/report: k-dramas!

[mklutz]

Forgive us our long and totally impromptu hiatus! But we're back (a little early, even! Sort of!) this week with Pru and Til_Midnight nattering about korean dramas. Why are they so addictive? What's the cycle of consumption on these things like? How do they get churned out so quickly? How are people with, presumably, otherwise good taste in media turning into vein-tapping smack addicts when it comes to this business? Especially with all the amnesia, convenient car accidents, and inevitable everybody dying of stupid diseases that are probably fake? Let us take you on a magical journey into Asia, drinking in tents, and the closest thing we're ever likely to get to a film version of a romance novel.

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Click here to go to the episode download page / streaming link / recs listing!

Comments

[zeplum]

Thank you, thank you for this podcast. Secret Garden was the first one I watched, and was kind of perfect in terms of introducing SO many tropes of kdrama.

[zeplum]

for recs:

Coffee Prince (YES. And kind of easy for Westerners to ease into.)
Capital Scandal (Historical! Strong women with not a lot of men yelling at them!)
Greatest Love
IRIS and its cousin Athena (Long form KIA commercial?)

[hollyberries]

Just here to say that Dramafever works for Canada too!

[paintedmaypole]

If anyone's curious about the TW-Dramas, Mars is a pretty epic and fantastic place to start. (Yes, if anyone's wondering, it is based on the manga.)

[rageprufrock]

Oh my God, I love Mars. I've seriously watched it like 8 times. My fucking love for Viz Zhou man.

[paintedmaypole]

Oh, dude. Yesyesyes. That man is crazy gorgeous.

I downloaded some terrible copy back in the day that didn't really work and eventually just gave up and bought a bootleg on ebay so I could finish it. Every few years I drag it out and fast-forward to the good parts.

[youkosiren]

There must be a lot of Chinese-speaking Koreans - I had the exact same experience as Pru in Seoul when my college class ordered barbecue for breakfast through primitive hand signals, and later found out we could've avoided the ordeal as the restaurant owner spoke Chinese.

Oh, Coffee Prince, I love you so much for saving me after I failed out of the Japanese Hanakimi and Yamada Tarou in a blind rage that same summer you came out. I hope /report'll eventually get to Chinese drama recs because I love comedic martial arts period dramas, but my parents (and bootleg box set procurers) prefer depressing, tearjerker 1920s-40s dramas. Bleh!

[paperwine]

Just wondering - have you ever watched any sageuks/historical dramas, or do you most stick to trendy (Idk if that's the best description?) dramas (a la My Girl, etc.)?

[paperwine]

Whoops, see that you mentioned Sungkyunkwan Scandal (though I was asking more along the lines of Damo).

[helenorvana]

Your food-ordering experience sounds very much like the time my sister's car broke down in Florida. She speaks English and Spanish, our aunt's sister speaks Spanish and German, and her boyfriend the mechanic spoke only German. It was a very interesting conversation, to say the least.