Previously in this series.
You are a woman of modest means, yet you only seem to date men who own hotels.
You are a nice girl who knows exactly one nice guy. You forget about him a lot, but gosh, he sure is nice. Whoever he is.
You spend roughly 35% of your day sitting in fashionable cafés having very intense conversations.
You own like three Samsung Galaxy S6s and so do all your friends.
So you met your soul mate at age ten, who doesn’t?
You have a dark, shameful family secret that must be kept at any cost. Excuse me, did we say “have”? We meant had.
Once again you are being forced to choose between your stake in the empire your family has painstakingly built at great cost and sacrifice, or the person you truly love.
Your past always comes back to haunt you. Also, maybe, a ghost.
Chances are good that you were poor, abandoned, or suffered a devastating loss in your childhood. Maybe all three.
No one seems to know who you and your friends are, but you just happen to be the best martial artists in Korea.
Your parents are deceased. You are heartbroken.
Your parents are alive, and are preventing you from getting married. You are heartbroken.
No one actually knows what happened to your parents. You’re being raised by your grandparents, who are trying to get you to break off your current relationship in order to pair you off with someone you know you can never love. Also, it’s the year 2015.
You have been consumed by your quest to find a certain person. For some reason you guys keep getting on different elevators in the same building and missing each other by seconds.
Your boyfriend’s ex is a lying jealous liar who wishes she didn’t have a high-powered fabulous career and buckets of money so her stupid perfectly sculpted face could be attractive to your boyfriend.
You’re just not ready to settle down and your family won’t leave you alone about it! Clearly you have no choice but to compel a complete stranger to pretend to be your fiancée.
You would seriously never kiss anyone if not for your clumsiness/bad luck/generally poor sense of direction.
You don’t get lucky a lot, although people are constantly hugging you from behind.
It’s kind of hard for everyone to figure out how you even got pregnant…?
Everybody in town knows more about your family history than you do.
“Love triangles”? So basic. A minimum of four people need to be involved or there’s not enough romantic tension to bother with.
You meet someone and there’s an instant attraction. Before you can actually go out on a date, a ridiculous plot twist forces you to live together for a year.
The fate of your privileged but precariously positioned family of politicians rests on your ability to produce a son for the king. Your frenemy does it first.
You are terrible at disguising yourself as a member of the opposite gender – seriously, you are just the worst at it – yet everybody is fooled by your ruse for a bafflingly long time.
There’s someone in your life you find confusing/frustrating/totally incomprehensible. You could take them out for a drink and talk and get to know them, and then maybe you’d eventually come to understand why their life is so dang complicated and the two of you would start to get along. Or — option B — you could switch bodies with them and just see how that goes. Option B it is!
Everyone is very sorry about that terrible car accident you were just in.
Bummer about your friend’s shocking cancer diagnosis, too.
Yes, someone’s sick/deathbed does seem like the most obvious place for you to offer up either an ominous warning or a shameful confession.
Man, this king sure has a temper.
You had a best friend once. Now they are your greatest rival. But you have a sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, you’ll find a way to be friends again someday, even if one of you has to die for that to happen.
No fewer than five different shamans have uttered ominous prophecies about each member of your complicated love polygon. None of them manage to warn you not to eat that cake noooo don’t do it not the cake the cake is full of poison agggghhhh
Amnesia: it happens, you know?
Everyone is relieved to learn that your hotel heir boyfriend is not secretly your brother. He’s not even your cousin. Whew.
Tags: how to tell what novel you’re in, kdramas, korean dramas, nicole s. chung, sarah jeong, television
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Yes! I have seen both these shows!
I had a friend in college who tried and tried to get me to watch Korean dramas, and I just could not. Despite her best efforts, I always ended up yelling at the TV. (Mostly something along the lines of, “FOR GOD’S SAKE, JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER! YOU ARE GROWN ADULTS! USE YOUR WORDS.”) She usually wound up laughing at me, though, so she at least had fun.
On your biking day trip (that accidentally turns into an overnight stay in a mountain cabin), you carry five different coats of varying styles and colors in your small backpack, which you will change every hour.
It seems that your surprisingly convincing boy disguise only attracts straight people, and none of the girls who were crushing on dude!you have ever heard of a soft butch.
