Tone + Style
K-Noir creates a unique genre fusion driven by Kay’s starkly contrasting professional and personal lives. The series oscillates between a dark, brooding Nordic Noir and an over-the-top emotional K-drama world. Kay’s professional life is muted and bleak in the vein of Nordic Noir, while her personal life reflects a boisterous, haphazard, quirky K-drama.
Characters break into song throughout each episode; the Nordic Noir numbers are introspective, simple acoustic solo pieces, whilst the K-drama musical interludes vary from short pop songs to full-blown musical spectaculars. Music weaves its way naturally into the plot and dialogue, in the same style as Dear Evan Hansen or Nashville.
The Nordic Noir world features desaturated tones, sparse dialogue, a minimalistic film score and an overall slower pace. The environment features heavily in the Nordic Noir world, with sheer cliff faces, the wild ocean, and Sea Cliff Bridge providing a dramatic backdrop to the unfolding crime investigation.
A blue-grey colour palette is used in grading to highlight the dramatic landscape. The series takes place in winter – with overcast skies, wind and rain contributing to the ambience. Many of the investigations take place at night, which serves to heighten the sense of foreboding. The police station is the Nordic world’s hub – fluorescent lighting, and detective paraphernalia populate the rooms. The characters generally stick to grey/dark blue/black colour tones with their wardrobes.
Conversely, the K-drama world is bright, winsome, brimming with charisma, colour and larger-than-life characters. Various production elements highlight the genre differences, including contrasts in dialogue, cinematography, grading, soundtrack and performance. Scenes in this genre take place largely in Kay’s home, which is a cheerful, homely mess. Aunty Jina’s home and garden is the other main setting – she has a love of colourful flowers and traditional Korean decorations. Though the weather is still cold and wintry, the K-drama characters see this as an opportunity to indulge in steaming cups of tea, and to wrap themselves in eye-catching woollen jumpers.
The Nordic Noir and K-drama genres are both international phenomena that have captured hugely diverse, global fan bases. Their look/feel and premise couldn’t be more disparate, and this series will play with their opposing aesthetics to create a distinctly Australian genre mash.
As the storyline unfolds, principal characters will begin to cross over from their primary, designated genre into the other. In these instances, they will either adapt to the new environment and discover a more muted/louder version of themselves, or remain true to their genre origins, sitting in glaring contrast to surrounding characters and settings.
The series is very much character-driven, with the two protagonists, Kay and Jesper, functioning as anchor points and grounding influences for the show. Their characters’ development, dysfunctional working relationship, and reluctantly evolving connection with each other are the core drivers of the show.
