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Korean drama

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Korean drama (Korean: 한국드라마) refers to televised dramas, in a miniseries format, produced in the Korean language. Many of these dramas have become popular throughout Asia and have contributed to the general phenomenon of the Korean wave, known as "Hallyu", and also "Drama Fever" in some countries[citation needed]. Most popular Korean dramas have also become popular in other parts of the world such as Latin America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Some of the most internationally popular Korean dramas are Winter Sonata, Dae Jang Geum, Full House, Stairway to Heaven, My Girl, Love Story in Harvard, Autumn in My Heart, My Lovely Sam Soon, Delightful Girl Choon-hyang, Yi San, Boys Over Flowers, You're Beautiful, Brilliant Legacy, Queen Seondeok, The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo, IRIS, Personal Preference, Secret Garden, Dream High and Athena: Goddess of War. King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo had hit an outstanding 50.8 with its last episode on KBS[citation needed]. The genres that most internationally popular Korean dramas belong to are often romance, romantic comedy and historical dramas. An exception includes IRIS and Athena: Goddess of War, which are spy action thrillers. Most other Korean dramas popular throughout Asia or beyond are either romances, romantic comedies or historical. Popular Korean historical dramas almost all hold a serious tone, while Korean dramas with a modern setting have a balanced share of both serious and more lighthearted themes.

Plot

There are two main genres of Korean dramas, generally speaking. The first genre is similar to soap operas but without the never ending plot and frank sexual content. These dramas typically involve conflicts such as single and marital relationships, money bargaining, relationships between in-laws (usually between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law), and often complicated love triangles while the female hero usually falls in love with the main character who may treat her badly since the beginning, instead of the one who always cares for her. These dramas last anywhere from 16 episodes to over 100 (most often not exceeding 200). Most plots of Korean soap operas are similar where a love triangle is always present.

The other main genre is Korean historical dramas (also known as sa geuk), which are fictionalized dramatizations of Korean history. Korean historical dramas typically involve very complex story lines with elaborate costumes, sets and special effects.[1] Martial arts, sword fighting and horsemanship are frequently a big component of Korean historical dramas as well. Korean dramas, whether the historical dramas or modern dramas, typically are characterized by excellent production quality, characters with depth, intelligent scriptwriting but largely relies on the use of archetypal characters.[2]

As they are designed as family entertainment to satisfy a broad audience, there are typically a combination of human interest story elements across most of the historical dramas - interwoven themes of family, romance, friendship, martial arts, political strategy, wars, trade, etc. These stories are, therefore, usually of interest to all - women and men, young and old.

Popularity in Japan

The first Korean drama to gain widespread popularity in Japan was Winter Sonata which was broadcast on the NHK satellite channel NHK BS2 in 2003. The program was aired twice in the same year due to high demand from viewers.[3] NHK even hosted a classical concert featuring Winter Sonata's melodic tunes performed by Korean musicians. Actor Bae Yong Joon who played the male lead in Winter Sonata is known as "Yonsama".[3]

Some have claimed that Korean drama has improved relations between the two countries as more Japanese people have become interested in Korean culture. Heightened appreciation of all things Korean, including Korean language, cuisine, and history has not only changed the perception among Japanese about Korea, but also relieved some of the antagonism many Koreans have felt towards Japan. The increased interest in Korean culture has promoted Japanese tourism to South Korea and many tours geared towards fans of Winter Sonata and other Korean drama programs have attracted thousands of visitors to the country. Conversely, the series Iris had several pivotal scenes shot in Akita, leading to a surge of Korean tourists going on tours in that part of Japan tailored to followers of the show.[4][5][6]

Former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has been known to be a big fan of Choi Ji Woo known as "Jiwoo-hime" or "Princess Ji-woo" in Japan. And the former Japanese first lady Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama, has often proclaimed her love of Korean drama even claiming that it is the secret to her youthful appearance.[7]

Popularity in China

In 2006, South Korean programs on Chinese government TV networks accounted for more than all other foreign programs combined.[8] The government of the People's Republic of China has tried to limit the number of South Korean entertainment content in the country.

