Discussion on K-drama clichés

What would K-dramas be without karaoke, soju drinking and piggyback rides? Is there something missing if a drama doesnâ??t have a) a disapproving rich parent b) screaming mother giving her children a good bashing with anything at hand or c) a girl calling â??oppa, oppaâ? with a whining tone? I think everyone knows what Iâ??m talking about but here is an entertaining listing of some clichés if you need further inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFtielLzk08 (50 Musts in Asian Dramas)

Now, Iâ??d like to know your thoughts and opinions on K-drama clichés. How do you react when you spot another cliché in a drama? Are there clichés that annoy you? What are clichés that make you laugh when you spot them? Do clichés add something to dramas or do they lower their quality instead? Do you have favorite clichés? If so, what are they?

Discussion is free. :) And remember we are talking about K-dramas (and movies) here although the video linked above covers Asian dramas in general.

How do you react when you spot another cliché in a drama?

sometimes i roll my eyes esp at the scene where a girl calls OPPA in a whinning tone.. argh it annyos me :P if i was a guy that would have been such a turn off :P

Are there clichés that annoy you?

yes, oppa ... drinking one too ...

What are clichés that make you laugh when you spot them?

Karoke one i guess.. or when mother bashes on a child with anything in their hand

Do clichés add something to dramas or do they lower their quality instead?

they do add something ... but it goes hand in hand.. as i said earlier sometimes it annoys me and sometimes it makes me laugh ...

Do you have favorite clichés? If so, what are they?

piggybback rides :D

kalibapi91 wrote:
Back Hugs: Giving or receiving. I don't care which one.

i also love that one :D ... hehe

To be honest, sometimes I watch dramas just for the sake of cliches *blush*. Because some are really sweet, and sometimes, while watching a drama you may say "OMFG this happened to meeee !! *shocked*".
Well, cliches that I like:
-when a character puts a blanket when another one is sleeping ^^.
-piggyback rides ^^
-home made sweets <3
-bike rides n__n
-rains hehe ^^. even if it's a kiss or a broke up <3.

And cliches I don't like:
-BIATCHES!!!
-I have to go in another country for 28368268 years. I'll be back, so wait for me !!! I love you !!!
-faints O.o'
-I have been liking you since I was 4. It's destiny that we met again!!!
-when characters just talk to themselves, loud, with a lot of people around >.<
-when a character falls asleep when somebody confesses >.>

Not that I like or dislike them, but these are pretty prevalent....

Guy comes up with stupid nickname for the girl like rock head or money grabber or pigrabbit.

Bad guys always hang at pool halls. Always.

The guy always drags the girl around holding her wrist violently.

If you're sick, all you need is an IV to make you feel lots better.

If you don't want to answer your phone, you can't just turn it off. The battery
needs to be taken out.

You always order orange juice or coffee at a cafe. And you never drink it. EVER.

If you're saving someone from being hit from a car, you'll push them out of the way and wait for the car to hit you instead.

norha87197 wrote: Ooh, zareba's post reminded me of another one.

If you get caught in the rain once, you automatically get really really ill the next day.

I find this one especially funny because you are right...they get really really ill but then the day after that, they're fine!

kalibapi91 wrote: Favorite Cliche expressions:
OMO! (Oh my god!)
Aish! or Aioush!
Aigoo!
Swis! (That scolding, frowing intake of breath that seems to say..."Do not argue!", "Do as I say!" or "Hush it you!") I love it!

I love those expressions as well - and I use them nowadays all the time, too! :)

Sabrina901 wrote: And cliches I don't like:
-I have to go in another country for 28368268 years. I'll be back, so wait for me !!! I love you !!!
-when a character falls asleep when somebody confesses >.>

So true, especially the first one. Always when a drama is nearing the end I start to get anxious and cross my fingers saying to myself: "please don't let them have this cliché at the end, please just get together and leave happily ever after right away!"
I guess I hate the falling-asleep-during-a-confession one for the same reason: it might be necessary for a drama to make it longer and add suspense but it's just very annoying!

Geneorierty wrote: The cliche that I have a love/hate relationship with is when two people that really need to meet or see each other, for whatever reason, barely miss each other by an inch.

I guess this one goes to the same categorie with the two above. They are so close "the happy end" but just not enough. It's like someone's offering you chocolate cake and then takes it away just a moment before you are reaching for it. So annoying and disapointing!!!

TonkzfrWonkz wrote: Another one that gets me is when, in a drama, the girl character seems extremely naive, even if she's in her 20's.. An example is when the girl is hanging around a boy, and she wonders why she feels this "strange feeling" in her heart, when it's pretty obvious it means she likes the guy, lol.

Another, which I don't know if I like or hate, is when the boy and girl characters misunderstand each other's feelings, so they never know they like each other.

I agree, both of these clichés can get you desperate: "why you just don't get it?!?!"

Meecuh wrote:
If you don't want to answer your phone, you can't just turn it off. The battery
needs to be taken out.

If you're saving someone from being hit from a car, you'll push them out of the way and wait for the car to hit you instead.

I laughed out loud. So true. As ridiculous as they are, I still like these.

norha87197 wrote: Ooh, zareba's post reminded me of another one.

If you get caught in the rain once, you automatically get really really ill the next day.

Hahahaha. This is so very Jane Austinesque. I guess all Korean script writers think Jane Bennet having to stay sick at Bingley's house after a ride in the rain is the most romantic chapter in literature. But then again, how else could they show the true affection of our hero or heroine in spending the whole night taking care of the sick person, wetting his/her face and cooking sticky rice? Calling a doctor would so defeat the purpose!!;)

TonkzfrWonkz wrote: Haha, I sometimes catch myself literally facepalming over cliches in dramas.

When the girl lead depends on a guy WAY too much. I just wish she'd stick up for herself! lol.

Another one that gets me is when, in a drama, the girl character seems extremely naive, even if she's in her 20's.. An example is when the girl is hanging around a boy, and she wonders why she feels this "strange feeling" in her heart, when it's pretty obvious it means she likes the guy, lol. Or if the girl is talking with a friend of hers, and the friend has to explain everything about love to her because she doesn't know anything. Yeah, some people may not have experienced love before, but if you're around a guy and you start feeling something, it's pretty easy to figure out what's going on. :P

How I agree. Since the beginning of time, humans have known when they are attracted to someone. They may not call it love yet, that's understandable, but being completely oblivious even after your heart races like mad in seeing him, your palms sweat, you think about him night and day, you fantasize of kissing him, you're annoyed when you see him talking to other girls and you imagine youself holding hand with him when you're both 80.
What can this feeling be?
Chickenpox!

I am annoyed by the Oppa thing too, as I am by all titles given without a true distinction. So a girl has 30 oppas in her life, plus her real older brothers: what's the difference, in the end, between one and the other? And the way they usually chirp saying it gives me the goosebumps.

On the other hand, I too adore the back hug, this is possibly my favourite of all, in Korean as well as in Japanese dramas and movies. And I like kisses on the forehead, something I've never seen done in my country, unless there are children involved.

Most cliches I find sweet, albeit funny. Cloths put on the forehead of a sick person without even moving the hair aside (I'm sure it is done not to disrupt the actor's hairdo); telephone calls interrupted without a goodbye or any warning; poor people who barely have money to eat, owning a touch screen mobile and using it to call the other emisphere; people running like mad chasing buses and taxis, etc.

My favourite exclamation of all is: Omo! And the way they utter it, as if they had just seen a triple-headed, slimy green monster. Wonderful. ;)