Annyoung! I just posted about Korean Drama over at Lady Smut today–but there wasn’t even enough room in that post to fully express my love of Korean Drama. So here’s more!
I first discovered Korean Drama at an excellent Korean restaurant. It was playing on TV. The men are shockingly beautiful and in historical dramas the men wear these amazing mesh witch’s hats. SO cool. The women in their han boks were pretty awesome too, but I’ve never seen such pretty yet strong men cry so beautifully before.
Soon I was a KOREAN DRAMA ADDICT, but not on the historicals.
Instead I got hooked on the dramas that featured illicit relationships. There are sweet Korean dramas too, don’t get me wrong, but the best K-drama have a bite of the forbidden.
–A wealthy young man who employed a poor cross-dresser to foil his parents matchmaking schemes has undeniable chemistry with the boy.
–A wealthy hotel owning young man employs a plump older woman pastry chef and goads her into an affair.
–A wealthy young man falls in love with his sister—and defies his family to be with her.
First of all – are we sensing a pattern here? The gorgeous man is almost always from a wealthy important family. Secondly, it’s not quite sooooo illicit as all that. The cross-dresser is really a girl (Twelfth Night anyone?). The sister is not really his sister—though they were raised together as such. Thirdly, the rule of K-drama is that any guy has to be three times as good looking at the heroine.
Here are the TOP TEN REASONS I LOVE K-DRAMA–and by extension, all Koreans:
10) Koreans are fearless when it comes to being cute. Contact names for each other on cell phones range from Princess Smiles and Dimples Gangster to Noisy Woodpecker. They’re also gorgeously androgynous. Who’s male–who’s female? Does it matter? I’d do them all.
9) Kdrama shows a lot of people like me: they eat anything for breakfast, no matter how un-breakfast like: often soup, but sometimes Kimchi pancakes. “Ah, the smell of kimchi pancakes in the morning–I think I’m gonna barf,” sez Dear Husband.
8) The hero first starts to fall for the heroine after she gets really drunk and he has to carry her home on his back as she babbles away about what’s really in her heart. When he spills his heart later on, he cries one perfect tear.
7) Korean women often whine very charmingly in a cooing fashion to their family members or significant others. I’m just fascinated by this. It’s bewitching and yet nagging–an oxymoron that somehow they carry off time and time again.
6) Aigoo! –is a Korean expression equivalent to forgetaboutit. Awesome in its ability to express almost any emotion.
5) When Korean women get really disgusted they introtroduce a fascinating hawking sound somewhere towards the end of a sentence, not to mention the eloquent one-nostril-curl.
4) Kdrama lovers are separated by vast almost insurmountable barriers: she’s a nun, or dressed like a guy, or over thirty, or larger than a size 4. Yet she’s a simple, good hearted, passionate work-a-holic. The hero meanwhile is totally hot. He’s also almost always wealthy, spoiled, arrogant, selfish, and shallow. Despite his snobby parents he WILL fall for her in the end. Then she can continue being a work-a-holic while doing his laundry and cooking for him on top of everything else, because his parents are NEVER going to let them get married. And that’s what true love is all about.
3) HOW DO YOU KNOW S/HE LIKES YOU IN K-DRAMA? Because playing handsies is a no-no. If the k-drama hero grabs you and haul you off into another room to chide you for being so annoying, he’ll grab your wrist. Meanwhile, K-drama women stay away from touching a man’s hand. Touching a man’s hand is the equivalent to grabbing his penis. If the guy is absolutely overcome with lust, then he’ll try an embrace that’s front-to-back. It’s a much better, much safer form of saying “I like you”. Yet a korean women usually only finds out that a guy is really serious about her if the guy addresses her father as ‘dad’ when they happen to meet. Or if he grabs her and drags her into a surprise hug. Keep those eyes open at all times, ladies–even for the kiss. Otherwise you’re not showing enough surprise–you slut.
2) I love the way in k-drama that a potential mother-in-law neatly express dislike for the future bride by politely requesting her not to get pregnant before the couple’s wedding date. Sarcasm, it turns out, is a universal language.
1) And finally–nothing beats the K-drama version of foreplay: a twelve minute staring match.
Come Play in the Shadows... 