In Netflix’s new K-drama Aema , a world-weary top actress, the misogynistic head of a film studio, an anxious first-time director, and an ambitious nightclub tapdancer come together to make the country’s first adult film.

While some of the specific characters and interpersonal scenarios in Aema may be fictional, the Korean period drama is based on real-life Korean history. The six-episode series draws direct inspiration from the creation of an actual erotic film, released in Korea in 1982: Madame Aema .

In the process of telling a fictionalized version of this production, Aema also depicts some of the distinct and brutal social conditions that came during Chun Doo-hwan’s military dictatorship, as Korea set its sights on both continuing its rapid economic ascent and “modernizing

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