As a long-time K-drama fan, I definitely think the quality has declined a bit. These days, I find myself watching…
I used to watch only K dramas but the more C dramas I watch, the less K dramas I watch. C dramas have too many episodes but are usually quite interesting in their chosen subjects. My favorite C dramas are Hidden Love, Road Home, Fireworks of My Heart, and many others. I generally find that K dramas are a bit shallower than C dramas. I'm currently watching You Are My Secret - a nice C drama.
The plastic surgery is becoming more obvious and prevalent. I have to stop watchng some shows because of how uncanny some actresses look, it just throws everything off.
Just stop trying to appease western audience and incorporate elements from western shows. Many producers are trying to emulate that and those K-dramas are awful. Just be authentic and truthful to Korean audience and ethos.
Replying tosaifuly•Aug 16, 2024•Liked Aug 16, 2024
But, Madison, don't get me wrong here - you were born in China from a Korean-American father (and presumably a…
Yes, but it's not like it's enforced, is it? A lot of people from my country emmigrated (some even to the States) and tried as hard as they could to integrate in those cultures. Which is also pretty natural, IMHO, as they have to live there. That doesn't mean that the little bits of culture that traveled with them are always expressed or even fit inside the place they went to.
Cultural values and traditions knowledge is not the same as living inside those traditions and with those values. (I'm not being pedandic here, and as I've said, it's late and I might not express myself best, but I do see a difference). (ETA since you also ETA-ed: Who's talking about Americans in the SK or SK in the States?! I copied what you wrote in your own page because it seems important that you are not discussing from a South Korean's perspective, but an American SK's perspective, which IMHO is not really the same. And OBVIOUSLY if it needs to be said, you can take pride in your roots, but this is a different topic, isn't it? Nobody's attacking you, so please stop defending...)
But that is also not what we were talking about as the editorial is discussing how kdramas changed, from a foreigner's POV, in the past few years (they say since Western money started intruding in the SK drama industry). And kdramas DID change. (And again, YES, it's not even about how a lot or most of them weren't that great anyway, but they were a different kind of not that good from the Western media's not that good dramas, and that too was a novelty that drew outside audience to kdramas).
Nobody's attacking or trying to save anyone else's culture here, and may I say, there are a lot of people in the West who are definitely not that white anyway, so let's not even bring that into focus again. Since YOU started watching dramas, did you feel they were changing? Or if YOU watched some older dramas (that were meant just for the SK audience), is there any remarkable difference from today's modern dramas' styles? That would be interesting to discuss.
In these recent years majority of kdramas are more about cheating, betraying and infidelity and this genre is still going on. The moment I get to know about infidelity and EMA..... I drop immediately from my watchlist. Because of this kind of repetition genre ,me and my friend also lost interest in Kdrama.
The last drama I cherished so much was My perfect stranger.
Kdrama lacks genres now and good storyline. Right now there is no medical drama, thriller drama,NIS agent drama and so on. I missed those old days when we had good storyline but now it's all rinse and repeat .
Great article! I particularly liked your point that it's okay to watch just 2-3 K-dramas a year. That's me most years. This year and 2020 are the only years I've kind of gone all in in watching dramas. You also made a great point about making a "shift." I watch dramas and movies from most of the countries on MDL, but I like to shake things up every once in a while with a great Indian film. I would also recommend RRR.
Also, addressing K-dramas losing their "charm." I think this is inevitable. When you discover something, it's all so new and you'll like some dramas that just seem mid later. As for myself, I still enjoy k-dramas but I don't think I'll discover a new favorite. My most favorites are Answer Me 1997 (from 2012 when I first started watching k-dramas) and It's Okay to Not Be Okay (2020 when I rediscovered k-dramas).
This is SO true. I've literally been just rewatching old kdramas from the 2000-2010s because stuff have been quite boring/not good. I feel like after the Crash Landing on You era I've seen the drama slump grow. That was maybe a peek we reached back then but now there's literally nothing good. Also another reason why I don't limit myself to just Korean and explore Chinese, Japanese, and Thai as well.
