Introduction to Korean Drama & Sageuk. INTRO TO KDRAMA & SAGEUKKOREAN DRAMA AWARDSWHERE TO WATCH KOREAN DRAMASUBTITLES & DUBBINGWHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS KOREAN DRAMA?? MORE NEWBIE RESOURCESKDRAMA WEBSITES & BLOGSKOREAN DRAMA RECOMMENDATIONSJUMP TO COMMENTSINTRO TO KDRAMA & SAGEUK ^Korean drama differs from American TV series in several significant ways. First of all, most dramas are produced as a complete series with a fully developed storyline for a specific number of episodes (1- 1. Occasionally, extra episodes or even an additional season is added to extend an extremely popular drama, but this is unusual. Dramas are typically aired at the rate of two episodes a week, on back- to- back nights, although there are also weekly and daily series. If you hate characters whose personalities change depending on who wrote the episode this week, not to mention storylines forever unfinished due to abrupt cancellation, you’ll find a lot to like about this model. It also reduces the lag between production and air date, so that Korean dramas often reflect recent events that are still in the news in their storylines. You will notice a lot of American music in Korean dramas, especially during restaurant scenes. A LOT of American music. And the selections may surprise you (7. Background music is almost always western in style as well. Kpop songs may also be featured, and OST (original sound track) releases are common for hit dramas. KDrama episodes are longer than US TV programs, from 4. The bulk of the commercials may be played in one long session before or after the episode, depending on your viewing venue. This allows you to fully engage with the magnificent acting. Nombre: B1A4 ( 'Bi one ei four') Marlowe, trasmesso in America dal 2009 su ABC e in Italia da Fox Life e Rai 2. TRAMA Castle, famoso. Fairy Godmother in Once Upon a Time with the magic wand. In the ABC fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, the wand is in the possession of the Fairy Godmother. Even young actors (of which there are many) have a mastery of nuance and expression that is rarely seen in US TV. The depth and realism this brings to Korean drama (even with the most makjang storylines) is instantly recognizable to viewers all over the world, regardless of their culture, gender, age, or native tongue. If you visit some of the blogs listed below, you will read over and over “one episode and I was hooked.” If you haven’t tried Korean drama yet, remember, you were warned : )There is plenty of genre variety within Korean drama, although you will also begin to recognize certain character types, plot twists, and familiar phrases after you have watched for awhile (see 5 signs that you are watching a Korean drama, 7 familiar characters in Korean drama, and 1. Obstacles to Love in Korean Drama). Sageuk refers specifically to Korean historical drama. Makjang refers to extreme and colorful plot developments (thanks to dramabeans for the definition). Whatever the label, most dramas combine serious and comic elements, and the versatile actors manage whatever the script throws at them. There is a lot of crossover between entertainment genres in Korea – drama actors may also be KPop stars, fashion models (men, too, possibly even more often than women), film actors, and/or emcees. Before I loaded my mp. Korean lessons, I listened to books read aloud by volunteers, compliments of Librivox. Since these books have to be in the public domain, many are 1. I have listened to far more than my share of Victorian- era novels. I don’t know if eastern and western literature influenced each other or if the elements of a good story transcend culture, but KDrama and Victorian popular novels have a lot in common. Both feature Dickensian storylines full of birth secrets, sudden changes of fortune, abductions, vengeance, barely missed connections, statistically impossible coincidences, labyrinthine subplots, myriads of colorful secondary characters, and episode- to- episode cliffhangers. If you enjoy Korean drama, you should also check out Librivox – makjang is by no means limited to Korean TV! KOREAN DRAMA AWARDS ^If you research Korean actors, you’ll often notice a list of the awards they’ve won at the end of the entry. You’ll also notice that these awards are network- specific. Yes, that’s right, each network makes its own awards, to the actors in its own series. WHERE TO WATCH KOREAN DRAMA ^If you have cable or satellite TV, check for Korean channels. The major Korean broadcast networks are KBS, MBS and SBS. There are also a number of cable networks.
