgung Palace.
What is the significance, then, of this palace?
So, the last dynasty that existed before Republic of Korea
was called Joseon dynasty.
It was established in 1392,
and this was the first palace of that dynasty.
And it stood here for over 600 years,
and it was burnt down several times.
Every time Korea was conquered,
the palace was burned down, was sort of razed to the ground.
So that is symbolically important.
Yes. You remove the palace, you remove the power.
To add insult to injury, the Japanese built
their imposing government HQ here
after taking over Korea in the early 20th century.
What's this building here?
This building is where
most of the national ceremonies would happen.
Events such as coronation
or welcoming the foreign ambassadors.
You can see that the path is separated into three parts,
and the middle one is called the Royal Path.
If you were to walk on this path,
even though you were not a member of the family,
then you would get punished
by being hit on the butt with a stick 100 times.
OK, well, let's stick over here then, shall we?
A hundred times? Yes, yes. Wow.
Now we'll look into this building where there is a king's throne.
So this is the inner sanctum of the palace?
And it's magnificent.
Muted colours. But a lot of them.
You see the painting, right? Yeah.
And you'll see the moon. Mm-hm.
And five hills. Yeah.
And then the pine trees and the water that's flowing below.
They each resemble a part of the kingdom.
Korea's philosophy is based on the humanist beliefs of Confucius.
Respect for others, compassion, humility, good things like that.
And as this was where the king held audiences
with foreign dignitaries,
I suppose it was OK to show off a bit with the decor.
Coming up, I find myself in need of a herbal cure...
It is for boosting energy.
To sharpen you up. SHE LAUGHS
..I hang out with the cool kids...
A sort of Hoxton for senior citizens.
..and my taste buds get tickled.
They even do eels here. Mmm!
You could say innovation is the guiding light for Koreans.
From the world's first iron printing press
to the MP3 player,
it's always looking to the future.
It's also in love with robots... or Roberts, if you prefer.
This is a very typically Korean thing.
Beer and chicken.
Well, I've got my beer,
but the chicken I ordered by pressing this button.
They brought me these ubiquitous South Korean implements, tongs.
Don't know where I'll be without them when I get home.
And my beer, which...
..is delicious.
Just have to wait for the chicken now.
FAINT WHIRRING
WHIRRING CONTINUES
Oh, there's nearly enough.
This little fella is the world's first multifunctional waiter.
It can load up to 50 kilos
and serve tables for 12 hours without a break
as long as it's across a flat floor.
I mean, it's...it's fine. A little bit Clive Sinclair.
It's disconcertingly lukewarm,
considering it's just been cooked by a machine.
Manning the stations in the kitchen
is this robotic piledriver in chef's whites,
plunging the chicken in and out of its hot bath.
Maybe he wants a tip.
Ah. And he will get one.
With half of South Korea's population living in wider Seoul,
circumnavigating it is not for the faint-hearted.
Getting across town takes a hugely long time.
Something we seem to have spent a very long time doing in Seoul
is just waiting at traffic lights.
They're red for yonks.
I mean, they're green for yonks as well.
But you pull up at traffic lights, you think, "We're here for a while."
And then, about an hour later, you pull off.
It feels like that anyway.
Life in the fast lane can certainly play havoc with your health.
So, for a dose of buck-you-up-o,
I've been told to come here.
I don't know what they're making here. That looks...
..I'm going to say less than appetising.
This is where worn-out Koreans come for an ancient cure.
Yangnyeongsi market.
The mecca of South Korean herbal medicine.
Cobnuts.
Something for your hamster cage there.
Some delicious bark and root
and more root and some kind of dried fungus there.
And some nice twigs.
I mean, some fantastic kindling.
Just a phenomenal array of stuff.
There are around 1,000 herbal remedy businesses here
offering help with anything from blood pressure and piles
to genital warts.
And ironically,
unlike the supposed cures themselves,
the market isn't centuries old.
It popped up next to the old railway station
in the 1960s following the Korean War
when farmers travelled here to sell their produce.
The smell of this is just incredible.
Aromatics, botanicals, old wood,
more bits of hamster cage lining, more root.
To talk me through these mysterious ingredients,
I'm meeting Annie Heo,
who's an expert in the Korean approach
to taking care of pain.
Now, this looks like
the most fantastic display of different things.
We've got some antlers here.
We've got... What are these?
This is "eom" tree in Korean words.
There are a lot of thorns on it, right? Yeah.
It is very effective for boosting the energy for us.
It's to sharpen you up, I guess. Yeah.
I imagine it's not eaten whole.
And this antler?
These deer antlers are really good for,
especially for growing children.
And...and these?
It's dried frog. Oh! SHE LAUGHS
It's dried frog. Of course. Surprisingly. What's that for?
It contains a lot of proteins,
so it can also boost our immune system.
OK. So it'll get us jumping. Mm-hm! SHE LAUGHS
Jumping. Do you see?
Now, I wonder if Annie can recommend a little something.
So, something maybe to perk me up, gives a bit of pep.
Yeah, I can recommend something. OK. I'm in your hands.
THEY SPEAK KOREAN
I hope it's not the frog.
THEY CONTINUE CONVERSING IN KOREAN
HE GASPS
Wow. This is... What is this? Ginseng?
Ginseng. It's six-year-old red ginseng.
Very original Korean medicine.
And it's a root, is it? Yeah, it's a root.
Korean red ginseng is said to contain
more healing properties than any other variety.
As well as fighting fatigue and boosting the little grey cells,
I'm told that for gentlemen feeling under par,
it's a great alternative to Viagra.
Hmm.
How would you take it?
Oh, you need to bring it to the shop... Mm-hm.
..to ask them to boil and steam it for two days. Wow.
This is where the magic happens.
And this picture of health is Young Choi Han...
..who's been brewing ginseng for the past 30 years.
So, can we get some tea from here?
While my ginseng gets the two-day treatment,
here's one he prepared earlier.
Young Choi Han and his wife are ginseng wizards.
It's like a sort of apple press. Hmm.
Looks like that'll put the lead back in anyone's pencil.
I'm now intrigued to drink it. I can't wait.
I'm feeling better already, just watching the process.
Ah.
THEY SPEAK KOREAN
That's really nice, actually.
That's good. Mmm.
