TalkingWithYou

I am American, but not of Asian heritage. Allow me to recommend some dope dramas. Btw, it's also hard for me to watch newer American shows because everything is overly sexualized.

Recommended dramas:
1. Mr. Queen (highly recommend) - strong female lead
2. The Legend of Dugu (currently watching) - strong female lead
3. The Story of Ming Lan
4. Queen for Seven Days
5. Legend of Fu Yao (I watched up until episode 41, read my review to find out the reason why)
6. Save me (highly recommend)
7. The Long Ballad - strong female lead
8. The Princess Wei Young
9. Record of Youth - strong female lead
10. Love in the Moonlight
11. Joy of Life
12. Princess Agent - strong female lead
13. The Sword and The Brocade (I watched up until episode 32 because it really didn't need an additional 40 episodes)

OMG! Yes, I agree with everything that you wrote about this drama. It's a historical soap opera. I just finished watching episode 11, and I replayed one scene like 4 times because it was dramatically amazing. Regarding the eldest DuGu sister, her character is so different than what I am used to when watching Chinese dramas, and I love it! I am noticing a trend with the newer Chinese dramas; the female leads are lovably strong, and the antagonist are more of the damsel in distress.

Oh boy, regarding Untamed! My review is on the second page (click on the link below). I tried watching Untamed 3 different times because of the reviews but I just couldn't. Read the comments under my review lol. I think the drama Untamed, is like the BTS of South Korea, I ought not to say anything negative or else people will be upset lol.
https://kisskh.at/28723-the-untamed/reviews?sort=recent&page=2

I understand where you are coming from, although I respectfully disagree.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo is a drama focused on sports but it is still a romcom. The setting is at a college campus, in an environment where teamwork is idealized. How is physical abuse in this drama necessary? I can see it being necessary in historical dramas that are focused on politics, but not in this drama. Also, I think you may have misunderstood my original reply. I never wrote that I dropped the drama because of the toxicity. I wrote that I liked it less because of the normalized toxicity. After the female lead sick dad physically abuses his daughter for not gaining weight, and the issue leading up to this situation was resolved. No one in the drama addressed how the situation was poorly handled. The writers could have kept the scene and had the lead actor speak about how she felt after her dad treated her (e.g. I hate it when he hits me and diminishes me for my choices). I believe if there is toxicity in a drama, after the situation leading to the toxicity is handled, make it clear by writing it in the script and having the characters mention that the behavior was not okay. There's a way that movies and dramas can involve necessary toxicity, and still point out subliminally that what happened is not okay. This goes back to what I wrote before " I do believe to an extent authors and artist should be held responsible for their work, and the impact that it has on sociocultural values, and the lives of others. Instead of being able to freely produce content just to make tons of money, and not care how it impact different cultures, races, genders, and society."

NCBI( National Center for Biotechnology Information) is a well accredited research website in the USA. Below is a snippet of research that was done to see if exposure to violence in movies, impacts the brain and if so, how.

Url to the article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2778277/

"A growing body of scientific literature documents the negative effects of exposure to violent media on children, adolescents, and adults. This work has been performed with diverse methods and samples, and the researchers have examined a broad range of both short- and long-term outcomes, consistently finding that exposure to violent video games, television, films,1 and music has been linked to increased aggression and violence.2,3 Taken together, a clear picture has emerged that exposure to violent media increases the likelihood of aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behavior.4–6 In addition, recent work has begun to extend our understanding of the effects of exposure to violent media in several ways. Experimental work has demonstrated that video game violence can lead not only to changes in attitudes and behavior but also to physiological desensitization, such that after playing violent video games, participants were less aroused by watching scenes of actual violence.7 Moreover, brain-imaging studies have suggested that a child's brain does not distinguish between real acts of violence and viewing media violence, and also that the “impact of [television] violence viewing may extend in time beyond the simple act of viewing [television] violence.”8 Therefore, even if children, on a conscious level, report knowing the difference between entertainment violence and real violence, their brains respond as if they were being exposed to a real threat. In addition, exposure to media violence may affect the development of other risk cognitions such as alcohol and marijuana use.9 Thus, the effects of viewing media violence may extend beyond aggressive behavior.

