KDrama Addicts Anonymous (part 5)

[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 there other sources, including Dramabus and AmazonPrime.

Previous Threads, with discussion of what we’ve enjoyed and what to avoid:

Thread 4 (previous threads linked from OP of this one)

Some suggestions for shows that we’ve enjoyed - those marked with an asterisk are more uniformly loved or admired:

Because This Is My First Life (Viki)*
Black (Netflix)*
Chicago Typewriter (Viki)*
Don’t Dare to Dream (Netflix, or as Jealousy Incarnate on Viki)*
Fight For My Way (Viki/Drama bus)*
Goblin (Viki)
Healer (Netflix)*
He is Psychometric (Viki)
Her Private Life (Viki)*
His Master’s Sun (Netflix)
I Hear Your Voice (Netflix /Viki)
Just Between Lovers (Viki)*
Last Train to Busan - film (Amazon Prime)
Live (Netflix)
Love from a Star (netflix)*
My Strange Hero (Viki)
Pinocchio (Netflix)
Pride & Prejudice (Netflix)*
Prison Playbook (Netflix)*
Romance is the Bonus Book (Netflix)*
She Was Pretty (Dramabus/Netflix)*
Something in the Rain (Netflix)
Strong Girl Bong Soon (Netflix)
Suspicious Partner (netflix)*
W (Viki & Netflix)*
What’s Up With Secretary Kim (Viki)*
While You Were Sleeping (viki)*
You are my Destiny (Netflix)

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

If you want to know your oppas from your unnis try this helpful guide to Korean terms of address and honorifics.

We are generally fans of all things Korean, so equally happy to talk about Korean cookery, film 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

We have a few frequently used acronyms:
FL/2FL = female lead/2nd female lead
ML/2ML = male lead/2nd male lead
SLS = Second Lead Syndrome (where the FL/MLis too thick to realise how much better the 2ML/2FL is)

We also abbreviate titles if they’re long, but usually only after using the full title & acronym together. Some of the regular favourite actors have been abbreviated too for speed/efficiency, although “him off Black” seems to have stuck for Song Seung-Heon. Don’t be afraid to ask for help/clues if we’re not making sense or have descended into acronym soup.

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

Hi Cheshire & welcome, it’s a wide field out there! If you like anime there are loads of dramas based on them, like Cheese in the Trap or indeed Antique Bakery though it’s been hard to find a good stream for that one 😡

Betty is further ahead with The Guest on fastdrama (free), which is supernatural, dark and well done. Also Kim Jae Wook as a priest!

Ooh, the Guest looks good, I'll have to give it a go.

dramafast.com/drama/the-guest/

Also Black on Netflix is good

Welcome Cheshire... If you like Anime I suggest W Two Worlds on Netflix... With the delicious Toasty Lee Jong Suk in... About a girl who manages to slip between the real world and the comic book world her father created... It's beautifully stylistically done...! 👍❤️

I haven’t been able to watch the HPL finale yet and will be out & about for most of today. I’ll be back when I’m caught up and there’s no chance of spoilers.

Really pleased to welcome a new face - do stick around Cheshire. It would be good to pick your brains on Japanese stuff.

Incidentally, I don’t think Korean is tonal. As far as I understand it, the alphabet and spelling are phonetic and pronunciation is consistent/stable. That’s why there are 3 written variants of one of the vowel sounds - to allow for homonyms (sound alike words) where the meaning is clear from the spelling. When I can lay my hands on my grammar book, I can post the detail.

👍 I’ll wait for you to come back on to discuss... for some reason they were a bit slow with subs so ended up watching some bits 3 times ie no subs, 60% subs and finally full subs this morning! It’s a hard life 🤣

Bea, Bettys, thank you for the suggestions. DD announced earlier this week that TV is boring! But we finished Sassy Go Go yesterday so will look at your suggestions today if she's not too bored of TV again.

Cheshire, I second the recommendation of W. My anime loving dd and I enjoyed, though ds gave up on it very quickly when we tried to tempt him. He is anime hardcore!

I'm still enjoying Ji Chang Wook's fine knitwear in Healer but near the end now.

Absolute boyfriend sounds fun. Is it on Netflix? Wishful thinking I expect.
I mostly read/ watch fantasy or sci fi stuff and I'm getting a little needy of a bit more in my KDramas.