It has a taste a bit of malt extract, slightly of coffee.
THEY LAUGH
I look forward to reading the subtitles on that.
HE REPLIES IN KOREAN
Ginseng may be said to cure a lot of ills,
but it can't lay claim to being
the cause of South Korea's rapidly ageing population.
That's down to having the lowest birth rate in the world,
with almost half the country expected to be over 65 by 2050.
I just hope it's prepared for the post office queues
come pension day.
But what's also interesting
is how the older generation is reinventing retirement.
One of the things I've noticed
is that the whole K fashion phenomenon
is absolutely not limited to the young.
No, no, no. The older fashionista here in Seoul
is absolutely as noticeable.
Just people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, all dressing incredibly sharply.
They come to these flea markets
and they buy these fantastic vintage clothes.
Looking around, I begin to realise how rubbishly I'm dressed.
Maybe I should check out those trousers here.
Oh, look. There we are.
There's a fashion shoot going on right here.
PHOTOGRAPHER SPEAKING IN KOREAN
What's going on here?
The person looks so nice, so I take a picture.
So you come down here and find whoever's looking sharp? Yeah.
Older people take their appearances very, very seriously.
Yeah, I think it's a Korean thing.
Photographer Dong Hyun Kim
has been snapping Seoul's senior hipsters for the past two years
and has even brought out a book featuring these funksters.
He believes the old are just as "mat",
Korean for cool - keep up - as the young.
These guys look amazing.
So tell me about your military fashion.
It's a great look. Very strong. I like the gloves.
And where do you get your clothes?
I made them. You made these? Yeah.
Absolutely wonderful. Beautiful jewellery as well.
Yeah. Very, very chic.
That was kind of interesting, wasn't it?
A sort of Hoxton for senior citizens.
Slightly odd that they wore military clothes,
particularly given that a country that's been
under military occupation in living memory,
it's strange to fetishize the US Army gear.
But, you know, each to their own. It was nice.
They were having a lovely time.
And quite nice threads there as well.
Browsing through Seoul's street markets is hungry work.
So, on recommendation
I'm heading to a local restaurant
where I'm going to try a 600-year-old snack.
I asked if I could see the menu,
and it would appear I already have.
They even do eels here. Mmm!
Eels five ways.
Actually, it's loach. It's a freshwater Korean eel.
These nimble little guys
are dug out of ponds and irrigated rice fields,
boiled and sieved.
They're made into a stew-like soup called Chueo-tang.
Oh, wow.
Whereas back home, we prefer to have them in an aquarium,
keeping the goldfish company.
Now, this is sesame pepper, I think I was told.
Put that in there. CUTLERY CLINKING
Some garlic and chilli, which I can add to taste.
That's my taste.
And I think I need to put these in as well.
SCRAPING
Oh, it's delicious.
Very lemongrassy. Not remotely fishy.
It's really good. It's very hot.
These are little fried eels.
One of the things I love about Korean food
is you just get given about a million little bowls of things.
Mmm. These are delicious.
Coming up,
things kick off...
And this is why you must never pick a fight with a Korean.
..I go down a storm in a dance studio.
Yeah! Wow! Wow, indeed.
And I hear what it's like to defect from the North.
What I've noticed during my time in Korea is that
though it may look like one big, chaotic adventure playground,
actually, the level of organisation knows no bounds.
Even when it comes to politics.
Especially when it comes to politics.
Now, this plaza here, this square,
unhelpfully, I'm afraid it's all behind hoardings at the moment,
but this is where everybody comes to protest in Seoul.
And Seoul being Seoul, if you want to protest,
you have to book in.
You register months in advance,
and you're given a start time and an end time.
You turn up at the start time,
and crowds and masses, they campaign throughout the day,
and then, when they have to shut down,
they pick up all their rubbish
and they leave the place looking immaculate.
Now, if you think for a minute
that this isn't going to be an effective form of protest,
think again.
They managed to overthrow the last president but one in 2018.
So actually very powerful indeed. We should all take note.
WHISTLING
OK. Second floor.
This must be it.
Talking of politics,
I'm about to meet a North Korean defector.
Glad I've gone for a jaunty sock today.
Hello? Hello?
Hello?
Oh! Oh, hello.
This is Shin-Ae Cho,
a traditional North Korean dancer
who defected to the South ten years ago.
Show me your dance. I'd love to see it.
We're going to do some dancing. Although happily, mainly her.
SHE GRUNTS Like that?
All right? Tighter? Tighter.
Ah. Come on. SHE GRUNTS
Yeah!
I'm already a bit scared.
HE GRUNTS
OK! Oh, good! Good. Oh.
HE SIGHS
TRADITIONAL KOREAN MUSIC PLAYING
SHE BEATS DRUM RHYTHMICALLY
MUSIC FADES
Oh, fantastic!
But Shin-Ae has something else up her sleeve.
Ooh!
Half fan, half magician's hanky.
Oh, it's beautiful.
It's like a flame.
Beautiful. Wonderful.
Ah! Absolutely wonderful.
Oh, thank you. Can I? Yeah, yeah.
You've got to hope I'm better at this than tying on drums.
SHE YELLS Ah.
SHE VOCALISES
Oh, yeah!
Yay!
So, not completely useless.
Oh, wow! Ooh! HE LAUGHS
It's very flattering!
SHE VOCALISES AND ALEXANDER REPEATS
OK.
Oh! Oh, yeah! Beautiful!
Now, I may look awkward, but I don't feel it.
I'm reluctant to move.
GASPS IN DISCOMFORT
Oh!
Oh, good.
I'm fascinated by how Shin-Ae has achieved success here in the South.
Compared to North Korea,
it must seem like the promised land.
Ah. Aha.
Come and have a look at this.
There is the Korean flag.
I mean, it represents the entirety of the country.
The white background is the land,
the red and blue,
the slightly Pepsi-looking logo in the middle, is the people,
the yin and yang, the red and blue, they're the people,
and then the four trigrams around it, if I have it right,
is geon, gam, gon and ri,
which is to say air, water, earth, fire.
And together they make the magic, the whole magic,
the complete magic of Korea.
But that South Korean magic has been born out of hostility.
After the Second World War, Korea was split in two.
The Soviet Union became the caretakers of the North,
and the United States oversaw the South.