The weight of the scientific evidence has led organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric Association to sign a joint statement on the negative effects of exposing children to media violence, which stated that “at this time, well over 1000 studies…point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children.”10

Given widespread agreement about the harmful effects of exposure to violent media, it is important to better understand from where the exposure comes. Studies on media violence have tended to focus on television shows2 and video games.9 Although the National Television Violence Study reported that 91% of the movies on television contained violence,11 beyond anecdotal reports12 we can find little empirical work published on adolescent exposure to movies that are rated R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian) for violence. One recently published study estimated exposure of early adolescents in northern New England to violent movies and found it to be widespread, with extremely violent movies being seen, on average, by 28% of the sample.13 In this article we test the generalizability of this finding by reporting estimates of the percentage and number of early adolescents in the United States with exposure to extreme violence. We also describe characteristics of adolescents who are most likely to watch these movies and classify the different forms of graphic violence commonly portrayed in these movies."

I do agree that dramas have to have a level of toxicity in them because most stories/dramas are depicting events that has happened throughout history. However, in the drama Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo the toxic scenes were not needed and could have been replaced with less or no toxic scenes. When I rate a drama, and I decide to lower the rating I think about the storyline, and if whether or not the writer could have changed the scene, while still staying true to the story and character.

I disagree with you regarding the accountability of triggers. What if movies about rape became super popular world wide? Studies show that entertainment (e.g. movies, shows, books, video games, social media, etc) does alter the way that a person perceive truth. While older adults who are mentally sane, do have to be accountable for understanding what's acceptable based upon their culture, there are still a lot of young people who take in what's being shown, and because they are not emotionally intelligent, they are unable to separate the truth from a lie. I do believe to an extent authors and artist should be held responsible for their work, and the impact that it has on sociocultural values, and the lives of others. Instead of being able to freely produce content just to make tons of money, and not care how it impact different cultures, races, genders, and societies.

Btw, I am over 30 =)

While it's based upon history, it still noted that it's fictional. Thus, not everything written in the drama had to be added. If dramas were based upon 100% accuracy of historical facts, not many people would watch them.

FYI, I will add the spoiler tag.

I am American, and one of the reasons why I don't watch modern day shows, and movies in America is because it's overly sexualized. I either watch 90's sitcoms (it was a lot cleaner back then) or Asian dramas. When it comes to wokeness, I disagree with you. America is racially divided, and we need to enlighten our fellow citizens on the importance of racial equity and equality. One way is through entertainment.

I totally agree with your comment. For the longest, I thought I was the only one who couldn't
fathom to watch the toxicity of some of the characters in Korean and Chinese dramas. I just finished watching Queen for Seven Days and although it was one of the better K-dramas that I've seen, it was subliminally toxic. Below is a snippet of my review.

"This drama was really really really good. The only reason why I did not give it a 10 is because I really did not like the fact that the female lead waited and somewhat wasted her whole life for the male lead; she suffered so much. This drama had me reflecting on modern day life, and I thought about how much the righteous and integral people in this world suffer. Despite her waiting for the male lead to die until they're both in their 80's, I like the ending because the female and male lead separated. The reason I like their marital separation is because he (the king) never put her first. He was late for their wedding, they didn't spend the night together on their wedding night, when he escaped from imprisonment he went to see his mother before his wife, he lied to her constantly, and he allowed his mom to try and behead her (his wife), etc. Additionally, she faced so much emotional trauma (e.g. being a hostage, parents being murdered, almost dying twice, etc) that I don't think their marriage could have been peaceful. Thus, it was better for them to separate and hold onto any peaceful memories they had left."

Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, is another K-drama that I've watched that is good, but it is also subliminally toxic. Below is a snippet of my review.

