Korean dramas!

[Mrs. P]

by "dramas" are we talking US equivilent of soaps or primetime?

Korean dramas are aired in primetime. There are a few different types of dramas. The most common ones are in a miniseries format with 16 to 22 episodes on average (though some dramas can go up to 50 to 100 episodes). These dramas generally are aired twice a week (Monday + Tuesday; Wednesday + Thursday and Saturday + Sunday) usually around the 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. hour. Each episode is an hour long (commercials, I believe, are run in between shows; plus these shows tend to have a heavy amount of product placement.)

There are also dramas called "daily dramas," which would be the equivalent of soap operas (though they don't necessarily have the same over the top plot lines; they're likely more similar to longer-term prime time shows here in the US).

Another good site to watch dramas (korean, thai, japanese, chinese, taiwanese, etc) is viki.com
I think there is a free viki ap for you phone and you get HD quality for free. You can even use ad block on firefox to skip the annoying ads in the middle of your episode. The subtitles come in multiple languages too. Plus viki comes with entertaining comments by fans on the top of the screen that you can turn on and off
Once you watch one you might become addicted :D

I like Viki.com as well. It's really neat because basically people contribute to the content of the site, namely by providing subtitles in different languages (as FTNoona noted). I think the name Viki is a combination of "Video" and "Wiki" I do appreciate both these companies making a bonafide effort to get the rights from the broadcasting companies, so while it's nice to see things for free, I don't mind letting the ads air on viki (or pay for premium on drama fever) cause I know it allows these startups to propser and give us access to all this incredible content we didn't have access to 5 years ago.

Hehe yeah WISFC is actually one of my sentimental fav, I love the Child actors too!! Unfortunately that 2nd half suffered from typical problems of Korean drama too. It is a flawed gem for me. Have you seen Thank you? Another great drama by the same writer and I love the music in that one too. Mrs.P are you watching it with English subtitles?

yes os168, I too love hte child actors. To be honest, I'm not super impressed with the female lead (the grown-up one). She's not terrible, but compared to the male lead and his foil, she falls quite short. i did hear that the drama falls apart a bit in the second half. I heard Thank You is quite good, it's on my list.

Yes, Dramafever offers English subtitles! Although I find myself picking up a bit of the Korean as I watch more of them.

[Mrs. P]

Hey Mrs. P

I first started watching Korean dramas a few years ago on Arirang TV.

OK, so I admit that I first started watching Korean TV because I have always found Korean girls attractive (no prizes for guessing who it was that made me discover that… *cough* Kim Yu-Na *cough*!!!)

I was flicking through the channels at breakfast time one day, and came across a historical drama (“The Merchant of Joseon”). And I stopped to see what it was like.

And I have been hooked to the dramas ever since!

Although I have been watching both historical and modern dramas, I prefer the historical ones. There are probably 2 reasons for this. Firstly, history was always my favourite subject at school. Secondly, you get to see more of the Korean culture in the historical dramas. Life in modern Korea is just too similar to our own lives!

Here is a list of some of the dramas I have watched.

Historical dramas:

Jang Gil-san
Heo Jun
The Land

Modern dramas:

All In
Alone in Love
Dr. Gang
Franceska
Heaven's Fate
Love Truly
Lovers
Lovers In Paris
Queen of the Game
Something Special in My Life
Summer Beach
Super Rookie Ranger
Working Mom

There are more, but I am not very good at remembering the names! (For goodness sake, there is a drama set during the American War Of Independence that I watched when I was a youngster that I really enjoyed, and I have been trying to remember it’s name for years, but I can’t!) I can remember the storylines, but the names can sometimes escape me! Especially for those historical dramas that are named after the main characters.

Wow, I'll have to check those dramas out! Yes, the dramas, modern ones in particular, can fall into a few tired plot line namely: birth secrets, corporate struggle (in the context of chaebol, which is a basically a family-owned corporation/conglomerate. , something that is pretty foreign in the U.S.), amnesia, noble idioticy (namely one of the leads acting stupid for the sake of being "noble" to the one he or she loves), etc. etc. Also if you think product placement in U.S. shows is bad, it's downright crazy in Korean Dramas. There was one drama where Vitamin Water was a sponsor and there was a scene where the male lead opens the fridge stocked with Vitamin Water. LOL. The historical ones do tend to not go there and tend to show more of the Korean culture. ( I am always curious what sponsors for period-era dramas get...Gakistal, the drama aired in 1930s occupied Korea had a fried chicken restaurant as one of its sponsors -- can't exactly have period characters eating at a modern-day fried chicken chain!).

