Eyes bulging at the steaming plate before her, Lee Soo-­kyung eagerly wolfs down a mouthful of rice, unperturbed by the film camera hovering a chopstick’s length from her face. But the constant interruptions by Park Joon-wha give the actress, her pretty features offset by a frumpy collared shirt, little chance to enjoy the meal.
李秀景(Lee Soo-­kyung，见右图)的姣好面容似乎与领子邋遢的衬衫不相称。此刻，她瞪着眼前热气腾腾的盘子，狼吞虎咽地吃下一大口米饭，对距离自己的脸仅一根筷子开外的摄像机并不在乎。但朴俊华(Park Joon-wha)不停地打断她，她根本就吃不好饭。

“Eat as much as you can!” cries the director of the forthcoming soap opera Let’s Eat, scrutinising her from behind two video screens and his thick black-rimmed glasses. “If it’s hot then show it – let’s see you gulping! And bring her some more green vegetables to make it more colourful!”
戴黑色宽边眼镜的导演一边通过两块视频屏幕观察她的表演，一边大喊：“尽量吃，能吃多少就吃多少！要是感觉饭菜热，你得让人看到你在大快朵颐！来，再给她加点儿绿色蔬菜，让色彩更鲜艳。”剧组正在制作即将播出的肥皂剧《一起吃饭吧》(Let’s Eat)。
As crew members top up her plate once more, Ms Lee discreetly spits a half-chewed morsel into a bucket by her side.
剧组人员再次加满菜盘之际，李秀景悄悄地把一小口嚼了一半的饭菜吐进身边的桶里。
Making South Korean television drama is hard work, and not always glamorous. Yet the results are consumed avidly by viewers from the Mongolian steppes to the congested streets of Jakarta.
拍韩国电视剧是件苦差，也并不总是光鲜的。不过，从蒙古大草原到雅加达拥挤的街道，观众们都非常热衷看韩剧。
South Korea’s TV drama exports grew from $8m in 2001 to $155m in 2011 – the most recent official figure available – and industry executives say there is still room for expansion in Asia and beyond.
2001年韩剧出口额为800万美元，2011年（可获得最新官方数据的年份）上升至1.55亿美元。行业高管表示，韩剧在亚洲及其他地区仍有扩张空间。
Despite the impressive growth, the soap-opera makers are in no danger of overtaking the multibillion-dollar sales of the country’s electronics groups such as Samsung, or shipbuilders. But their rise reflects the growing cultural allure of one of Asia’s richest nations – as well as its fiercely competitive business culture.
尽管增长惊人，但电视剧制作公司与该国三星(Samsung)等电子产品集团或造船企业在销售额上仍不可同日而语。但是，该行业的崛起反映了亚洲最富裕国家之一不断增强的文化魅力——也反映了韩国竞争激烈的商业文化。
The lonely death this summer of the celebrated director Kim Jong-hak, in the bathroom of a rented apartment, was a reminder of the high stakes at the top of the country’s TV business. Mr Kim had invested millions of dollars in Faith – a 24-part drama about a plastic surgeon who travels back in time – only to find himself facing a commercial flop and an angry cast pursuing him for unpaid wages.
今夏，韩国知名导演金钟学(Kim Jong-hak)在一处出租公寓的浴室里孤独地死去，向世人提醒该国电视业高层的风险有多么高。金钟学曾向24集的《信义》(Faith)投入数百万美元，最终遭遇商业失败，而愤怒的剧组人员向他追讨被拖欠的薪酬。该剧讲述的是一位整形外科医生穿越时空回到过去的故事。
His suicide prompted soul-searching in an industry that has seen its budgets balloon in recent years. “When I started in this industry 20 years ago it would cost about Won50m ($47,000) to make a single 70-minute episode,” says Kim Young-seop, a content executive at SBS, one of South Korea’s three terrestrial broadcasters. “Now it’s more like Won450m.”
受金钟学自杀的触动，近年来预算快速上涨的电视行业开始了反省。韩国三大电视台之一SBS的内容总监Kim Young-seop说：“20年前我进入这个行业时，拍一集70分钟的电视剧成本大约是5000万韩元（合4.7万美元），如今成本已接近4.5亿韩元了。”
SBS and its rivals, KBS and MBC, have begun to commission most of their TV dramas from independent production companies. The two parties typically split filming and salary costs but the broadcaster usually takes all the domestic advertising revenue. To make a profit, the independent producers must rely on export sales, sponsorship and product placement.
SBS及其对手KBS和MBC都已开始委托独立制片公司制作大多数电视剧。一般情况下，双方分担摄制与工资成本，但电视台通常独占全部国内广告收入。为实现盈利，独立制片公司必须依靠出口销售、赞助和植入式广告。
Critics say this system unfairly skews financial risk towards the independent producers. But the ruthless competition between them has helped drive a dynamic industry with broadening international appeal.
批评者表示，这一制度不公平地让独立制片公司承担了大部分的财务风险。但是，这些制片公司之间的无情竞争提高了该行业的活力，在国际上产生了越来越大的吸引力。
Japan has been by far the biggest foreign market ever since the success in 2003 of Winter Sonata, a mixture of slushy romance and high drama that won a huge following among middle-aged women (see box). Executives see limited room for further growth there, however. The novelty has worn off among the Japanese, with sentiment towards South Korea also darkened by a growing diplomatic dispute over the nations’ past colonial relationship.
日本一直是自2003年《冬季恋歌》(Winter Sonata)大获成功以来韩剧最大的海外市场。那是一部多愁善感、情节曲折的爱情片，受到了中年女性的热烈追捧。然而，行业高管们认为日本市场的未来增长空间受限。一方面，日本人对韩剧的新鲜感已逐渐消退，另一方面，历史上两国之间殖民关系引起的外交纠纷日益加深，也使日本人对韩国的印象变差。
So the industry is looking further afield. Broadcasters in Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates have given primetime slots to conservative South Korean medieval dramas. “In those countries they don’t want to see women in short skirts,” explains Jo Han-sang, an overseas distribution executive at KBS.
