Do you have a Dream Drama?
Y’know, like in your head, you have the Perfect scenario, the Perfect male lead, the Perfect female lead, the Perfect second leads, and the Most Perfect story arcs, Ever? The kind of idea that makes you go, “OMGGGG I WOULD WATCH THAT DRAMA!!!!”???
Where if you could have it your way, this drama would be filmed and produced, stat, and immediately given a time slot on a Korean network, so that the entire dramaverse would be able to inhale the awesome, in unison?
Well, I and the ladies on this blog certainly have a few of those, and not only am I gonna share those awesome scenarios with you today, we wanna hear about your Perfect Dream Drama too!
Sometimes a dream drama scenario is inspired by an awesome drama that we just wanna see more of.
Sometimes it’s inspired by the awesomeness of an actor / actress that we could so imagine doing a particular type of role flat-out brilliant justice.
Sometimes it’s coz there’s so much wasted potential in a disappointing drama (or dramas) that we start dreaming up an alternative, wayyy better drama for the actors/actresses/scenario.
If you’ve been following the comments threads on some of the posts on this blog, you might have come across some of our squee-storming and the various ideas that the ladies and I have been toying with.
We get a little (ok, a lot) excited, and often, the story threads span several different comment threads across the blog and it’s hard to keep track of the story as it evolves.
It’s been boatloads of fun though, and honestly, it didn’t even occur to me to centralize the ideas in one place, until resident squee-stormer and recent giveaway winner Lady G left me this comment a couple of days ago:
Seriously. What an awesome idea!! 😀
So without further ado, let’s dive right in!
As is befitting the major k-loves in my life, I’ve got a bit of a scenario for each of my big k-loves. Yep, there’s a scenario each for Gong Yoo, Jang Hyuk and (an as yet still somewhat underdeveloped one for) Kim Woo Bin.
Of course, you get to pick whomever you wanna construct your dream drama around, in the comments section (more on that later!).
1. Gong Yoo: Action Rom-Com
This action rom-com idea is still brewing and growing as I type this, and is the brainchild of Lady G, who was inspired after seeing this photo of Gong Yoo that kaiaraia posted:
We all agreed that Gong Yoo looks like he loves kids and seems to be pretty great with them. Lady G’s active imagination immediately went to work, and she posted this initial scenario:
SOLD.
What a fun premise! And as if we need any more convincing, here’s more evidence of Gong Yoo being adorable with a kid:
Ahhhh!!! So! Much! Cute! ❤
As other commenters got in on the action, the comments started multiplying and our scenario started growing and evolving.
Here’s what we’ve got so far.
Billionaire Bistro Baby (Tentative title)
We have Gong Yoo as a somewhat-grumpy cabbie by day:
And a singer/songwriter/musician by night, who plays sets at night in a bistro/jazz bar as a second job, coz that’s his true passion:
Who one day meets Han Chae Ah, a strong, modern, career-minded passenger in his cab:
Hijinks ensue when they discover a baby girl in the backseat of the cab, and they each think the other is trying to ditch the baby.
But really, why would anyone want to ditch this baby??
Seriously, this is a real Korean baby. Click the pic to see her in adorable real-life action on YouTube!
Add on! Backstory!!
Meet Baby Dad (Kim Byeong Se)
And Baby Mom (Kim Hye Seon)
They’re smart, kind, philanthropic people, and have tried to conceive for the longest time, but couldn’t.
Baby Mom gets unfairly criticized and mocked by the family and feels depressed, but her husband fiercely supports her. She’s his precious wife that he fought tooth and nail to marry even though she came from a middle class family (In his family’s eyes, POOR family.)
Then one magical day after a magical weekend getaway from said pushy, mean family, Mom finds out she’s pregnant and everything is happy and roses. Baby Yerin is born and they love and adore her like a little princess.
Dad is the mega rich CEO of a music company that his grandfather started. So little Baby Yerin is worth billions and they have always tried to protect her.
Now meet Disgruntled 36-year-old Pop Star (Eric Mun).
Disgruntled Pop Star has been cut from future record deals because of his inability to produce hits. In his heyday he was very good, but he turned into a huge diva and the fans moved on. He tried his hand at acting, but his drama debut tanked and he was scorned.