I don't know if I would agree that you couldn't green any insight on Korean culture from the modern-day dramas. I think it's harder because on the outside Koreans seem quite westernized, but I think if you look carefully you can see Korean cultural nuances. Cheongdamdong Alice, the drama I talked about earlier, actually has a lot on the materialism/looks-oriented issues facing modern Korean society. Status is very important in Korea, and I feel this drama really shows that in action.

[pitterpatter]

Wow, I used to watch these all the time!

I haven't watched very many in recent years, but I did watch Secret Garden and second whoever recommended it - it's hilarious, and the main actors are great. I also watched most of You're Beautiful and enjoyed that, as well as Dream High (only watch season 1! I couldn't watch season 2 past the second episode). Older favourites include Coffee Prince, Goong, and Full House.

I prefer the original Taiwanese version of Boys Over Flowers over the Japanese and Korean versions, but I was introduced to Lee Min Ho through that drama and he's done some great work since. I haven't watched it myself, but apparently City Hunter is very very good.

[Melon]

omg. you HAVE to watch these.........
* Sungkyunkwan scandal (historic background themed drama!)
* Iris (Kind of like sci-fi mysterious)
* My girlfriend is a nine-tailed fox (Corny, but adorable to watch)
* Sign (Drama created from Autopsy containing love, friendship, etc)
* YuRyung(Ghost) (Same director from Sign, but this time it's about friendship and love background with hacking computers)

[Mrs. P]

Wow, I used to watch these all the time!

I haven't watched very many in recent years, but I did watch Secret Garden and second whoever recommended it - it's hilarious, and the main actors are great. I also watched most of You're Beautiful and enjoyed that, as well as Dream High (only watch season 1! I couldn't watch season 2 past the second episode). Older favourites include Coffee Prince, Goong, and Full House.

I prefer the original Taiwanese version of Boys Over Flowers over the Japanese and Korean versions, but I was introduced to Lee Min Ho through that drama and he's done some great work since. I haven't watched it myself, but apparently City Hunter is very very good.

City Hunter is quite good! I tried to watch his newest drama, Faith, which is sort of a time-traveling medical drama, but I couldn't get through it. The plotlines were a bit too complicated. I think I could get back to it, but I have a lot of other dramas I'm watching and only so much time to watch them. (For the record, I'm currently actively watching four dramas: "King of Dramas" "I Miss You" "Cheongdamdong Alice" and "Will it Snow for Christmas" I'm further along on some than others due to the fact that if you tried to watch them in real time (though Will it Snow is an 2010 drama, so I can watch it at any pace), that would mean committing 8 hours a week! That's a whole work day. :P As a result, I tend to not watch them as they are aired.)

Full House has a new season that was just completed! I haven't seen it, but inclined to because the male lead was in Gaksital, which you all know that I absolutely loved!

[Olympia]

If they're like the telenovelas, they're kind of like soaps. But in Korea they might be shown as prime time programs, yes?

[Mrs. P]

Also, pitterpatter, a bit OT on this thread, but is there a huge Korean community in Vancouver? Obviously Vancouver has a lot of Asians (I remember being amazed that I appeared to be in a majority when I visited there) but I can't seem to recall how large the Korean community was. I know there's a large Chinese-Canadian and Vietnamese-Canadian population, particularly in Richmond.

BTW, I love Vancouver. I visited there a lot when i first moved to WA -- it is about a 5 hour drive for me -- but haven't been in a few years.

[Olympia]

I think there's a huge Korean community in Seattle, so probably also Vancouver, right? I'd love to live in Vancouver. Or Victoria, on Vancouver Island. I spent a few days there once...a gorgeous, gorgeous city.

[Mrs. P]

If they're like the telenovelas, they're kind of like soaps. But in Korea they might be shown as prime time programs, yes?

Yes, they only show the dramas in primetime hours, usually between 8 p.m. and midnight. There's a genre of K-dramas called melodramas that have some real over-the-top plot lines, but not all of them do.

I say they're more like novellas, strictly for the length of the drama themselves.

