Welcome to K-Ville (No, You’re Not at Duke, Stop Puking)
Kdramas probably have a long and storied history that ties into South Korea’s meteoric rise as one of the Pacific Rim’s economic powerhouses etc. etc. — but mostly what I know is that many years ago, predating DVDs’ commonality, when in Asia, all things came as a VCD, my father brought to our home (and probably regrets it each day he lives) a copy of Meteor Garden.
My mother and I resisted watching it for many moons, immediately dismissing it as “horrible,” and “totally lame,” and “Asian guys aren’t even hot.” But after caving during a long and lingering winter vacation, the rest was, essentially, history: like a casual coke user turned hardcore crack smoker, I went from Meteor Garden to Meteor Garden II to Huan Zhu Ge Ge to — and this is when ya’ll will want to check in — to something call All About Eve.
All About Eve was like black tar heroin to me, featuring rival newscasters and their many loves and frustrations — it was melodrama in its purest form: everybody cried and broke up at least three times, and there was one fake pregnancy, one fake abortion, one senseless and physically-impossible vehicle-related death, one suicide attempt that goes wrong, and some people who come together in the end for the most awkward, uncomfortable, and unrealistic kiss ever. I loved it. It burned like sugar and Jesus in my veins.
Guys — it was time to break out the spoon, lighter, and tourniquet.
• …You haven’t made these sound all that well-written, why should I watch them?
Because they’re somewhat poorly-written. They’re the visual equivalent of Harlequin novels, with predictable twists and turns but usually an ending that you want — with a sense of sweeping romance. They’re totally mindless, by turns funny and wonderful and charming. In fact, they share many of the same characteristics of fanfiction — if not the very best fanfiction. My current two favorites are Coffee Prince and Bad Couple — the first of which features a tomboy who is literally taken for a boy, and gets paid to act like a lazy, wealthy scion’s boyfriend (I’m not making this up or stealing the plot from an SGA story, by the way) to scare away potential suitors; the second features a woman who wants a baby and — after scoping out the best sperm in the country — finds it in a botany professor, and proceeds to roofie the baby juice out of him with hilarious results.
These stories are by no means perfect, but they are dear — they’re also wonderful good fun in packages of 24 hour-long episodes or less.
• But Pru, I just remembered: I don’t speak Chinese/Japanese/Korean!
Not to worry, dedicated teams of rabid fangirls fansub this stuff at an astonishing pace, meaning while you’re going to be listening to Chinese/Japanese/Korean, you’ll be reading English subtitles — many times those subtitles will outstrip the so-called “professional” ones.
• All right, fine, I’m sold: where do I get ahold of this stuff?
That’s where ya’ll are lucky: watching k/j/c/twdramas these days are a snap. Once upon a time, you had to go through the terrifyingly huge forums at either Soompi or D-Addicts to (a) download the torrents of the video and then (b) to download the soft sub of the episode. What that means, in English, is that you had to download the raw video (all foreign language, no English) and then download an srt file (a subtitle file) — make sure that the video and srt file had the same name (except for the file extension), and then were in the same directory — the subtitles would load automatically, but the stress levels were insane. At least for me.
These days, with the advent of YouTube and other online streaming , you’re lucky in that none of that is necessary for the most popular of the k/j/c/twdramas — usually, they’re available for you to watch anytime straight from the web. (Be warned, because of certain copyright restrictions, things may disappear and be rearranged fairly frequently — my constant hunt for the show “Goong” online will be discussed later.)
The best places to watch these dramas online are at MySoju.com (a fast-growing streaming site) and at CrunchyRoll.com (gigantic) — where dozens on dozens of shows can be watched at your leisure.
• Fine, drag me into the abyss. What should I be watching?
- Bad Couple – (watch it here) About fashion editor Dang Ja and her decision that — despite her disinterest in marriage, she is interested in having a baby, and the many shenanigans that get her to the maternity ward. Funny and sweet and horrible — guys, the two protagonists get attacked by a wild, horny pig that Dang Ja accidentally roofies, I shit you not — I fell fast and hard for this series. It’s finished airing in Korea now and the last few subtitle sets should be coming out soon.
- Coffee Prince — (watch it here) About a hardworking, tomboyish girl named Eun Chan who gets mistaken first for a thief, and then for a boy, and then finally gets roped into pretending to be a gay lover to Han Kyul (the scion of a coffee empire) — but what makes this story amazing is the wonderful tenderness that the characters play for one another: yes, this is a running joke about gender and homosexuality, but it’s not used for cheap laughs. Coffee Prince is about friends and learning not to quit — lovely and lovable.
- Long Vacation — (watch it here) Is a classic Japanese drama — about a struggling concert pianist and his flaky roommate’s fiancee…who said roommate dumped at the alter…and who bursts into the pianists’ life in her wedding kimono. Engaging and funny and enduring, this is one of the earliest dramas I watched and still one of the best — plus, guys, Kimura Takuya is in it. He’s hot like burning.
