KDrama Addicts Anonymous (thread 2)

[boatyardblues]

A quiet corner of MN for serious addicts of Kdrama, or the Kdrama-curious. Most of our viewing is drawn from Netflix and Viki, but the more seriously addicted have other sources, including dramabus. To our surprise, we managed to fill a whole thread, which is full of recommendations (and ones to swerve): www.mumsnet.com/Talk/streamed_tv/3337309-K-Drama-recommendations?pg=1

We have some recommendations for newbies:

My (current) top 5 – all Netflix
Live
Prison Playbook
Don’t Dare to Dream
Black
His Master’s Sun

Betty’s top 5
Black (Netflix)
Fight For My Way (Drama bus)
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Don’t Dare To Dream (Netflix / Viki)

Bea’s top 5
Strong Girl Bong Soon (netflix)
What's Wrong With Secretary kim (Viki)
She Was Pretty (dramabus)
Healer (netflix)

Our lovely occasional posters who have lived in Korea, are Korean or have Korean partners/family members pop up to provide the context for some of the more baffling cultural references.

We love a good kdrama bingo card to mark off the regular tropes – white truck of doom, drunk/med evac piggybacks, stalkers, rooftop apartments etc

We also stray into Korean cookery and kpop when the mood takes us. To get to grips with the lingo, try dramaloveaddicts.proboards.com/thread/24/korean-word-day?page=1

If you want to join us down the kdrama rabbit hole, pull up a chair, say goodbye to early nights and get stuck in…

Think you're right and the locations are in Busan

I did enjoy it, it's definitely worth watching

I’ve finished the first episode & I’m definitely in for the whole thing, but I sense there is a lot of heartbreak to come. However, it also seems to have a lot of heart and characters I want to know more about, which is always a good sign. It may be that the FL is a bit wooden later, but I like her whole vibe.

The architect (2ML) is 6’3.5” and the FL is teeny tiny. Standing next to one another, he looks like one of those blue people in Avatar next to a small human.

Another thing... what’s with all the sofas and fridges on these rooftop terraces when its a 50:50 toss up between sunshine and torrential rain in kdrama? Half these oppas and dainty FLs would be electrocuted every time they set foot outside their front doors on a rainy day!

I thought that about the rooftop sofas, surely they get soaked & manky?

Lol at the Avatar scale!! For once the 2ML doesn’t compare to the ML imo... there’s something hypnotic about the MLs eyes looking through the tousled mop of hair

I do love a tall man, though, so the kdrama preference for casting MLs >6ft tall really works for me. I equally love it when they cast tall women like the Weightlifting Fairy FL and the BFF in She Was Pretty. The FL in DDTD is also tall IIRC. I’d love to know what the average height of Korean men & women is, because I don’t think kdrama is even vaguely representative.

Isn’t the internet a wondrous thing! Answers here

Lazy person post: 5’7” for men and 5’2” for women in South Korea. Definite casting bias...

Ha most of the men on my oppas list are tall too, but as I’m 5’2” practically everyone is taller than me, even Jo Jung Suk

Given that Black and Just Between Lovers feature mall collapses, I wondered how common it was. It seems there have been a number of prominent structure failures WSJ Blogpost, but the Department Store collapse in 1995 is culturally significant because thrre were over 500 deaths, the largest peacetime loss of life in a single event in S Korea. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse

That’s so tragic. The Wikipedia article mentions both Black & Just Between Lovers reference it. It’s so recent still for people who survived & family members. The memorial story is very similar to JBL

I also remember there’s a kdrama where FL thinks ML is in a store that collapses, as she’s agreed to meet him there for lunch, but sees him at the side of the road outside and rushes over to hug him. Can’t remember which one though...

From that wiki article:

Five hours before the collapse, the first of several loud bangs was heard emanating from the top floors, as the vibration of the air conditioning caused the cracks in the slabs to widen further. Amid customer reports of vibration, the air conditioning was turned off, but the cracks in the floors had already grown to 10 cm wide. Around then, it was realized that collapse of the building was inevitable, and an emergency board meeting was held. The directors suggested to Lee that all customers should be evacuated, although Lee angrily refused to do so for fear of revenue losses. However, Lee himself left the building safely before the collapse occurred. Lee did not even inform his own daughter-in-law, Chu Kyung Young, who was one of the employees in the building, of the imminent danger. She became trapped in the rubble and was rescued only days later.

Real life is more shocking than the dramas

This bit from the wiki link above shocked me too:

Around 5:52 p.m., the roof gave way, and the air conditioning units crashed through into the already-overloaded fifth floor.[7] The main columns, weakened to allow the insertion of the escalators, collapsed in turn, and the building's south wing began pancaking into the basement. Within 20 seconds, all the columns in the store's south wing had given way, killing 502 people and trapping more than 1,500 inside.

20 seconds!

I remembered which kdrama covered it. It was Reply 1994, so this was covered as a contemporaneous event in the plot, along with the IMF bailout in 1997 or 1998. It’s reminded me to watch Reply 1988 now that I have viki.

20 seconds!! They had no chance

.... Sorry to change the subject... But... Shopaholic King Louis! 👍😍

Change away Bea! I only posted about it because what often seems an improbable plotline to us actually happened and the fact it was a recurring theme made me go looking to see if there was an underlying truth. It’s so horrifying, you can see why it has such enduring resonance.

I am really enjoying Just Between Lovers. The slow build is perfectly suiting my mood and needs right now. It’s been good so far, not a single bum note. The quality of the writing, acting and production is terrific.

Thought you'd like Shopaholic King Louis I did too!

Oooo! Glad we're all enjoying something at the moment!.... Louis is a very sweet tale! Bettys! You know me too well!....

I think Betty’s right that I’ll be in the mood for fluff after this. It is unflinching.

Shopaholic Louis! 😂

Wey wey wey??

Boatyardblues... Next fluff piece!!

Perhaps. I have 12 more episodes of this to get through first.