The more successful Korea becomes, the more valuable its cultural depiction of itself as a failed society becomes. The country has become extraordinarily successful at exporting a fantasy of its own failure. And it learned from the best; it just flipped the narrative. "Dead-End Job," starring Lee Jae-wook, comes out later this month. Netflix describes it as “A man drowning in debt gets a mysterious gig that pays 50 times the minimum wage ... as long as he never reveals what happens at work.” From all the trailers it looks like another Squid Game-esque dystopia fantasy. It portrays Korean society as a brutal and unforgiving land, inflicted with a spiritual poison that slowly eats at the soul of all those who live here. That poison is often understood as the result of the compressed modernity Korea achieved — going from fields and rice to luxury air-conditioners and high-end coffee in just over two decades. This is seen as a Faustian bargain. A deal with the devil. And while the sowing may have been enjoyable for some time, here comes the reaping. International social media has of c