The Hoodies of Dramaland

Hoodies, are they just some fabric; a shirt and a hat sewn together, a fashion statement or maybe (as in this case), a perfectly good topic for me who knows little to nothing about fashion, to write a seemingly never ending, but I dare say gorgeous, editorial about? 

 Basically, a hoodie can be defined as:  

"a sweatshirt with a hood" 

(Wikipedia) 

Jung Hae In wearing a grey hoodie in D.P.

This great piece of clothing was originally made to help workers stay warm in the cold weather in New York, or at least that is what Wikipedia said about them. Earlier versions of the hoodie have been seen in  history books, fairy tales, and more or less everything else most famous probably being the hood on Little Red Riding Hood... but here I am going to completely ignore the earlier versions and the varieties of hoods and instead focus on the great varieties of hoodies with IE or Y in the end depending on how you choose to spell it.

As usual my aim  will be to change the way you see hoodies in Dramaland, I will try to make you fall in love with this piece of clothing making you unable to watch a movie, drama or show without noticing not only the presence of the hoodie but also realizng that they are superior to all other pieces of clothing... Ok I am embellishing here, there are of course a lot of beautiful clothes in Dramaland and I honestly have no ambition of starting a clothing war, I am also willing to admit that most of the  scenes in Dramaland  include some kind of clothing, rain or shine people (and some animals) in Dramaland seem to wear some type of fabric sewn together, some more logically put together than others but - like it or not - they are seldom naked in Dramaland, except for the naked fight scene in The K2, where they are naked enough to cover all of dreamland's needs of nudity.

Hoodies!  "I can say 100 things great about you" Screenshot from: Bokura wa Kiseki de Dekite Iru

_{* Hoodie  worn in Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko 2, can you count the hoodies in the gif?} 

United by hoodies 

The 7 Hoodie-countries of MDL:   You may or may not have noticed, but hoodies can be seen in movies and dramas from all the countries on MDL and are even more commonly seen in Dramaland than the umbrella! Like the umbrella, it is there in the first place to protect people from the weather. The weather and culture may very from country to country on MDL but it was not the least bit hard to find covers with hoodies on them. Okay, to be fair, Hong Kong did put up a fight (and made me go through a whole bunch of pages) until I found one, but it was there and that is what really matters! Hoodies have made it to the covers of titles from every single country on MDL and that is not bad! It also made this cover, a cover I think is one of Dramaland's most beautiful covers of all time:

Everybody has a Hoodie body! No matter what shape or size, anybody in Dramaland can be found wearing a hoodie!  Pictures in order of appearance: Start Up, Hospital Playlist 2, Not Me, He is Psychometric, Better Days, Terius Behind Me,  Nevertheless, Mother, Soundtrack #1, Love Beneath the Stars, One Spring Night, You're So Precious To Me, Black Cinderella,  Bokura wa Kiseki de Dekite Iru,  Two Weddings and a Funeral, Just Between Lovers.  By everybody, I mean everybody!  Be it the alien in My Love from the Star   Someone like these noodle serving fighters in The Uncanny Counter Dead or alive...  does not really matter! Everybody who wants to wear a hoodie, gets to wear a hoodie in Ghost Doctor     Royalty, Dog or God!  Pictures from: Rainbow Prince and The Bride of Habaek Kid, youth or all grown up...  Besides the kids up above and a bunch of other kids in Dramaland, one kid in a hoodie that made a particular impression on me: Lee Eun Hye (Jung Seo Yeon)  who  is shown wearing a hoodie in the best parts of the movie You're So Precious to Me, dancing in the rain communicating, petting animals, you name it, the hoodie is there...     To be honest, the most common clothing among students and teens (besides the school uniform) has to be the hoodie, it is almost as big of an age marker as a school uniform for titles with time skips. Especially titles where the same actor/actress is casted  for both a young and older version of themselves. No matter who plays the role. The older version will often be shown in wearing a suit, while the younger version will be seen wearig a hoodie, helping the viewers understand what age the character on the screen is supposed to be. However, do not let those dramas fool you! It is  often the same actor and everybody can wear a hoodie... Hoodies have no age... All hoodies are good hoodies... Hoodies are Hoodies... I am sure you get the point.  Gif made  from  gif by  Baby Introverts Warfield This is just a small selection of youths in hoodies  -as a teaser-  but there are more hoodie wearing youths to come!  Pictures: A Love So Beautiful, Boys over Flowers, Kieta Hatsukoi, Reply 1988, Semantic Error.  These guys in Navillera made such great use of the hoodie and gave us this scene of  two men practicing ballet in matching hoodies, truly the hood on top for this drama. A drama that is both touching and relatable, made just a little bit better by this black hoodie... Even non-breathing teddy bears get to wear hoodies, as seen in Love Class EVERYBODY GETS TO WEAR A HOODIE!  However, I will admit that the older the harder to find... but that may also be a reflection of  who is seen the most as there are a lot more shots of stars the age of  Lee Jong Suk  wearing a hoodie: Pinocchio   W  Than those the age of Kim Eui Sung wearing a hoodie, (also in W): But still...

