Hessa Volunteer Staff

I think we need more type of Role, such as Minor Role/Extra, Suit Actors, Narrators, and Voice Roles (For actors whose voice only appeared on the drama/movie).

Usually, on Korean movies databases you find these roles (Those are examples):

주연 = Main Role

조연 = Support Role

단역 = Minor Role / Bit part

특별출연 = Special Appearance / Special Guests


Currently, on MDL, people use Support or Guest roles for extras. Personally, I find this wrong and misleading.

Edit: People say we should add Cameo. Cameo is the same as a guest role on MDL. Personally, I see no difference or need for another label for this role. The list I provide above is an example to show Minor Roles, not guests.

38votes
That's a good idea.  I feel like this applies to dramas even more than movies though.  And yes, "minor role" would probably be a useful indicator (that's how I've always thought of 단역, not that it matters).  Anyone who a normal viewer in Korea might be expected to recognize is a cameo/guest; everyone else who just appears once or twice or in an unnamed or non-speaking role or otherwise is barely there is not a "guest".  I see this all the time on drama cast lists.

I don't have a problem if those types of roles are listed as "supporting" as long as the order is somewhat correct, with those roles at the very bottom of the list.
Interesting, and I agree. See, I just ran into an 11-year old (!) Sometani Shota in an old episode of Kamen Rider Faiz, but since he plays a nameless kid bully in just one scene, I feeling calling him a "supporting role" is really incorrect. But it'd be cool for fans of actors to be able to cross-reference small, early roles like this (well *I* think it's interesting at least), so "extra" would be perfect in this case.

P.S. As a toku fan, I also would love to see suit actors acknowledged.
@kittyflumpin, Wouldn't he just be a guest in that case? 
instead of friendship and special appearance, can't they both be grouped as just "cameo"?
and yes, the minor role option would be very helpful.
Hessa Volunteer Staff
Cameo already mean Guest Role. Here I'm talking about Extras/Minor Role and Suit Actors.
I also think this could be helpful. Especially for the guest and cameo appearances. 

To be honest, I think the reason why so many users are confused between cameo and guest role because there's no clear definition on what is guest role. The same thing happen with minor role and supporting/guest role, some users might think that this character is unimportant hence they add it as guest role, but others may not think the same.

In the guideline which Hessa created, it's only clearly explaining about the cameo, but not other roles (main, supporting and guest role).

So, I think it should be better if the admins here define what is main role, supporting role and guest role first. Once those 3 roles are defined clearly, we can continue to decide whether we can add other roles or not.

To be honest, I have added some roles here and there in this website but I added the role according to what I think, this character goes to this role and that character goes to that role, etc. In the end, I can only know whether it's correct or not after they have been merged by the staff here. But not all the role staffs here will think the same, so it's very vague.

I also want to see voice actors for Chinese dramas (which are usually dubbed).  Sometimes I go to watch a drama because I love the actor, but then hate the voice actor.

I agree there should be more roles, and the roles should also be clearly defined when you go to add a character so people know which role to use.

 Alex:

I also want to see voice actors for Chinese dramas (which are usually dubbed).  Sometimes I go to watch a drama because I love the actor, but then hate the voice actor.

I agree there should be more roles, and the roles should also be clearly defined when you go to add a character so people know which role to use.

I also would like to add voice dubbers to the crew.  This forum post has it listed as an option but I couldn't find it when I tried adding a new person to the database.