Funny enough my first Asian drama I watched on Netflix (Legend of Fu Yao). Watched a couple of Chinese ones and then discovered Kdramas. I think the reason I fell in love for Asian dramas is because they weren’t over sexualized and focused more on the relationship itself. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a nice steamy scene (Her Private Life, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Mysterious Love) or the eluding to the leads having sex, but I enjoy more watching the leads get to that point. I have been going back and rewatching older dramas and find that I seem to enjoy the ones from 2016-2018 some even older. I like a good romance, the arrogant /brooding/misunderstood male leads (Go Go Squid, Dating in the Kitchen, Oh My Venus) but maybe because I’m older I can’t get into 18yo generals or CEOs or 20 something yo female leads acting like children. I also find 40 episodes are a bit much for me lately. I was watching The Double which has been really interesting but now I’m at episode 23 wondering if it will even end. Sadly I think I will drop it.
As a long-time K-drama fan, I definitely think the quality has declined a bit. These days, I find myself watching more and more Chinese or Japanese dramas.
This comment section is really funny. Just move on bruh it’s just a stupid banner picture. Is this the only thing you think about? Can you even sleep properly? Go outside, get some fresh air and vitamine D. Watch some drama and maybe just simply ask authors for making another article with actors you want in there. Plus i don’t think you can change banner pic once you upload it. Have a nice day and i can’t wait for some other spicy comments. Love y’all
I just want that 'first few months' feeling back where I was completely awestruck by them I miss that I want to have the experience of being completely sucked into a kdrama for the whole time I miss older kdramas I feel like I’m chasing that feeling the newer kdramas are not doing it for me :((
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."
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C dramas have too many episodes but are usually quite interesting in their chosen subjects.
My favorite C dramas are Hidden Love, Road Home, Fireworks of My Heart, and many others. I generally find that K dramas are a bit shallower than C dramas.
I'm currently watching You Are My Secret - a nice C drama.
Cultural values and traditions knowledge is not the same as living inside those traditions and with those values. (I'm not being pedandic here, and as I've said, it's late and I might not express myself best, but I do see a difference). (ETA since you also ETA-ed: Who's talking about Americans in the SK or SK in the States?! I copied what you wrote in your own page because it seems important that you are not discussing from a South Korean's perspective, but an American SK's perspective, which IMHO is not really the same. And OBVIOUSLY if it needs to be said, you can take pride in your roots, but this is a different topic, isn't it? Nobody's attacking you, so please stop defending...)
But that is also not what we were talking about as the editorial is discussing how kdramas changed, from a foreigner's POV, in the past few years (they say since Western money started intruding in the SK drama industry). And kdramas DID change. (And again, YES, it's not even about how a lot or most of them weren't that great anyway, but they were a different kind of not that good from the Western media's not that good dramas, and that too was a novelty that drew outside audience to kdramas).
Nobody's attacking or trying to save anyone else's culture here, and may I say, there are a lot of people in the West who are definitely not that white anyway, so let's not even bring that into focus again. Since YOU started watching dramas, did you feel they were changing? Or if YOU watched some older dramas (that were meant just for the SK audience), is there any remarkable difference from today's modern dramas' styles? That would be interesting to discuss.
The moment I get to know about infidelity and EMA..... I drop immediately from my watchlist. Because of this kind of repetition genre ,me and my friend also lost interest in Kdrama.
The last drama I cherished so much was My perfect stranger.
Kdrama lacks genres now and good storyline. Right now there is no medical drama, thriller drama,NIS agent drama and so on. I missed those old days when we had good storyline but now it's all rinse and repeat .
Also, addressing K-dramas losing their "charm." I think this is inevitable. When you discover something, it's all so new and you'll like some dramas that just seem mid later. As for myself, I still enjoy k-dramas but I don't think I'll discover a new favorite. My most favorites are Answer Me 1997 (from 2012 when I first started watching k-dramas) and It's Okay to Not Be Okay (2020 when I rediscovered k-dramas).
Have a nice day and i can’t wait for some other spicy comments.
Love y’all
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."
Finally an editorial!! Such a great read, thank youu♡