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This week we had intended to go to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, but we didn’t (see our tweet for that!)

So instead we popped across the road to go to the V&A and the Hallyu! Korea Wave Exhibition

Here’s what we found…

As you will know if you follow our blog, we like our K-Pop and K-Dramas and Korean Beauty products and pretty much everything to do with the South Asian Country. We watch a ton of the shows and predominantly listen to the music, so an exhibition of everything Korean is something we just had to go and see.

‘The Korean Wave showcases the colourful and dynamic popular culture of South Korea, exploring the makings of the Korean Wave and its global impact on the creative industries of cinema, drama, music, fandom, beauty and fashion’.

Well, that’s the blurb and what you find is, well, a walk-through exhibit of cases and displays showing an eclectic selection of TV Shows, Clothing, items and posters of all things Korea and K-Pop groups.

You enter to be confronted by Psy and his ‘Gangnam Style’ Music Video and the song follows you around as you pass TV screens and cabinets of costumes and mannequins of outfits from Joseon Period Dramas and Squid Game, TV Shows of the last couple of years, as well as Variety Shows from the last 50 years.

There are some posters of events that have happened, such as the Olympics and some information on Tech and Vehicles. I mean, this is a brief description – there is quite a lot of factoids, etc.

There is part of the set from the Movie Parasite and some of the outfits from Squid Game – Probably some of the most well-known Korean visuals to come from the last few years (everyone seems to know them)

A range of Beauty Products laid out in the ‘right order of use’. The beauty section is quite extensive – showing the herbs and ingredients of each beauty product and how it’s advanced over time – even the packaging changes.

Then some of the evolutions of clothing styles from the traditional to the modernization of the Hanbok. Some of the hats worn by nobles in the Joseon era. The annoying thing about this is that the glass was reflecting copious amounts of light, so it was hard to see details through the glare.

Olympic guides, famous costumes from some dramas,

There is a selection of Designer Outfits designed for, or just worn by Kpop Idols and more videos and songs by BlackPink, Aespa, Ateez and AoA, BOA, and of course BTS at every turn!

It seems that they only knew of bands that began with A or B.

In all, the selection of exhibits is a bit random and seemingly vague pieces that were cast-offs, left over from a K-pop shop that shut down or somebody sold them their collection.

Costumes displayed in front of pieces of material, Hanboks (The traditional Korean clothing) next to TV screens displaying random pictures that have no explanation or reason.

The KPop Light-Sticks looks impressive at first glance, but it’s a trick of the eye: a massive mirror and a lot of light bulbs make you think they have a huge selection, whereas in fact it is about 12 sticks and many aren’t working!

Much of the space is dark, the displays are small! A mention of this show or that, one or two shown to have been developed out of Webzines into full-blown Shows, an occasional headpiece from a period drama, next to the masks of Squid Game, and then an old book, there isn’t any real sequential order or timing to the flow as you walk from window to TV screen.

All in all, it’s a little lacking but a good start. Hopefully there will be more exhibits similar, but hopefully with more…. we could have named at least 3 dozen more bands and the same with TV shows that should have been mentioned or shown. Plus, some things we would have liked to see but were missing – the fashions were random, but not that special and period pieces were just as odd. If you don’t know anything about Korean Culture and would like to get into it, then it might be worth your time, but honestly we would suggest just visiting the V&A shop and buying the accompanying book for £10 and reading that and then pop over to Oxford St and Sokollab to buy your first K-pop album, rather than pay £17 for the ticket!