"The bad:
My review may have some biases, as I am reviewing this drama in 2021. If I watched this drama in 2016, I probably would have given it a 9.5 instead of an 9 but I cannot do that now, and here's the reason why, ignorance is bliss! What I mean by this is nowadays, I loathe toxic male leads, you know, the ones who tell you they are going to kill you one second, and then the next tell you that you belong to them. As much as I wanted to romanticized the female and male lead in this drama, I couldn't because the male lead character screamed toxic, although his acting was on point! BTW, in real life I do believe monarchies were very toxic people, so it's not unreasonable for the characters to exhibit such traits. The male lead was looking to the female lead to give him the maternal love that he never received from his mother, or older brother. Thus, he sought that in the female lead, but it was never truly love as much as it was his self-appeasing nature. He grew up trying to appease his family but all in all he still wasn't wanted. I did have compassion for the male lead, as he went through extreme trauma growing up, and it's human nature to make mistakes and try to learn how to behave better, as we grow and learn. Nevertheless, I am over the misogynist male lead characters (e.g. kissing women without their permission, not understanding that no actually means no, putting their hands behind the female characters back and pushing her up for a kiss, etc..). Although, there's a level of toxicity with the princes and princess, I am so glad that I did not get the damsel in distress vibe from the female lead character. Oh yeah, I think the music was somewhat too dramatic for certain scenes. Like in one scene around episode 6, the song "I love you," is played when the male lead is threatening the female lead. It's a bit weird.

The good:
*The scriptwriter did a great job explaining why the male lead end up killing his brothers. Usually when we hear of stories like this, we automatically assume that the killer was a psychopath murderer. Instead, of investigating the real culprit working behind the scenes. The female lead did have visions about the future, but those visions didn't tell the full story but rather what would happen.
*The acting was on point. While watching this drama, I thought the female lead was the same lead from Records of Youth. I never watched a movie in which IU acted, until this one. Neither am I familiar with her music, so my opinion is not bias. I think she did a fantastic job acting as a woman who was wanted by all the princes, except for 2. That's not an easy task to be able to act that out so well, that it doesn't turn the audience off. I believe each actor played their roles well, although this series probably could have had 23 episodes instead of 20 in order to allow for the romance between the female lead and male lead to seem more realistic. I believe their romance between episodes 7-13 was a bit rushed. However, the screenwriter did a fantastic job, with what she had. Btw, Eun's death was so tragic (episode 16), him and his wife are so cute in that episode. Good acting, I am in tears!

Overall, this drama was good but watching this in 2021, and not being ignorant of how media plays a role in sociocultural, and the viewpoints of society is the reason why I cannot give it a 9.5. BTW, I know it's a creative licensed historical drama, thus, there has to be some toxic traits, and that is the reason why I did not give it a 8."

I totally agree with you regarding Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo. The female lead is model skinny, and beautiful even with her tomboyish appearance. I lost interest after episode 6 because of the toxicity, below is a snippet from my review.

"The first 6 episodes are fantastic, but it becomes really toxic on episode 7. In episode 7, the female lead, father is verbally and physically abusive. No matter how angry we are with someone, physical abuse is not the solution unless we are defending ourselves from an attacker. Additionally, the female coach, punish the female lead (who btw, is a college sophomore) with a broom stick because she arrived late to exercise. Instead of disciplining a grown woman with abuse, why not just suspend her from the team? I dislike the fact that episode 7 normalize physical abuse. I really really really enjoyed the first 6 episodes of this drama, up until episode 7, which is toxic (it sends the message that physical abuse is discipline and thus, it's okay)."

EXCELLENT ARTICLE!

I've watched Itaewon Class and True Beauty, and your article addressed some of the concerns that I had when watching both dramas. If I am not mistaken, with Itaewon Class, the female lead did not kiss the male lead when he was drunk, but rather she daydreamed about it. I can remember being freaked out about the sexual harassment part of that scene. Regarding True Beauty, the makeup part did not bother me as much as the toxic male lead character. The male lead bullied her (literally watched her run around and do errands for him, sometimes she kneeled to beg for his mercy, other times she cried, while he smiled/smirked and admired her). That is almost no different than the the way she was bullied by the teenagers at her first school. The only difference is that when the male lead bullies her, it is romanticized because he is male and attractive.

Great actor!