The Anti-fans spread lots of rumors, many that were actually true, about him being mean to fans, making outrageous demands, etc. So his popularity dropped to zilch.
He pleads on his knees to the CEO (thinking he can just storm in and take his issue to the top brass) but he gets turned down for an extended contract. He vows revenge in a big hissy fit.
He gets the evil glint in his eye and the master plan forms when the CEO shoos him out to take a personal call with his wife and he sees him pick up a picture of his beloved baby Yerin, even cooing to her on the phone.
Disgruntled Pop Star’s horrible idea is not thought-through well enough. Not having enough cash left because he’s so extravagant, he hires gangsters from a hole-in-the-wall ‘lending center’ to make the kidnapping.
Meet Kim Myung Min, our head gangster!!! He is exactly as he was in Bad Family, which means that by the end, he’s a softie. Except in this alterna-verse, he’s got a different name and love interest and isn’t trying to form a fake family.
Head Gangster doesn’t realize the job involves a baby until it’s too late. He blows a fuse on his guys for daring to even take such a drastic measure. The old rule applies, no women and children.
At this point Head Gangster also gets a little attached to the baby when she does her sleepy act with him.
In the process of trying to return the baby to her parents, the gangsters nearly get caught, so a big stupid one tosses the baby in the cab while GY is out getting a soda.
GY comes back, and our leading lady jumps in. Hilariously no one is paying attention until they hear a little giggle and baby talk from the floor…
…which is how our befuddled new baby guardians end up on the run while trying to dodge the mobsters and get the baby back into the arms of her anxious parents.
Since this is such a rom-com, Head Gangster needs a little loving too. Which is where GY’s older sister, Choi Jung Won, comes in.
Noona is just a year older than GY and takes her noona role seriously, coz their mother died while she and GY were very young and after their father remarried, he was never around much.
Which means that she’s always taken it upon herself to care for her younger brother. She’s a strong independent sort of woman, but is a big softie on the inside.
Kim Myung Min keeps coming to her door with the excuse of looking for GY while GY and Chae Ah are on the run and she’s all confused thinking her brother owes loan sharks.
Because noona is a teacher in high school, the kkangpae (gangsters) follow her to school and nag her for GY’s whereabouts, then pounce on a bunch of rotten schoolboys when they get fresh with her. And Kim Myung Min roars at them, “Do you want to eat dirt??” HA!
Add on!
Now meet Kim Sun Ah reprising her role as Kim Sam Soon as our second female lead, whose crossover is DDee‘s brainchild.
Hyun Bin is Han Chae Ah’s sort-of rich boyfriend at the beginning of our show, who pines after her and wants to plan her life for her runs a music studio and works for the Baby Dad’s company. He’s trying to get his bestie GY a contract but it hasn’t happened yet.
He is attracted to Chae Ah:
But ends up with Sam Soon instead:
Somehow, GY and Chae Ah manage to dodge what must be rather bumbling mobsters, with these elements that Lady G has laid out:
Hyun Bin has a rooftop spare room where he helps GY and Chae Ah by allowing them to crash for a while. HB comes in to work and mess around, and has the hots for Chae Ah, which makes GY jealous.
In the studio setting, there’s ample opportunity for some GY cutesy music play time with the baby:
AND some swoony late nite heart-to-heart time with our leads by the piano, topped off with an almost kiss..
With the mobsters (temporarily?) off their tail, our cabbie and his passenger end up caring for the baby together at his apartment HB’s rooftop apartment, where she finally meets GY’s grumpy cat, who’s been brought over so that he won’t be home alone:
Who gives her the evil eye but is as sweet and as amicable as can be to Gong Yoo. And who has his own fabulous grumpy-demanding-cat soundtrack.
Go on, I dare you to listen to this song while looking at that fabulously grumpy face and not giggle 😉
Grumpy cat has his quirks too, and leading lady’s aversion to cats adds to the cat-related funnies:
Now meet Chae Ah’s suave, handsome, rich yet shifty on-again-off-again boyfriend, Song Jong Ho:
…who’s really deep in debt because he keeps living beyond his means.
Chae Ah dates him on-and-off while in hiding with GY. GY finds out and gets mad because they were supposed to cut off contact with people until they can sort things out. Which means no dating. Plus he’s already getting steaming jealous of this guy and really doesn’t trust him.
(GY has a good eye for judging character.)
One night on a date our lady gets drunk and accidentally tells Shady Boyfriend about the baby. So his gears start turning.
Shady Boyfriend gets ideas to try and hold Baby Yerin for ransom next.
He is a money laundering accountant for Kim Myung Min’s ‘company’ and when they find out he begs for his life and pulls out the wild card that he knows exactly where the baby is hidden! But he wants a cut of the profits.
Eventually, Shady Boyfriend’s the one who kidnaps our girl and the baby for the last time and everyone comes to save them.
In the meantime, though, as GY and Chae Ah spend time in the same living space, sweet, warm encounters ensue, peppered generously with the comic, all set to the easy, breezy soundtrack.
She gets to see him do everyday things like get groceries for them:
And she gets to see him groove and croon at the bistro/jazz bar:
And of course, sharing the same living space, she can’t help but come across a lil bit of this:
And this:
Thud. (What’s a Gong Yoo drama without a shirtless scene, right? Or several shirtless scenes??)
Her eyes get attracted first, and then her heart. But her brain is the last to catch up, and so we have our heroine in various scenes of comic confusion and perplexity.
Like, why am I staring? Why does the memory of him grooving on that stage keep haunting me? Why did I have a sexy dream about him?
One dream that she has, courtesy of Lady G:
“One of [the dreams] should be in a smoky nightclub where she gets serenaded. and she puckers up, someone starts playing the sexy saxophone then suddenly it starts sounding like a crying baby!
I can see her falling off her chair as he comes closer and closer, cuz in reality she fell off the bed, the baby is crying and he’s coming closer and closer holding her because her diaper needs major changing. (At this point he’s not the expert yet. haha!)”
Another dream I have in mind is where our lovebirds go on a romantic date, with wine, flowers, dancing, and they even share a sexy, sweet kiss.. and then she wakes up only to find herself making out with her pillow..! Pffft.
And of course, they eventually come around to their mutual attraction and love for each other in what Lady G calls their “seal the deal” kiss:
Unlike most other kdramas, this “seal the deal” kiss won’t be their last. Nuh-uh, not in this drama.
After the baby’s finally reunited with her parents, our story ends on this arc, as described by Lady G:
As we see their lives unfold after the baby’s been returned to her parents, we get lots of kisses, as they build their new life together. We see them find romance in the everyday things, like stealing hot kisses in the kitchen while managing their bistro, for example.
He goes in for a sweltering kiss in the Bistro kitchen as she’s busy cooking and balancing two plates for their super busy opening night.
He grabs her face and plants one on her. And she takes the time to kiss him right back. And there is some hot ‘n heavy breathing to go with, until they break the moment to go back to bistro business. Swoon.
And of course, we also get lots of everyday closeness with sizzling, off-the-charts chemistry, sorta like this:
Thud.
OMGGG. The sexyyyy.
Can you wrap your mind around THE AWESOME??!!!! *flails*
As so aptly described by DDee, our leads all have happy-ever-afters, co-running the bistro together:
Add on!
Noona never dreamed she would fall for a kkangpae, but Kim Myung Min wears her down with his earnestness and Chazz Palminteri sexiness and he vows to leave the “business” for her.
Little bro GY is very unhappy about Noona dating the gangster who was chasing them so Noona keeps her surprising love life a secret for a while.
Little bro and Noona have several squabbles in the meantime.
She brings up all the horrible dates she’s had to toss out on their rears because of him, and then he brings up how he had to do the same for her lousy boyfriends and chase them down through the mazes of houses for daring to get fresh with his Noona.
[cue montage of LOL flashbacks]
GY finally realizes Kim Myung Min is a good guy when he helps them save everybody, and in the end, GY makes him a general manager at their night club and even gives his cronies jobs as bouncers and bartenders/waiters.
Disgruntled Pop Star deeply regrets his dumb idea of taking the baby hostage, and apologizes. He even makes amends by offering to sing regularly at the Bistro.
As he learns to accept his lesser ‘status’ and becomes a better man, he even eventually finds love.
[Take your pick of Kim Sun Ah or Ha Ji Won, depending on who you picked as your second female lead ;)]
Add on! Epilogue!
