I got so excited when I saw thissss! I LOVE all of Kamiki's works that I've seen so far. I've seen most of his works but I've got quite a bit to catch up with this holiday. I always thought his earliest work was Bloody Monday (where I first saw him onscreen) but after watching a vid on yt I recognised his cute lil face and found out about the Dj movie...and at that moment I knew I had more to watch. So your article is so perfect for me at this moment. I love how you've organised it and I love this guy soooo much. He's one of my top fav actors... And he's so young. I can't wait to see what he's got in store for us in the future!
Awww i really like this actor too. Ive been watching Gods Quiz because i was really impressed by his performance in Faith. I will start watching his movies between now and 2018❤️ Im sad there will be no more Deok Hwan for a little while. Thank You for this Stalkers Guide!!!
In MY opinion Lee Jun Ki is by far one of the most interesting actors in Korea.
- Looks-wise he hasn't conformed to South Koreas plastic surgery boom... despite being pressured in his rookie years... Thus he is one of the rare beauties (and this, in my opinion, shows personal character strength OR that he is an anti-conformist... Both are interesting anyways, lol).
-Acting-wise he delivers his characters beautifully to us - the audience - enabling us to understand, empathise and enjoy these characteers to the max... I see no faults in said department.
Admittedly The Scholar Who walks the Night might've been his worst project but other projects such as Iljimae and Two Weeks (and much more) were undoubtedly gems of dramaland.
I'd like to remind us all that if the production team are faulty it is not the actors fault (i.e Cheese In The Trap) and to me both Lee Jun Ki and Lee Soo Hyuk were TSWWTN's saving grace.
(On a side note, South Korean dramas and their production teams (notably script writers) are known to be influenced by fans and viewership, on many occasions the endings of dramas are changed because of viewers or fans. Similarly the actors schedule can affect the the ending of a drama or character i.e the ending for Kim Jae Joong and Im Si Wan's characters in the drama Triangle)
I hope this will be the drama that will blow us away this year. The cast is awesome and the story seems interesting enough. Jisoo, Kang Ha Neul, Joo Hyuk and Jong Hyun are all talents that have been on my radar for a long time (especially Ji Soo) BUT FOR ME the main attraction remains to be Lee Jun Ki (and not just becuse of his looks).
I actually am on the other side of the fandom I guess. For a long time I have watched only Japanese dramas, now…
Aw, Kdramas aren't so bad if you watch the good ones. I hope my next list (which will be Kdramas) might convince you guys XDD or at least pique your interest ;)
The problem is that, as you can see, many of your recommendations aren't from recent Dramas. Old JDramas are very…
The majority of my recs are from the last 5 years. I haven't included any from this year because I have been busy and didn't get a chance to catch up with recent Jdrama. Also I didn't want to overlook the older Jdramas when I created this list of recs. Other than that I agree with the fact that we need to overcome many hardships in order to watch Jdrama or Japanese content these days but if you take a closer look you will notice that Kissasian, VIKI and Crynchyroll are providing us fans with more Japanese content. Everyone here agrees that we often have to wait very long for subtitles when it comes to currently airing Jdramas.
As for whether Kdramas are better than Jdramas... I like to look at the two like seperate entities and acknowledge that each has theirs strengths and weaknesses. Jdrama has a distinct style and variety unlike Kdrama and it's generic plots but comparably lavish sets. Otherwise, as you said Kdrama is highly accessible and can be very entertaining in it's own way providing you have chosen the correct one to watch.
I don't have a problem finding Jdramas and watching them because I'm a downloader. Due to my yt channel (editing drama as a hobby) and unpredictable internet I tend to download the dramas and I think downloading Jdrama and the subtitles provided by fansubs is much more efficient because then you don't have to wait for sites such as Dramatv or Kissasian to upload the drama.