These sound terrific! I would love to watch these movies. Love quadrangles, poisoned cake, mysterious pregnancies!
Also a few of them could EASILY apply to French films, just add some random topless scenes that have really no story-serving purpose.
No! Not movies. 20 episode long dramatic series that have between 1-2 hour long episodes. So long. So convoluted. So addictive…..
Even better!
Kdramas also have completely random and unnecessary shirtless scenes. Usually in the first or second episode of the series.
It’s just that it’s exclusively dudes who are shirtless. But I guarantee, every softcore porny effect ever brought to bear on a woman’s body in the West is also used in kdramas on a man’s body. It is a thing of pure joy. And if I could attach a gif or 100 gifs right now, I’d share my kdrama shower scene gif file with you.
I recommend “Fated To Love You”
I swear, I got bingo here with that show alone!
My favorite. Watched it more than 4 times and counting….Jang Hyuk!!!!!
I… didn’t even realise this was referencing specific shows yet it all still seemed so familiar
GIVING ME LIFE!!!!! I love the shoutout to You’re Beautiful and Coffee Prince and how unconvincing Park Shin-Hye is as a boy.
Park Shin Hye as an unconvincing boy?! SOLD
Yeah and in You’re Beautiful, she is a novice nun in training PRETENDING TO BE HER TWIN BROTHER IN A BOY BAND.
A novice nun?! Adding to my dramafever queue immediately! This sounds SO MUCH BETTER than To The Beautiful You, which was my only reference for the “terrible at disguising as a member of the opposite gender” trope (the manga is adorable, though!)
It’s pretty much amazing. She is not a nun for any appreciable reason.
It’s one of the better justifications for why the heroine is so incredibly dumb and naive (she’s been cloistered almost her entire life!) as opposed to some hardworking twenty-something who manages to get her house swindled from right under her (*coughFullHousePersonalTastecough*). Still it doesn’t work for the entire series for me.
That is my Go-to show for illustrating cracky kdrama plots.
*cough* this picspam may or may not convince you to watch, but it’s hilarious either way: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/197876.html
I don’t know if you wrote that livejournal entry, but it’s literally the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks. I can’t stop laughing at… well, all of it. I’ve been looking for a long TV show to binge-watch, is this on Netflix?
But let us also admit that Yoon Eun Hye in ‘Coffee Prince’ is actually pretty convincing as a boy!
(And that Gong Yoo is the most perfect man ever to perfect, but that is a discussion for ANOTHER THREAD.)
Yeah, that’s why I didn’t single her out. The part when she has to dress up very femininely for a party is a great bit of acting because she looks so very uncomfortable and it’s sort of like she’s participating in unwanted drag. It’s so great!
Headcanon: Yoon Eun Hye is trans and doesn’t realise it.
Srsly. “She” is way uncomfortable calling herself or being called a girl.
“You are a sensitive, kind, compassionate man who respects your romantic interest’s autonomy, which means you have a 99.99% chance of dying alone”
“A condition called ‘Second Lead Syndrome’ is the only thing you leave in your cold, lonely wake.”
“You are an accomplished, beautiful, wealthy woman who has an unhealthily intense interest in who your son marries and tries to set him up with the younger clone of yourself.”
So they just stole Sun’s backstory in Sense8 from every Korean drama ever, yes?
You sit in the presence of numerous, beautiful, unconsumed beverages in cafes, but if it’s alcohol you are drinking ALL OF IT.
Perms are a direct indication of character, either tremendous goodness or evil.
In order to express yourself or accomplish your dreams, there is a LOT of disguise required.
You (and your family and friends) are constantly sighing about your bumbling nature, and what a failure you are, while you possess a clean and cutely decorated apartment, have a good job, and visit your parents all the time, if you don’t live with them.
There are vampires or time-travel or aliens or all of the above.
The perms! I hadn’t realized, but so true.
But damn, is he a cute alien
“You have found the love of your life and he loves you back, yet some kind of obstacle comes up in your relationship (you know, terminal illness, objecting parents, blackmail, the usual), and instead of discussing it rationally so you can handle it together, one of you decides to disappear suddenly and completely from the other’s life with no explanation. Because you would never want to cause your soulmate any pain.”
