DramaHeroine

The link only pulls up an image.

I'm gonna ask probably a dumb question. I've downloaded the torrent, but VLC won't play it, and I'm not sure what/if I'm doing something wrong. Is there something else I need to do after downloading to get it to work?

I honestly did not expect Woo Shik to ever get another drama lead role, at least not as a romantic lead. He's definitely a talented actor, and I personally think he's very good-looking, but he doesn't really fit the 'ideal leading man' look that's typically preferred in Korean romance dramas. His face is a little Too innocent and cherubic. Still, I'm glad he gets to play the leading man again. I loved him in Ho Goo's Love. I'm not watching this drama yet, but I'm definitely seriously considering it.

Thanks for the recommendations! I really want to start watching older Asian films, so this list is really helpful.

My PTW list is at over 700 dramas (not including movies and specials or variety, just dramas), and I've started making private lists by genre just to help me keep track of what the heck is even on my PTW, lol. I want to get to a place where I'm watching 30 dramas a year, but I think that's probably a pipe dream.

I haven't started the drama myself, but I lived in Korea for a year back in 2012-2013, and they have a very strong drinking culture. I would say an alarming portion of the population is probably functioning alcoholics, but it's seen as normal to overconsume alcohol, so no one really bats an eye about it. From that angle, I imagine the show is probably pretty accurate/realistic. I have my own personal thoughts and feelings on overdrinking/getting drunk, but having experienced the culture firsthand, I'm also able to look past it in my Kdramas. Not everyone will be able to do that though, and it sounds like this drama will have heavy drinking every episode, so it might not be for you.

This was a really fun article, and I would love to see more like it but about different Dramaland objects and their symbolism. It's a really interesting topic.

You got me at Age of Youth, what looks like a charming cast of characters, and Si Won, lol.

I didn't even know they were together, so I'm totally surprised, but congratulations to them! They both seem like lovely people. I hope they have a good life together.

I'm suffering excruciating pain with the love triangle. The female lead's choices are just driving me up the wall. Am I correct in my understanding that the leads don't get together until the very last ep? And when does she finally come to her senses and dump the douche-canoe? I'm on ep 12, and I'm drowning fast. Someone please help me, lol.

I have to disagree that Hometown is Slice of Life and not a Rom Com. I think lot of people use the term Slice of Life without really understanding what it means. Wikipedia's definition sums it up pretty well: "Slice of life describes the depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment...in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence of events in a character's life is presented, often lacking plot development, conflict and exposition, as well as often having an open ending." While I can agree that Hometown might have Slice of Life elements to it by showing some of the daily activities of the town's residents, the story very much has an over-arching trajectory with conflict and exposition and a clear goal of where everything is meant to end. I haven't watched the final two eps yet, but I'm pretty sure Hometown will have a definitive conclusion with all of the major plot points wrapped up and our leads together and happy. As for whether it is a Rom Com or not, it definitely is, as one of the primary focuses of the story has been the romance between the leads. It's what has driven the majority of the story. Hye Jin grows as a person as a direct result of her relationship with Doo Shik, and Doo Shik finally faces his trauma as a direct result of his relationship with Hye Jin. And that's okay. It's okay for this to be a Rom Com with some Slice of Life elements. It's been a pretty good one.

Does anyone know where I can find this with subs?

I'm not sure that this is going to be a remake. The drama page says something about them being against a powerful Korean family which would be a sizable deviation from the source material.

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble...but I don't think this is going to be a remake of the classic novel. Not if the synopsis on the drama's profile page is accurate.

I assumed the picture was of him and his parents, seeing as we've never been introduced to them, only to his grandfather, and the little boy in the picture looked like him.

I would really like to know the books that the female lead's best friend is reading in episode 3. Anybody know?

As for whether I want to see western productions of Jdrama's, the answer is probably not. But that doesn't stop me from wishing they would still offer more of them to watch legally online or buy in DVD sets. Just let me give you my money, pleeeeeeease!!!

The western productions of Kdrama's haven't felt demonstrably different to me from Korean productions of Kdrama's, so it hasn't bothered me too much, but I get feeling like something is missing.

