K-pop's international ascendancy was arguably more a matter of good PR than sales, but South Korea's successful film industry, even if it's mostly a local thing, is truly impressive. In 2013, a record 200 million movie tickets were sold in the country. In Japan, cinema attendance was 156 million. The difference becomes more stunning when you consider that South Korea's population is about a third of Japan's.
According to the entertainment website Kscene, historical dramas are the hottest thing in Korea right now, and while Japan can still get excited over a decent jidaigeki, a recent NHK drama gave the impression that an emblematic component of the genre has all but disappeared. The hero of "Uzumasa Limelight," a professional extra named Kamiyama, has made his living for half a century as a kirare-yaku in sword-fighting movies produced at Kyoto's Uzumasa Studios.
Kirare-yaku have a specific role: They live "to be cut," as one veteran action protagonist in the drama puts it. Their job is to die on screen. Kamiyama, who is played by real-life kirare-yaku Seizo Fukumoto, is one of the greatest practitioners of the art, with a signature style of expiration. When struck, he bends over backward with eyes and mouth open to the heavens, and then falls on his back with a heavy thud.