These sound suspiciously like a Latin American telenovela. Maybe they recycle plots?
Personally all soap operas/telenovelas/Korean dramas are exactly the same, just told in different languages
mmm, yes and no! All of them have SOME common tropes, but culture can have a lot to do with how they play out. It’s fascinating for me to watch kdramas as a Korean American adoptee who’s never lived in Korea. Not like I view the shows as like the authority on Korean culture/society (lol), but I can definitely see where some of the stories and scenarios differ from, say, American shows.
You brood in TGI Fridays while angstily eating steak.
You often have dramatic confrontations in TGI Fridays.
Brought to you by: kdramas and product placement.
Everything on my Christmas list was from Eider after I saw Flower Boy Next Door. Those producers sure know how to sell me some outdoor wear.
Wait, South Korea has coats that aren’t Mont Bell?
These sound amazing, guys what Korean dramas should I be watching? Clearly something is missing in my life.
Yes, which one has the poisoned cake and the love polygon?? I have a mighty need to see that!!
Love polygon? Literally all of them.
You can never go wrong with Coffee Prince.
YES.
One is definitely Secret Garden, which I thought was mostly great but got really aggravating. (Wait, why does she like this asshole? Oh right, he’s the main male character.) That’s all I’ve seen, so I want to know what the others are, too!
I quit that one about 4 eps in for the same reason. After he berated her for showing up looking shabby in the fashionable bar he picked to meet her to repay him a tiny sum of money that he doesn’t actually need, but she does, I just couldn’t continue.
SPOILER
There is also a scene where he nearly rapes her in a hotel room, and the only reason your brain doesn’t immediately clue into “Holy shit, this is a rape about to happen!” is because of the ~loving music~ in the background. >_<
I watched ‘Secret Garden’ when I was new to K-dramas. I loved the body-switching and Ha Ji Won as a hot, butchy, stuntwoman. But holy heck, now that I have more experience with dramas where the men DON’T treat the women like crap?…well, suffice it to say that ‘Secret Garden’ is now on my drama blacklist.
That writer is really infamous for her egregious gender BS. If you liked the main female lead, the main character in Coffee Prince has a lot of similar characteristics, but the story is a whole lot more pleasant. And it also has a gender/bodyswap drama element, but more realistic. There is still a little cringiness, as some homosexual overtones are played for laughs, but generally, CP treats its characters with a lot more grace.
I’m just heartened that SPOILER
Gong Yoo confesses his love before he even knows she’s a girl. <3
IS THE THIS THREAD WHERE WE TALK ABOUT HOW PERFECT GONG YOO IS?
O_O
The Hong Sisters’ dramas are usually a riot. I also am enjoying Marriage Not Dating right now. Also, Shut Up Flower Boy Band for the pretty. For the WTF extremes dramas can go, BOYS OVER FLOWERS.
Boys Over Flowers FOREVER!!!!! I’m going to start watching that soon with my boyfriend and I cannot wait for him to be SO confused.
I just lost 25 glorious hours of my life to this show.
‘Shut Up Flower Boy Band’ is legitimately amazing!
Other recommendations: Coffee Prince, Dalja’s Spring, City Hall (give it a few episodes…), Greatest Love, and It’s Okay It’s Love.
I haven’t seen a lot of KDramas, but Queen In Hyun’s Man is PERFECT. He’s a scholar from the past trying to uncover a conspiracy to kill the queen, but when he’s about to get killed BAM! he time travels to modern Korea and meets the actress who’s playing the queen in a period drama. I looooooove it.
Well that’s next on my to-watch list, now.
My best recs: Coffee Prince, Dae Jang Geum, and Someday.
SOMEDAY, you guys.
Seconding Marriage Not Dating (contract relationship shenanigans!), Shut Up Flower Boy Band (angsty teen boy band, much MUCH better than it sounds), Queen In-hyun’s Man (fantastic romance with a well done time travel plot).
Also good dramas for a first time viewer: I Hear Your Voice, Healer, Protect the Boss, Angry Mom
Tropetastic dramas (quality not guaranteed): My Love from Another Star, anything by the Hong Sisters, Boys Before Flowers, Mask
If you really want to get into the deep end, check out dramabeans.com or the ‘Korean Series’ list index on tvtropes.
