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THROWBACK: When Paulo Coelho expressed his love for the Korean entertainment industry
We are looking back at November 2020 when author Paulo Coelho got candid about his love for the Korean entertainment industry!
We are looking back at November 2020 when author Paulo Coelho opened up about his love for the Korean entertainment industry! The Brazilian writer that his iconic novels such as A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Alchemist took part in an email interview with Yonhap News on November 8. During the interview, Paulo Coelho described how his interest in Korean entertainment such as K-pop and K-dramas began.
Coelho revealed that his interest stemmed from coincidentally watching director Park Chan Wook’s film Old Boy in 2016. “It was the reason I fell in love with hallyu. With this as the beginning, I’ve come across over 100 Korean films. I also became curious about how it would feel like if I saw Seoul and Busan, which I’ve seen through the screen, in person,” he added.
Paulo’s interest in Korean industry is not one sided, even though his wolrd-famous novel The Alchemist was introduced in Korea over 2 decades ago, the novel continues to receive much love from the Korean public. Back in 2018, BTS’ Suga also recommended the novel to his fans. He continued, “One day, I was reading the newspaper on the plane. It had the world’s best sellers list. I unexpectedly discovered ‘The Alchemist’ on the Korean chart. I wondered if it was a mistake, but it wasn’t. At the time, I hadn’t promoted the book in Korea, and I hadn’t held a press conference there. It means that the books were sold solely through word of mouth.” He added, “I feel very touched whenever a Korean singer or actor mentions my novel.”