KBS America is specifically targeted to US viewers, and most programs (except, mysteriously, news) are English subtitled. KBS is government- owned, and in some ways resembles US public television, with documentaries about the lives of working- class Koreans, travel, music and other cultural programming, but with dramas, talk, comedy and game shows, it is more mainstream in its approach than its American counterpart. Crimson was a Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race contestant as a member of The Goths with Ennui. Crimson is a dark, brooding soul who has been. Don’t forget to check your local broadcast stations, especially if you live in an area with a sizeable Asian population. I first encountered Korean drama on a Chinese station, and it is also occasionally aired on a local public TV station. If your TV was made after 2. Of course, many dramas can also be streamed online. There are official venues such as Drama. Fever, Viki, and Crunchy. Roll. You can watch dramas with commercials for free, or pay a monthly subscription fee for ad- free viewing (typically about $1. The major streaming services like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon have an ever- growing selection of Korean titles as demand increases. These services usually require registration at minimum, and may not offer a free, commercial- supported plan. Be warned: online viewing can be hazardous, as there is nothing to stop you from engaging in whole- series marathons! There are also sites where viewers can share episodes. I have no idea what the legality of streaming shared Korean TV in another country is – inform yourself before partaking. The video and subtitling quality on shared sites are highly variable, and pop- up ads on these sites sometimes contain malicious bugs, so good antivirus software is a must for anyone who plans to explore them. On these services, episodes are usually broken up into 4 to 6 short segments, which may or may not all be available, and the same episode may be divided up differently by different hosts. Links that claim to be English- subtitled often lead to videos that aren’t really subtitled. As you may gather, the use of these services can be frustrating and risky, so there is not much to recommend them if the same drama is available on a legit service. More about subtitles in the next section. There is a large and organized community of drama fans who not only share “raw” (unsubtitled) video of dramas, but who create and provide subtitles for the drama- sharing community, a true labor of love. In an interesting evolution, networks that once regarded these communities as pirates have entered into license agreements with online providers such as Viki (and Drama. Fever in its startup phase), which utilize the fan subs to save the prohibitive expense of creating their own. Here’s a 5- part interview with Drama. Fever’s co- founders from 2. Korean drama to the US. Their analysis of the market demand and the improvements they could offer over shared drama is right on, and their vision for Drama. Fever has largely come to pass. The first couple of years after I discovered KDrama, their selection mushroomed, shall I say, dramatically : ) It certainly worked out well for the DF co- founders, who sold the young company to a major Japanese communications corporation in 2. Viki beat them to it, however, selling out to another Japanese giant, Rakuten, for $2. In 2. 01. 5, Viki acquired Soompi, and in 2. Soft. Bank sold Drama. Fever to Warner Brothers (at a loss, rumor has it). Meanwhile, Korean networks are reducing the lagtime between broadcast in Korea and online licensing in the US, as international fans clamor for hit series. They are also taking dramas directly to international viewers. MBC and KBS, two of Koreas three largest TV networks, both offer broadcast stations in a number of American markets, and translated websites for their English- language viewers. MBC has partnered with Hulu to offer past dramas from the MBC America website. KBS World offers selected dramas from their You. Tube channel. SUBTITLES & DUBBING ^Bad subtitles can destroy the viewing experience, but home subtitles supplied by video sharers can also add dimension that was absent from “official,” squeaky clean subtitles. Once you learn a few Korean swearwords, you’ll laugh when they are translated as “darn.” Because nobody swears in the US, right? Avoid dubbed dramas if you possibly can. Dubbing undermines the acting and Korean flavor of the drama. Drama can be both dubbed AND subtitled – the first sageuk I saw was dubbed in Chinese, and although the drama was set in the 9th century, the English subtitles were phrased in hilariously inappropriate urban American slang. Watching the same episodes with Korean audio was a completely different and vastly more satisfying experience, even before I understood a word of Korean. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS KOREAN DRAMA?? It’s possible to watch a drama for days (or even weeks) without knowing what it is. Credits are rarely subtitled. Most of the time, neither is the name of the show. Even if you can read Hangul, the title of the program is often a handwritten scrawl that flashes on the screen far too briefly to decipher. Episodes may also be aired in partial segments to fit the local viewing schedule or make time for commercials, so the station’s episode numbers may not reflect the original numbering. If you are trying to identify a drama, your best bet is to search on the name of one of the characters as it appears in the subtitles + Korean drama. Bear in mind that that there is no single “correct” way to romanize (phonetically represent using the western alphabet) a Korean word or name. If