burhaa aadmi

Awesome! A truly magnificent presentation, and a frightening amount of time and effort put in, obviously.

Given that so many of your respondents highlighted the majority-female demographic as contributing to the skewed perceptions, it would be interesting to know how many of your respondents were male? I'm male, and agree strongly with the overall theme of the conclusions in your piece (e.g. cultural misogyny, "don't hurt oppa!"), it would be interesting to know if there was a gender-based difference in any of the responses you collected. Thank you and all your respondents for such an interesting and detailed presentation,

RA MI RAN - nuff said, sign me up!

Thanks for the recs!

Congratulations on a very well-written and enthusiastic debut! A very interesting list, thanks for sharing. Of this list, Run On and Her Private Life stood out for me. Thanks too for mentioning Law School, which is on my watchlist.

If you want REALLY quiet love stories, try J doramas.

Japan excels at producing love stories so quiet that K Dramas seem shouty in comparison.
Hayako Sensei, Hannari Girori No Yoriko San, Takane No Hana, Bara No Nai Hanaya and Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku are all stories that feature VERY slow burn romance so quiet it's almost whispered. In terms of "quiet volume", the contrast with Dramas like WFKBJ especially is like the contrast between day and night. 🙂

You had me at "Takahashi Issei 🙂 Thanks for this interesting list, especially that one. I loved him in Quartet, it would be nice to see him in a slightyly happier story. Concerto of the Bully sounds interesting too, even if Stockholm Syndrome is always a bit problematic for me as a theme.

Reply 1997 was the first and best of the Reply series for me, pleased to see it listed here. Quite a few other faves too, Go Go Squid, PYHOMS, and Le Coup de Foudre (semi-autobiographical AND reel-to-real for the OTP, just GAWJUSS!) . And of course Lovely Us, which I gave 9.5/10. Thanks for a reminder of all the pleasure this genre has given me!

Reply 1997 was the first and best of the Reply series for me, pleased to see it listed here. Quite a few other faves too, Go Go Squid, PYHOMS, and Le Coup de Foudre (semi-autobiographical AND reel-to-real for the OTP, just GAWJUSS!) . And of course Lovely Us, which I gave 9.5/10. Thanks for a reminder of all the pleasure this genre has given me!

I was not told, sorry. Someone in a very good position to know passed on that MCW was taking a break to look after her health, without going into specifics.

An interesting introduction to a couple of actresses I was not familiar with, thanks! Like some other commenters, I can't accept 2020 as the "breakout year" for Moon Chae Wo, because her career and reputation were already well-established long before last year. If anything, 20TEN, not 2020 was her breakout year, with War of the Arrows establishing her acting credentials in a successful movie, followed up the next year with a Drama that is still highly praised, The Princess' Man. Having had to take a couple of years off due to serious ilnness is probably the main reason so many viewers who are newer to K East Asian entertainment may think of her as less well known, and consider FoE as her breakout, when it was really her comeback

Absurdly young prodigies are real, like the Belgian 8yo who's considering Oxford, Cambridge and others at the moment https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-01/belgian-8-year-old-to-start-university/9928762

My big issue with K Drama geniuses is the gender. I've completed 257 K Dramas and dropped 72, and of those only TWO featured genuine genius FEMALE leads. In K Dramas, see the word "genius" in a synopsis, you know it's a guy. 😡🤬

I've been a fan of KJW since Coffee Prince. Krystal I've found underwhelming overall - My Lovely Girl was a comatose snoozefest, and I barely remember her in Prison Playbook. BUT, I did like her performance in Player, so maybe it's just a matter of her finding the right material that suits. Hopefully this one will be that sort of a drama.

Indeed. I didn't MIND the romance in the K Drama original, but even then felt the story would have been stronger without it. Japan to the rescue. :)

EXCELLENT article, thanks! Grateful for the heads up about Radiation House, too. Without having seen the J version, totally agree that Good Doctor would be better without romance, so that's a plus.

"Okitegami Kyoko" SIGH! I gave this one 9.5, eventually- I think I gave it 8.5 the first time I watched it, 9 the second, and 9.5 the third time. The ending IS perfect, but it's a tribute to this awesome Drama that out of the nearly 400 East Asian Dramas I've finished, it's one of fewer than 5 that I really WANTED a second season of. THANK YOU for putting this amazing piece of work at the top of this list.

Thanks for the review, and for the clear distinction between viewers new to K Dramas and those more experienced. I'm going to take more note of how long a reviewer has been watching East Asian Dramas from now on, all the "everything's 9/10" reviews do tend to come from the newly addicted. :)

THANK YOU! I have just started this one, but the manipulation and deceit of the ML in the first 2 eps is as romantic as DIY dentistry, and considerably less attractive. I always value "contrarian" reviews because they show someone taking the time to analyse and express their reaction. On a positive note note, a comment about:
"Alas drama world dictates that no two women, be it in love or career, can occupy the same space and time unless its to be rivals." - you may want to consider checking out The Arc of Lfe, a TW Drama from 2020 that sets up what looks like a love triangle, but isn't

Thanks for taking the time to share this! Our tastes are very different, but I'm grateful for the reminder to check out "Move to Heaven", the only one on this list that is on my "Plan to Watch" list not my "Not Interested" list. :)

Here's another, a 5-part web Drama starring Seo in Guk and Wang Ji Won, Another Parting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgozRplVEl4

That's interesting. I've just checked the listed airing dates for 20 randomly selected J-doramas of the 61 I've completed, (1 out of 3) with airing years from 2011 to 2020, and not one of them took any longer than 3 months. 19 of the 20 took no more than 1 or 2 weeks more than 1 episode per week, so most lasted 8-10 weeks. The 'worst' was Aquarium Girl, which lasted almost 11 weeks for only 7 episodes. Unless MDL and Dramawiki both haves all the airing dates wrong, of course.

Just curious, why do you say watching J dorams as they air is as bad as TW? Excluding taigas and asadoras, Japan makes the shortest Dramas of them all, 10-12 episodes with a run time of around 10 hours, that's half the run time of even 16-ep K Drama, and 3 or 4 J doramas could air in the same period as 1 40-50 ep C Drama

SO happy to see the amazing Song Young Kyu at the top of your list. His voice is just ❤❤❤