Soon, communist North had its sights on the South,
and in 1950 it invaded,
launching the devastating Korean War.
With the help of the US and its allies,
South Korea fended off the communists three years later.
North Korea's looming presence is now felt across the world.
And I want to find out from Shin-Ae...
This is incredible.
..why and how she defected to the South.
Can I ask what your route to South Korea was?
You have to put your life
in the hands of people you...you don't know.
What was it like in North Korea?
How would you describe it?
SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY
It's bizarre, isn't it,
that two countries that sit so close geographically
couldn't be further apart politically.
And, now, culturally.
You've still got family in North Korea.
So you have one daughter here,
but the rest of your family,
presumably you have no contact with them at all.
And how can you make contact with them? Or...are you able to say?
Well, that's a... that's a blessing, at least.
That was so interesting, wasn't it?
You just don't know if you'll end up in a ditch
or if you're going to be trafficked and sold to other people.
I mean, you are as vulnerable as you could possibly be.
To risk all of that shows extraordinary spirit, I think.
The ceasefire with the North came in 1953,
but a peace treaty was never actually signed.
It's not surprising, then, that South Korea's national sport
is all based on strength and self-defence.
Whoa!
CLAPPING
And this is why you must never pick a fight with a Korean.
All the men do National Service, and they all learn taekwondo.
They're so incredibly balletic.
You might think this is a discipline that has its roots
way back in some dynastic, prehistoric Korean time, but no.
Taekwondo as we know it today was actually formed in the 1950s.
I mean, it brings all kinds of different martial arts
from various other traditions together
and puts them in a specifically Korean discipline.
TAEKWONDO MASTER YELLS
Makes my back hurt just watching it.
Another favourite pastime in South Korea
is something far less energetic.
An activity which some people may think unusual,
but here is a huge moneymaking business.
Fortune-telling.
And it's not a mystical or kooky thing.
Quite simply, they want to have a look ahead
and do a little bit of forward planning.
You see? Pragmatic to the last.
Well, let's see what the cards have in store for me, shall we?
Ah, hello.
Sung-hyun Han is a tarot reader.
Fifty-two.
Television presenter.
Now I know what it feels like to be a quiz show contestant.
It's about 25 years.
Yes, I know it's a long time.
Oh, don't ask me that!
Not in front of everyone!
Um...
Yeah, go on. Good luck.
I suppose...
Mm-hm.
Go on.
Well, um, happiness.
Oh, nice. Nice. Happiness.
I'm not going to give you any help.
Hmm. Interesting.
Now you're talking!
Well, all food for thought, I suppose.
He used one image that I've used myself
when I bang on to my poor, long-suffering wife
about...about...about my life.
I imagine it structures itself around seven cards.
And therefore, he can talk about how things are at the moment,
how things will be in the future.
And he can hang whatever the cards say
a perspective, I suppose, on your state of affairs.
Coming up, I'm playing the Red Light, Green Light game.
And if you don't know what that is, it doesn't end well.
Somewhere there's a sniper. Presumably, I'm in his crosshairs.
And I have a lovely time banging things.
That's more fun than I've had for years!
While many South Koreans wallow in pop culture,
others have a more traditional take on life,
especially when it comes to music.
Korea has not only given us
some of the greatest classical musicians
the world has ever known,
it also has a style of drumming
that is said to be more sophisticated
in its intricate rhythms
than anything else in the world.
And I think this is where I'm coming to have a lesson in drumming.
DRUM PLAYING RHYTHMICALLY
My drum master is So Ra Kim,
a highly acclaimed percussionist and performer
who's been playing Korean folk music for the past 20 years.
MUSIC FADES
Ah! Absolutely terrific!
So Ra Kim's drum is called a janggu, better known as slim waist drum.
It may look like an egg timer,
but it's an instrument with pedigree,
dating back to the tenth century.
It's bashed each side with two different types of sticks.
We call it yeolchae.
Yeolchae.
It's called gungchae. Gungchae.
These two drumheads are different?
The left side, it's always like a plain, low sound. Yeah.
Right sound is a more high tone. Yeah.
HIGH-PITCHED SOUND Oh, I see.
So, today I'm going to teach you.
OK! Yeah! SHE LAUGHS
Now, this could be interesting.
Your left hand, please. Mm-hm.
LOW-PITCHED SOUND Yes. And then this one.
And where do you hit with that? Like...?
Like this. In the middle.
Gung. Good. Good.
So, when together, deong. Deong.
Deong. And then, using the left side, like a gung.
LOW-PITCHED SOUND
Tta! Gung. HIGH-PITCHED AND LOW-PITCHED SOUNDS
Deong, deong. Gung, tta.
Gung, tta, gung. Oh. LOW-, HIGH- AND LOW-PITCHED SOUNDS
Yeah! Good!
Yeah. And then, deong, gung, tta, gung, tta.
Deong, deong, deong.
Gung, tta, gung, tta.
Good!
Deong, deong, deong. Gung, tta, gung, tta. Great!
When I say, "olshigu", you can say, "jotta". Jotta.
Deong, deong, gung, tta, gung, tta.
ALEXANDER REPLICATES THE RHYTHM
Good! Jotta! Jotta.
Good.
Jotta!
Jotta! Jotta.
Jotta!
RHYTHMIC DRUMMING CONTINUES
Jotta! Jotta!
Yeah!
DRUMMING INTENSIFIES
Jotta! Great!
Olshigu!
Yeah!
SO RA KIM SHOUTS IN KOREAN
TOGETHER: Jotta!
Great! SHE LAUGHS
That's more fun than I've had for years.
HE LAUGHS
That was terrific.
I mean, if anyone's looking for a drummer, I am available.
There's something about drums.
You just have to join in, get with it.
So, yeah, I loved that.
I loved that she was so nice about my drum playing.
I bet she says that to all the drummers.
DRUMMING ENDS WITH A FLOURISH
Well, what a stormy day this has turned out to be.
Perfect weather for a day trip to Ulsan.
Did you know Ulsan is
where the world's biggest car assembly plant is?
Also the world's biggest shipyard.
Also the world's third-biggest oil refinery.
Located in the country's southeast,
Ulsan is South Korea's most industrialised city.
