At a some KRW70 billion ($51 million) across two seasons, “Made in Korea” ranks among the most expensive K-dramas ever made.
Season 2 premieres six episodes on Hulu and Disney+ Sept. 9, closing the story in 1979, the year Korean politics came apart in 10 weeks.
Season 1 left viewers in the 1970s, inside the Korean Central Intelligence Agency’s anti-communist propaganda machine and alongside Baek Ki-tae’s expanding drug operation. Season 2 jumps forward nine years, to a presidential assassination, military coups and an unstable state that changes hands many times in the months that follow.
“It was one of the most chaotic and tumultuous times in modern Korean history,” says director Woo Min-ho (“Harbin”), who saw the period as the natural endpoint for his characters’ ambitions. Woo has also already been here before. His 2020 feature “The Man Standing Next” dramatized the 40 days leading to the assassination.
The gap was a deliberate choice. “Nine years seemed like an appropriate number of years, and it’s a long period of time that can change people significantly,” says Woo. Besides history, the main draw of the season is how changed all the characters are. Ki-tae is now second-in-command at the KCIA, closer than he has ever been to the top job. “While rising through the ranks, he has met and dealt with many people and his methods have changed,” says Hyun Bin (“Crash Landing on You,” “Harbin”), who plays Baek Ki-tae. The character’s wealth and status have reshaped his relationships and the way he treats the people around him.