Now You See Me, Now You Do Not!

Even before covid, the stars, the socially awkward and the criminals of Dramaland used face-masks, accompanied by a hoodie and a cap to shield themselves from the world.

So here is  a little game for you: 

Guess The Drama Behind The Hoodie!  You will find  a link to the respective drama on the picture. This trick is used by characters from all the countries in Dramaland, however for this game I have only used South Korean Dramas (all but one are from the 100 most popular dramas found on MDL).  Do not get discouraged if you can not guess the right title, part of the point of this game is to show that it is hard - and honestly, I would not have a clue if I did not make it myself. Oh look, lovers hiding behind their hoodies.

Peek a Boo

Here is Greg Hsu (and a guy without a hoodie) rocking his role in Meet Me @ 1006. Words can not describe how well-fitted those hoodies were for the role he played in that drama. 

Probably The Best Mood  Setter in The World! 

Speaking of hoodies that fit the role, sometimes they seem to set the mood perfectly as done in the movie Write About Love. When life seems good, hopeful, free and refreshed, the female writer (Miles Ocampo) is seen wearing her hoodie down. However, when life starts feeling dark and gloomy, the hoodie goes up to shelter her from the world, and yet again soften the pain, giving us viewers the two most powerful and beautiful scenes in the whole movie.

The  female writer in Write About Love is of course not the only one to wear a hoodie whenever things get tough. As there is no better way to get away than to  put on that hoodie and head for the hills, at least not if you ask some of the doctors of Dramaland. These two Drama Doctors, Dr. Gu (Xiao Zhan, Oath of Love) and Dr. Tawan (Fame Chawinroj Likitchareonsakul, My Ride),  were both found on top of hills wearing what?  Yes, a hoodie!    Coincidence? I think not!

And what did  Nae He Do (Kim Tae Ri) wear when she was ill and sent to the infirmary, or when she needed to cry in Twenty-Five Twenty-One? 

Of course, a hoodie... 

The Student Hoodie Challenge!

While hoodies can be seen on  more or less everybody in dramaland, the safest way to ensure you get lots and lots of hoodie content is to watch titles with youths and students. However, there are risks. Most students wear uniforms during the school day. So college or university students are the safer bet, add an athlete to the mix - finding a scene without a hoodie will become a real challenge (more about that further down). As I was wrapping this article up, I decided to test my theory and take to the feeds where I launched : 

"The Student hoodie Challenge",  challenge you are all free to try! 
Here is what you do:

Here is how it went for me: 

I Promised You The Moon, 2 random clicks: 

Side note: this is another one of my top 5 hoodie scenes in all of dramalands, not only because of the pink hoodie but also because of the aesthetics and the depth of the hoodie. 