It's hard to imagine 60 years ago
it was a small fishing town.
Now look at it.
But the city hasn't forgotten its humble origins.
I'm visiting the Cultural Museum,
where they've reconstructed life in mid-century Ulsan,
with a particular emphasis on childhood.
I'm here to spend a cheerful afternoon
playing innocent children's playground games,
which, thanks to the massive global TV hit Squid Game,
are suddenly, weirdly, all the rage.
Now, for anyone who doesn't know,
Squid Game is an absolutely harrowing TV drama
made here in South Korea that's taken the world by storm,
in which people play out traditional playground games
to their fatal consequences.
Squid Game's story is the ultimate reality show.
You win a billion dollars by playing lots of kids' games.
I'm going to be meeting my opponents.
The twist being the losers are all killed.
Ah!
Hi. Wow. Thank you very much.
I guess.
This is my destiny.
TENSE MUSIC PLAYING
Yeah. Not quite sure why I'm the only player wearing
the actual kit from the TV show, but hey-ho!
This is Grandma's Footsteps.
Or Red Light, Green Light, as it's called in Squid Game.
Somewhere there's a sniper. Presumably, I'm in his crosshairs.
Now, an athlete like me...
Look, I've got a tracksuit and everything!
..can surely see off this under-ten regional heat.
Of course, in the Squid Game version,
it's a giant mechanical doll at the front
and anyone not standing perfectly still
when the head turns is shot.
Pointlessly.
But I'm guessing, given I'm doing the voice-over,
we all make it through the day unharmed.
TENSE MUSIC AND SLOW DRUMBEATS
That's the first victim.
I'm going to walk this.
TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING
Uh-oh.
Do I live?
Oh, it's the uncertainty I can't stand.
But it's interesting how actually the Squid Game dynamic
has sort of put a bit of an edge to this.
What used to be a fairly staid game has now become...
CHILDREN SHRIEKING
..it's just become a bit more dangerous, as you can hear.
Next up is the Dalgona Candy challenge.
Here we all make a melted sugar wafery thing.
Everyone's trusted with this sort of hot flame...
..into which a shape is stamped.
DRUM CLANGING
And you have to remove the shape from the biscuit
with a toothpick without breaking it.
I know. Silly. I didn't make it up.
Hmm. I think I've been set up here.
Obviously, I got the umbrella.
Well done.
Hey! You live.
You "keu".
Now, if you put so much as a chip in your shape, you're out.
And we have to...? Oh.
TENSE MUSIC INTENSIFIES
Well, I'm still here.
And I've not only come away with my life
and a billion dollars, which will come in handy,
I've also learnt that South Korea is a master
at putting a modern twist on practically everything.
I'm back in Seoul,
and I've arrived just in time for a special engagement.
I've been invited to an exclusive concert
featuring my close personal drumming friend, So Ra Kim.
It's interesting to see Seoul isn't all glass and chrome.
This hipsterish-looking place
must be where all the creatives hang out.
Oh, this is very exciting indeed.
We're here on a rooftop, and you can see over there
at almost corresponding level there's a sort of shop level.
Same level as us.
And then look at all these tarpaulins here.
All sorts of bits and pieces of rubbish over there.
There's two of the world's biggest Christmas tree baubles there.
It's very exciting.
Anyway, the other reason I'm very excited
is because our concert is about to begin.
SWIRLING AND LOW-PITCHED DRUMBEAT
Oh, just listen to that.
Rain in a box.
GENTLE, HIGH-PITCHED DRUMBEATS
HIGH-PITCHED DRUMBEATS INTENSIFY
LOW-PITCHED, RAPID DRUMBEATS
LIGHT, RHYTHMIC CLACKING
LOW-PITCHED CLANGING
MELLOW CHIMING
FAST-PACED CLACKING
LIGHT CLACKING CONTINUES
TINNY CLANGING
CYMBALS CRASHING
TINNY CLANGING AND LOW-PITCHED BEATS
MUSIC FADES, APPLAUSE
That was simply incredible.
It was sort of part folk music.
There was a little gong
and her friend doing all kinds of clever things with his gongs.
Just unbelievable. Paradiddles like you wouldn't believe.
And barely broken a sweat.
She's extraordinary.
South Korea, a place which so effortlessly mixes
the ancient with the supermodern.
DOGS BARKING
Next time on my South Korean adventure,
I meet a pack of very special dogs.
We were told we shouldn't be there longer than four minutes
because if several of them jump out,
they will literally tear us to pieces.
I have an eye-opening encounter with a Korean shaman.
And I try some extremely fresh seafood.
Is it safe to eat that? Very, very safe.
SCREECHING
ALEXANDER SCREECHES
TYRES SQUEAL
I'm on the last leg of my odyssey around a country
that has not so much captured as ambushed our imagination
in recent years, South Korea.
A product of ancient and modern catastrophes,
deeply traditional, and at the cutting-edge of technology.
South Korea is held in a vice between East and West,
the past and the future,
and it fizzes with creativity under that pressure.
So far on my journey to discover what makes South Korea so dynamic
and popular with the rest of the world,
I've been on a deep dive into K-pop...
THEY SING
Yeah, that's it.
Oh, I'm as good as there. My K-pop career is just beginning.
I've taken part in a real-life Squid Game.
And I've been buried alive... Just lie down, OK.
..but not in an altogether bad way.
But now I'm in Busan, South Korea's second-biggest city,
in an underground car park.
TYRES SCREECHING
I've now been round this car park once
and I haven't yet seen the exit sign.
Ah, well. Maybe we'll find it this time.
Fingers crossed,
cos I think this squealing tyres gag has only got so much tread in it.
I need a soundtrack that goes...
SINGS FUNKY TUNE
MIMICS SQUEALING TYRES
I take it back.
This is what underground car parks are like in Korea.
Beautiful, immaculate, polished painted floors.
Just going to hoon it round here.
MIMICS SQUEALING TYRES
Clean as a whistle.
Who wouldn't want to drive around that car park?
I didn't want to leave.
I'm hoping this just opens when I approach it.
Oh, and it does. Look at that.
Well, now. I've got the sat nav all programmed here,
but sat nav has no answers to this.
Can I go over and that way? I think I can.
