A Day in Dramaland: Amnesia - Part 1

by WhiteGoldMVs1, June 10, 2015

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A Day in Dramaland: Amnesia - Part 1

Can you remember when you were watching the most amazing drama then the main guy hit his head and forgot everything? Literally.

Oh no, Sorry.

Please forgive my silly mistake... I’ll rephrase that; he hit his head and remembers everything but, the most important woman in his life?

Okay! I admit. I over exaggerated a bit there. Not all amnesiac plot lines are ridiculously stupid, you’d be surprised to hear about some; some of which are excellently executed.... and some... well let’s just say that we could’ve done without the ridiculous cliché.

When all's said and done, amnesia is so overused in Asian dramas that it’s become a tiresome cliché.

Or you just close the window and drop the drama like it never happened, hoping amnesia is contagious enough for you to selectively delete that drama from your brain.

Let’s begin with the most obvious one; Boys Over Flowers/Hana Yori Dango. Both the Korean and Japanese version overloads the cliché counter so it's no wonder how amnesia landed in the plot line.

Between the Korean and Japanese version I personally preferred the Japanese version because the main girl was true to the strength in her character, however in both versions the amnesia served as nothing more than a reinforcement of their fated love. There’s nothing too impressive here.

Note: I haven’t watched the Taiwanese version but soon I will; I’ve heard good stuff about Jerry Yan and Vic Zhou’s performance in this version. An added plus is Wu Vanness!

Another drama that is also a remake would be Operation Proposal. The original version, Proposal Daisakusen [Japanese], didn’t have the amnesia plot line, so currently it’s irrelevant. Nevertheless, I brought it up to say that I really liked the changes made to the Korean version until, the writers threw in last minute amnesia – *facepalm*. The actual reason why he lost his memories was because he hit his head... in a car accident and he is diagnosed with: I think you’ve already guessed the end of this sentence – selective memory loss. It seems like the writers resorted to a last minute, desperate attempt for ratings that definitely wasn’t built up in the plot but just randomly placed in the script's conclusion by writers who ran out of ideas.

This neatly leads me on to the two latest worst uses of amnesia. Big and Trot Lovers. Let us begin with the lesser of the two evils; Trot Lovers. I’ll give it to the writers for actually making use of the amnesia to catch the antagonists and attempting to make sense of it. But it was still an epic fail. They could’ve avoided amnesia and all the unnecessary stupid.

In contrast to Trot Lovers, Big was one of the biggest messes in Kdramaland in recent years. And what’s worse is that I had high hopes for this drama because of Gong Yoo and the Hong sisters.

Instead, we had to suffer this big disappointment from none other than the Hong sisters [My Girl, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, The Master's Sun]. Big centers around the body swap of an 18 year old boy into a 30 year old man, who falls in love with his teacher. I felt there was absolutely no excuse for randomly bringing amnesia into the plot line. The main guy was expecting to suffer from amnesia so he started acting like he actually had amnesia and treating the girl badly.

Are you lost yet? I'm not finished. Once he does get amnesia it’s all executed off-screen and we hear the conclusion of events through other characters because there was a time skip. And I'm not even done yet. The biggest disappointment isn’t even the amnesia; it’s that we don’t ever see the main lead in his real body, even though it was clearly narrated that the body swap had taken place. – *facefloor*

Where is amnesia when you need it? Isn’t this dreadful drama traumatic enough to cause selective amnesia and wipe this drama out of my brain... better yet, Off the face of the earth? This galaxy?

Recently, the Taiwanese drama Fated to Love You was remade into a Korean drama of the same name (Fated to Love You). I can confirm that there was no amnesia in the Taiwanese version but as things got too good for our main couple in the K-version the writers couldn’t hold it in and they throw in some...

what was it? – oh yes it is amnesia.

It's always there to spice things up for us viewers.

No! Wait a second, sorry, it’s not Amnesia, but selective amnesia. Lee Gun was hit with a touch of temporary selective amnesia. Apparently it’s something that runs in the family... and Asian dramas.

The drama had it planned from the very beginning so it wasn’t random, instead it’s there to replace the second female lead and be the reason why Lee Gun wants to break things off with the love of his life. Also, because the accident that kills the fetus, and keeps them apart for the rest of the series. I would say I definitely enjoyed the drama, but all throughout I felt that the amnesia was a weak replacement for an evil second female lead. It was slightly disappointing that they resorted to an illness that causes amnesia!

Both I Hear Your Voice and Secret Garden used amnesia to their advantage. It made sense, it didn’t have to be used, but it was good. I would say in I Hear Your Voice it was used to get past the Noona romance barriers and for Secret Garden it was used to confront past traumas and find a conclusion for the body swapping phenomenon.

In The Master's Sun, amnesia is a result of a near death experience, a coma, and some magic. It was caused by magical rules that say selective amnesia is needed as a plot device so accept it. And we accepted it as frustrated viewers. Luckily for us it didn’t last too long and we could move on happily enjoying the drama.

Pan Ruk Pan Rai is supposed to be a revenge drama however, the girl who should be out for revenge has forgotten everything! Well somehow it works. Don’t ask me how, but it did. Due to the fact that there are people out there who want to kill her, because of their fears of her remembering the truth, and others who are digging up the truth to use it to their advantage. Amnesia is used to build tension and a romance of a lifetime; tension is built, romance is developed and the whole plot centers on a girl who must remember.

Similarly, in Tokyo Dogs the main girl suffers from amnesia, but she is the key to the case as she was at the crime scene. The police treat her as both a suspect and a victim. Which is she? Amnesia is perfectly executed in this drama. There are no other words for it.

A similar scenario is found in Ouroboros and the currently airing Sensory Couple. The witnesses of a crime have amnesia. In Ouroboros selective amnesia makes the main character unable to fully remember the crime and slowly, slowly the bits of the puzzle come into place. In Sensory Couple it is amnesia. There is no recollection whatsoever of her past. At the moment it’s frustrating to see the main girl walking straight into the murderers den unknowingly but it’s exciting to see how the writers will play it out. So far so good.

Lastly we have Game Rai Game Rak. A Thai Lakorn that creates the perfect romance on an island faraway with a girl who has amnesia. She creates new memories but, happiness is stolen away by amnesia once again, and the island and her kind islander husband are both forgotten. But he never forgets and pursues her until all hell breaks loose due to misunderstandings caused by, one last time – you say it... Amnesia.

Amnesia, jealousy, and kidnapping are the ONLY plot devices used in this lakorn therefore it is necessary otherwise we’d just be left with jealousy and kidnapping. We start off in a heavenly island with an amnesiac that creates new memories but then she is forcefully taken back by her rich family and loses those newly created memories on the island to regain her previous memories. Somehow it worked for me. It was the first time I’d seen something like this so I was intrigued!!

So I’ll close this article off with Lee Jong Suk's amnesia face: