LaurenSophie writes:
Hello,
I’m a longtime lurker and have never posted, but I love your “Dear kfangurl” column and think I finally have a question you haven’t already covered.
My question is: what makes a kdrama “cracky?”
Not just good or fun to watch or a classic, but really, truly so addictive that you either binge watch it in just a day or two if it’s an older drama or feel like you’re suffering from withdrawal if you have to wait for new episodes to air?
I don’t know about you guys, but I think I have a definite soft spot for do-over stories. I really liked Go Back Spouses, and I really liked this show as well.
To be honest, I think it’s because there are some decisions in my life that I regret making (don’t we all have some of those?), and these decisions have most definitely helped to shape my life into what it is now.
I don’t dwell on it a lot (and for the record, I am happy with my life now, so don’t worry!), but when I pose the question to myself, about what my life might be like now, if I’d made certain different choices back in the day, I get.. intrigued.
What do-over dramas give me, is a chance to vicariously experience a do-over, via our characters. Sure, they’re dealing with different issues and decisions, but it still gives me a taste of what doing things over might be like.
Plus, while characters in these stories inevitably come out the other side better and wiser for their experience, these stories also often emphasize that you don’t need a different life or a different spouse to be happy, and you’re exactly where you need to be. I like that.
Y’know, I will always think fondly of the year 2012.
It was a pretty great drama year, serving up a good number of shows that I truly enjoyed, like Arang and the Magistrate, The King 2 Hearts, Gaksital, and Padam Padam, among many others.
On top of that, 2012 was also the year I decided to try my hand at the whole drama blogging thing – and hey, look at where we are now, eh?
But. There is one thing that I kinda hold against 2012.. coz 2012 is the year that time travel took over the dramaverse.
Suddenly, it felt like time travel was everywhere. Queen In-hyun’s Man, Rooftop Prince, Faith, Dr. Jin, and even Operation Proposal all got in on the time travel action in 2012, with varying degrees of success.
Let me just say that there’s nothing inherently wrong with using time travel as a concept, but honestly, it now kinda feels like time travel has become the Trend That Will Not Die.
For the record, I’m not hating on The Best Hit. In fact, I even rather enjoyed this show.
It’s just that the whole time travel thing here feels particularly gratuitous – almost pointless, even. I personally feel that this show didn’t need the time travel conceit, to tell the slice-of-life, found-family story it wanted to tell.
In fact, Show might’ve been better off just picking one time period and staying there. A pretty novel concept these days, I know. 😉
So this might be the mother of all throwback posts on this blog. (Wait, this might be the only throwback post on the blog, actually!)
Basically, this post had first appeared on Stephanie’s blog Crazy for Kdrama, when she’d invited me to guest on her 2012-in-review series.
I’d been super excited, and Stephanie’s invitation basically was the catalyst that inspired me to even start this blog (you can find the blog’s origin story here).
Long story short, Crazy for Kdrama suffered from a takedown a while ago, thanks to DMCA bots, which sucked. 🙁 But, Steph’s since dusted herself off and has started over at Kchat Jjigae.
This post, though, was lost with the original blog. That’s been niggling me for a while, since this post has a special place in this blog’s history.
That, and the more OCD parts of my brain felt uncomfortable that the link to my 2012 year-in-review on the Full List page basically led to nowhere.
Happily, those same OCD parts of my brain had thought to save my original draft somewhere, so it wasn’t all that hard to reproduce the post here.
So now, for old times’ sake, and for the sake of having my 2012-in-review post available somewhere, I present to you one of the earliest blog posts I ever wrote, in its pure, original state.
I’ve simply added links to reviews where available. Hope you guys enjoy the walk down memory lane with me! 🙂
So recently, a couple of comments on the blog have combined to give me pause for thought.
And instead of just answering the latest question in the comments section, I thought it was interesting enough, and thought-provoking enough, to put it all in a new post, and see what you guys think.
Well ok, that, and the fact that as I chewed on my answer to the latest comment, I realized that there were just too many facets to the answer than I felt could fit reasonably into a simple comment.
Basically, the question is, have kdramas gotten worse / more “dumbed down” in recent years?
Let’s dive in together to take a look, shall we?
I couldn’t do it, you guys. I couldn’t finish Hyde, Jekyll, Me, despite my good intentions.
Let the record show that I really wanted to like this drama. And when I slowly started to realize that this wasn’t such a great drama, that I’d originally planned to stick it out to the end, if only for Hyun Bin’s sake.
I mean, this was Binnie’s drama comeback after what felt like an eternity, and I do certainly have Binnie Appreciating Eyes, so surely I could’ve sucked it up for him?
Um, turns out I couldn’t, after all. 😛
Scriptwriter’s Note
This drama was created in the spirit of some of my favorite fantasy/sageuk dramas like “Faith,” “Chuno,” and “Rooftop Prince” with a dash of “Thousand Years of Love” (not my favorite but could have been brilliant), and “Queen In-hyun’s Man.”
I added concepts from some of my favorite Western Time Travel movies and shows and borrowed ideas I have used in the past for my own Fan-Fiction stories.
I now present the first *Official* Dream Drama Post on this blog: Aurora
~ Lady G.
Quick Synopsis
Eun Mi is a young, hardworking museum employee who is particularly passionate about the Silla era. One day, to her shock and surprise, she mysteriously time travels back to the Silla era, landing right into the life of Hyun Ki, a rough-and-tough street fighter and mercenary.
Despite their vast differences in personality, upbringing and era, the two eventually fall deeply in love.
How will they overcome the colossal obstacles – literally spanning the time-space divide – that stand in the way of their love? An epic love story of truly cosmic proportions.
~ kfangurl
Main Cast
Celebrate with me! This is a double first for me: my first Year-In-Review, AND, my first guest post too! 😀
This guest post is especially close to my heart because how it came about is actually the origin story of this blog.
THE ORIGIN STORY
Up to about 2 months ago, I had been a persistent lurker in the kdrama-verse.
For most of my six kdrama-watching years, I visited lots of blogs regularly and kept up with the k-entertainment news and lapped up other people’s views and reviews, but I almost never commented on anything.
Once in a long while, I would leave a comment somewhere, but mostly only if I had something that I was just burning to say.
I’m an introvert at heart, though most people who know me in real life wouldn’t guess it, and this was my inner introvert acting out.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
Starts out as a cute rom-com peppered with physical comedy gags, and turns into a sweet, epic romance.
I was expecting this to stay in comedic territory all the way, so the epic-ness of the romance took me completely by surprise.
It was a little uneven here and there, but overall, I have to say that I liked this drama a lot.
THE SHORT VERDICT:
So. Good.
Despite my high expectations from all the rave comments online, I was still blown away. And that’s quite a feat, no matter which way you look at it.
The cinematography is gorgeous, the color palette is beautiful, and the writing is tight. The actors do a fantastic job bringing the characters to life.
So fantastic, in fact, that Ji Hyun Woo fell for Yoo In Na for real. Which makes watching this drama extra awwww-inspiring coz you know all the lovey-dovey googly eyes he makes at her are for real 😉
It’s lovely, and worth a re-watch, even. Continue reading