Ooh Dramabeans!!! They’re fantastic!!’ Really good about explaining context and calling out sexist shenanigans.
feministkdramafeels tmblr is also very good for that.
How did I forget about Answer Me 1997?! That is the best drama of all time. Start there.
Answer me is my comfort drama. I rewatch every 6-9 months. Are you watching the new SIG drama, the one with Jang Nara? It’s so good, it hurts.
As to my recs:
Healer (superhero-esque drama with political overtones)
Angry Mom (It’s a weird setup but it is super feminist and glorious and one of my favorite characters ever plus OMO GO BOK DONG)
Flower Boy Next Door:although this is merely the best of the Flower Boy series. All are to be watched. School 2013 (because Kim Woobin smoldering is just the best plus bromance bromance bromance)
Sungkyunkwon Scandal: completely ahistorical genderswitch historical drama with the prettiest cast/costumes and Song Joonki and adorableness.
Incomplete Life/Misaeng – probably one of my top TV shows of all time, along with the Wire and Mad Men. Gorgeous characters.
Liar Game: mindfuckery at its best.
But yeah, the first should be Answer Me 1997. Great little slice of life drama, tightly edited and sweet.
Also, I just watched my first weekend drama. Weekenders are notoriously makjang (over-the-top and soapy and akin to American soaps): Jang Bori is here. It was actually kind of delicious. Outside of the usual Madonna/whore stuff, so much of it was traditional but feminist in this really awesome way. Multi-generational lady artists are rivals to run the studio, and will do anything to become artists or change class. I will say, it really gets going after the first 10 episodes, which is kind of a long slog to get to the goodness, but it was pretty freaking good after that.
LIAR GAME! So much fun and I’m passionately in lust with the two geniuses squaring it off. Kim So-run also just about pulls one of the better innocent goody-goody heroines largely because there is a plot-based reason for her naïveté.
I felt so bad for Kim So Eun in that drama. Like, not the character, but the actress. Her role didn’t bother me as much after the first few episodes, but they really didnt give her much to do, other than be a plot point.
But YES to our two geniuses. I straight love Shin Sung Rok and he was perfectly cast, and I loved the whole psych nerdery that they threw at the character. And the other guy made me rforgive him for Angel Eyes.
I LUFFFFFFFED ‘Answer Me, 1997’!
However, I probably wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s FIRST K-drama, because I think you need to know a little bit about Korean culture and fandoms to truly appreciate it.
That being said, once you have fallen down the AMAZING RABBIT HOLE of awesome that is K-drams, I think ‘Answer Me. 1997’ is one of the best out there. ^_^
BOYS OVER FLOWERS
Smart Bitches had a post/discussion about this recently. I think the answer is all of them: http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?s=k+drama
Absolutely Shut Up Flower Boy Band, which is to bromance what FNL is to family relationships. You will not regret having this in your life.
Also: King 2 Hearts and Queen In-Hyun’s Man. K2H and SUFBB are both on Netflix, but I’ve only found Queen In-Hyun’s Man on viki.com.
Masters sun! Masters sun !Watch it! Also they last about 20 episodes so the story is somewhat condensed and there is no season 2 🙂
“Fated To Love You” is my current fav. A bunch of my friends (and I) were channel flipping in a hotel and were sucked in immediately! We searched for it for MONTHS until it came on Netflix.
MASK- I guaranteed will keep you at the edge. Good ending too.
MY LOVE EUN DONG- will make you believe in love
FATED TO LOVE YOU- will make you laugh,makes you worried and make you cry and laugh again.
You order your military commander, who is also your secret lover, to impregnate your wife for political reasons, but they fall in love and the whole thing ends in a duel which destroys half your palace and involves one of you stabbing the other literally right in the dick.
um, WHAT IS THIS
the best movie I’ve ever seen
I misspoke though, he didn’t cut off his ex-boyfriend’s dick in the duel, he had him castrated to punish him for enjoying banging his wife.
Oh my god.
I thought you made that up.
Are any of these made up??