But... If we bring Kpop and Japanese Music (Jpop, Jrock) into this it becomes a different argument. Koreans rely on the Hallyu wave - Kpop and Kdrama (basically actors, singers, MCs) - to boost their economy to a certain degree and attract tourists and foreigners to their country. This would explain the exposure and ease of accessibility to their content. Whereas Japan has no interest in this tactic because they already make so much profit with their manga/anime industry (Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tale, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Fushugi Yugi these are examples of worldwide successes). Which in turn attracts a good amount of tourists and fans by itself. Moreover selling the rights to a manga such as Hana Yori Dango or Itazura Na Kiss to all of Asia so they can each make their own drama adaptations + gaining more publicity for the original content- it's a win-win situation for them. Similarly you have Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's works - Spirited Away which won an Oscar.
So why bother spending money in advertising, tuning to international fans tastes and competing against Kpop and Kdrama and the Hallyu wave when they already own an explosive attraction like Anime/Manga? And they already make enough money with Japanese entertainment in Japan. It doesn't make any sense financially.
(I read somewhere that The Japanese music industry is only second to the American music industry and at some point they surpassed them temporarily).
Therefore Japan produces it's drama and music according to their own publics interest with no intention of exporting hence no advertisements and no attempts to share it with us internationals. Whereas Korea is the complete opposite. They make attempts to accommodate to us and communicate their interest in getting out there and reaching out to us internationals.
I'm no expert in this field. It's just that I've been around long enough to pick up on these things. At the very beginning I also questioned WHY it's so hard for us Jdrama/Jmusic fans but so easy for Kdrama/Kmusic fans... And these are the answers I came up with over the years.
Omg!!! I have seen a few stuff with Yamada. He is a STAR! So talented. Great article. I cried so much watching Sekai De Chusin and one of my TOP fav movies of all time is 13 Assassins. My fav character he played HAS to be Serizawa in Crows Zero. Such charisma onscreen. He owned the movie. I remember watching Gantz just to see him and LOOOL he was proper advertised and stuff for the movie but he appeared so briefly. And I know I'm not the only one who watched Gantz for him... There was Japanese ent news saying some front line AKB48 memebers went to see Gantz just to see Yamada and fangirl XDDD
Very interesting article :) Even though I'm into jdramas myself - belonging to the crowd who 'migrated' from anime…
Thanks... Well, I have good news then... I was planning on a Kdrama rec post then the others. Because I have seen just as much Japanese as Korean dramas so I can safely recommend a good variety but I'm pretty limited on the Taiwanese and Thai so I was gonna check out some more before opening my mouth and making some recs!
Welcome to the land of awesome Japanese drama (but so limited and hard to find subbed Jdrama online :'( I remember…
I've seen them all except Kindachi, Tatta and Kuitan :) I think Tatsuya was awesome (last I saw him was Rurouni Kenshin and he killed his role as the villain) and I am a fan Matsuyama Kenichi he's so adorbs. Loved him in Usagi Drop and loved his controversial role in Zeni Geba! Haha, I really like Taiwanese it's such a beautiful language. I could listen to it all day. I grew up listening to Japanese in Anime so I'm so used to it... But when I first heard Korean I was so shocked. They always sounded like they were moaning. They have this way of stretching at the end of the sentence and in a sort of whiny tone. But now I don't hear it anymore I've been immunised to it ;) lol
Thanks for your recs. I'll check the ones I haven't seen out.
Ps. I almost put Kimi Wa Petto on the list. I loved matsujun in that drama! And Ishihara was in it too... Even tho she was hateful. Lol
Check out:
- Nagareboshi
- Bara no nai Hanaya
- Guilty Akuma to Keiyakushita Onna
- Buzzer Beat
I've seen Bara No Nai Hanaya, I almost put it on the list actually but the article was too long so I cut that drama out. My friend strongly recommended Nagareboshi and I was planning to watch it this coming holiday!! Buzzer beat has Yamapi so I'm bound to watch that someday. Lol
I'll check out the synopsis for Guilty Akuma later on today ;)
Thanks for the recs :))
He's defo a talented and hardworking bunch.