I concur with the other comment "His depiction of the emperor in Rise of the Phoenixes is excellent!"

King Helian was def. a simp with no backbone! She kept leaving him and coming back to him, and he kept allowing it. SIGH! Regarding the female lead, I am so glad that her character was not a damsel in distress. I cannot watch dramas if the female lead has to play a role like that. BTW, I think you may enjoy Princess Agent, Princess Silver, Story of Yanxi Palace, The Princess Weiyoung, and Rebel Princess. All of those dramas have strong female leads.

I actually liked the ending of this drama. Realistically, there's no way that the female lead would have wanted to be his empress with everything that happened between her family and his family. I would never want to marry someone whose immediate family killed my mother, and brothers. It wouldn't have been the same romance and love as it was in the beginning because too much happened for it to go back there.

Okay, I am back lol!

I am glad that you commented on my review and encouraged me to continue to watch it. I am on episode 66, and the storyline gets a lot better after episode 48, but then between episodes 57-59 it takes another turn in the wrong direction. The female lead is so shameless, as she disrespects King Helian, the same king who was willing to take her in, in order to save her life. We get that she love the Prince of Chu but like dang, why be ruthless to King Helian who is willing to accept her as she was (in love with someone else). The script writer should have written this better because now I am starting to like the female lead character less and less. Especially because of her selfishness in episode 66 (30 minute-35 minute mark). How can anyone like her character anymore? So she used a King to protect her and the people around her, but then she kept going back and forth to the one that she really love, not caring at all about how she involved another person into her drama. If the female lead really had integrity, she should have offered to be killed, rather than to hurt someone else, in order to save herself and pursue love with the person she really love. This goes back to what I said at the beginning of this review... "It had the potential to be a 10 out of 10 but the female lead character (not the actress, but the character) is not consistent. "

I have 4 more episodes left...I just hope the ending is good lol!

I love the American version of Jane The Virgin. Hopefully, Koreans will take the time to learn about the culture of Latinx, since they are planning to do a remake of a Latin American tv show. Please don't copy-copy, and hate the people who you are copying from.

BTW, I am not Latin American but I do believe in racial equality.

You have totally persuaded me to continue. I will let you know what my thoughts are after I watch all 70 episodes. I am hoping that this drama doesn't let me down lol.

I really enjoyed Legend of Fu Yao, minus the mystical part. The male lead actor, Ethan is fine! I think he is the most attractive male actor in Asia. Legend of Fu Yao was the first C-drama that I watched in which the characters had authentic intimacy and chemistry on screen. The second drama is Princess Agent. I also like the fact that both of those dramas, have actors who look older than 21.

I am American and I am really turned off by the overlysexualized romantic scenes in American movies and dramas. However, with most C-dramas and K-dramas, sometimes it seems like there is no romance and that kind of bores me when I watch romcoms and historical dramas. I think Legend of Fu Yao, did a perfect job of showing intimacy an chemistry, without being overlysexual.

I really enjoyed Legend of Fu Yao, minus the mystical part. The male lead actor, Ethan is fine! I think he is the most attractive male actor in Asia. Legend of Fu Yao was the first C-drama that I watched in which the characters had authentic intimacy and chemistry on screen. The second drama is Princess Agent. I also like the fact that both of those dramas, have actors who look older than 21.

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https://www9.myasiantv.io/show/moon-lovers-scarlet-heart-ryeo/episode-1

Thanks for the explanation! I like historical Chinese dramas more than romcom's. I recognized one of the leads in this drama, in the period drama Joy of Life. It seem like the books are always better than the actual movies. From what I understand, movies in China have to undergo certain governmental approvals which is one reason why dramas and movies tend to be drastically different than the books. For example, Go Princess Go; I was so disappointed with the end. I read that the end had to be rewritten due to governmental approvals.

Thanks for the clarification! Perhaps, people just really liked the drama. =)

LOL! I thought about continuing on but I was confused and didn't think it was worth it to keep rewinding to understand it. Perhaps if I understood Chinese and wasn't watching the subbed version, I would have had more patience and continued watching.