That's the way it is with Jdramas. Someone subs one or two episodes of a drama you really wanted to watch, and then the subber goes away, living their life or something, while you wait and wait, losing hope that the subber will ever finish. Until you are dead.
I have to wait until people write about the ending. It's really provoking to watch a drama for 50 or 70 episodes, to like it or worse, really like it, only to have the drama's writers ruin the whole thing with a sad, illogical, rushed or vague ending.
Which has nothing to do with your article, which was lovely.
Always excited when there's a new place to watch dramas. The collapse of Dramafever made me never take it for granted, that I'll be able to watch these shows. I'm glad they're here. (I'd be even gladder if they were streaming content that wasn't widely available on Youtube.) The site is useful as an aggregator but I hope the site eventually adds new content.
I liked "Another Oh Young" quite a lot, and I've watched it several times. I loved the 2nd couple. She was deliciously quirky yet strong, and Kim Ji Suk was her perfect counterpoint.
I don't believe in 1 bad ending will ruin an entire drama. Also I don't believe in 1 good ending will make a bad…
The way a show begins and ends is everything. If a show ends badly, the audience will stay pissed about the way the show ended FOREVER. In that regard, if a show ends badly, the show is ruined. Whether or not the rest of the show is cheap, silly or lazy matters, too--but often, if the rest of the show is truly cheap, silly or lazy, people didn't stick around to find out how the show ends.
Why? Why, why, why show? Why didn't you continue to deliver the fun, funny, romantic episodes that characterized 80% of this drama?
I really haven't been so disappointed in a show's ending like this since "Princess Agents".
Do Chinese audiences really prefer shows like this, where the last few episodes of a long drama completely change the tone of the whole thing? Do Chinese audiences really want their dramas to end like this? Am I just spoiled by the Western idea that "romance" means a HE? I've watched enough Cdramas to never be surprised when a Cdrama has a stupid/bad/sad/vague ending, but I still manage to be disappointed, over and over again.
(Comically, as I was nearing the end of the drama while I was watching it on Viki, the overall rating of the show started to slide, until the rating nearly fell off the cliff. I knew before I ever watched the end of the show that viewers were pretty pissed about the ending, and that's without reading a single word about how the show ends.)
Ofc there would be a ton of issues if anyone dared to make a female character that is okay with her sexuality…
It couldn't be done now. It couldn't be done in 5 years. Even if you get a new generation of writers to write it, they couldn't get a show about women't sex lives past the censors--even if South Korean audiences wanted a show like that. Which they really don't.
I don't think it's the opposite of k-drama. The idea of a bunch of girlfriends living in the city isn't a foreign…
It is profoundly contrary to Kdrama.
You can make a show about a bunch of girlfriends living in an exciting city (its been done, over and over and over) and you can have the show be about their relationships with their boyfriends and jobs and families.
What you can't do is make a show about a bunch of girlfriends sex lives, and that's what Sex and the City was about.
Sex and the City can be maladapted as a Kdrama. It's a terrible idea. Sex and the City is an American show whose central premise is the sexual attitudes and behaviors of its characters, in the backdrop of the most (or 2nd most, if it's not your city) exciting city in the country.
South Korea, with the 2nd lowest birthrate in the world, is not a country that particularly celebrates women's sexual ownership (which is to say they don't at all), and it's far too patriarchal and hierarchal to put up with a show where women characters do much more than kiss like Park Shin Hye.
This may not be the worst drama ever written. Maybe. But it's a strong contender.
Featuring Lee Da Hae (who really should have known better) as the typical Cdrama FL who is innocent and naive to the point where her character is of virtually sub-normal intelligence (and that's even if you're willing to ignore that the writers gift the character with "math phobia" har har) and whose noble idiocy is so galactic you may wonder how she's managed to avoid living sainthood and
A second FL who is so spoiled and childish, no male character in the world could be reasonably expected to have anything remotely like sexual feelings about her and
A third FL who is a dishonest narcissist who lies and tricks her way into the ML's feelings (but his character is so weak, so wavering and spineless, you can be forgiven for thinking that he deserves what's coming to him.) and
Writing that is so bad, the writers give you a scene where the FL has just gotten out of the hospital BECAUSE SHE MIGHT GO BLIND, and the two ML's argue about who is entitled to have her while SHE'S STANDING THERE GETTING READY TO FAINT. (Sorry about the yelling.)
Do Chinese audiences want female characters like this?
This drama has everything you hate about Cdramas (unless that's the stuff you like Cdramas for.)
Viki will be airing/subbing. (As for synopsis, Viki's is even shorter than the one above as of 2/28/19.) I'm thinking this is going to be revenge genre, but I haven't been right about anything since 1990.
Which has nothing to do with your article, which was lovely.
I loved the 2nd couple. She was deliciously quirky yet strong, and Kim Ji Suk was her perfect counterpoint.
Thanks for this article. Love the title of it ;-)
You did a nice job.
I really haven't been so disappointed in a show's ending like this since "Princess Agents".
Do Chinese audiences really prefer shows like this, where the last few episodes of a long drama completely change the tone of the whole thing? Do Chinese audiences really want their dramas to end like this? Am I just spoiled by the Western idea that "romance" means a HE? I've watched enough Cdramas to never be surprised when a Cdrama has a stupid/bad/sad/vague ending, but I still manage to be disappointed, over and over again.
(Comically, as I was nearing the end of the drama while I was watching it on Viki, the overall rating of the show started to slide, until the rating nearly fell off the cliff. I knew before I ever watched the end of the show that viewers were pretty pissed about the ending, and that's without reading a single word about how the show ends.)
You can make a show about a bunch of girlfriends living in an exciting city (its been done, over and over and over) and you can have the show be about their relationships with their boyfriends and jobs and families.
What you can't do is make a show about a bunch of girlfriends sex lives, and that's what Sex and the City was about.
South Korea, with the 2nd lowest birthrate in the world, is not a country that particularly celebrates women's sexual ownership (which is to say they don't at all), and it's far too patriarchal and hierarchal to put up with a show where women characters do much more than kiss like Park Shin Hye.
A second FL who is so spoiled and childish, no male character in the world could be reasonably expected to have anything remotely like sexual feelings about her and
A third FL who is a dishonest narcissist who lies and tricks her way into the ML's feelings (but his character is so weak, so wavering and spineless, you can be forgiven for thinking that he deserves what's coming to him.) and
Writing that is so bad, the writers give you a scene where the FL has just gotten out of the hospital BECAUSE SHE MIGHT GO BLIND, and the two ML's argue about who is entitled to have her while SHE'S STANDING THERE GETTING READY TO FAINT. (Sorry about the yelling.)
Do Chinese audiences want female characters like this?
This drama has everything you hate about Cdramas (unless that's the stuff you like Cdramas for.)
Don't. Just don't.