- Meteor Garden — (watch it here) I’M SORRY. I COULDN’T RESIST. Fair warning: it’s really really pretty terrible, but it does it with flair. F4 — the four rich boys as beautiful as flowers — slouch around their elite school treating everybody like dirt until one girl changes everything. It’s the show that introduced me to my one true love: Vic Zhou (you may look but not touch; we’re going to get married one day). It still holds a very near and dear place in my heart. Based on the manga “Boys Over Flowers.”
- Mars — (download it here) It’s based off of the manga of the same name, starring Vic Zhou in a really appallingly fake and fugly mullet — but it’s okay, because he rides a motorcycle. It’s actually good, telling the story of a bad boy and a broken girl and their unlikely romance — one of my favorites.
- Goong — (watch the first episode online) I BURN to find this entire series to give to you in a bow, because Goong is simultaneously the biggest kdrama blockbuster ever and one of my favorite dramas ever filmed. It is set in an alternate-reality 21st century Korea, where it was never fractured in two and is still ruled under the Korean royal family, which functions now like Britain’s constitutional monarchy. A girl, Shin Chaegyun, finds that she’s been promised in marriage to the sullen crown prince, and the rest, as they say, is history. There’re intersecting love stories, tales of past betrayal, questions of family loyalty, and the sets, the costumes, they’re so enormously beautiful. Watch the first episode, I promise you, it’s worth it, and as soon as I find where to show you the rest, that information will be yours.
Happy viewing, my friends, and God speed.
ETA: If you look at the comments for this post, you’ll see those who have chimed in already have loads of differing opinion — which is great, it just shows you what a wealth of options there are in Asian dramas — so! Happy viewing! (And if ya’ll go watch something (ie: My Name Is Kim Sam Soon) and hate it for the not-at-all latent misogyny and assorted bullshit that made my blood boil, DO NOT come crying to me — it was not on my recommendation.)
Hey, thanks for going to the trouble of putting this up–as a sometimes avid fan of asian dramas I appreciate the opportunity to further seep my mind in ridiculous melodrama ;) I’m actually re-watching Mars right now (favorite a-drama ever!), and they do have the series on crunchyroll, it’s just hard to find sometimes. http://www.crunchyroll.com/showseries?id=685
The subtitles sometimes suck, but they have all the episodes, and do you really need to know exactly what their saying when you can be watching Vic Zhou? *g*
Oh dear lord. I have watched those.
Meteor Garden - *gah* that was my intro to the world of Japenese(?) sappy dramas - before - it was just Japenese horror and manga. (Haven’t watched the sequel - I don’t think i want to. The frustration at the characters may give me a heart attack)
Huan Zua Ge Ge I&II - I eh…actually really loved this quite a lot - ’cause swords…totally my thing. (I’ve even got the soundtrack *blushes*)
All About Eve - My first ever Korean drama. OMG. They don’t believe in short stories do they? Though it’s not as bad as the unbelievably popular ‘Jewel in the Palace’ (Dae Jang Geum). I rememeber seeing a few eps of it, then a few months later, I saw it was still on and the plotline had hardly moved at all. (”They still haven’t finished cooking/eating yet?!?!) But yeah - All About Eve - I absolutely loathed how pathetic they were at times. So unbelievable - but there I was, every night, avidly watching to see what happened. (Damn them) I absolutely loved the bad girl though - she was good - she totally looked evil.
Nooooooo…don’t make we watch any moooooooore!!!!!!!!!!!
Meteor Garden is all fine and good, but have you seen the brilliantly ridiculous Japanese adaptation, Hana Yori Dango?
All of these fine dramas and more can be found over at the LJ comm Jdramas available for download via MU, SS, etc. (http://community.livejournal.com/jdramas/). Join it and the wealth of East Asia will be at your fingertips, subtitled!
I’m watching Coffee Prince right now and I love it so much I want to force it into a Vera Wang custom-made wedding dress and marry it.
I also whole-heartedly recommend My Name is Kim Sam Soon. It’s actually not as uproariously bad as some other kdramas, though the male protagonist’s wardrobe is a joke within itself.
oh gracious gracious me. I watched Episode 1 of Goong, and, um, I am now flailing at my computer in the sorrow that is the quest for episode 2. That series is GOLD.
I have just lost SEVERAL HOURS of my life to Coffee Prince whatever. I don’t understand the subplot with the guy with the dog. I’m not sure I could tell you what anyone’s name is. It’s AWESOMELY BAD.
All the sereis you’ve reccd look interesting…I’ll have to check out Coffee prince!
And as for my two cents, I’m going to have to recommend Gokusen, a Japanese live action adaption of the manga/anime of the same name.
It’s the story of a highschool teacher who is secretly the heir of a Yakuza family. She goes to teach at a boy’s highschool and gets dumped with a class of delinquents. Attempting to teach her students, whilst keeping her true identity hidden is hard. Comedy and wackiness ensues.
It also stars Jun Matsumoto (from Boys over Flowers) as the head of the class, Shin. Boy candy…
Download it from http://sars-fansubs.com/index.php?cont=btpage
It’s not just that I love Long Vacation, but also that I can watch it without having to blip past the bits that are uncomfortable or offensive. It’s not misogynistic. Women have sex for a bunch of reasons, and that doesn’t make them bad or unworthy of being a love interest. Even the main wrong-choice love interests are still basically good people. It’s not just that people get together with the right person, but that they’re better in themselves at the end, that they have something as well as someone.