Ginger... Absolute Boyfriend is on Viki... If you've really fallen for the kdrama then it's worth subscribing too!..
You will never see the light if day aha... There's excellent stuff popping up there all the time!
If you want a Robot storyline... "I Am Not A Robot" on netflix is fun... Another Robot theme is "Are You Human" which is my favourite one but only available on a dodgy stream site (non boobage site we call it... Although Boatyard unfortunately got some boobage! 😂 😳😱)
Glad you liked W... It's one of my all time faves! 👍👍❤️

If you’ll wait for me for HPL, Betty, I’ll dip in and out today.

Ginger - Can you run to another £4 per month for Viki? There’s so much good stuff on there.

W is fab!

As Bea says if you are getting into kdrama in a big way it is worth subscribing to Viki as they have a lot of stuff like Absolute Boyfriend and Her Private Life which is currently airing, so you get 2 episodes a week. They often do special offers, I subscribed to one Xmas AND PAY SOMETHING LIKE £25 FOR THE WHOLE YEAR, ALTHOUGH THEY DO MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS THAT YOU CAN CANCEL AT ANY TIME Netflix

wHOOPS TYPING WITHOUT LENSES IN DIDN'T MEAN TO shout

Bettys! 😂😂😂... You're no lens typing! 😂

Hey! Meant to say... Vlive are live streaming BTS First Wembley show on Saturday... For a price of course... Think its about £25... So you could watch there!... I'm dying to watch it but I think it makes sense to wait!... Am assuming it will be available after the event! 👍💜

Also personally I prefer the subs on Viki as they are done by volunteers and tend to include explanations for idiomatic expressions etc.

Will wait boatyard for HPL chat, which gives me the excuse to rewatch bits while waiting.

Bea will check that out although may not be in a fit state to watch live (uni reunion hic!!)

Ooops! Wrong "your"... Apologies! Don't want you to think I don't know the difference! It irks me when other people get it wrong!!... If you see me use the wrong "it's /its" as well it's because I can't be bothered to correct with my speedy typing!... Sorry for being a pedant!! 😂

Also although as Cheshire says it is possible to find most stuff somewhere shifty eyes , the quality isn't always great or there are dodgy ads or boobage. Some shows like I'm Not a Robot are on both Netflix and Viki, but some like Secretary Kim are just on Viki.

Actually Bea that sentence can mean two different things with either spelling !

Also personally I prefer the subs on Viki as they are done by volunteers and tend to include explanations for idiomatic expressions etc.

This! So much this. Netflix subtitles greetings as [name] when people are using relational terms like hyung, unni, oppa and sunbaenim. Viki is more faithful and accurate, so you get a rwal sense of the dynamics. I really didn’t get to grips with Korean societal hierarchy and dynamics until I got Viki. The subbers also indicate when the speaker has switched from formal to informal speech or vice versa, which can be pivotal in a blooming romance or a dynastic/workplace powerplay.

Bea I just watched your link to Dionysus 💜 on the other thread and I have 2 thoughts.....

1. The vision mixing/direction on BGT was crap, they had no idea how to cut for BTS
2. Jimin is my bias-wrecker 😱😍💜

Loving your work on the BGT thread, Betty and Bea.

Hee Hee! I'm just spreading the love and joy over there ... though i think i should stop now (unless someone asks for more) as I will pee people off for going off topic!

A 20 minute rabbit hole for you...

Have you ever watched

I think i rank this as one of the most epic live performances ever! It must have been amazing to be there... the creativity, choreography, the charisma !!!! Phew! It truly is marvellous!

Bettys.... Jiminssi! You know what they say

and I love his

with all this kdrama (and gazing at Jimin)... i think i can spot busan satoori now! don't know whether to be proud or mortified!!!

The problem I had with Korean was the fact sounds tend to change depending if they're followed by a vowel or consonant and depending what part of the sentence they each are. It doesn't sound too bad, but in practice in made understanding quite difficult.

Professional subtitles very rarely have footnotes as for some reason they are considered semi unprofessional, basically you should be able to convey all nuances without resorting to them.

I much prefer when they leave the honorifics alone.

JP is so much easier except for the Kanji!

I’ve read there is more than one set of Japanese characters, Cheshire. What are the key uses/differences in practical terms?