Aryael

Because it is not as popular as K,J,C,T-Dramas which means there are only X number of fans and even lesser number with the ability to translate Thai to Eng. You've got to wait for a few more years until Thai lakorns gain more popularity and the market expands internationally to attract adequate number of translators. That said, Thai lakorns need to up their game (eg: better production quality etc) in order to competitively compete with their east asian brethren for the international market.

The idea of torture at the heat of passion appeals to people who are into passionate and lustful love. It is a perversion of the 'push and pull' mentality in a relationship. In its heightened form, it can take the form of BDSM (sado-masochism, dominance, submission, bondage etc) which is all the rage now with the popularity of novels such as 50 Shades of Grey. In Asia, it is depicted in Kiss & Slap dramas and in some smut mangas & anime. "Rape" or "forced copulation" where the man is the dominant and forcing his will on the woman as a form of punishment is a form of BDSM which explains why the sub (the woman) ended up falling for the man. To many people, it is a sick idea but to equally many, it heightens their sexual appetite which explains why such dramas and novels are so popular now. In short, people are attracted to the idea but in reality, not many will actually indulge in it. Rape is a serious crime and in reality most people who hate each other end up hating each other for the rest of their lives. Therefore, such dramas provide an outlet between fantasy and reality.

For cheesy Korean romantic comedy, try Noble, My Love. An easy watch and definitely addictive.

Growing up in the 1940s-1950s, I'd watched many Asian dramas and movies over the decades. Here are my firsts (that I can remember!):
First movie ever (in a proper cinema): Butterfly Lovers (1962)
First wuxia:Come drink with me (1966)
First modern drama: The Bund (1980)
First Japanese movie: Rhapsody in August (1991)
First Japanese drama (during the Japanese wave): Heaven's Coin (1995)
First Korean drama (Hallyu wave): Winter Sonata (2002)
First Korean movie: Time Between Wolf & Dog (2007)
First Thai lakorn (recent Asian wave): Love Never Dies (2011)
First Pinoy Movie: My Amnesia Girl (2010)
First Phillipino-Thai collab movie: Suddenly It's Magic (2012)
I've excluded Bollywood movies, Telegu and Tamil films in here even though they are Asian entertainment because I think they are a separate category. :)

Megan Lai sure can pass as a metro guy - pretty good looking as a guy too! I think she's the most manly and convincing woman pretend to be a guy character. Even her body language is like a guy's! Looking forward to see how this will progress.

Love to help with surveys. PM me when the next is due or we can brainstorm for what survey we can do next. There is one free program I think MDL users may appreciate since it offers them the option to log in via various media (FB, Tweeter. LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest etc) to complete the survey/voting. It also collates the data nicely for you and presents it in easy to read diagrams which you can then just link to MDL. You can provide a concise summary here in MDL and ppl can just click on the link and go to the nice results illustration to see more. It'll make things look a lot more professional and thought through, won't cost you a cent and saves you a lot of headache for when it comes to collating and analyzing the results. :)

Hi Ceki91,
My comments are meant to be constructive for future reference and improvement. I apologize if it came across wrongly. It is not meant to be personal. I understand the effort put into collecting, collating, analyzing and interpretation of data. After all, I did my PhD many decades ago by collecting, analyzing and interpretation of nationally representative data from tens of thousands of participants with over sixty variables for analysis. During my long career as an academic, I've worked on millions of data and participants and taught undergrads and postgrads on data and stats (both qualitative and quantitative). I am retired now but I am happy to chat with you re. some free programs you can get your hands on that can help with better data collection, how you can better phrase your questions, the pros and cons of the different types of questions etc). The planning stage of any survey and questionnaire is the most important because if you do not think your questions and formatting through, you will face a lot of problem when it comes to collating, analyzing and interpreting them. I hope you did not count the open ended answers manually.... that would be suicidal! I wouldn't blame you for giving up! I would too! Again, there is a program you can download that helps with that. I am sure all of us in MDL appreciate your huge effort going into this. Thank you. No method is perfect and there will bound to be biases. All I am saying is, it can be done better.

Ahem... some of the classification's rather random - like Takeshi Kaneshiro going under Japan when he does more work in Taiwan & Chinese movies & series. Then, we have people like Jet Li going under 'China' when most of his films are produced by HK & Hollywood and people like Angelababy going under 'HK' when most of her acting work are in China (despite having lived in HK and started her modeling career in HK). Me thinks there should not be a differentiation between China & HK.... many of the HK and Chinese actors work with both anyways. Also, I think it is not fair to put ppl like Jet Li, Jackie Chan etc with the young generation actors. I mean, these ppl are legends, k? Perhaps, splitting the actors and actresses to age group or even leave an 'Others' choice where voters get to type in the name of the actor/actress of their choice would help. There are many older gen and much experienced and excellent actors and actresses that are not in the list for all countries. The list is biased, limited and dominated by currently popular actors and actresses who are not necessarily the best in acting (if acting skills is what you are looking for).

