The Big Weakness of Kdramas

I don't mind inconclusive ("open") ending, but my personal pet peeve with Korean dramas is their tendency to drag in the second half.

 Fabius:

Hello All. As good as Kdramas are most of them have the same problem: weak endings. For example, Crash Landing On You. Most fans of Kdramas, including myself, feel this is one of the best. But the ending is terrible! It leaves the viewer hanging. SPOILER ALERT After what the male and female character's have been through together the show ends with them meeting in Switzerland every few years.  That's it? Very disappointing. 

So many Kdramas endings are inconclusive and don't provide closure. They  leave the viewer disappointed. Do you agree?  Why do the writers do that? 

I don't like open ends either, but i don't think Crash Landing On You has a open ending. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and Gu Family Book are way worse.

A tip is looking the type of ending in the tags if it's complete

 kura2ninja:

I don't mind inconclusive ("open") ending, but my personal pet peeve with Korean dramas is their tendency to drag in the second half.

I think it's because Korean TV networks have decided that 16 episodes (or the equivalent) is the way to go.  But that generally requires a bunch of filler and unnecessary plot lines to get from episodes 10 through 14.  If they would just make 12 episode dramas instead,  I think it would reduce a lot of the 2nd half tedium.    

Sometimes true, but not always.

Can't really generalize, but yes I wish some kdrama's had more of a definitive endings.

CLOY is a ok example, I wish we would be more reassured though. But it's reality, and that's the best they can offer giving their situations.

Of course, having a child or  being pregnant is the most definitive ending in rom-drama, isn't it?

I can think of many kdramas ending like that, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon for example.

Honestly the thing I hate most about kdrama endings are the time-skip happy ending. Where the writer doesn't know how to tie everything together so they just break the couple apart and skip forward a few years and now all their problems have magically gone away ...

Honestly. These endings always drag down the overall rating for me. I can have loved every single episode of a drama, but if it ends with the main couple breaking apart only to casually run into each other a few years later I'm immediately filled with rage lol. 

 michelleoc:

What I hated most about the ending of CLOY, neither one were wearing their ring (after she said she'd never take it off).  I loved this show and was SO disappointed in the ending.

The thing that bothers me in a LOT of K-dramas - they spend most of the show keeping the protagonists apart and then dedicate only five minutes to wrap everything up.  I also don't like the time skip - they get you emotionally invested in their relationship, they are deeply in love, they can't live without each other, then BOOM one person leaves for years and doesn't even call or text the whole time they are gone!?!  Just no!

I agree with you about the time skips.  In the case of CLOY, the reason they weren't wearing their rings is because the scenes in Switzerland were filmed in summer, months before the rest of the drama was made in ROK.  They probably hadn't even written the rings into the script yet when they filmed in Switzerland.  Even worse for me about the ending was the behavior of the ML.  He seemed detached, relaxed, and really not at all excited about seeing the love of his life after three years apart.   Totally different from his passion at the border, the last time they were together.   

The Swiss scenes were beautiful, but they didn't fit very well with the rest of the drama.