It's Okay to Not Be Okay: K-dramas, the Emmys, and Mental Health Onscreen

The 2020 K-drama It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (marketed version of the title translation) initially met with a mixed response in South Korea. But the drama’s unique blend of fairy tale elements and mental health issues has proven an international hit.

International Emmy nomination

While the Emmy Awards focus on American programs, the International Emmy Awards celebrate outstanding productions beyond the United States. The list of nominees for 2021 can be viewed here.

It’s Okay Not to Be Okay has been nominated in the TV Movie/Mini-Series category. K-dramas appear to be slightly difficult to categorise under traditional American broadcasting standards.

Usually a single season around 16 hours in total, some might argue K-dramas competing with films is an odd choice. Perhaps the changing lengths of television formats may require future category consideration.

Star power

The celebrity drawcard behind the series’ initial appeal was Kim Soo-hyun, a K-drama icon returning to the screen after finishing compulsory military service. The actor’s past series My Love from the Star was an international romantic hit.

Seo Yea-ji signed on as the female lead. Her star had been rising for the previous half a decade. A mesmerising performance in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay secured the actress iconic K-drama status.

In retrospect, perhaps the initial viewing response was impacted by expectations of a sweet rom-com. IOTNBOK simmered with an emotional grittiness and psychological darkness that some found jarring.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

A famous author of dark fairy tales with Antisocial Personality Disorder crosses paths with a psychiatric nurse and his autistic brother. Their fates are entwined since childhood — yes, a popular K-drama trope.

A fair amount of the story takes place in a psychiatric hospital, introducing an array of supporting characters with different conditions. Already, it’s clear the drama is moving beyond the standard K-drama range.

While K-dramas often tackle different types of inequality and discrimination within South Korean culture, rarely do the majority of characters in a K-drama experience a variety of mental health issues.

South Korea, and mental health

The internet is rife with references and discussions around South Korea’s struggles with mental health. Like any culture, a complex range of factors contribute to the ongoing and evolving situation, including lack of intervention in early stages of mental health distress.

South Korea is a competitive culture, and for many years the social stigma attached to mental health had many shying from diagnosis and treatment. And accessing continued mental health care was also not always easy in a culture that considered the subject taboo.

As a country South Korea has taken constant steps to improve the country’s mental health profile. Financial and familial pressure are a few commonly recognised contributing factors, but again, only part of a larger, complex picture.

South Korea, and suicide prevention

In one of the first K-dramas I watched, I noticed Hangul (before I could read it) printed on the handrails of bridges. Turns out the messages were a concerted attempt to deter constant suicide attempts by jumpers.

While the practice has been under review, it was my startling introduction as a K-drama viewer to the prevalence of suicide in South Korean society. I found out South Korea has the highest suicide rate in OECD countries.

While earlier K-dramas were sometimes criticised for their representation of mental health issues — including a few questionable representations of psychiatry — in recent years care has clearly been taken for more accurate representation.

Improving mental health

Like many countries, depression, anxiety, and suicide rates in South Korea have been impacted by the global pandemic. Considering how high they already were, this is a sobering statistic, one moves are being made to address.

While the reasoning behind South Korea’s high rate of mental health issues is complicated, the attempts of the younger generation to embrace a more proactive and open approach to mental health and wellbeing is ongoing, and heartening.

K-Pop favourites such as Kang Daniel, HyunA and IU have all discussed mental health issues. BTS are also known for working hard to ensure mental health is no longer a taboo topic in South Korea, and around the globe.

The show’s ratings

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay did well in South Korea, resulting in numerous nominations and awards. Yet it could be argued the series truly shone through international distribution on streaming platform Netflix.

Interestingly, it retained popularity across both conservative countries, and those with less conservative cultures, seemingly resonating with a wide array of people, in a vast array of communities.

While watching the series, I was aware that for all the social media activity praising and promoting the series, there seemed a fair amount of criticism and condemnation constantly in the mix, especially from South Korea.

Sexual content controversy

A number of South Koreans complained in regards to nudity and sexual elements. The series was issued a legal sanction (which I found incredible). Those in charge of censorship claimed certain scenes belittled gender, and could encourage sexual molestation.

My argument: What would be the point of realistic onscreen representation of mental disorders, if the characters are prohibited from uninhibited behaviour onscreen, an authentic identifier of their conditions?

In a way, I think the reprimand reflected a cultural discomfort. At times the series seemed to suggest normality was often the result of working hard to appear normal — an uncomfortable idea placing conformity under the spotlight.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, and the autism spectrum

Actor Oh Jung-se received much praise for his portrayal of an autistic man. The actor meticulously researched his role as Moon Sang-tae and it showed in the incredibly authentic portrayal he brought to the screen.

The actor constantly emphasised that autism is not an illness, and the writer gave the character a proactive presence in the script. As someone who knows people on the autism spectrum, I found it a sincere, empathetic portrayal.

The character of Moon Sang-tae plays an important part in the plot. Not only does he become professionally successful and financially independent, he faces his childhood trauma, and even saves the lives of other characters.

Artistic elements

Because the female lead authors dark fairy tale books inspired by her trauma, an artist was needed to create the stunning imagery scattered throughout the series. South Korean artist Jamsan is responsible for the beautiful material.

Overall, the K-drama is a visual feast: from cinematography to costuming, set design, and even makeup, it’s hard to look away. It’s Okay to Not Be Okay feels like a fairy tale or a dream, and the production team clearly worked hard to perfect this impression.

It could be argued with creativity so important to the emotional exploration, the K-drama needed to respect the artistic elements to truly do justice to the story. Even the music is beautiful, perfectly accenting each onscreen development.

Loneliness, anxiety, discrimination, and guilt

I would suggest core themes of the K-drama dealt with emotional isolation, perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of the series. Screenwriter Jo Yong presents characters who all exist within their own realities.

IOTNBO is a tale of personal journeys, that intertwine. Even bus rides and car rides feel symbolic. Directors Park Shin Woo and Jung Dong Yoon do a stunning job of presenting internal journeys through external visuals.

We all want to belong. What is normal? What is required to be normal? And in some cases — is being normal worth aspiring to? Psychological authenticity wrapped in layers of symbolism is one way to describe this unforgettable viewing experience.

Internal censure

In a weird echo of the K-drama’s cancellation sub-plot, Seo Yea-Ji became another star impacted by South Korea’s cancel culture. In recent times she faced an array of accusations, often beginning with online posts.

But censure toward the actress within South Korea has proven of no interest to international audiences enthralled by It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, showcasing the divide between local and international audience viewing patterns.

The International Emmy nomination for It’s Okay to Not Be Okay highlights again that attempted cancellation of South Korean talent rarely extends beyond the national borders. On IMDB the series sits at 8.7/10.

Production partnerships

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay was a joint project between TvN, a South Korean broadcaster, and the international streaming platform Netflix. Perhaps it is the presence of Netflix that allowed for darker and more complex material.

The series was one of Netflix’s earliest forays into K-drama production, well before Squid Games, showing pushing the envelope of acceptable K-drama material returned dividends on the international stage.

It’s wonderful to see a series as beautiful, heartfelt, romantic, intense, challenging and topically relevant as It’s Okay to Not Be Okay continue to receive acclaim. Congratulations on the nomination, and good luck to the team at the awards.

If you’d like to read a short review of the K-drama I wrote after the first viewing, it can be found on Instagram here.