Why does Korea make the best dramas in the world?

 Anajwo:

I'm sorry, but to everyone saying how much better Chinese dramas are than kdramas, can you recommend me these so-called amazing shows that are other than a historical or a crime show? The only hype around CDramas I heard was NIF & NIF2 and maybe some other historical like All Quiet in Peking; as well as Love Me If You Dare & When a Snail Falls in Love, which are crime-themed dramas.It doesn't even have to be a rom com rec, could be just a slice of life drama. They way I see it - or at least for now - Cdramas being a quality is just a niche market; it seems like for every kdrama theres 2-3 historical cdramas - or at least that's what I see on Viki. I think what's great about kdramas is that the plots/themes &genres have become varied as kramas are ever-evolving. I think if one were to recollect best kdramas or even the most popular you will come up with a varied list of genres &plots. (like DOTS, Goblin, WLFKBJ, Because This is My First Life, etc.)

Big Boss (seasons 1 & 2), Love O2O, My beautiful life to start u off (eng subbed)

 Jay:

Ode to Joy + Ode to Joy 2

With You

A Love So Beautiful

My Mr. Mermaid

Where the Lost Ones Go

Love O2O

Boss & Me

Not really a fan of the last two but they're popular and have their fans/supporters. These are all solid rom-coms/slice of life type dramas in my opinion. 

Not sure what you mean about CDramas being quality is a niche market. This is kind of what I meant about my earlier point, people thinking that China only produce historical dramas because of what they see on Viki. China is indeed known for historical dramas thus these ones are more readily accessible with subs for international fans but obviously these aren't the only type of dramas they make. Like any other country, there are dramas covering a wide range of genres but aren't known because they aren't subbed in any other languages.

yeah, also if u get interested enough, you end up like us, going to virtual voyage, c drama base, other raw sources, and baidu baike for more, they got douban too
What the international community sees is less

 Anajwo:

I'm sorry, but to everyone saying how much better Chinese dramas are than kdramas, can you recommend me these so-called amazing shows that are other than a historical or a crime show? The only hype around CDramas I heard was NIF & NIF2 and maybe some other historical like All Quiet in Peking; as well as Love Me If You Dare & When a Snail Falls in Love, which are crime-themed dramas.It doesn't even have to be a rom com rec, could be just a slice of life drama. They way I see it - or at least for now - Cdramas being a quality is just a niche market; it seems like for every kdrama theres 2-3 historical cdramas - or at least that's what I see on Viki. I think what's great about kdramas is that the plots/themes &genres have become varied as kramas are ever-evolving. I think if one were to recollect best kdramas or even the most popular you will come up with a varied list of genres &plots. (like DOTS, Goblin, WLFKBJ, Because This is My First Life, etc.)

Keep in mind the difference between historical and fantasy.

Even if you look at the most popular or top rated cdrama on MDL, there is definitely variety.

Sort by rating:

https://mydramalist.com/search?adv=titles&ty=68&co=2&so=top&or=desc

Sort by popularity:

https://mydramalist.com/search?adv=titles&ty=68&co=2&so=popular&or=desc

Is variety really that important though?

So I'm of the opinion that on average, korean dramas have been better, but China has produced the only few drama that I would call masterpieces, both entertaining and deep. I cannot call Signal a masterpiece.

 Jay:

True, I see a lot of new CDrama fans popping up and seeking out sources for CDrama news. My appreciation goes out to all of these different news sources for compiling the information and translating it for us.

yup yup

 Jay:

Ode to Joy + Ode to Joy 2

With You

A Love So Beautiful

My Mr. Mermaid

Where the Lost Ones Go

Fifteen Years to Wait for Migratory Birds

Love O2O

Boss & Me

Not really a fan of the last two but they're popular and have their fans/supporters. These are all solid rom-coms/slice of life type dramas in my opinion. 

