Musical “Wandeuk” is a story about a high school boy named Wandeuk, born of a Korean father and a Filipino mother. The song sung by Wandeuk’s mother reflects the wishes of every mother – let her son find what he wants to do and do what he can do best. Then on January 9 “My Little Hero,” a movie starring a boy from a multicultural family, was released in Korean theaters.

The movie is about a pretentious third-rate music director, Yoo Il-han, and a boy named Young-kwang from a multicultural family, who pair up to prepare for a musical audition. Much attention was paid to the movie for it starred a multiethnic child. But actors from multicultural backgrounds have now become commonplace in Korean films and musicals.

Released in 2009, the movie “Bandhobi” gets its title from a Bangladeshi word meaning “a good friend.” Through the friendship between foreign laborer Karim and a Korean high school girl, Min-seo, the film looks at the reality of migrant workers in Korea and society’s perception on multiculturalism. Here’s movie critic Oh Dong-jin.

Migrant workers from Southeast Asia were generally perceived as under-educated or economically underprivileged, but the movie “Bandhobi” portrayed them as people just like us. It showed us that a person should not be judged or valued by how much education he has received or how much money he has. The movie played up the theme of equality for everyone.

The 2010 release “Banga? Banga!” portrayed the lives of foreign laborers in Korea in a witty and positive manner, rather than in a serious and pathetic tone. This funny and inspiring film helped Korean moviegoers gain a better understanding about migrant workers.

If the two films introduced above were about foreign workers, “Papa” directed by Han Ji-seung and opened in 2012 is about a multicultural family. The story revolves around six children in need of a legal guardian and an out-of-luck agent stranded in the United States, who are thrown together to live as a family and eventually becomes one in the truest sense. The six children in the movie come from different ethnic backgrounds and speak different languages, but the children and their reluctant father, Chun-seop, demonstrate that anyone can become a family. Here’s movie critic Oh Dong-jin again.



“Papa” shows a new ideal about family. It shatters our concept of Koreans as a one-blooded people, and disregards blood ties, regional ties, and school ties. It is a comic family film, but contains the director’s idea about what a family should be. The characters in the film do not care if their family member is black or from a different culture. They urge us to break out of the stereotypes and accept all cultures as our own.

More and more movies, musicals, and books in Korea nowadays deal with migrant workers and multicultural families. This type of storytelling has become possible, because foreigners and multicultural families have become an undeniable and integral part of Korean society. Movie critic Oh Dong-jin tells us more.

Having foreigners as main characters in a movie or a book means that they have joined the mainstream society. In the story of Wandeuk the foreigner is Wandeuk’s mother. Mother is a family member we Koreans feel the most emotional about, and the mother-son relationship is considered one of the most special one. The film paints a rich portrayal of the relationship between the Filipino mother and the Korean son. The movie shows that multicultural families are fast becoming a key social issue in Korea.

Foreigners are no longer just aliens, but important members of our community. They have the same problems and concerns as us Koreans. Here’s Professor Park Chang-won of Ewha Womans University’s multicultural center.

There are more than 126,500 foreigners living in Korea now, excluding tourists and short-term sojourners. That means 2.5% of the 50 million Korean population or two to three out of one hundred people are from other cultures. Although the number of foreigners in Korea may vary, depending on how they are categorized, it is widely accepted that there are more than 126,500 foreigners living in Korea as long-term residents.

According to Statistics Korea, babies born of multicultural families account for 5% of all childbirths in Korea. It is projected that by 2050 around 10% of the Korean population would be from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds. But there is something special about the foreign population in Korea. Here’s Professor Park Chang-won of Ewha Womans University’s multicultural center to tell us more.

There are other multicultural countries, like the United States, western Europe, Australia, and China, but Korea is slightly different from those countries in how the country became multicultural – by marriage. Roughly 300 thousand couples get married in Korea annually, and about ten percent of them, or 30 thousand couples, are inter-ethnic. That means at least 10% of Korean children will be from multicultural families. If the children of these inter-ethnic families marry foreigners, the number of multicultural families will increase even more.



Bound by marriage, multicultural families in Korea face many problems during their acculturation into Korean society. It is also true that their children, the second generation of multicultural families, tend to experience more difficulties than their parents or the first generation. This issue is highlighted in the musical “Wandeuk.”

Wandeuk was born between a Korean father and a Vietnamese mother. The mother ran away and left the father to raise Wandeuk alone. Smaller and darker than his peers and poor to boot, Wandeuk has a hard time getting along with others in school, with anger and frustration building up inside him. It’s his homeroom teacher, nicknamed Ddong-ju, who tries to provide an outlet for his growing resentment.

The teacher pesters Wandeuk with endless questions and attempts at conversation, so much so that Wandeuk prays to God to kill him just to get the teacher off his back. But Ddong-ju’s relentless interest in Wandeuk eventually helps the young rebellious boy to join the community and reach for his dream. Here’s actor Jung Won-young who plays the part of Wandeuk in the musical.

Wandeuk’s classmates see him different, but Ddong-ju is the only one who tries to engage him in conversation. Despite Wandeuk’s harsh words hurled at him, Ddong-ju helps the young boy sort out his rage and Wandeuk, though irritated, finds a release through the teacher. Ddong-ju is the person who helped the reluctant Wandeuk find the true emotions inside him and realize who he really is.

Wandeuk slowly opens his heart to those around him. Starting with Ddong-ju, the boy begins to show interest in other people and to dream of becoming a kickboxing champion.

Although he failed to defeat the opponent in a kickboxing match, Wandeuk learns how to cheer himself up and still stand proud. And, most importantly, he begins to understand his Vietnamese mother, who must have had her own frustrations while adjusting to the life in a strange country.

The musical “Wandeuk” shows that people from multicultural families can dream and grow just like us. The story of Wandeuk, originally published in a book, has been made into a movie and now a musical, all the while telling Korean people that Wandeuk’s problems are not those of an individual, but issues that must be dealt with by the whole society.



- I came to a deeper understanding. I realized that I should be more interested in their plight. I was deeply moved.
- The musical helped people like me realize that foreigners are members of the community, just like us.

The movie “My Little Hero” stars a child born of a Korean mother and a Sri Lankan father.

Although darker in complexion than most Korean children, Young-kwang is blessed with a heavenly voice and dreams of becoming a musical star. He enters a talent search for a starring role in a musical and gets a music director trying to resuscitate his dying career as his mentor. The materialistic and selfish music director doesn’t think the young boy can make it to the end, but Young-kwang proves him wrong, making the impossible possible and blasting to pieces social prejudice about multiculturalism along the way. Here’s Ji Dae-han who played Young-kwang in the movie.

I’m going to practice hard and become a great actor like Kim Rae-won. I hope the movie can make my parents happy.

The message seen through Young-kwang’s success inspires the audience, especially the young children about the same age as the young star.

Multicultural children are Korean too, because they have Korean blood in them. At first I thought they were different, but realized that I should throw away my prejudice, because they’re Korean just like us. We learned about multicultural families at school, and the movie made them dearer to my heart.

Multiculturalism has become an important social issue in Korea. Stories about migrant workers and multicultural families portrayed in books, films, and musicals have brought our attention to their situation and changed our preconceptions about them. Acceptance of multicultural members of our society is a positive step toward achieving a happy, well-rounded nation.