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.”
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.