your search isn’t bringing up any clues, feel free to leave a comment below with the spelling of the character’s name as it appears in the subtitles. I’d be happy to provide some alternate spellings for you to search on. MORE NEWBIE RESOURCES ^Mihansa. Episode 1 » Dramabeans Korean drama recaps. Ooh, finally a show that gets me excited. I have been waiting for you aaaaages! But sometimes that can feel like forever.)Aside from having stars I like and a quirky premise, I love that already I love the characters and feel their dilemmas. A happy surprise, as I have always kinda liked her but never been moved by her.) Plus, while the unaging- alien- falls- for- actress setup was funny, I wasn’t sure where the story could go from there—but the show sets up the rules right away and gives us high stakes and a ticking clock, and that means I am invested. Bring it on. Ratings were strong out of the gate, with You From Another Star drawing in a solid 1. Miss Korea drew a 7. Pretty Man settled back down at 3. The game has just begun so it’s early days yet, but it’s a good sign for the show. SONG OF THE DAYCranfield – “Sand Castle” . Download the latest version here. You also need to have Java. Script enabled in your browser. RECAP: FIRST RECORDWe begin in 1. Gwanghae’s reign during the Joseon era. It’s on August 2. Suddenly, the UFO appears directly above them, kicking up such a fierce wind that the travelers go flying. The young widow is buffeted about in her sedan chair, which eventually gets caught up in the tornado and skids along the ground, teetering at the edge of a cliff. Time slows down to a crawl as the sedan chair flies over the edge and the widow braces for death. The man comes to the sedan chair and pulls it back from the precipice, setting it safely down on the ground. As time resumes, the wind dies down to a slow breeze and our hero offers a hand to the widow. We cut to the hero in modern times, sitting down to an interview with an unseen audience. He informs us of his origins with that UFO, which carried him from a planet extremely similar to Earth, which he identifies as KMT1. We see different versions of our alien hero, named DO MIN- JOON (Kim Soo- hyun), as he lives through the 4. Min- joon explains having acclimated perfectly to Earth living (throwaway mention of water yields obligatory shower scene!), although his senses are seven times keener than humans: “Thanks to that, I do see things I don’t want to see, and hear things I don’t want to hear.” Perhaps telekinesis is one of those perks, as a water glass goes sliding into his hand of its own accord. Min- joon sits down to a solo feast, saying that he can’t mix saliva or blood with humans: “That’s why I always eat alone.”He bicycles his way to work, and witnesses a handbag theft on the street. He doesn’t step in, saying, “It’s meaningless to intervene in their lives.” He didn’t want to come to Earth, but he believes that what will happen will happen, regardless of whether you want it to: “Earthlings call this Fate.” A news report catches Min- joon’s eye, and he stops in the road to watch news of a comet heading toward Earth. Back at his interview, he sets an hourglass to restart its countdown and says, “A new Fate is beginning. A comet I’ve waited 4. Earth. In three months, I will be able to return to my planet.”On to our heroine, top actress CHUN SONG- YI (Jeon Ji- hyun), who takes a coffee break while filming a drama. She only wants the mocha for sel- ca purposes, posting a tweet with a cutesy photo and a quip thanking a famous historical figure for smuggling in those mocha seeds centuries ago. Too bad Song- yi’s attempt at wit only exposes her ignorance; the guy smuggled in cotton seeds (mok- hwa), not mochas. Her poor manager and her agency CEO are used to cleaning up after Song- yi’s mistakes, but it’s still a hassle to deal with. Even as CEO Ahn bemoans Song- yi’s stupidity, to her face he’s all obsequious pandering, suggesting that she quit tweeting because she’s too good for those nitpicky netizens. She doesn’t want to: “Then who would I talk to?” Oh, that’s sad. Song- yi gets her CEO to back off with the vague threat of jumping ship to his rival’s agency. They joke that he doesn’t even know his colleagues’ names, and rather than answer, he excuses himself. Song- yi’s manager tries in vain to get her to quit social media, reminding her of the “garlic pizza incident” (when she didn’t know that the word garlic was the food garlic) and begs her to consider the mysterious goddess approach to fame. She says she doesn’t care about internet hate comments and refuses her manager’s escort up to her new apartment. He’s nervous of her riding in elevators with strangers, given that run- in with a pervert that had him actually pitying the pervert. It’s at the elevator that Song- yi is joined by Min- joon, and gives him an interested look up and down. When he doesn’t push a floor button, she assumes he’s a stalker and gets in his face, offering a photo in exchange for him getting lost. She follows him out shouting, only to realize he’s her neighbor. Song- yi tries to smooth things over and asks if he knows who she is. Blank- faced, Min- joon