Another interesting thing is that during the early part of the Korean Wave, the KDramas were mostly romance dramas (aka "soap operas") while the Korean movies that really became popular internationally were the revenge thrillers that were sometimes marketed under the "Asian Extreme" banner. The Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, OldBoy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), I Saw the Devil, Man From Nowhere, Bedevilled, etc.

Note that the Korean movies also did have a wide array of fantastic films in various genres also including romantic dramas and romantic comedies.

I always thought it was interesting that the movies were so vivid and powerful and the tv dramas were very one-note (though very enjoyable!). And the early actiony kdramas had such a cheap feel to them it was hard to get into. I think the relatively recent shift may be due to all that Netflix money going into Korea and the producers then being able to afford to do more things.

I def think it's amazing and while a ton of redditors cry about cancellations of streaming shows and having nothing to watch, Netflix's influence on Kdramas has been awesome for me and there's no shortage of things I want to watch and these KDramas all being (generally) a closed loop is perfect.