Time-skip of 2 years later, we see billionaire baby all grown into a cheeky little young lady, as you can see in this vid:
In the meantime, GY’s and Chae Ah’s son is turning out be adorable and cheeky, just like his father:
She’s the little noona to Baby Boy, and visits often.
She often spews little words of advice to the little one when GY & Chae Ah aren’t looking. Like, “Be nice to the cat.. he’s the boss” Baby Boy always just looks back at her wearing that cheeky face, and says nothing.
But then after she’s gone home, we see him do exactly what she says. Like offer the cat his favorite toy and stroke Grumpy Cat’s head while Grumpy Cat gives him the bemused stare-down. LOL!
All while GY and Chae Ah watch him with amusement and wonder, and GY remarks, “Hey, look at that, he’s never done that before!” Hahaha!
How awesome is that?
Now tell me you wouldn’t want to watch this drama! 😀
Add on! Alterna-verse!
This is for those who don’t prefer a Kim Sam Soon crossover. So, you can imagine a Secret Garden crossover instead! Hee.
We’d still have Hyun Bin as our second male lead, but our second female lead would be Ha Ji Won:
She’s Chae Ah’s tomboy bestie, who gets all huffy on Chae Ah’s behalf and confronts GY when Chae Ah basically puts her life on hold in order to help GY with the baby.
Of course, we need tomboy Ji Won to also get all confronty with Hyun Bin, who’s trying to control Chae Ah’s life . While she schools him on what truly loving someone really means, As Bestie Ha Ji Won joins forces with HB to help our lead couple navigate all their problems, we get stare-downs that turn into deep electric gazes, and a romance is reluctantly born 😉
2. Jang Hyuk: Chuno Sequel – The Modern-Day, Fantasy Edition
Those of you who kept up with my Liebster post might’ve read some or most of this scenario, but here it is in full, this time with lots of interesting add-ons that emerged in the comments threads.
Basically, I think Jang Hyuk as Lee Dae Gil is such a badass character in Chuno. AND, I think Jang Hyuk rocks the goatee & mane of glory. So much. AND, I think he does clean up real nice in a suit.
So, in my drama, Dae Gil would time-travel to the present and wear a sharp suit while retaining his mane of glory. Kinda like this:
He’d learn to live life as an ordinary modern citizen by day, and prowl the city by night, fighting injustice and taking down baddies, still wielding his trusty blade from Chuno, and still wearing the same badass schmexy smirk.
Certainly, there’d be occasion for him to go shirtless too:
He’d be searching for General Choi (Han Jung Soo) and Wang Son (Kim Ji Suk), who, unlike him, haven’t time traveled to the present, but have reincarnated their way here and therefore don’t remember him. (What, this is kdrama, right? Anything can happen *shrug*)
In line with their dreams while living as slave hunters, General Choi is now a farmer living a quiet life, while Wang Son is now living it up as the chaebol prince of a hotel-casino conglomerate (Ha).
When Dae Gil finds General Choi and Wang Son, they rekindle their bromance (one major arc of the story) and start to prowl the streets together (the second major arc), fighting baddies and taking them down together as the dream team that they’re destined to be.
Wang Son still takes care of the group’s meals, and his complaints are louder and more aggravated than ever, “What, I’m a chaebol prince now, and I STILL GOTTA COOK?!?”
Playing Dae Gil’s leading lady would not be Lee Da Hae, coz that’s been done to death already. Instead, we’d have the wonderful Shin Min Ah, who would be the feisty, strong, streetwise girl who knows Dae Gil’s secret and helps to protect him while keeping him in line.
They probably do bicker their way to romance, and I can’t find a single thing wrong with that.
Dae Gil would smirk at her, and she’d smirk right back at him, then raise her fist:
Eventually she’ll break down all his defenses, of course. Coz who can resist Shin Min Ah?
General Choi’s quiet stoic charm has always been massively irresistible to women, and this time is no exception. He will finally meet his love match in Wang Son’s no-nonsense hotel business manager, played by Kim Sun Ah:
Playing resident baddie would be Kim Gab Soo, just because he’s brilliant at being calm yet chilling:
To top it all off, we would get an extended cameo by Jung Il Woo, coz if you’ve seen the first 10 minutes of The Return of Iljimae, you’d know that he’s immortal and kicks ass even in the present:
While also rocking the modern mane of glory:
Now, I already thought this was the most fantastic, kickass scenario I’d ever heard, but the scenario continued to grow and evolve and take on even more awesome facets.