- Looks-wise he hasn't conformed to South Koreas plastic surgery boom... despite being pressured in his rookie years... Thus he is one of the rare beauties (and this, in my opinion, shows personal character strength OR that he is an anti-conformist... Both are interesting anyways, lol).
-Acting-wise he delivers his characters beautifully to us - the audience - enabling us to understand, empathise and enjoy these characteers to the max... I see no faults in said department.
Admittedly The Scholar Who walks the Night might've been his worst project but other projects such as Iljimae and Two Weeks (and much more) were undoubtedly gems of dramaland.
I'd like to remind us all that if the production team are faulty it is not the actors fault (i.e Cheese In The Trap) and to me both Lee Jun Ki and Lee Soo Hyuk were TSWWTN's saving grace.
(On a side note, South Korean dramas and their production teams (notably script writers) are known to be influenced by fans and viewership, on many occasions the endings of dramas are changed because of viewers or fans. Similarly the actors schedule can affect the the ending of a drama or character i.e the ending for Kim Jae Joong and Im Si Wan's characters in the drama Triangle)
I hope this will be the drama that will blow us away this year. The cast is awesome and the story seems interesting enough. Jisoo, Kang Ha Neul, Joo Hyuk and Jong Hyun are all talents that have been on my radar for a long time (especially Ji Soo) BUT FOR ME the main attraction remains to be Lee Jun Ki (and not just becuse of his looks).
As for whether Kdramas are better than Jdramas... I like to look at the two like seperate entities and acknowledge that each has theirs strengths and weaknesses. Jdrama has a distinct style and variety unlike Kdrama and it's generic plots but comparably lavish sets. Otherwise, as you said Kdrama is highly accessible and can be very entertaining in it's own way providing you have chosen the correct one to watch.
I don't have a problem finding Jdramas and watching them because I'm a downloader. Due to my yt channel (editing drama as a hobby) and unpredictable internet I tend to download the dramas and I think downloading Jdrama and the subtitles provided by fansubs is much more efficient because then you don't have to wait for sites such as Dramatv or Kissasian to upload the drama.
But... If we bring Kpop and Japanese Music (Jpop, Jrock) into this it becomes a different argument. Koreans rely on the Hallyu wave - Kpop and Kdrama (basically actors, singers, MCs) - to boost their economy to a certain degree and attract tourists and foreigners to their country. This would explain the exposure and ease of accessibility to their content. Whereas Japan has no interest in this tactic because they already make so much profit with their manga/anime industry (Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tale, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Fushugi Yugi these are examples of worldwide successes). Which in turn attracts a good amount of tourists and fans by itself. Moreover selling the rights to a manga such as Hana Yori Dango or Itazura Na Kiss to all of Asia so they can each make their own drama adaptations + gaining more publicity for the original content- it's a win-win situation for them. Similarly you have Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's works - Spirited Away which won an Oscar.
So why bother spending money in advertising, tuning to international fans tastes and competing against Kpop and Kdrama and the Hallyu wave when they already own an explosive attraction like Anime/Manga? And they already make enough money with Japanese entertainment in Japan. It doesn't make any sense financially.
(I read somewhere that The Japanese music industry is only second to the American music industry and at some point they surpassed them temporarily).
Therefore Japan produces it's drama and music according to their own publics interest with no intention of exporting hence no advertisements and no attempts to share it with us internationals. Whereas Korea is the complete opposite. They make attempts to accommodate to us and communicate their interest in getting out there and reaching out to us internationals.
I'm no expert in this field. It's just that I've been around long enough to pick up on these things. At the very beginning I also questioned WHY it's so hard for us Jdrama/Jmusic fans but so easy for Kdrama/Kmusic fans... And these are the answers I came up with over the years.
Thanks for your recs. I'll check the ones I haven't seen out.
Ps. I almost put Kimi Wa Petto on the list. I loved matsujun in that drama! And Ishihara was in it too... Even tho she was hateful. Lol
I'll check out the synopsis for Guilty Akuma later on today ;)
Thanks for the recs :))