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Opinion

How a TV drama is helping address South Korea's mental health crisis

Hit series sheds light on the elephant in the room

| South Korea
Myeongdong shopping district in Seoul: the country is far from ready for a serious discussion about the wrenching topic.   © Reuters

Daphne K. Lee is a journalist based in Taipei and New York City. She mainly writes about human rights, film and culture. Her work has appeared in Goldthread, Popula and The News Lens.

One way to tackle a taboo topic in South Korea is to package it in a television drama series. A good example is this year's hit K-drama It's Okay to Not Be Okay aired by South Korean channel TVN and Netflix, which approaches difficult conversations about mental health with a dark twist on fairy tales.

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