Now, the exciting thing about Busan is it is a coastal port,
which means there's lots and lots of fish here in Busan,
and for that reason, I'm going to the Jagalchi fish market.
If I can get there without upsetting too many people. There we are.
HORN BEEPS Oh, yes, all right, I know.
The hilarious thing here is that it's just understood
that everybody's going to be quite cross and wanting to get...
They're not cross, just wanting to get somewhere in a hurry
and if you're in the way, they'll... HE GRUNTS
There's no pretence at all that anyone's sort of...
Of any sort of fair play.
You just get in there, and if there's a gap, you get in.
If someone's blocking you, you... MIMICS CAR HORN
And this, I believe, is where we come to the Jagalchi.
Like a lot of things in South Korea, this market is only 70 years old,
but feels like it's been here forever.
It's like Old Billingsgate.
And it's not just a market, it's a full-on aquarium.
I'm meeting up with local expert Suyang,
who knows this place like the back of his hand.
So, Suyang, tell me, why is this such an important place?
You come here? Yeah, the large fish market.
And this comes straight out here in Busan, does it?
Is this a fishing port? Yes.
Suyang is very keen for me to try some of these delicacies.
And, you know, one or two of them even look edible.
This is the oldest part, is it?
Fascinatingly, some of this seafood isn't just good for your guts,
it's culturally important, too.
Like having a turkey at Christmas, but in this case it's an octopus.
Right, right.
OK, do you want to tell me what we've got?
Oh, this is the sea pineapple?
Yes, I see. It looks like a heart.
Basically, things are good for what they look like? Yes.
Good for your heart, good for your intestines.
That one's good for your whatnot.
Yeah, why not.
SUYANG CHUCKLES Very intelligent.
OK. That sounds good, yeah.
You have to try this one. OK, thank you.
THEY CONVERSE
He's getting a lot out, isn't he? Yeah!
How hungry does he think we are? Don't worry.
Now, brace yourselves, there's no way round this part, I'm afraid.
This is how it works with seafood,
and if you're going to eat it, it must be as fresh as possible.
In this case, very, very, very recently alive.
Just to remind you, that's actually a marine spoon worm,
not something else.
The Korean name is gaebul,
which does, yes, it does actually mean penis fish,
but it's also known as the fat innkeeper worm, apparently,
so maybe we should just go with that?
Fantastic.
Oh, wow.
Look at this.
Goodness me.
Oh, let's see. Wow.
SUYANG CHUCKLES OK.
Is it... Is it safe to eat that?
Food that fights back, I mean...
I love that, the only imperative is that I must use sesame oil.
Yeah, this is sesame oil.
OK, I might just try and...
Oh, God.
Maybe I'll put that there. I'm going to hide that bit.
HE CHUCKLES
It's fighting back, I'm afraid.
HE LAUGHS
I mean...
You're right, the sesame oil's great. Yeah!
THEY LAUGH That...
That's peculiar.
What do I put that in, now? This one. That goes in that one?
And this is... Sea pineapple?
OK. Oops.
It's quite bitter, quite sour.
It's not moving around. I know. Which is altogether good.
Yeah, altogether good!
After this? Will be delicious?
That's why people eat this, is it? It will make the next thing lovely!
So we have a course of that before we have... Now you understand!
The thing I'm not looking forward to is the sea slug, the sea cucumber.
This sort of is still moving.
Oh, wow. Oh, it is hard. Yeah.
Yes, quite hard.
Yeah, spicy sauce. Yes.
I mean, that looks like someone's just run over a slug, doesn't it?
SUYANG CHUCKLES
SUYANG LAUGHS
Coming up... I hope they've got their Fitbits on.
Their step count at the end of the day is going to be phenomenal.
I find out what the Koreans use wheat for,
to turn rice into wine.
It's not unlike quite a rough,
I mean that in a good way, white wine.
And I travel to the intriguing island of Jeju.
Another lovely aspect to life,
this beautiful, beautiful seaside.
I'm in the south of South Korea in the bustling port city of Busan,
where I've been chewing my way through some of the local sea life.
As you'll have seen, we get fed incredibly well here in Korea.
Really good food, and tons of it,
and everybody seems to eat and eat and eat,
and yet obesity is not a problem here.
I wonder if it's because they eat freshly cooked food?
I wonder if that's what it is?
Or is it just because they are so industrious
and they're always working
that it falls off them? I don't know.
I'll tell you something else, here it really is safe.
And this is how safe it is, when people go to a restaurant
and they want to bags a table, if they've got to go off to the loo or something,
they'll just put their phone and their wallet there to say, "This table's taken."
That's incredible, isn't it?
Now, though, it is time to turn my attention to a subject
almost as close to my heart as food.
Well, this is very beautiful. We're about an hour outside Busan.
Nice thing to be doing early one morning,
we are coming to visit the oldest
authentic Korean rice wine distiller there is, I think.
It's called makgeolli,
which I'm very much looking forward to sampling.
I'm guessing it's a little too early
to be getting stuck into the rice wine,
but it's never too early to meet the living legend
that is master brewer Cheong-gil Yoo,
if you can find him.
Can you smell a rice wine distillery?
HE SNIFFS
No. Not getting anything yet. Not getting any...
any nose as yet. No.
No.
I think this is it.
Look at the size of those oatcakes.
Imagine how big the cheese must be.
Oh, there's the most wonderful smell in here.
I hope they've got their Fitbits on.
Their step count at the end of the day is going to be phenomenal.
I wonder what they're doing?
Mr Yoo?
THEY GREET EACH OTHER
So, what's happening here?
So what is this? They're taking something from there
and they're making it into these beautiful sort of cakes.
What's happening?
And then these are flattened out into these beautiful pancakes?
WHISPERED VOICEOVER: That's what he just said.
And then what happens to these after this?
Well, I wasn't far off.
The nuruk are cakes,
but they're designed to ferment instead of being baked.
And in here is where, I guess, the brewing is going to happen.
Whoop.
I haven't even drunk anything yet.
It smells of, erm...
It smells of vinegar. Kind of vinegar and cider.
Somewhere between the two. Well, cider vinegar, there we go.
Genius.
Ooh. Different smell suddenly as we get up here.
Yeah, we've gone up a couple of shelves. Slightly stronger stuff.
ALEXANDER SNIFFS, THEN EXHALES
Wow. So, what is in here?
