For “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” fans, one can only imagine sitting in the office of rich Lee Youngjun as you admire the portraits on his walls. But now, it is an experience K-Drama and webtoon fans alike can grab with the K-Comics World Tour exhibition.
Presented by the Korean Cultural Center of the Philippines (KCC), the K-Comics World Tour in the Philippines is an art exhibition housed at the Groundspace Gallery at The M in BGC that features K-Comics “The Red Sleeve” and “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim”.
As K-Dramas have taken the world by storm, many popular shows took inspiration from another prominent medium, webtoons–digital comics that originated in South Korea. The exhibit gave me a glimpse into how K-Dramas are brought to life by the world and images of these webtoons.
The exhibit mainly has two areas for the two webtoons featured. Entering, you are first greeted by colorful and lively posters from “The Red Sleeve”. The story is about Deok-im, a palace maid, and Jeongjo, the 22nd king of Joseon, and the romance that transpired between them.
The artwork is displayed in frames adoring the walls. The walls were also decorated with wooden grids to reference traditional Korean architecture, reflecting the historical setting of the story.
The highlight of “The Red Sleeve” area however was the ceiling streamer that was draped across. Covered in red, it flowed with beautiful illustrations splayed throughout. It extended to one of the walls, and made the area feel more closed in–like the art was surrounding you from above. I found it perfectly matched the royal tone of the webtoon.
The next portion of the exhibit is about “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim”, which includes three areas for visitors to explore.
Compared to “The Red Sleeve”, this portion was more immersive, being able to walk through each section as if you stepped into the story. The cold temperature of the exhibit felt appropriate, like actually being in Lee Youngjun’s office.
Being the wealthy yet arrogant vice president of his family company, his office was furnished with modern pieces, along with a sleek table where visitors liked particularly for photos. Many freebies were also displayed such as business cards for anyone to take.
What made the “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” portion special, for me, was the interactivity of the place. In the area adjacent to Youngjun’s office was dedicated to his dedicated and smart office secretary Kim Miso.
With a splash of pink to show femininity, the area was playful yet gave a sense of perfection and poise–similar to Miso’s character.
Her desk had cards and stamps for visitors to write on and take home as a souvenir. There was also a display wall with a large mirror for her wardrobe, which visitors used to take mirror selfies.
The final area was a viewing lounge with chairs and a projector playing “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim”. I even managed to catch the screening when they were playing the Filipino adaptation of the series starring Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino. The other side had a table where you could write love letters and display them on the corkboard, or send them to your loved ones through a mailbox.
The featured artist of the exhibit, Cho Hyesung is the CEO of Creative SUMM–the animation studio behind “The Red Sleeve”. She spoke about turning her passion into a career being able to establish a connection with readers through webtoons. “That’s why I chose webtoons, you get to meet your readers every week, in a fast way”, she said.
The exhibit really demonstrated their intention as it was more than what meets the eye, engaging all senses to place you in the webtoon. It is not just an art exhibit because it wasn’t merely about the visual pleasure, but the envelopment of the narrative around you.
“It strains my heart so to let you leave”, as one of the lines from “The Red Sleeve” quotes. I was sad to leave the exhibition having been overjoyed with what it had to offer, but I know fans will enjoy it as much as I did, and will leave too hoping they could stay forever.