[Mrs. P]

I think there's a huge Korean community in Seattle, so probably also Vancouver, right? I'd love to live in Vancouver. Or Victoria, on Vancouver Island. I spent a few days there once...a gorgeous, gorgeous city.

Yes, there's definitely a big community in Seattle -- actually what's interesting is that they tend to live in the suburbs. The Seattle suburbs of Federal Way (south) and Lynwood (north) have a sizable population, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a big community in Vancouver as well. I just don't remember seeing a ton of Koreans in Vancouver, namely. (I recall that Toronto had a large Korean community, which I remember that Yuna Kim said made her feel more at ease when she was training there).

My brother lives in the suburbs of Atlanta,and there is a growing Korean community there. I got to experience my first Korean sauna there! It was so fun.

Yes, Victoria is gorgeous as well. I ran a half-marathon there a few years back and a good chunk of the course is by the water -- makes it easy to forget that you were getting tired in those later miles.

I find that Victoria is a bit more British while Vancouver is a bit more global. But both are great places to visit.

[pitterpatter]

Also, pitterpatter, a bit OT on this thread, but is there a huge Korean community in Vancouver? Obviously Vancouver has a lot of Asians (I remember being amazed that I appeared to be in a majority when I visited there) but I can't seem to recall how large the Korean community was. I know there's a large Chinese-Canadian and Vietnamese-Canadian population, particularly in Richmond.

BTW, I love Vancouver. I visited there a lot when i first moved to WA -- it is about a 5 hour drive for me -- but haven't been in a few years.

There's a sizable Korean community here, but in the frame of Vancouver as a whole, I wouldn't call it huge - probably comparable to the size of the Japanese community. Wikipedia says the 2006 census puts the population at around 1.5%, but I think it's grown since then. It's hard to speak for the entire city though, because there are a lot of Korean students in Vancouver, some of whom are local and many of whom are from Korea and here to study. I also think the influence of Korean culture is disproportionate to the size of the population group, which can be said for a lot of the other Asian cultures too. K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean food are very popular among young, non-Korean Vancouverites, and there are Korean supermarkets, lots of Korean restaurants, Korean kareoke establishments, etc etc. Asian communities are very well established in Vancouver, but I think part of what makes this city so cool is how it not only has large Asian populations, but fully embraces the cultures as well. There are probably more Vietnamese restaurants in my vicinity than burger joints, and Japanese food is super popular - people in Vancouver look at you funny if you tell them you've never had sushi before.

[Mrs. P]

There's a sizable Korean community here, but in the frame of Vancouver as a whole, I wouldn't call it huge - probably comparable to the size of the Japanese community. Wikipedia says the 2006 census puts the population at around 1.5%, but I think it's grown since then. It's hard to speak for the entire city though, because there are a lot of Korean students in Vancouver, some of whom are local and many of whom are from Korea and here to study. I also think the influence of Korean culture is disproportionate to the size of the population group, which can be said for a lot of the other Asian cultures too. K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean food are very popular among young, non-Korean Vancouverites, and there are Korean supermarkets, lots of Korean restaurants, Korean kareoke establishments, etc etc. Asian communities are very well established in Vancouver, but I think part of what makes this city so cool is how it not only has large Asian populations, but fully embraces the cultures as well. There are probably more Vietnamese restaurants in my vicinity than burger joints, and Japanese food is super popular - people in Vancouver look at you funny if you tell them you've never had sushi before.

That is probably why it's hard to see. As I said, I noticed the large Chinese-Canadian population and plenty of Vietnamese people as well ( I am Vietnamese-American), but didn't see a lot of Korean people.

And I agree that Vancouver has embraced so many different cultures -- it's so global that it doesn't really feel like just a Canadian city.

Well in general, Korean culture has grown greatly among non-Korean -- hence the Hallyu Wavehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_wave (not to be mixed up with the Hanyu wave, LOL bad joke ).

It does fascinate me how Korean pop culture has spread around the world. The only other country to do this -- and it actually did it first -- was Japan. The Korean wave now is probably similar toward the growing interest in Japanese culture in the 1980s and 1990s. You don't see much pop culture from countries like Vietnam or China -- in fact those nations probably have some of the biggest fans of K-Pop and K-Dramas.