Next, Mr Yoo adds rice to his nuruk
and the whole lot is left to do its own thing.
So the warmth actually comes from the fermentation? Yeah.
As every schoolchild knows,
fermentation produces heat, carbon dioxide and alcohol.
It's not unlike quite a rough,
I mean that in a good way, white wine.
Delicious? Delicious. Thank you.
That was very exciting. Mr Yoo is a very famous fellow.
His face appears on every label of every bottle of that stuff.
That's like meeting Johnnie Walker or something.
And it turns out, as far as an alcoholic drink goes,
makgeolli is pretty good for you.
When it's fresh, it's full of prebiotics and vitamins.
It's low-carb and it's low-fat.
It's sort of like a slightly boozy yoghurt.
I love the sort of living fermentation,
cos he doesn't, they're not adding anything to that,
that's just putting the rice together with the nuruk
and it just, of its own accord, starts bubbling.
I mean, that in itself is very exciting.
Well, I've been all round the mainland of Korea now,
from the throbbing metropolis of Seoul
to a strange school in Ulsan,
but it's time to hop 180 miles across the Korea Strait
to South Korea's biggest island and holiday destination, Jeju.
Jeju Island is just a bit bigger than Greater London in size,
but a lot more like Hawaii, because it's warm and volcanic.
HE SIGHS
Well, this is a lovely aspect to life in Jeju,
this beautiful, beautiful seaside.
And like Hawaii, and Iceland for that matter,
Jeju is the product of an undersea eruption
which made an island formed of molten lava.
That's what these dark rocks are.
So I'm essentially sitting on a giant pumice stone.
It's funny seeing the rules written up there.
I mean, everything explained in some detail.
I mean, there are rules everywhere,
the beach at least as the advantage of having written rules.
On two occasions, I've had the effrontery
of turning up to breakfast in our hotel
20 minutes before the end of breakfast,
when everybody has left,
and you're told off pretty roundly when you turn up.
"No, no, no! There are 20 minutes until we close!"
And I was shown to my table by a man on one occasion
who just said, "Hurry up!"
HE CHUCKLES
Which is not to say that Koreans are rude.
They're really not. They just like things done the right way.
So do their cars.
One of the interesting things about driving a car in Korea
is that everything is accompanied by a soundtrack.
So when you turn the engine on at the beginning,
you get this lovely... SINGS A FANFARE
..as the system opens up.
The same when you get out of the car, as well.
You turn the engine off... HUMS A FLOURISH
Then when you open the door, there's an altogether different...
SINGS A TUNE
As if, it's almost like you are the star of your own cartoon.
And then the sat nav has endless sort of...
MIMICS GUITAR ..little strums of the guitar,
or "bing-bong," "ding-ding."
And you're unable to drive 100 yards
before you've been given a couple of instructions.
And right now my sat nav is throwing all its whistles and bells
behind getting me to my next appointment
in Jeju's vibrant artist community,
which is based here under the volcano
in the most idyllic forested enclave.
Here, I'm due to meet a woman called Soon Ja Yang.
This is very nice, as we get out of the city and into the country,
you can feel a more...
A calmer pace of life.
Talking of a slower pace of life, I'm now going to visit somebody
who has become one of the leading lights
of a very traditional form of Jeju cloth dyeing.
It's a thing called galot.
This folk method of dyeing is something rather magical.
There are no normal dyes or chemicals involved.
All you need is some unripe fruit and sunshine.
This is absolutely beautiful.
This is a little sort of Jeju artists' commune here.
Oh, look, there we go.
I think that might be Soon Ja.
Hi, Soon Ja? Oh! Hello! Hello, welcome!
How very lovely to see you.
Nice to meet you.
I'm glad, I'm happy to see you here. Oh, thank you very much.
Look at this.
No question as to what's going on here.
This is your dyeing factory? Dyeing, yeah.
Sun gives us colour. Oh, really? Mm-hmm.
This is without sun. Oh, I see. So no sun, it just stays like that?
Right. This is sun. So this is all the effect of the sun?
The dye that produces this earthy colour
is the tannin in the flesh of the unripe persimmon fruit.
Ah, there they are. This is frozen.
Supposed to be this green colour, but they are frozen, right?
Like this. Like greengages, aren't they?
And then you pulp them? Yeah.
We have two steps, crush first and then make juice out of them.
By the way, don't try eating an unripe persimmon.
And I know they look so appetising.
They're pretty acidic,
which is why these ladies are wearing rubber boots
as they trample the juice into the cotton.
I lose three kilo. Really? I gain, when winter comes,
I gain three... When winter comes.
And then you get back into shape? Get back, of course. I need energy.
I have to get back.
So, it comes out of there exactly the same colour as it goes in,
so at this stage there's no colour at all from the persimmon?
No. You see here? Yeah.
You see, tomorrow will be a little colour.
Isn't that just extraordinary?
And the day after tomorrow, more colour.
The persimmon juice-soaked fabric then ripens in the sun
as it would in the fruit,
turning the cloth a rich shade of terracotta.
This is done. It took me seven days.
Seven days of beautiful sunshine. Yeah.
And that's not all.
Persimmon-dyed fabric resists water and UV radiation.
It's antifungal and stronger and more stretchy than undyed cotton.
All without using a single man-made chemical.
Peace out.
What a wonderful thing to discover.
And, just to make things even more surreal,
one of Soon Ja's helpers worked for some time as a baker in Devon,
and so I've been sent away with this beautiful proper Devon scone.
Coming up, I'm off for an early morning hike.
Oh, well, that was worth it.
This is a place where you always feel the wind in your face.
Before booking myself in for a bit of soul cleansing.
LOUD CHANTING
And... MUSIC PLAYS
Tonight, Matthew,
I'm going to be disinfected from head to toe.
Because I've got a date with some dangerous dogs.
We have just been told by their keeper
that if several of them jump out,
they will literally tear us to pieces,
so we are beating a hasty retreat.
DOGS BARK
It's dusk on the island of Jeju,
and I'm about as far away from the pell-mell of modern South Korea
as I can be, in a place called Jocheon.
Now, one of the more colourful things that Jeju is famous for
is the 18,000 or so Jeju Island spirits that live here.