Popularity in Hong Kong

The Endless Love set of four romantic series hit Hong Kong in the early 21st Century. In 2005, Dae Jang Geum was broadcast on Hong Kong's TVB Jade network in Cantonese, further continuing the Korean Wave in Hong Kong following the former part of the decade. Dae Jang Geum became the most highly-rated television series broadcast in Hong Kong of all time, until 2008 TVB drama Moonlight Resonance tied with it in terms of viewership ratings. Many other Korean dramas followed, and in 2008 TVB released its TVB J2 channel, which broadcast many more Korean series, intending for a younger audience. Its pay-tv service, TVB Payvision's drama channel also broadcast Korean dramas (as well as Japanese drama and Taiwanese dramas. The popularity of Korean dramas in Hong Kong also sparked an interest in K-pop and tourism to Korea.

Popularity in Thailand

When the popular drama of Dae Jang Geum was on the air in Thailand, Korean food started gaining wide popularity in Thailand[citation needed]. Due to lop-sided nature of entertainment exports favoring South Korea, the Thai government requested increased introduction of popular Thai films to South Korean media outlets. This led to the signing of an Agreement of Cultural Cooperation between the two countries in August 2004.[9]

Popularity in the Philippines

After the successful entry of Mexican Telenovela and Taiwanese drama, ABS-CBN first introduced the korean drama entitled The Truth on the first quarter of 2003 then followed by the success of The Memories Of Bali and after those success GMA Network became the 2nd pioneer TV network to release Korean dramas in the Philippines with Successful Story of a Bright Girl starring Jang Na-ra (airdate: August 2003). GMA Network acquired the most successful and popular dramas of Korea: Full House, Stairway To Heaven, Dae Jang Geum, Shining Inheritance, Jumong, Endless Love, Queen Seon Deok, My Name is Kim Sam Soon, East of Eden, King of Baking, Kim Takgu, Temptation of a Wife, Playful Kiss which are the highest rated Korean Dramas to air in the Philippines and more. Full House became the most popular Korean drama in the Philippines, being aired twice in the same year, airing only a month after it ended. The other network, ABS CBN, also aired dramas such as My Girl, Only You, Boys Over Flowers, Goong, Lovers in Paris, You're Beautiful, Save the Last Dance for Me (TV series), Memories of Bali, Stained Glass, Perfect Match (Personal Preference) and a lot more. Lovers in Paris became the first Korean drama to hit the Philippines and Kim Jung Eun was known as the Queen of Korean dramas on the network.

Korean theme songs were also adapted for the said dramas. Perhaps Love, OST from Princess Hours was the first Korean theme song translated and sang in Tagalog. It was entitled, Pag-ibig Na Kaya? and became a hit song on 2007. The boom of Korean dramas continued as major TV networks continued to invest a timeslot for the said series. Korean celebrities also became popular in the Philippines. Song Hye Gyo is considered as the most popular Korean actress in the Philippines for the first Korean drama hit in the Philippines, Autumn in My Heart and the highest rated drama in Philippines, Full House. On the other hand, Lee Young Ae and Choi Ji Woo are not too far behind.

Last 2009, ABS-CBN network aired the Meteor Garden Korean version, Boys Over Flowers stated on the teaser "THE FEVER IS BACK". This is the first Korean drama in the Philippines that the Korean names didn't change into English[citation needed]. The main cast became popular in the Philippines with their names, Gu JunPyo, Yoon JiHoo, So YiJeong, Song WooBin and Geum JanDi. This is also the first Korean drama invaded the Philippines with posters, pins, stickers, cards, notebooks, etc.

Popularity and Availability in the USA

Korean dramas became popular in the United States particularly in regions with populations of ethnic Koreans. The spread of the popularity of Korean dramas typically centered around these regions perhaps because Korean drama programming is publicly available in those broadcast areas. Now, due to information spread via the internet, cable TV, satellite TV, and DVD rental businesses, along with k-dramas' quality English subtitling and good production quality, Korean dramas have become even more popular across a diverse American audience - i.e., not limited to families of Korean descent. Many fans now include South Korea destinations among their tourist destinations, due to their enjoyment of the Korean TV dramas.

Many of the more recent k-dramas have been translated fully with high-quality English subtitling. However, some k-dramas DVD sets are not translated completely into English and are issued in sets with fewer DVD's than the Korean language versions, to the dismay of English-speaking consumers. These are typically done so that the story is coherent and satisfying, but viewers are always disappointed to know they are missing out on some portions of the story that were not subtitled into English (for example, with the story of "The Immortal Admiral Yi Sun Shin").

