I want to share an interesting article from the production side and how the dependence of streaming services have impacted the k-drama industry (it's in Korean but you can use google/deepl translate) .
I will leave a quote from a producer when they were asked about female narrative driven dramas being sold to streaming services, as I feel like it reflects what we're seeing now in k-dramas.
"Especially in the case of romantic comedies, they are sold because of the male actor who has a high fanbase, so it doesn't matter much who the female actor is as the main character. I think it's a time when female narrative dramas don't work in the market, and even last year's "B" , which was very successful in terms of ratings (female narrative-oriented), couldn't be sold overseas, and then it was sold very cheaply at the last minute, so it's hard for the producers to prefer this structure. In the old days, you could hold on to a show for about five years and start to make money, because there was no OTT, so you could run reruns, sell it to P2P sites, sell a little bit overseas, and it would be a recoup, but nowadays, if you sell it to Netflix, they own all the rights for 10 years, so you can't sell anything at all."
The ending of the movie made me laugh because if you didn't read the manga/watch the anime you wouldn't know that everything goes downhill for the characters.
Week 17: a formerly invisible character appearsWeek 17: I‘ve already began rewatching from the very beginning.With…
I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly things are moving (e.g in other asadoras it took weeks before we see the heroine find their passion/dream but in this one she figures it out in the first week) and the lack of filler episodes in this drama.
It's really tragic how Asami had to go through all of that grief - just to have the choice to become a human again.…
It would have been bittersweet for Asami to finally have the choice to be reborn as a human but in the process lose so much of what she loved in her previous life, so I'm happy that we're able to see a final round where she's able to enjoy her life while also having the chance to (hopefully) save everyone.
I never would have expected from watching the first couple of episodes that this where we would end up and I can't wait to see how it ends for everyone.
This would have been a 10 but I felt like the romance could have been developed more throughout the series and…
Most of the couple moments were through flashbacks and after the FL regains her memories, they don't really acknowledge the romance until the last couple of episodes. It's just kind of assumed that since they were in love in the past, they are still in love in the present.
This would have been a 10 but I felt like the romance could have been developed more throughout the series and the last couple episodes got convoluted before it kind of got resolved in the final episode.
Great article! I've been having similar thoughts and I also made the move to watching mostly j-dramas after getting into Asian dramas through k-dramas.
Although I watch mostly k-dramas and j-dramas, I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on the rise in popularity in Chinese dramas over the years and how it's kind of similar to Korea's international approach (putting dramas on Netflix and Youtube with subs, increase in budgets...etc). When I first got into Asian dramas, it was mostly Korea, Japan and Taiwan that were know for their dramas but now China and Korea are the most popular (based on what I see on MDL).
Thanks! What were some of your other favorite J-dramas this year? (I want to see if we have the same ones.)
I'm slowly making my way through the dramas that came out this year but I'm currently watching Renai Mangaka and Tengoku to Jigoku: Psychona Futari and recently finished Hankei 5 Metoru!
http://www.ktrwawebzine.kr/page/vol217/05.html?ckattempt=1
I will leave a quote from a producer when they were asked about female narrative driven dramas being sold to streaming services, as I feel like it reflects what we're seeing now in k-dramas.
"Especially in the case of romantic comedies, they are sold because of the male actor who has a high fanbase, so it doesn't matter much who the female actor is as the main character. I think it's a time when female narrative dramas don't work in the market, and even last year's "B" , which was very successful in terms of ratings (female narrative-oriented), couldn't be sold overseas, and then it was sold very cheaply at the last minute, so it's hard for the producers to prefer this structure. In the old days, you could hold on to a show for about five years and start to make money, because there was no OTT, so you could run reruns, sell it to P2P sites, sell a little bit overseas, and it would be a recoup, but nowadays, if you sell it to Netflix, they own all the rights for 10 years, so you can't sell anything at all."
I never would have expected from watching the first couple of episodes that this where we would end up and I can't wait to see how it ends for everyone.
Although I watch mostly k-dramas and j-dramas, I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on the rise in popularity in Chinese dramas over the years and how it's kind of similar to Korea's international approach (putting dramas on Netflix and Youtube with subs, increase in budgets...etc). When I first got into Asian dramas, it was mostly Korea, Japan and Taiwan that were know for their dramas but now China and Korea are the most popular (based on what I see on MDL).