First of all, the awesome Dnoella, who’d first triggered the scenario with her Liebster question, had a couple of ideas to add, which then made me have more ideas:
And so we have time-traveling Seolhwa (Kim Ha Eun), who’s come all the way to the present, still in pursuit of Dae Gil Orabeoni:
There’s fish-out-of-water time-traveling hijinks, sure, but she finds that some things do stay essentially the same:
Ha.
To earn her keep, Seolhwa works at a sleazy nightclub, singing just like she used to in the past. At some later point in time, some guy tries to get fresh and frisky with her, and Dae Gil busts in to save her, which is how they reunite.
But not before she meets roguish badass Yoo Ah In:
Who helps her navigate the modern world, and who’s also besties with Song Joong Ki (we hafta rekindle their awesome Sungkyunkwan Scandal bromance, right?):
Eventually, Seolhwa moves on from her Dae Gil love when she finds herself falling for Yoo Ah In.
And the awesome doesn’t end there either, coz Lady G and I had a whale of a time squee-storming more facets and arcs to our story!
Next up, we have Song Il Gook as a suspicious detective on the trail of the mysterious “Avenging Angel” that Dae Gil becomes known as.
He’s a muscled, macho jock who’s a great fighter but just a leeettle slow in the head.
He is hilarious, and the running gag is him furrowing his brow and musing aggravatedly and roaring in frustration, coz our favorite trio outsmart him and give him the slip time and time, AND time again. HAHAHA!! XD
And we have Oh Ji Ho as a descendant of Tae Ha, who works with Kim Gab Soo’s character. He’s mysterious. Maybe bad, maybe good.
Eventually, we learn that he’s nowhere near as principled or as heroic as great-granddaddy Tae Ha. Dae Gil then shows him lots and lots of tough love (and that will also give us opportunities for some epic fight scenes!) in order to whip him into the kind of man that would make his great-granddaddy proud.
Also working for Kim Gab Soo’s shady character is reincarnated Eonnyeon (Lee Da Hae). She’s a good girl, but works for the shady guy coz of family debt.
Tae Ha is totally in love with her and quietly protects her from everything while working alongside her.
Of course Dae Gil will have to sort out his feelings for her at some point, because he’s really attracted to a new girl (yay Shin Min Ah!) and for the first time feels free of the crushing, smothering obsession with Eonnyeon.
At first when he sees her again he gets all weepy and depressed, but then he realizes that he can open his heart again to someone else and be happy.
Next, we have Lee Jong Hyuk as a reincarnated Commander Hwang.
Unlike his past self, this time, he will be a big ally to our boys, giving him the opportunity to right any regrets he may have had. He’s the smart cop to Song Il Guk’s dumb cop.
At the same time, we have Ha Si Eun (who played Commander Hwang’s wife in Chuno), as a reincarnated version of herself. Except this time, instead of having palsy like this:
She’s their crime team leader, sharp as nails & whip-smart to boot:
Reincarnated Commander Hwang has to woo her with everything he’s got, ha. Plus, now Commander Hwang is working under a woman who in the past was under HIS thumb. Muahahaha!
What a monster of a drama, eh?? But what an awesome, epic monster it would be!!! 😀
3. Kim Woo Bin: School 2013 – The Adult Years
Those of you who read my School 2013 review would know how much I luffed Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk together as Heung Soo and Nam Soon.
I just couldn’t get enough of their fabulous bromance, and I remember several of my blogosphere friends remarked about having sequels to the show, featuring these two characters: College 2015, followed by MS 2018, ha.
This particular scenario, though, takes place after the boys finish MS, and eventually set up the shops that Kim Woo Bin foresaw in this interview: that Heung Soo would open a PC bang (internet cafe), and Nam Soon would open a comic book store.
At age 28, they still hang out together and do all sorts of bromantic, boy stuff together.
Heung Soo’s love interest would be played by Jung Eun Ji:
I love that she’s age-appropriate, natural, earthy and talented, with charm and spunk to spare.