Great article! I've watched Seven Samurai; Infernal Affairs; House of Flying Daggers; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; Rashomon, The Road Home; Ong Bak & In The Mood for Love. Brilliant movies! I do not mind re-watching them again to refresh my memory about the storyline. I'll also check out the others. Thanks!

Good idea to survey drama OSTs. My comments for future improvement:

1) The Chinese OSTs are not expansive enough. I am surprised that not one Cantonese OST make it to the list. Hong Kong is China too, you know. And there are many nice Hong Kong series/drama OSTs. Many of those OSTs listed are not exclusively Chinese production. S.H.E, Della Ding, Peter Ho etc are Taiwanese artists, the actors & actresses in those dramas are a mix of China & Taiwanese artists and the dramas are actually collaborations between China & Taiwan (with dual versions released for China(dubbed into Chinese standard accents) and Taiwan viewers)- so they can, in principle, go under Taiwanese OSTs as well.
2) The JDrama OST list is again quite limited. Most of the dramas listed are post-2000. There are plenty of great OSTs from older JDramas. This is the first indication that the cohort that responded to this survey are mostly young (perhaps in their late teens to 20s?).
3) The Koreans produced many good OSTs but I can see a trend in the OSTs listed...they are all from popular dramas! There are many great OSTs that come from average to poor ranking dramas. If we are to really focus on OSTs as the topic, then drama rankings and popularity should not be an influencing factor.
4) The Taiwanese OSTs suffer the same fate as the Korean OSTs - limited range and it is limited to OSTs from the popular dramas only.
5) Granted Thai lakorns are just gaining popularity but I am sure if we further explore, there will be worthy OSTs from older lakorns that could make it into that list.

All in all, a good effort and although I disagree with most of the results here due to the biases as stated above, I am not surprised by the outcome of your survey as I understand that most of MDL, drama fan and popular drama sites' members are of the younger cohort. Thank you for your effort.

I'm not really into Angelababy but I am a follower of Huang Xiao Ming's career as an actor since early 2000s. He's one of the more mature and better-known Chinese actors. Another Chinese actor that I like is Hu Ge. They are two very big names in the Chinese entertainment industry. In fact, I attributed Angelababy's sudden jump in popularity and ranking to her association with HXM who is already a very successful and popular actor in Asia even before Angelababy started her entertainment career. This is not to say she is not talented as I do enjoy her movies as well but there are many talented actresses out there who didn't get as acknowledged as Angelababy because they do not have the association and support from a more experienced and influential partner as Angela did. She's one lucky girl! I wish them all the best and happy marriage.

Yes, I did. I Eng-sub Chinese Wu Xia and historical dramas in my free time; however, not involved in subbing this drama at the moment due to work commitments. Will see how this drama goes.

First 2 episodes were funny! But I can see how the story will slowly turn serious as the mystery surrounding Wu Xin unravels. Can't wait for the next episodes!

Oho! This is a topic close to my heart! I categorise my drama OSTs by country/ language and genre (Ok! It's basically Wuxia and Non-Wuxia for me). There are too many of them to mention in a comment box and I can probably come up with a few articles just based on the 'most memorable OSTs by country' option. Looking forward to Part 2 of your article!

No matter what his private life is like, a man SHOULD NEVER raise his hand against a woman. Once you do, it's the end for you. Maybe the woman is not a good person either. Maybe she hit him as well or maybe he's just acting in self-defense but no matter the fault of the woman, a man MUST NEVER hit a woman. We must have a zero tolerance towards men who hit women, regardless of the reason!

The man's an abuser. I have no respect for men who hit women. Is this the sort of person you idolise? I hope you'll realise soon what an ugly person he is. His career is over.

There are other options but I am glad they are back in action.

I am enjoying this. Glad someone wrote about this drama.

Watching it now. First impression is ok. First episode itself all of the characters are introduced. Fast paced and from previews of episodes 3 & 4 (airing tonight), looks like the fast pace will continue. Let's hope it won't drag in the middle!

Once again, love your weekend movie recommendations. Ghost House is funny. I'd say all three are light entertainments worthy of weekend viewing. Looking forward to read your recommendations next weekend! :)