Minami is fabulous and the reasons people get together or don’t are pretty good reasons and then I like to think they’re almost late for the wedding because of making out.
Speaking, kindof, of which, from the Stranger:
‘I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone’ (FILM) This film, by Tsai Ming-Liang, has everything you’d expect from the Taiwanese auteur: long, stationary takes; convenient gaps between floorboards; and glorious preoccupations with water, male bodies, and fluorescent foodstuffs. Since it takes place in Tsai’s homeland of Malaysia and concerns exile in a foreign land, it’s also his most personal film yet. Come for the oblique homoeroticism, stay for the levitating mattress. (SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, seattlefilm.org. 9 pm, $8—$10.) ANNIE WAGNER
I’m not entirely sure how good this torrent is, but in case you hadn’t run across it in your neverending quest for Goong, I figured I’d throw it at you:
http://www.boxtorrents.com/details.php?id=130064
Thank you for recommending Coffee Prince! Totally ate up my day, but in the best way possible.
omggg i just finished watching coffee prince 6 and WHY IS THE MANAGER (who i cannot never remember the name of) SUCH AN EMOTIONAL FAILURE.
*FLAILS*
ihu for getting me into this. Q_Q
The entire series of Goong is up over at the TV section of the locked download community that I’m not allowed to name outside locked posts. You know the ones. It was up on Megaupload and Mediafire in four parts, and at least with Megaupload the episodes are still downloadable. You just have to search through the memories (as both Goong and Princess Hours It’s… sheer unadulterated bliss. I just wish I had webspace to put them all up myself!
Hiya. I used to watch Japanese dramas on Fuji TV with my friend when I was in high school, so I thought I’d check out the Korean dramas too.
You have me addicted to Coffee Prince, but they’ve only subbed up to episode 7. I have 8 & 9 in my sights, but no translations for them yet. =(
I watched the first episode of Goong too, but I found someone on youtube who has all 20 subbed episodes.
I’m going to waste soooo much time watching these and the Arrested Development DVDs I got from the library. =)
Aargh. Scratch part of that message. I wasn’t paying enough attention. The person has Goog S, not Goog Princess Hours. =( I’m on the hunt again.
Have you seen Que Sera Sera (the one with Eric Mun)? I’ve seen it twice already and absolutely LOOOOOVED it. I know that people either love it or hate it. I love it because Que Sera Sera just has a completely different feel than all the other kdramas out there. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
I thought of you every time I flipped past bad Korean dramas while searching for the English stations.
Also, I have a present for you. When are you next going to be in North Carolina?
Sadly, not until September.
I hate you! I mean, I slaver for Coffee Prince, but don’t you dare make me watch Goong!
I was channel-flipping the other day and I recognized Mars based on maybe five seconds of subtitled dialogue. I kind of get your Vic Zhou thing now.
(Also also — did you watch the new jdrama version of Hana Yori Dango? I found it unsuccessful in that I had no clue why she picked Tsukasa over Hanazawa Rui. Even if it DID make me cry. Nor did I understand why all the male leads insisted on wearing elf-pointed shoes.)
The reason I hold hate deep in my heart for Hana Yori Dango is because she chooses Tsukasa over Rui — who was played by Vic Zhou in the Chinese version. OF COURSE, that is also why I watch Mars obsessively, because omg they love one another FOREVAH in that one.
now you make me totally curious!
i mean, i left that world already several years behind me, not that Hongkong dramas would not fascinate as a child and a teenager, but with a day having only 24 hours, i made myself choosing between what kind of popculture i wanted to follow more: western/US tv shows, and engage there in fandom, or Hongkong dramas, which has been part of my life for so long, and which also has a wealth of fandom and meta and fanfiction in english, i found out (i speak perfectly cantonese, thanks to my grandfather), but i have never learned to write chinese, so that part of fannish world is close to me).
Have you actually ever considered to write fanfiction of asian/chinese/hongkong/tw dramas?
(if you already have, than i apologize, i must have missed that)
I haven’t, actually, but given how much I love Coffee Prince and Goong, I’m starting to consider it.
I found Goong if you are still looking for it. Send me a message on myspace if you are still looking for it
I stumbled across this post yesterday during a quest for fic, and now I’m hooked. By forgoing sleep, I’ve managed to watch 16 episodes of Coffee Prince in less than 24 hours. So freaking awesome:) When I’m recovered from my impromtu marathon, I’ll be checking out the others too… so thanks for introducing me to them!
OMG I never commented here! *You* tricked me into becoming a K/J-drama addict (slashy fanfiction-like tvseries! Pretty boys!) and I still don’t know if I have to thank and worship you or curse you. My first drama was Coffee Prince and to this day, it’s still my favorite. OMG! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
Ah, I wrote a lengthy comment on dramas in general, and more specific on CP, and more on the fact that your parallel to drugs is, well, really a good one, but I was raving like an obsessed ahem lunatic. So I just deleted that.
As for Goong, are you still looking for it? Cos I could help you with that. You could get mail ;) Just email me