I CAN’T TELL wHAT IS REAL ANYMORE HERE
A Frozen Flower? Isn’t that a movie tho?
It’s Korean and dramatic, isn’t it?
WHAT oh my god I MUST watch this
Uh, SPOILER ALERT! Thanks a LOT.
Wow, this made me smile so much.
Well, now I certainly WANT to be in a Korean drama.
I have just discovered the wonderful world of Korean dramas! They are so good and addicting! This article is spot on!
If you appreciate this AND you appreciate some guilty pleasure reality competition, please check out The Genius featuring famous and regular Koreans who are geniuses in some way. It’s far and away the greatest and smartest competition show and blows stuff like Survivor and Big Brother out of the water. Here’s English subtitles of S1 and S2: http://bxrme.tumblr.com/post/69603754319/the-geni…
HOLY SHIT I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE THIS COMMENT!!! My friend got me into The Genius a few months ago and we have been watching the Season 4 episodes at work as the subs come out (sorry-not-sorry, bosses) and I have been evangelizing about it all over the place to the point of annoying at least one person. Also good, plus bonus Dongmin and Jinho interactions: Crime Scene. All episodes of both shows are available on kshowonline.com.
YESSSS! If you aren’t already, follow @geniustakes on twitter – a bunch of us watch and tweet at that account so as not to spoil people who are still catching up.
Crime Scene is the best! It somehow actually fits my Netflix-esque super-specific favorite genre of “comedic murder-mystery gameshow.” Park Jiyoon is my favorite contestant I so hope that if there’s a third season, she’s on it.
Also, I so have to start watching this season of The Genius.
Your neighbor turns out to be an immortal alien who’s in love with the woman you used to be in a past life.
Vampire Prosecutor 4EVAR!
It’s hard to get it together with your one true love, a boyfriend who disappeared without warning years ago, because you are engaged. Also because when he returns, you don’t recognize him because he has changed his name and actually when you dated you were blind. Also because your father secretly killed his mother so that he could use her eyeballs to cure your blindness.
Please tell me that’s a real KDrama
It’s on Netflix!
No mention of “wrist grabs”? I found that the most offputting aspect of watching k-drama. I watched most of “The Great Doctor” and a bit of “Secret Garden” and it felt so demeaning whenever any character would do it to another. http://seoulbeats.com/2011/12/take-me-by-the-wris…
Or the “aggressively back her against a wall” maneuver? I loved The Great Doctor and Coffee Prince but they each had a scene or two like that and it made me super uncomfortable.
I also truly love The Great Doctor, and yeah, that’s totally a failing of it. I found it to be actually less misogynistic than other K dramas though? Strangely??
But the violence-as-affection theme, though, is definitely a part of like *every* K drama ever. Boys Over Flowers was even worse with this.
So, to recap:
“You are a plucky heroine who stood up to a bully, and he found that so hot, so he fell for you, and then stalked and bullied you, which you couldn’t help but find sweet and caring all of a sudden, and so now you are together because he is your one true love, and if he is violent it is because he is really sensitive and can’t help the passion of his emotions, which is all your fault, because he is so passionately in love with you”
or, a la The Great Doctor:
“You are incredibly naive and do not understand the ways of this dangerous world, and so it is perfectly reasonable that the guy you like keeps pushing and shoving and grabbing you, because he is protecting you”
Your father is in debt to a gangster. The only way to save him is to become a K-pop idol.
Your father is a famous politician who refuses to acknowledge you. You rebel by becoming a K-pop idol.
You pretend to sing badly so you won’t be recruited to become a K-pop idol, but it doesn’t work–no one can escape the honey trap of synth music and synchronized bouncing.
(I may have watched only one Korean drama, but dammit, I’m going to milk it for all it’s worth.)
Dream High! Love it! (Heard the second series was a mess though) I will say that it faded a bit in my heart after watching Shut Up Flower Boy Band but it’s still pretty fun.
And “you can only save your father from gangsters by becoming a K-Pop idol” also works for Trot Lovers, so… IT’S RELEVANT.
…
But don’t watch Trot Lovers, it peaks in like the third episode and then everything goes downhill.