Korean drama fan clubs have appeared in Hawaii,[10] California[11] and the metropolitan areas of Chicago[12] and Philadelphia,[13] Pennsylvania. Cable channels in the U.S. (such as AZN, KBS World, and MBC America) have featured several Korean dramas during primetime, in addition to offering daytime and late-night Korean programming. The dramas are well-translated with clear subtitles in English, rather than dubbed.

Blockbuster currently sells and rents some Korean drama DVDs in limited locations across the United States, and online. In November 2008, Netflix began offering several Korean dramas as part of their video selection. In August 2009, DramaFever began offering free subtitled video streaming service in the United States.[14] As of May 2010 Korean dramas began airing on a DramaFever channel on Hulu. Additionally, k-dramas are available for purchase through online U.S. merchants such as amazon.com, hanbooks.com, and yesasia.com. Note however, that the subtitled kdramas tend to go out of print after a year or so. Some are available in lower quality via online viewing sources. Some non-Korean versions are available through Singapore, Japan, or Malaysia but consumers should research carefully, as some of these are not always English-subtitled or (may or) may not be quality DVD videos.

Some k-dramas are not available for Region 1 (North America) encoding and NTSC video format. However, multi region (PAL and NTSC, and Regions 1-6 or "region 0") dvd players can be found through brick-front and online merchants (including amazon), and cost from $50 and up, many with very fine video and sound quality. (For more information on Region codes, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code). Most foreign movies and TV dramas are still on regular DVD format, not blu-ray (this will probably change in time). Also, typically the players in the low $100 range give superior video performance, similar to blu-ray if the dvd itself is high quality production and the display TV and HDMI cable is high quality. Blu-ray multi region dvd players are still rather overpriced (as of Dec09); this is sure to change soon[citation needed].

Popularity in Latin America

Recently some Korean dramas have gained modest popularity in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Mexico,[15] Peru and Chile.[16][17][18]

Popularity in Mongolia

Korean dramas are very popular in Mongolia. Every evening, there is at least 2-3 different Korean dramas dubbed into Mongolian on all the well known channels. This has affected the popularity of K-pop as well as Korean fashion in Mongolian Youth.

Korean Stars in Asia

Korean stars have now become familiar faces throughout Asia - for example:

The format was parodied in MADtv with Bobby Lee and Korean American guest-stars Sung Kang and Cathy Shim. Korean drama clichés also appear in a comedic way, including the camera set-up style, constant replayed clips, melodramatic music, and the tragic love triangle. The MADtv parody also features exaggerated English "subtitles" which are relevant to the plot, but do not actually translate the Korean words spoken that are actually irrelevant to the plot, satirizing the incorrect and exaggerated subtitles found on some foreign-language films and TV shows.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Eckersley, M (ed.) 2009, Drama from the rim: Asian Pacific drama book, 2nd ed., Drama Victoria, Melbourne. p56.
  2. ^ Eckersley, M (ed.) 2009, Drama from the rim: Asian Pacific drama book, 2nd ed., Drama Victoria, Melbourne. p57.
  3. ^ a b http://uniorb.com/ATREND/Japanwatch/wsdramafever.htm
  4. ^ Inoue, Chihiro (2009-04-13). "Spy drama pulls S.Koreans to Akita". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  5. ^ Template:Ko icon 이해리 (2009-02-04). ""아리가또∼ 아이리스"". Donga. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
  6. ^ "Akita sees huge increase in Korean tourists". Japan Probe. 2010-01-16. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  7. ^ http://news.msn.co.kr/article/read.html?cate_code=1400&article_id=200912160355121022&pos=right_many
  8. ^ Faiola, Anthony (August 31, 2006). "Japanese Women Catch the 'Korean Wave'". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ http://www.thaiembassy.or.kr/en/about/thai_rok_relations.htm
  10. ^ Hawaii K-Drama Fans
  11. ^ CJK Dramas
  12. ^ http://deiner.proboards48.com/ Chicago Korean Drama Fan Club
  13. ^ http://www.koreandramas.net Korean Drama Group
  14. ^ Knock it off: Global treaty against media piracy won't work in Asia Jeff Yang, SFGate, November 11, 2009.
  15. ^ http://www.korea.net/News/news/NewsView.asp?serial_no=20061116016&part=110&SearchDay=&source=
  16. ^ http://hellohallyu.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html
  17. ^ http://www.seoulstyle.com/cultural.htm
  18. ^ http://kimsamsoon.blogsome.com/2005/11/30/hawaii-hallyu/
  19. ^ "Korean Drama".
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