wonders, “Do I have to know that?” Then he enters his apartment and leaves Song- yi confused, asking herself, “How can he not know who I am? Is he from North Korea? Or an alien?”At a fancy restaurant, four stage moms dine together while the two leaders snipe at each other passive- aggressively. Their kids all started out acting together, but now only two are still in showbiz: Song- yi and the less- famous Se- mi. Song- yi’s mother is the tacky ajumma who puts on airs, while Se- mi’s mother is the quietly elegant one who nevertheless seethes because her daughter is always the sidekick and second lead. Song- yi’s mom loves bragging about her, but has to cover up her embarrassment at not even knowing that Song- yi moved. So she calls her afterward to complain at her daughter’s lack of contact, interrupting Song- yi in an internet- reading session. Song- yi has put up mountains of cash for her mother to run a restaurant into the ground, and an import business, and a diet company. On the verge of tears, Song- yi retorts that she resembles Dad, not Mom—the man Mom ditched the moment he lost his money. Mom tells Song- yi to call her Yoon- jae, her kid brother, who hasn’t come home in two days. Song- yi sighs that he’s run away again, and dutifully calls. High schooler Yoon- jae is currently playing games at the PC room, pointedly ignoring noona’s phone calls. Looks like we’re dealing with the silent rebel type here, all quiet angst and glowering. When Yoon- jae’s buddies photoshop a bikini shot of Song- yi and cackle about doing it with nudes, he erupts at them and warns them to delete it. They don’t know he’s the big star’s brother so the outburst has them confused, but aw. That night, Min- joon struggles to fall asleep, thanks to his superhuman hearing powers that pick up dripping faucets and loud neighbors. Next door, Song- yi’s dealing with her hurt feelings by scream- singing into her hair dryer, and Min- joon finally can’t take it anymore and heads to her door to complain. Tellingly, she looks more miserable than giddy when she stops singing. Song- yi apologizes for the loud singing, but Min- joon is too annoyed to let it go easily and adds that she’s disturbing the peace, which is a reportable crime. That raises her hackles, and she takes out her hurt from the netizens onto him, saying that she’s been bashed all day long. She’s just taking out her frustrations, but he’s telling her she can’t even do that? She starts to break down, but stops and excuses herself. She cries in her bed, wondering what she did to merit such hate. Next door, Min- joon hears her sobs in loud detail, compounding his guilt. Unable to sleep, Min- joon heads down to his enormous study, crammed full of books from as far back as Joseon. He takes out a journal and starts writing: “A record of my last three months on Earth.”On the drama set, perpetual sidekick YOO SE- MI’s (Yoo Inna) indignant manager protests to the director for the lack of scheduling consideration. Se- mi has been on standby since early dawn and then made to wait needlessly, to which the director snaps that Se- mi should be a star if it bothers her so much. She jumps in to soothe tempers, apologizing for her manager. There’s another scandal on the horizon for Song- yi, who is technically a university student but hasn’t been to campus in ages, leading to a report on celebrity favoritism. The report is scathing, particularly since she was free enough to go tweeting about her daily activities. CEO Ahn jumps into damage control mode, telling Song- yi she’ll be shooting her scenes secretly at night, and urges her to go to school today. Sure, she’ll get scorned for the timing, but it’s better than not going at all, he argues. On to our last main character, LEE HWI- KYUNG (Park Hae- jin), the playboy son of a chaebol. He arrives at the airport and sees the Song- yi tweet, and is thus waiting to say hello with open arms. Those arms get readily rebuffed, but he cheerily offers to drive her to school. She treats him just like a friend, though, saying that she’s not interested in marrying soon. Besides, she won’t get any good roles (surely a meta statement, given Jeon’s relatively new married status), scoffing that she ain’t doing rom- coms in particular. Heh. She pushes his buttons on purpose by saying she’s gonna do a hot melo, all full of kissing and bed scenes, and Hwi- kyung sweats while insisting he’s totally cool with that. Her arrival at school causes a huge commotion, and she walks in like the movie star she is, all slo- mo struts and glamorous backlighting. The male students drool in awe and the female students snipe that she’s all plastic surgery. The professor arrives, and Song- yi sits up in surprise: It’s Min- joon. Her manager says it’s good that she already knows him, since he’s known for being a stickler and she already got one F, lol. Song- yi cringes to recall all the ways she probably offended her prof. Of course, she doesn’t help things by yawning through his lecture (on fly mating rituals, and how each side one- ups each other in a cycle of trickery) and violently nodding off.
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