Not sure what you mean about CDramas being quality is a niche market. This is kind of what I meant about my earlier point, people thinking that China only produce historical dramas because of what they see on Viki. China is indeed known for historical dramas thus these ones are more readily accessible with subs for international fans but obviously these aren't the only type of dramas they make. Like any other country, there are dramas covering a wide range of genres but aren't known because they aren't subbed in any other languages.

yes it's true that that's all you might see on viki esp for on-air or upcomming dramas mostly being historical - but apart from Love O2O (and the historicals plus 2 crime shows) you don't hear no talk or praise of c dramas. Sure China produces all types of dramas like every other country, but 1) you don't hear such massive hype from international fans 2) they're not that high in quality - so the only "quality c dramas" end up being historicals - thus the quality of cramas is limited to a niche. Sorry I didn't explain it better in my first post. Also, China is high in population. It doesn't matter how shitty a movie or show is - if you can convince the masses to watch of course you will have high viewer ratings or profits. The difference with US is that a movie needs to be of higher quality and look promising enough to entice people to watch it to make their money back. Obviously an average movie in China (vs average movie in US) will make much more money simply due to population size. Furthermore everything in China is so restricted (including the limitation of foreign content) so if there is a major network or production company that holds monopoly or competition is weak, I'd imagine they won't care much for producing quality content as long as they've got the masses watching. Kinda like the The Toronto Maple Leafs. They suck & never win anything but the tickets still cost so high & the masses still pay to watch.

 DancingGoat:

This thread blew up.

Fun with many replies, but there are also many replies saying "you are wrong".

I am still waiting for examples though. What other countries on the planet make high quality dramas with top notch stories, characters, osts, writing, depth etc like for example Signal, Its okay, Memory, Chicago Typewriter, Goblin, Save me, Dear my friends? 

If america has made a tightly written perfectly paced drama like any of those, please tell me which.
If the UK has made a tightly written perfectly paced drama like any of those, please tell me which.

If China has made a tightly written perfectly paced drama like any of those, please tell me which.

I watch almost all new hit American dramas, I really mean almost all of them. As well as Japanese as I live in Japan. Most likely more than most in here.  And there is still nothing that comes close to the level of Korean dramas. 

Why is everyone so obsessed with Korea? Do they not see all the up and coming Chinese young actors/ seasoned vet actors?  I would say, go watch some war time/historical Chinese dramas. Battle of Changsha was great. Cambrian period is thriller-crime, Long for you is a nice webdrama, I really have to say that if people want to get into the C-film world, they need to dive head long in. Go explore and experience. Once they can handle no-subbed content, even more content lines up across the horizons.  Love me if you dare, Memory Lost, and Inference Notes are also crime-thriller. 

Adventure is out there! Ahoy! Sail the open sees lads!  Don't be passive, jump in! If you sit there, the likelihood of adventure dwindles!

Never rely on streaming services like Viki or Dramafever as an accurate representation of what is out there in diversity or quality! 

There is a ton of Chinese dramas over a variety of genres without a doubt maybe more so the past few years than kdramas. 

Now I could totally be off base but my understanding is that China for the most part has been the biggest money making market for SK drama (up until the ban). So because China has such a strict, time consuming censorship processes they require/favor the preproduction drama format. So shows like DOTS and Goblin more than likely owe there ability to get preproduction sponsors/funding with the expectations of distribution in China. So when the whole block/ban on SK media happened I am certain funding for most preproduction projects dried up with the Chinese market. 

Now the reason I mentioned all that is because most of us know Kdrama favors the broadcast while still filming format. The biggest reason is simply it's easier to get sponsors/funding. Because the can cater to the sponsors in real-time, pick up sponsorship as needed, and change the direction of a drama if it's not going well. They also have a guarantee of broadcast. Whereas preproduction you might not get picked up for broadcast and if viewers dislike storylines/characters you are sol. I think this is all very important when understand the future of drama. 

I think all that I mentioned above is probably one of the greatest reasons I feel Kdramas are backtracking in production quality. With questionable foreign markets and a slew of legal, safety, and unethical employment practices they are trying to reestablish their footing. I mean the obvious is that SK itself is tiny compared to China/US. I've also read it's not the cheapest or most favorable place to film. I don't know how accurate that is but I have read many bloggers and news outlets talking about in media trend analysis. 

So if all this is true then it's very reasonable to believe that China has a very strong chance of overtaking SK and most other countries. Because when it all comes down to it the most influential thing would be money and second culture. If you follow the trends and don't rely on mainstream, western owned/operated media services/gossip blogs as a gauge to the actual diversity and quality of emerging Chinese media you probably are not surprised by most of the pro-Chinese drama comments. It just makes the most sense to want to have better quality to self-sustain their own media/entertainment system and risk of cultural influence from foreign markets. I myself feel like SK media is starting to cater to a more Westernized audience so I can't say I'm excited about that either. Just some stuff I've noticed that may or may not be relevant. :D