“You are plagued with a Meaningful Ailment like being able to see and be possessed by ghosts and this annoying rich hot dude you accidentally ran into also has a Meaningful Ailment like being able to zap ghosts with a touch. Shenanigans ensue.”
Master’s Sun!
So good.
I vote that y’all feature the ladies of dramabeans at some point: http://www.dramabeans.com
They also have a self published guide to dramas that was TOTALLY worth the $2 to buy.
That would be AWESOME.
Their deep analysis of Korean dramas and culture has really facilitated my enjoyment of Korean media. I’d LOVE to see them featured on the Toast!
I am disappointed that there isn’t any “you have a nosebleed, which could only result in cancer because there isn’t any other reason for a human being to have a nosebleed.”
No, Jane, if you have a cough – that means you have cancer. Although, if you use the bathroom frequently, it means stomach cancer. Nosebleeds are when you see a moderately attractive person of the opposite sex (cause – no same sex attraction in Korea!) dressed in the full set of outdoor clothing that passes as nightwear. Yes, I’ve seen a few Kdramas!
When you get black out drunk, your spindly crush carries you home ON HIS BACK.
Alternatively, when you get blackout drunk your spindly girl-dressed-as-a-guy-no-seriously-i-just-love-him-like-a-bro-it’s-a-dude-crush-no-homo roommate carries you back to the dorm on her back.
A man is taking a shower. He is still wearing his towel and miraculously it remains dry.
Said man also apparently scrubs his scalp REALLY HARD, because his muscles are always completely flexed in said towel-shower.
At some point there will either be drunken vomiting and/or diarrhoea but only when you can be walked in on by your hot crush. Surprisingly this does not put him off you.
Nothing says love like furious aggro-hugging.
You muse, mope, dream and frolic to the same three songs. Forever.
WAIT WAIT… Why has anybody yet to mention: TWINS SWITCHED AT BIRTH??!!
It is very important that you see “Will you still love me tomorrow?”, a Taiwanese queer film that includes the boy in a Korean drama counselling a hilarious Taiwanese woman who deals with a breakup by binge eating pot noodles and watching K-drama. JUST FYI.
Your nemesis warns you direly that if you proceed with your current course of action, she will “never forgive you.” Even though she has tried to kill you multiple time, this shakes you to the core.
complicated love polygon is my new band name.
I recommend "Fated To Love You"
I swear, I got bingo here with that show alone!
"Fated To Love You" is my current fav. A bunch of my friends (and I) were channel flipping in a hotel and were sucked in immediately! We searched for it for MONTHS until it came on Netflix.
Fully 7 days late to this, but I love that Netflix (Canadian, at least) has the swapped in the wrong description for Secret Garden. “A neglected young girl finds a neglected old garden. Together, they blossom against a backdrop of mystery and loss.”
Mystery, loss, and… uh… body-swapping.
Bahaha, Autumn Tale?
You are poor and hardworking and a perfect genius with pastry. The mere mention of your name causes the audience to giggle.You love your reluctant hotel-heir boyfriend who, like all K-drama boyfriends,is incredibly beautiful and sensitive. You are blunt and fiercely independent and decry, often drunkenly, his life of ease and wealth. You enjoy, often drunkenly, the fruits of his life of ease and wealth. Most of your most romantic, dramatic and emotional encounters play out in tiny, restaurants at low tables studded with every kind of noodle and soup. And beer, much, much, beer. So much beer that your rich sensitive boyfriend has to hoist you piggyback to his austerely beautiful apartment to chastely sleep it off.. Confusions will ensue, likely involving the coldly calculating mother, a business deal strictly dependent on beautiful son giving you up, and everyone’s cell phones. Still, Seoul at night is beautiful, even your tiny house on the crooked cobbled lane glows with romance and promise. You are an artist with butter. You love to eat and drink and love. Life is good.
Ah, Kim Sam Soon is so wonderful <3
I don't know if you wrote that livejournal entry, but it's literally the funniest thing I've read in weeks. I can't stop laughing at… well, all of it. I've been looking for a long TV show to binge-watch, is this on Netflix?
Love polygon? Literally all of them.
Oh my god.
I thought you made that up.
Are any of these made up??
I CAN'T TELL wHAT IS REAL ANYMORE HERE