于是，韩国电视业开始把目光投向更远方。伊朗、伊拉克和阿联酋的多家电视台已安排在黄金时段播放保守的韩国古装连续剧。KBS负责海外发行的高管Jo Han-sang解释道：“在那些国家，人们不想看到女人穿短裙。”
Nearly a dozen of KBS’s dramas are currently showing on Romanian national TV, Mr Jo says, while Turkish producers have been buying the rights to remake some shows.
他说，KBS出品的10多部电视剧目前在罗马尼亚全国电视台播放，土耳其一些制片公司也一直在购买版权，对部分剧目进行改编。
The industry’s export success echoes that of Mexican soap operas, or telenovelas – and SBS is targeting their Latin American heartland through a distribution deal.
韩国电视业的出口佳绩与墨西哥肥皂剧（被称为telenovelas的浪漫电视肥皂剧）相仿。SBS正通过一份发行协议，把目光投向拉美腹地市场。
But for now, the real money is to be made in Asia, be it from the established markets of Japan and Taiwan or the fast-growing demand in countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. “US shows have specific genres – cop shows or medical shows – but we have universal stories,” says Park Man-young, a KBS producer.
但目前而言，韩剧还是要靠亚洲来赚取大部分利润——无论是成熟的日本或台湾市场，还是需求快速增长的越南和柬埔寨等国家。KBS制片人Park Man-young说：“美剧有些固定的类型——警察剧或医疗剧——但韩剧的情节很齐全。”
“All of a sudden everything is about Korea,” says Leung Yuk-ming, a cultural studies professor at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University. But while TV may have started the “Korean Wave”, she adds, the centre of attention is now K-pop – the immaculately groomed, minutely choreographed bands that have an ever tighter grip on Asia’s teen market.
香港岭南大学(Lingnan University)文化研究系助理教授梁旭明(Leung Yuk-ming)说：“突然间，韩国文化铺天盖地来了。”不过，她补充道，尽管韩剧也许开启了“韩流”，但现在最吸引观众的是K-pop（韩国流行音乐）——打扮得干干净净、舞蹈动作精心编排的乐队，在亚洲青少年当中越来越有市场。
TV companies have sought to cash in by hiring the singers to appear in their shows. “We do like to cast an ‘idol’ who appeals to the international market,” says Suh Jang-ho, a content executive at the entertainment group CJ E&M, which used the pop star Yoon Doo-joon in Let’s Eat.
电视公司已寻求利用这一趋势，他们雇佣歌手拍电视节目。娱乐集团CJ E&M内容总监Suh Jang-ho说：“我们的确希望请一位在国际市场有吸引力的‘偶像’主演。”该集团聘请了流行歌星尹斗俊(Yoon Doo-joon)加盟《一起吃饭吧》。
The likes of Mr Yoon do not come cheap. The going rate for an internationally popular star is now Won100m per episode, executives say. Cuts have to be made to accommodate the big names, notes Yoon Tae-jin, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “Suddenly the lead parts have no parents any more.”
尹斗俊等明星的身价不菲。高管们表示，目前国际级明星每集电视剧的片酬是1亿韩元。首尔延世大学(Yonsei University)教授Yoon Tae-jin指出，为了延揽大明星加盟，不得不在其他方面削减。“主角们突然间都没有父母了。”
However, the country’s idiosyncratic “live shoot” system means even the superstars are not given an easy ride. Producers typically shoot only the first few episodes of a drama before it goes to air, and they continue filming as the run proceeds.
然而，韩国另类的“随拍随播”制度意味着，就连超级明星的日子也不太好过。一部电视剧开播之前，制片公司通常只拍好了开头几集，然后边拍摄、边播放。
This enables screenwriters to develop the plot according to the audience reaction, which is tracked on social media and discussion boards on shows’ fan pages. An unpopular character might be killed off, for example.
这一制度使编剧能根据观众反应（从社交媒体和剧目粉丝网页追踪）来设计剧情。比如，某个不受欢迎的角色可能被砍掉。
Yet the system often results in cast and crew working through the night as they battle to complete filming each episode before it airs.
但这一制度往往意味着，由于每一集都要赶在开播之前制作好，演员和剧组人员往往要彻夜赶工。
“Let’s say the episode is being aired at 10pm – the filming might finish at 7pm on the same day,” says Park Tae-young, an executive producer at Samwha Networks, one of the biggest independent TV companies. “If the tape is delivered to the broadcaster late, then you just have a blank screen for one or two minutes. That happens from time to time.”
韩国最大的独立电视公司之一Samhwa Networks的执行制片人Park Tae-young说：“比如说，这一集将在晚10点播放，拍摄工作可能在下午7点才完成。如果录像带不能及时送到电视台，电视屏幕上就要出现一两分钟的空白。这种情况时有发生。”
However much the budgets grow and the stars complain, producers show no sign of abandoning the gung-ho approach that characterised the growth of other South Korean export industries decades earlier. “If we filmed it before airing, everything would take longer,” says Mr Park at KBS. “Actually, it’s a crazy practice. But we’ve been doing this for years.”
无论预算增幅多大，明星如何抱怨，但制片人并未流露出放弃这种紧张制作模式的迹象。几十年前，韩国其他出口行业在起飞阶段也出现过这种模式。KBS的Park Man-young说：“如果我们要求在开播之前制作完毕，那么一切都要花更长时间。没错，这种模式很疯狂，但我们多年来一直是这么做的。”