I'm going to go and visit a shaman who communes with these spirits.
People come and see the shaman in order to be unburdened
of their mental and spiritual ills.
I suppose the shaman therefore being something between a parish priest
and a family GP.
I'm curious to see how a consultation might work.
BELL RINGING
CHANTING
I've made an appointment to see a celebrated shaman, or simbang,
whose name is Lee Yong-ok.
Some money? Here? Yeah.
WHISPERS: Very keen to get my money.
This is how it's always been, and I suppose it's a bit like
passing the collection plate round at church,
or paying a psychiatrist, or a con artist.
In the high-tech, forward-thinking country that is South Korea,
there is still a thousand-year-old culture
of people visiting the simbang
in order to get help from the spirits
for anything from earache to heartache,
to maybe blessing a building project.
Now, I have been having problems with my sleep,
so I was hoping that, through the simbang,
the spirits might be able to help me with my insomnia.
BELL RINGS
DRUMS AND GONGS CRASH
Known as soul flight by some,
my simbang must first intentionally enter a trance-like state
in order to interact with the spirit world.
To help her on her way, special music is played
to mimic the heartbeat of the earth and open her mind.
SIMBANG CHANTS
In this traditional ceremony, known as a "gut" in Korean,
the simbang claims she is fully in contact with the spirit world
and says that everybody in the room is effectively in another world.
SIMBANG SINGS
RHYTHMIC DRUMMING
Finally, Lee Yong-ok sends the spirits back to their places
and we return to the everyday world of South Korea in the 21st-century.
Ah, yes, this'll cure my insomnia.
GONG CRASHES, BELL RINGS SIMBANG SINGS
And that's evidently as much as I've paid for,
as I am graciously dismissed.
ALEXANDER CHUCKLES
That was, erm, wonderful. Wonderful.
Really sore. She just kept bashing me round and prodding me.
I didn't know what to do.
Let's see if I sleep any better.
And I sort of do, but the dreams I've been having after that,
I think I preferred staring at the ceiling.
Anyway, I've got a full schedule ahead of me,
so let's press on with this last leg of my Korean adventure.
Well, it's early, and we are going for a hike.
Sounds fun. That's what people love to do here, hiking.
And the hotel we are staying in, which is right on the beach,
everyone this morning was in their hiking clothes,
so I guess we're going to see everybody who we saw at breakfast
also going for a hike.
And this is where I'm going this morning,
a place known as Seongsan Ilchulbong in Korean.
One of the natural wonders of South Korea,
Sunrise Peak is best enjoyed as our day star
heaves its fiery face out of the eastern sea
and illuminates this awesome monument to tectonic forces
with its deep pink glow.
Like this.
We can just about see it through the dense fog.
There you go.
And that is called Sunrise Peak, and it's where people come...
Unsurprisingly, it looks out to the east,
so people can see the sun as it rises.
That, I imagine, is where everybody in their hiking gear
at the hotel this morning was heading.
Sunrise Peak is nothing less than a UNESCO World Heritage site,
and it's a relatively young one, at about 5,000 years old.
It erupted out of the sea as a volcano
and is now an incredibly complex mixture of geological features
and wildlife.
ALEXANDER SIGHS
Well, it turns out this trek is just lots of stairs.
I mean, it's lovely, the birds are singing, it's great.
I mean, maybe I'll get to the top and there'll be a...
sort of more natural track. I don't know, we'll see.
They have these weird, slightly funereal...
I guess they're lights here.
"Last rest area."
Well, I hope it doesn't come to that.
Nice hat, though.
And, as I reach the top of nature's Stairmaster,
you know what? I don't mind it being a bit misty,
because it is totally and utterly heart-pumpingly magnificent up here.
Oh, well, that was worth it.
I know it's hazy and we can't see much,
but we can see everything we need to see.
And look at these extraordinary jagged rocks
around the edge of this crater.
It's almost like we're standing on the tongue of a whale,
peering out over its teeth. That way's east.
That's where the sun rises,
and when that sun rises every morning,
for most of the rest of the world it's still the day before.
By the time we see that sun,
these guys are already sitting down to their supper.
That's how far ahead they are,
and that's why this is such an invigorating country.
This is a place where you always feel the wind in your face.
I love it.
An allegory, perhaps, of South Korea itself.
This volcanic island, a product of so much destructive energy
has become beautiful and fertile.
I suppose, since the beginning of civilisation,
since the very, very, very beginning of us living communally,
the elders have always been the authority,
and the young have just been a slightly irritating
larval stage of elderdom.
But with technology,
and particularly technology that increases in pace all the time,
it's changing at ever-increasing pace,
it is an inevitability that...
..the young will start to take precedence.
And it's especially the case here,
where I think power has actually been graciously given.
I think people are very happy to let the young,
you know, people of the Stay-C age, take precedence.
With my legs still recovering from the climb
up the Seongsan Ilchulbong staircase,
I'm making my way westwards back across the island.
Now, Jeju isn't just a volcanic island with a subtropical climate,
it's also home to rare breeds of livestock.
I love a rare breed,
which is why I'm here, at the snappily-named
Jeju Special Self-governing Livestock Promotion Agency.
DRAMATIC MUSIC
DISCO MUSIC PLAYS
Tonight, Matthew,
I'm going to be disinfected from head to toe.
Which is entirely necessary,
because this place is securing the future
of the island's rare breeds.
But the programme I'm going to go and look at, and this is curious,
is a programme of breeding the Jeju dog, which is a wild dog
that's been the scourge of Jeju's farmers for centuries.
But they discovered in the '80s
that there were only three of these dogs left.
Three on the island.
And so they started this quite ambitious breeding programme.
And I think there are now 60 or 70 of these dogs here in captivity,
where they're being bred.
I've been warned that when I get close to them,
they're going to smell me and they'll go nuts.
DOGS BARKING You haven't smelt me.
Aha. I was told there'd be someone here
who would beckon me in and show me the compound.
Apparently, he is the one person that these dogs trust.
I'm glad he's got all his limbs intact.
DOGS BARKING
Oh!
Oh, they look very nice for wild dogs.
It's interesting, the smell from them is much more vulpine,
it's much more wild than the smell you get from...
You know the doggy smell that we all know and love, a bit?
This has got a tang to it that is definitely wild.
