Here’s a treat for documentary lovers, and anyone who enjoys a good story. In each episode of Asia in a Week, viewers ride along with a documentary film crew given seven days to investigate a specific aspect of modern Asian culture.

A special strength of the series is its breadth of scope and curiosity about people from all walks of life. Whether exploring nationwide trends (such as the “freeter” movement in Japan) or smaller, colorful subjects (interviewing a professional sorcerer in the Philippines). From Tokyo to Mumbai to Jakarta, Asia in a Week is always captivating and surprising.

Watch Asia in a Week on DramaFever!

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Category: Documentary | Tags: Asia in a Week, Asian, ISplus

Sometimes revolutions start from very small steps.

And the one made by blockbuster documentary Tears of the Arctic (북극의 눈물) was among the most surprising, and in many ways welcome steps in the history of modern Korean entertainment. For years relegated to prohibitive late night escapades or equally grueling daytime TV slots, fighting off hordes of agitated housewives populating daily dramas and/or morning talk shows where the hottest subject in town is how to make kimchi a little less smelly, Korean documentaries had always struggled to make a mark. It would be rather naive to negate the several trial and error periods which marked the genre’s recent history during this transition, but if one thing is for sure is that many Koreans have changed their view regarding documentaries, catapulting this once neglected portion of the Korean Wave to potential show stealer status. To make this revolution possible, what producers and writers did was taking a small step in the opposite direction – certainly incurring risks of collapse, but guided by a feeble glimmer of hope that things could truly change for the better.

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Category: Documentary | Tags: Ahn Sung Gi, Korean, MBC, Tears in the Artic, Tears of the Artic

For the longest time, what is now known as Hallyu (Korean Wave) had mostly been confined to the realms of TV dramas, movies and music, not surprisingly generating an increasingly significant crossover between the three media, phenomenon which slowly but surely broke age old taboos, like that of film directors producing for television, and viceversa. Largely and perhaps unfairly ignored was what has been one of the most fascinating success stories in all of Korean entertainment, domestically produced documentaries like Tears of the Amazon (아마존의 눈물).

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Category: Documentary | Tags: Kim Nam Gil, Korean, MBC, Queen Seon Duk, Tears of the Amazon

DramaFever adds a little non-drama today with the premiere of two new documentary series from Korea: Shocking Life and Cultural Trilogy! Part Real Sex, part Ghost Hunters, and part Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Shocking Life examines the oddities and the unusual from Korea. Divided into three parts: Sex, Beauty and Supernatural – this is a side of Korea you haven’t seen before! Cultural Trilogy guides you between the three East Asian cultures of Korea, China and Japan, their differences and their shared cultural experiences from thousands of years of history.

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Category: Documentary | Tags: Beauty, China, Chinese, Cultural Trilogy, Japan, Japanese, Korea, Korean, Sex, Shocking Life, Supernatural