Key Takeaways
Actor Kim Nam-gil said at BCWW 2026 that his dream is to make Korean culture so intriguing that more people want to visit South Korea.
He said he looks first for stories that feel broadly relatable, arguing that global streaming has erased borders but made universality even more important.
He also warned that K-content is facing a real crisis and that protecting intellectual property is the same as protecting culture itself.
Actor Kim Nam-gil posed a simple but pointed question: in an era when Korean content is watched around the world, what should be protected, and what should change?
Speaking at BCWW 2026, an annual Korean content market and conference, he described the sense of responsibility he feels as someone who helps carry Korean culture abroad. He also spoke about universal storytelling, intellectual property, and the realities of making content today.
His remarks were more than a celebrity aside. They captured, with unusual clarity, some of the pressures now shaping Korea’s fast-growing content industry.
Culture is not a product, but a relationship
Kim’s core idea was that exporting culture is not about simply displaying Korea to the outside world. It is about making Korea feel closer, more interesting, and more worth visiting. He said his dream is to make South Korea a place that people in other countries want to come to more often. That may sound like tourism language, but he meant something broader: culture creates curiosity, and curiosity creates connection.
He noted that culture is not limited to history or heritage. Even everyday Korean ways of living can be culture, he said. That is an important point in a country whose dramas, films, and music have spread globally not just because they look polished, but because they mix the unfamiliar with emotions audiences already understand.
When choosing projects, Kim said he pays closest attention to whether a story can be received comfortably and shared by people regardless of cultural background. In other words, he looks for universality. But in his view, universality is not blandness. It is the ability to reach beyond a local setting without losing its own identity.
Universal stories are not the same as safe stories
In the age of over-the-top platforms, or OTT services such as Netflix and other streaming platforms, borders in the media market have weakened. Kim’s point is that this makes storytelling both easier and harder. Content can travel farther than ever before, but it also has to survive in more places at once.
That is why he does not see universality as a compromise. Rather, it is a strategy for expansion. A story can remain distinctly Korean while still speaking to themes such as family, guilt, redemption, love, or community. Those themes have always traveled well because they are rooted in shared human experience.
Kim’s background makes his comments more than abstract opinions. He founded the cultural arts NGO Gilstory in 2012, launched the entertainment company Gilstory ENT in 2020, and also took part in the production of the SBS drama The Fiery Priest 2 in 2024. He is not only an actor speaking about stories, but also someone who has worked on the systems that create and distribute them.
The crisis in K-content is a structural one
Kim said he can feel the crisis in Korean content very clearly. That wording matters. He did not frame it as a vague worry or passing concern, but as something he experiences on the ground. His strongest criticism was aimed at intellectual property, or IP, the legal rights that protect original creations.
To Kim, IP is the source of every story. If creators cannot protect it, then the wider industry is weakened. This is not just a matter of fairness to writers, producers, or artists. In the content economy, IP is the core asset that supports adaptations, overseas sales, reinvestment, and long-term growth. Without that foundation, the entire ecosystem becomes fragile.
He also argued that protecting IP means protecting culture. That is a practical statement, not just a slogan. Korean content now expands across dramas, films, webtoons, games, and performances. If the original rights are weak, the more the industry grows internationally, the more exposed domestic creators become.
Why a star’s warning matters
Kim was careful not to suggest that one person’s ethics can solve a structural problem. Still, when the industry is unsure of its direction, it matters when a widely trusted public figure speaks plainly about the issue. His remarks carried the tone of lived experience, not just good intentions. He spoke as someone who has tried both to make meaningful art and to give something back through social work.
He added that creative IP often begins with small personal interests: what people notice in everyday life, what they wish more people understood, what feels worth telling. That idea cuts against the notion that great content always begins with grand strategy. Often, it begins with observation, emotion, and the details of ordinary life.
Kim’s message was ultimately broader than one actor’s opinion. In a moment when the world is consuming Korean culture, he suggested that what Korea needs most is not only more promotion, but stronger protection. Culture can cross borders, but the original works behind it still need to be defended. For K-content, he implied, enthusiasm is not enough; ownership matters.