These dogs really are dangerous in the wild.
Hunting as a pack, I'm told they can easily kill a cow,
so the plan is to breed that wildness out of them.
We were told we shouldn't be in there for longer than four minutes,
because the dogs got more and more excited at us being there,
until one of them actually jumped up onto the top of its gate
and was about to come out, and, as we had just been told
by their keeper that if several of them jump out,
they will literally tear us to pieces,
so we are beating a hasty retreat.
But, actually, the ambition is that if they can send the puppies
from these breeding dogs here off to be trained,
and then they can take the puppies of those trained animals,
after several generations they can breed domesticity into them.
They're sweet dogs.
I mean, wildness aside. You know what I mean.
Coming up, for my last meal in South Korea
I'm dining out on something you might find a bit shocking.
Erm, you might have noticed the restaurant is empty.
It is because we had to wait until it was empty before we could come in and film.
And back to those wild dogs I narrowly escaped,
I'm about to meet some of their puppies.
My last and enduring memory of their parents
was these slavering things climbing up the walls,
trying to get at us.
This is my last day in South Korea,
and I've experienced so many unforgettable things,
and eaten some pretty unforgettable food, too.
I've certainly eaten and met some alarmingly fresh seafood
as I've been travelling around this country,
but carnivores are also very much catered for.
And in this intriguing restaurant,
the kitchen's fridge is stacked with meat.
And, if you haven't guessed by now,
it's horse.
Right, well, the first thing I've been given is this,
cos they were very concerned, as was I,
that I'm wearing very pale clothes that the food will splash.
Erm, you might have noticed the restaurant is empty.
It is because we had to wait until it was empty
before we could come in and film, otherwise this place...
I mean, busloads of people come here and fight for a place here.
It is one of Jeju's great eateries.
OK, fine.
For some reason, the British invest horses with a dignity
other animals don't enjoy.
No-one minds eating a cow or a pig,
but the winner of the 2:30 at Chepstow?
Well, it's just not cricket.
Right, well. CLEARS THROAT
I've never eaten horse before.
I'm just going to say that, just so you know.
Never wittingly, anyway.
And I'm guessing that's probably the case for you, as well. So...
I don't know, I think it's important that I try this
and I let you know what it's like,
so you can have some idea where horsemeat fits in.
Just to make things more challenging,
my first experience of it is going to be...raw horsemeat.
And the first thing I think I should try...
..is this, which is the raw horse liver,
which is fresh everyday, which is...
..reassuring, I think.
So I need to put this in the sesame oil here.
I'm not sure where I stand on liver full stop, but anyway, here we go.
It tastes of sesame oil, I'm relieved to say,
and it has the texture of liver.
It's quite cold. It's not actually revolting.
I'm now going to move on to some of these sort of carpaccio.
It looks, as you can see, very much like beef.
Hmm.
I can't honestly say this is unpleasant.
Unless I find myself thinking of horses.
This is a tartare, which I'm guessing is a sort of fillet.
Again, that feels a bit distasteful, doesn't it,
even using the word "fillet" in relation to a horse,
but anyway, listen, I think it's important we try these things,
and that I tell you what it's like.
Erm...
If I'm being perfectly honest, that's delicious.
That's absolutely delicious.
I happen to love steak tartare, so...
It's awful, isn't it? But, you know, I think in the interests of...
I'm going to have a little bit more of that.
Don't tell anyone.
Well, with a hearty meal of horse inside me,
it's time to set off to my last destination,
where I'm hoping to find out what has become of the puppies
of those wild dogs I met earlier.
Well, now, I mentioned that the offspring,
the puppies of those wild dogs at the programme
back at the agricultural centre were then taken off and trained,
and I've now come to where those puppies are being trained.
I can see them here.
Oh, you can tell instantly this is a very different story. Look at that.
My last and enduring memory of their parents
was these sort of slavering things climbing up the walls
trying to get at us, and this...
This tells you a great deal about how their domestication programme is working.
Jae-shin and Min-ju here are the trainers responsible
for making the Jeju dog fit into the modern home.
Hi, Min-ju? Hi. Hi, how are you? I'm Alexander.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too.
This is extraordinary. We saw the parents of these puppies before.
How old are they?
JAE-SHIN AND MIN-JU CONVERSE
Five months. So, they're five months?
And at what age did they come to you?
Three months.
Wow, so two months of training and here they are.
So, when they came here, when they were three months old,
could you tell they were wild dogs?
So if you trained them over several generations,
would they gradually become domesticated?
So, what are their names?
Jude Law. SHE LAUGHS
Jude Law? Yes, because he looks sexy, that's why he's...
He's a sexy dog! Excellent.
I didn't know that was a characteristic of dogs,
but there we are. Good. And what's the other one called?
Poseidon. Ah, Poseidon? Uh-huh.
Jude Law and Poseidon, what a cracking couple of names.
Which one's Jude Law? Red. Did I need to ask?
It is genuinely heart-warming,
not to mention reassuring, to know that the puppies
of those wild dogs I met earlier at the livestock centre
are going to be such loyal and gentle companions.
Still not sure I'll be putting my name down for one, though.
When I first arrived in South Korea,
I must admit I hardly knew anything about it.
But filling in all the missing pieces
of this huge, mysterious jigsaw
and drilling down into the detail of this country
has been a great privilege.
I've learned two particular things.
The first, when I got a chance to play with the Korean drummer.
SHE SINGS A RHYTHM
Trying to play along with her rhythms was almost impossible,
because they were so madly sophisticated,
the sort of compound structure to those rhythms,
I was always getting it wrong.
The other thing is Korean cookery.
So many flavours, so many things competing.
Do I dare put one of these in, do you think? Yeah.
It's so mad, it takes you on this extraordinary journey.
Food that fights back, I mean...
SUYANG LAUGHS
And this is the actual heartbeat of Korean culture,
because Korea has been devastated through its history.
And it's had to reinvent itself,
and its done it in this incredibly clever way.
If you look deeper,
all those things that seem unsophisticated on the surface
have enormous resonance and relevance to Korean history.
I'm leaving South Korea with a vestigial grasp
of how things work here,
in a country where the forces of history and culture
have sought to destroy so much.
What remains, though,
is a creative humanity that is truly enchanting.