Larger Than Life

Before heading out to South Korea, I had made cursory attempts to familiarize myself with the Korean wave of pop-culture, Hallyu. I had been largely insulated from it as part of the generation that had had a few years of pre-liberalized India experience, just enough to keep us domesticated in our tastes. In that flimsy preparation, I had heard about the South Korean government's visionary plan to use the soft power of popular entertainment initiated in the early 1990s which had eventually led to this current domination of the arena in the 2020s. The most fascinating bit about that story was how the tremendous success of Steven Spielberg's first Jurassic Park movie was the inspiration for this government policy.

5th July 2025, Jeju Island, Republic of Korea

When I did land up in Jeju Island, this prehistoric origin story had submerged itself under a deluge of new experiences that overran my mind once there. Food, colours, landscapes and oranges of that island in the sea were keeping me busy enough. Until I started talking to the Korean geologist seated next to me at the training I was at. Turns out that he himself had become a geologist only because of the movie. Not only that, he was the proud third-hand owner of a Jeep Wrangler of 1990 vintage, maintenance costs not withstanding, because of the vehicle's prime role in the 1993 story. Like the T-Rex rampaging through the museum at the end of the movie, the Jurassic Park connection came roaring back.