While I can't necessarily disagree with your assessment that the globalization of Korean media has had a fundamental impact on the overall style of Kdrama's, I do think it's a bit too much to say that the introduction of players like Netflix is the sole, or even the main, reason for this. I think there are a few other factors to consider. 1) I lived in South Korea for a year as an ESL teacher (from 2012 to 2013). I had already been watching dramas for a few years by then. At that time, there were a couple of TV channels in Korea that showed exclusively western content including subtitles (I think it was mostly American, but there might have been some British as well.) Big American movies were commonly shown in Korean theaters, and they were pretty popular with Korean audiences. I was also frequently in contact with different English speaking Koreans as part of a foreigner FB group that existed to help foreigners in my area find other people to meet up with, etc. Whenever I talked with any of these Koreans about TV and movies, they generally had the same thing to say about Kdrama's. They preferred western media and found Kdrama's (and Kpop) kind of cringey and over the top and unrealistic (Kpop was particularly seen as something for kids, and it was huge with my students). The only English speaking Korean I knew who liked Kpop and Kdrama's was too embarrassed to admit it to other Koreans. So even back then, there was a growing interest in stories outside of what could be found in Kdrama's and a growing disinterest in what Kdrama's had to offer. 2) I noticed, sometime around 2014/2015/2016 I think, that there was a slow shift happening in the Kdrama landscape. Production teams were trying things we hadn't seen in Kdrama's before. It wasn't on a broad scale, just the occasional drama doing it, but there was experimentation happening. Playing with tropes and clichés, sometimes abandoning the tropes and clichés altogether, trying different filming styles, adding fun graphics, toning down some of the acting, you see what I mean. Once this shift ended, Kdrama's had definitely changed. Production quality was higher and stories had grown up a bit. There was a little bit more room for a wider variety of stories (granted, probably only a size up, but still). One important reason I think this happened is that a lot of production decisions made in older Kdrama's were most likely made due to budget constraints, but newer dramas were being given more money to play with, so that meant trying more. (I think tVN played a big part in this, as they were pumping out a lot of trendy drama's for young people with more modern styles of storytelling.) 3) This is the most important reason, in my opinion, as to why Kdrama's have changed so much, and it's something that's always missing in this conversation. What if Koreans are just...ready to move on? We love the tropes, the clichés, getting a glimpse into a culture that's different from ours, all that good stuff. But I'm pretty sure that Koreans are kind of over a lot of it. They're not interested in asshole chaebols and hard-working, cheerful Candy's anymore. They're not into stories so far removed from reality you have to pretend they're happening on another planet to believe in them. It's also important to remember that some of the more traditional Korean elements of Kdrama's were reliant on women fulfilling certain roles in the home, and young, Korean women are forgoing a lot of that today. (Rereading this, I realize now that 1 and 2 are the same point, but I refuse to let my OCD drive me to find a way to Frankenstein them together, lol.) Ultimately, I think the change in the Kdrama landscape is due to a number of factors, Netflix probably among them. Myself, I have found myself more drawn to Jdrama's lately. I've historically had a hard time getting into them for some of the same reasons you mentioned as to why you like them so much. With Kdrama's, once you've watched a few, you know what to expect, so you know exactly what to look for. I found it really hard to know what I was getting into with Jdrama's. I also have always preferred rom-com's over every other drama, and I was tricked a couple times into thinking a Jdrama was a strict rom-com when it wasn't. I've been branching out into other genre's lately though and finding myself enjoying them. I've also finally figured out how the Jdrama world works, so I'm having more luck finding things I like. And finally, I've been with Kdrama's for so long that I think they've lost some of that cracktastic spark they once held for me. (And I think I miss some of the old tropes, lol.) But I'm falling into a nice groove with Jdrama's, so I think that's where I'm going to be spending some more of my time, lol.

I would almost sell a kidney to be able to find a way of buying or downloading a decent quality subbed version of this drama.

This is unexpected. Guess I'll put this on my PTW list, lol.