I somehow wonder if the rising economic status of S. Korea has contributed to that? Japan's big wave to the international world -- namely through Magna and pop music -- came prior to their big recession in the late 1990s. Meanwhile S. Korea has been growing leaps and bounds.

[pitterpatter]

Well in general, Korean culture has grown greatly among non-Korean -- hence the Hallyu Wavehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_wave (not to be mixed up with the Hanyu wave, LOL bad joke ).

LOL! Nice one, although I think Hanyu could totally pass for a K-pop idol, he's definitely got the looks for it. Yuna should consider inviting him to one of her shows in Korea

As for the spread of the Korean wave, economic growth probably plays a part, but I think the increasing prominence of the commercial music industry in Korean culture itself is a big reason. Pop culture is big in Korean society, I visited S.Korea briefly a couple of years ago, and they were way more into K-pop than I imagined. It's the trend among Korean youth, likely similar to the situation in American culture back when boybands were all the rage. The internet and the global thinking of modern times probably also has a lot to do with it; people are much more open to foreign ideas and can access it easily.

[Mrs. P]

LOL! Nice one, although I think Hanyu could totally pass for a K-pop idol, he's definitely got the looks for it. Yuna should consider inviting him to one of her shows in Korea

As for the spread of the Korean wave, economic growth probably plays a part, but I think the increasing prominence of the commercial music industry in Korean culture itself is a big reason. Pop culture is big in Korean society, I visited S.Korea briefly a couple of years ago, and they were way more into K-pop than I imagined. It's the trend among Korean youth, likely similar to the situation in American culture back when boybands were all the rage. The internet and the global thinking of modern times probably also has a lot to do with it; people are much more open to foreign ideas and can access it easily.

Hanyu could totally pass of a K-pop idol - he does have that look (I know os168 had made references to Hanyu looking like someone from the Japanese version of "Boys over Flowers)! K-pop has actually grown in popularity in Japan; that's been interesting to see. In fact some groups in S. Korea are spending more time in Japan then they are in Korea!

And I do agree with you that prominence does play a big part in the K-pop industry. Along with the million of music shows where artists can promote their new songs, they also show up everywhere else on television including variety shows and dramas. One of the stars of "King of Dramas", in fact, is Choi Siwon, who is a member of Super Junior, who is a well-known boy group. Yoochun, who used to be in a group called TVXQ and is now in another group called JYJ, is currently in "I Miss You."

I got to visit S. Korea a few years ago as well and that visit basically launched my interest in Korean culture. It was interesting to visit the non-Seoul parts of Korea-- I spent most of my month-long trip in North Gyeongsang Provance (southeast) and it was interesting how those towns were considered "small towns" in S. Korea but would likely be considered mid-size, even large cities in the U.S. If you ever have the chance, I recommend trying Andong soju, though I would not recommend drinking a ton of it -- that stuff is strong!

I did spend sometime in Seoul, mostly for a work project. Did you know that Koreans love Northwest sweet cherries? And they pay like $13 a pound for them. Whew! To convince my employer (a local newspaper) to let me off for a month, I got to report on this trend regarding sweet cherries in S. Korea. I got to talk to exporters, retailers and marketers. I even went to a Korean Costco. Fun times.

[CaroLiza_fan]

Wow didn't realise there are so many kdrama watchers here.

CaroLiza_fan:

If you are big fan of Korean historical drama, Dae Jang Geum aka "A jewel in the palace" is a total must seet!
It is the EPIC drama that started the Hallyu wave in Asia and then took it beyond. It will also makes you craving for Korean food. Watch it and you will see what I mean. IMO, nothing has surpassed it since even if we are almost an decade on.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409546/combined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Jang_Geum

Right, I just read the Wikipedia article, and it definitely sounds like the kind of thing I am interested in. So if I can find videos of it with English subtitles, I will look it up.

And, it doesn't matter that a programme is 10 years old! As long as it is good, that is the most important thing. For goodness sake, my favourite programme of all time is over 50 years old!!! ("The Phil Silvers Show")

Out of the Korean dramas I have seen, I would definitely recommend “Franceska” (also known as "Hello, Francesca"). Although it is a “modern” drama, it is not your typical love-triangle story that so many of the dramas seem to be about.

This one is a comedy about vampires! And, unlike a lot of comedies nowadays, it is actually very funny!

CaroLiza_fan