Law School, 2 clicks

Legally Romance, 1 click

The Love Equations, 2 clicks

Here are a few I found just casually clicking around the pages of MDL (link to title found inside the photo):

For these, I did not even have to click past the cover:

Walking With a Hoodie  I rarely watch tv shows, however, the one I have watched was packed with hoodies as Jung Hae In walked the streets of New York in this very sweet black hoodie in Jung Hae In's Travel Log:  Look, the people beside him were  also wearing hoodies: Oh Wait! Did you know that  U-Know also wore a hoodie in his TVXQ D-Cumentary? He wore it both for talking, practicing, and of course walking! Well now, U Know...

Running With a Hoodie

Hoodies are great for catching people. So when on the run make sure to fasten your hoodie or you may just get caught by some dude who wants you to confront your feelings... 

In the screenshot above you get to see Akaza Yukiko (Sugisaki Hana in Koi Desu: Yankee-kun to Hakujou Garu) wearing a lovely pink hoodie as she is running a half marathon (if my memory serves me right) with the help of her boyfriend and guide Kurokawa (Sugino Yosuke). To be honest, the hoodie she wore the most was this lovely white one, but since this section is about hoodies worn by people who are  running, the pink hoodie grabbed the spotlight from the white one here, but just to be clear, in the show it is all about the white hoodie seen on the right. 

Athlete + Hoodie = True

While Yukiko  was more of an amateur, the following hoodie carriers have all been  athletes at some point or another, and it seems to me that athletes like hoodies slightly more than most people in dramaland. Leading me to the conclusion that if the title has an athlete in it, be it boxers as in Move To Heaven and Always, robot programmers as in Go Go Squid 2: Dt. Appledog's Time, dancer (You Make Me Dance), fencer (coach too, Twenty-Five Twenty-One), swimmer (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, My Mr. Mermaid), a weightlifter (Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo), go player (Reply 1988), badminton player (Racket Boys), some kind of skater (Skate Into Love).

All will be seen wearing a hoodie once or a hundred times, if the athlete is a student the amount of times shown in a hoodie probably doubles, unless it is the movie Always, where Kang Chul Min (a boxer played by So Ji Sub) is literally seen wearing the same hoodie for most of the entire movie, and not a scene is shot without it. It is so significant to the movie that  when he disappears, the female lead takes over his hoodie. 

But other than Always, I wonder if anyone can beat Shen Zheng Yi (Song Zu Er) in To Fly With You who has by far the biggest selection of hoodies I can remember seeing in Dramaland, even bigger than the collection in Our Beloved Summer! 

The following two hoodies may look similar but are actually two different hoodies if you look closely. Her hoodie closet must have been HUGE! 

This drama also showed us that no matter what situation the athlete is  in, be it the ice, a date, a workout or an apology:

Or why not have them as a couple outfit:
	I mean, this couple's hoodie... and there are too many to count (feel free to try, hey, why not make a game out of it).

They, you, we, anyone...  in this drama, there is a hoodie for every occasion, so inspiring, so for all of you out there who do not know what to wear? When in doubt, wear a hoodie, you can never go wrong with a hoodie! 

Time to put that hoodie in the laundry

And well this article may not have a lot of substance, however, both this article and Assistant of Superstar are flooded with hoodies. I have  probably seen hoodies used for every single type of occasion imaginable, as I have even seen hoodies used for funeral photos (I AM U)  as well as a hoodie used in a wedding video (Boku mo Aitsu mo Shinrodesu) and anything in between.  Believe it or not, I actually have a whole lot more hoodies on my hard drive and memory.  However, I will spare you and let you find them on your own.

So please fell free to share your memorable hoodies, answers to the game (use the spoiler tag), the colour you prefer, or I do not know.... come up with who you wish would wear the green hoodie?

◀︎ Should it be this guy? He Is Psychometric* after all, and has one of his own, he also has a pink one. *Also the name of the drama
Or should it be a strictly a  girl group like BlackPink, but fighters instead of idols?  ►	◀︎Or this guy? He also has a green one of his own, can sing, deliver babies and look, he  has a purple one, too ► *Hospital Playlist 2
	Source
Source		◀ Maybe you want to find fighters outside South Korea

Well, whatever you feel like sharing, I will probably read it, just keep it civil, so till next time... I leave you with  Xiao Zhan running wearing a hoodie.