She shows up one day in Heung Soo’s PC bang, coz she’s the new technician sent to service the machines, heh. She’s smart, sassy and good-humored, and knows her way around the male-dominated world of computers.
She comes by regularly to service and fix the computers, and is drawn to Heung Soo. She doesn’t let his reticence stop her from making friends with him, and often pushes his buttons just to get a reaction out of him.
We see Heung Soo battle bemusement and intrigue, as well as a side of unfamiliar, puzzling attraction, as Eun Ji worms her way into his heart with sunny blitheness.
We get lots of bickering, romantic goodness as these “friends” eventually spend time hanging out together, and she basically teaches him about different ways of seeing the world, as well as instructs him on the inner workings of the female species.
Nam Soon’s love interest will be played by Park Se Young, reprising her role as Song Ha Gyung:
Ha Gyung’s graduated from college since we last saw her, and now teaches at her alma mater. She’s got the rowdy class, and takes them in hand with a nice balance of friendly and fierce.
Teacher In Jae and Teacher Se Chan (Jang Na Ra and Daniel Choi), who are now married, are very proud of her.
Ha Gyung still nurses that one-sided love for Nam Soon, and makes time to visit him at his comic book store, under the pretext that she’s developed a new-found love for comics. Hee.
While there, she flirts with Nam Soon and regularly asks him out to dinner (y’know, since they both haven’t eaten, and she’s already there, and she’s hungry..)
Nam Soon is equally confused and puzzled with the sudden influx of female attention, and our two boys often find time to hang out together and ask each other bemused questions such as, “Why do you think she did that?”
Giggle. I can just imagine the completely inaccurate interpretations these two give each other, as they flounder their way through the new minefield that is called romance. Hee.
Of course, they both eventually fall head over heels in love with the women in their lives, and find their happy-ever-afters, all while keeping the bromance all kinds of awesome and very much intact.
Whaddya think?!? Wouldn’t you watch this drama? 😀
Add on! Crossovers!!
Hee. As Lady G and I were squee-storming in the comments, I had a brainwave. Seriously. I am SO excited!
Since Ha Gyung from my School 2013 sequel works at her alma mater, we’ll have GY’s sister work at the same high school! They’re colleagues in both shows, and in each drama, we have little throwaway lines that actually give us little tidbits on the OTHER drama’s story!!
Like, we could have a scene in the 2013 sequel where Ha Gyung’s having a conversation with GY’s sister, who remarks worriedly that she thinks her brother owes money to loan sharks.
Or, a scene in our GY rom-com, where his sister talks to Ha Gyung in school and sees her carrying a stack of comic books & asks her, “Since when were you a comic book fan??”
AND! Can you imagine both shows airing at the same time?!? We’d have the School 2013 sequel as a Monday-Tuesday drama, and the GY rom-com as a Wednesday-Thursday drama.
Then, as people follow both shows, they get little extras here and there – you almost HAVE to watch both shows to get the full story, but you don’t have to!
HOW AWESOME WOULD IT BE TO DO A LIVE WATCH??? You don’t feel like you’re waiting a whole week for new episodes to air coz you never know what little tidbit will drop while watching the other drama!
Ahhhh!! THE POTENTIAL AWESOME!!! 😀 *flails*
Now, It’s Your Turn!
What’s your Dream Drama? Or do you have more than one? Share your ideas with us in the comments!
Or do you have more ideas to beef up the scenarios I’ve shared? Share your ideas in the comments too!
As Lady G mentioned in her original comment, anything goes. The world is your oyster when it comes to casting. You can have your dream cast, even if it means it’s Jang Dong Gun (circa 2000) romancing Kim So Yeon (circa 2013).
Just one rule, please. And that is, when starting a new scenario, please start a New Comment.
When adding to a current thread of comments, please make sure it’s for the right drama scenario, so that we can keep our kickass imaginary dream dramas straight in our heads, mmkay?
Also, if you want to illustrate your scenarios with photos, please provide the link and I will embed them for you if possible (coz we learned recently that I’m the only one with photo embedding rights on this blog).
Don’t have a full scenario, but have a seedling of a potentially awesome idea? Share it anyway! Then other people can help build on your idea to flesh out your scenario!
Are you ready?? Have at it, guys!
Wheeee!! 😀
