ShortCircuit

It's not political, it's makjang thriller. That means over the top everything (villains, plotlines, main leads, all tropes thrown in, nothing spared.) Pluses: amazing soundtrack, great-looking leads, some sharp (makjang, it bears repeating) turns and twists. Cons: the writer likes to f!ck with our heads, throwing us for loops each week. And the FL('s character) is very pretty (but very dumb). On the other hand, she IS very pretty.

And Kopiko PPL out of the blue. I guess they wanted in the money train, LOL.

I hope you can form your own opinion on it and not base everything on other people's words (including mine, LOL).

Nobody asked, but indeed, one's true preferences are their own and the manner they prefer to show those is also of their own choice. Everybody can watch what they like and not watch what they don't like, I thought that's implied and doesn't need to be stated. Don't take anything you read on the internet - including on this site - so personally.

This discussion is becoming pointless, IMHO, so I'll leave you all to it.

She was a club entertainer, if HID fathered her son, he would've been a student at the time and involved in the protests that took him to Yeom's dungeons. Maybe he wasn't around while she was pregnant. Or maybe there were other reasons not to get married - as in, maybe HID was already in love with CDH and didn't want to marry some other woman.

Yeah, logically it's obvious they dare not go there, but also it's kind of fun pretending what if :D

All the dramas you referenced is precisely one drama that was sold outside SK only after international fans clamoured it was good (and it is). I hope you're not trying to say that any and all dramas sold outside SK will meet success, based on a sample of one.

You keep changing the goals, first it was that int'l audience (ratings and views) are more important than the home ratings and views, then it's not about international audiences but about national ones and in the end it's about the amount of money made.

Again, by whom?! By the production teams? By the cast? By the c/rights owners?!

Have it your way. After all, neither of us lives in SK, nor are we in any way related to the industry (at least I am not). So you can believe whatever you want, true or not.

I thought your argument was that the exposure they get from dramas internationally will help them in the long run. Now we're only talking SK?! But that was what I was initially talking about, and you said it doesn't actually matter what SK ratings are since int'l ratings (or audience numbers) matter more. So I don't really see what you're trying to prove, actually. I guess you proved my point that home ratings matter more? But then, TBH, luckily for me, I don't intend to convince anyone of anything :D

So again, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

... Because she herself was a kid when he wandered into their house, and nobody used his original name either. The name isn't that important to her now, and it was never important to SDJ as he didn't even remember ever being called that until he got the second amnesia. She just knew it was his original name, but there's no big fuss to be made over it - most important right there and then was to go see her brother and the rest can wait.

As to 1. yeah, NF puts a lot of money in it (and the other streamers also started doing it) and it kind of shows. You get all the horror series you'd ever want, you get some of the "provocative" (read as 18+) content you'd ever want, and you get big names (because money talks) and you lose the actual substance that ever made the Asian-based media so significantly different.

In other words, IMHO, they're in full process of killing their golden goose. But that's all their money so they get to decide what to do with it. All I can do is not watch.

2. It does bring a lot of exposure - and I'm pretty sure what matters most is not directly their asking price for any drama they might pick, but in the endorsements. Usually endorsements mean an iron-clad contract where the (rising or risen) star has to have an immaculate life free of scandals. While for the int'l audience, already used to the extra-bohemian lifestyles of "stars", any Asian-level scandal might not mean much... it's something that while bringing in the money doesn't allow for any uncontrolled move from the actual people involved.

While you might think it broadens up their horizons, in actual limits, no it doesn't. Western-world people don't go into cinema to watch an Asian star (that may be a super-star in their home country or Asia in general) - case in point, the biggest Asian movie star, SRK, is basically unknown in the States, though there's a small following in Europe, Africa and maybe South America too. LJG had only very small type-cast Asian roles in American movies (I struggle to remember, maybe some later-end Resident Evil?). Jing Tian, featured as a FL in The Great Wall didn't see much hype from that (in fact, the movie totally flopped, including in China). Mulan (feat. Liu YiFei) also didn't see much support (though that is probably in part due to the pandemics). The best placed (actually a star in his own country before trying it out in Hollywood) is probably Jackie Chan, followed by Jet Li and from the past, probably Bruce Lee (though he was born in the US and most of his better known movies are US-made). Maybe Lee ByungHun, for now (though not as main cast.) ETA Again, I refer only to people who are not of Asian descent that are actors in the Western world, but to Asian stars trying to make it into Hollywood or elsewhere.

In dramas - yes. Even in US dramas, people like Priyanka Chopra in Quantico. But not as huge audience-drawing names, nowhere near to the status they have in their home country.

And it's easily lost - see all the money scandals of Chinese stars (including Liu YiFei), or the drinking/drugs/underaged relationships scandals (of which one is blowing full-steam right now).

What I mean to say is - if they want to bank on the newly-found fame, it usually has to be still in their home country. So yet again... it's still the home ratings that matter in the long run.

3. I wish them all luck with well-written contracts that would allow them all to get royalties. (Though the last strike in Hollywood was EXACTLY because of very small royalties and residuals, and also about the lack of any residuals from streaming, IIRC. It also included the use of IA in faking actors that had their rights sold, including dead actors. So yea, I am not too certain streamers are all that fair with the kind of contracts they offer).

I guess we'll agree to disagree :)

Okay, not going to go too pedantic in here but here goes... The networks make their money through advertising. When they buy a drama, the ads they sell have to cover the buying price. The more people are watching the drama, the more ads (or higher priced) they can include. Which means they make a profit (if the drama is successful) or not (if it flops or underperforms).

Most ads are aimed at the local population watching - which means, located in SK. The international audience might see ads, but they're also local, and if it's a streaming drama, those ads could be anything, but the money goes to the streaming site, not the producers or the networks. The only profitable thing coming from international viewers is a heightened position for the cast. Not the producers (usually, or at most the most visible ones, like the director, writer or composer), not the networks who went into the initial contract. And if not produced by the streamer and sold back to a SK network, then the production team takes on all the risk. That's why they care A LOT about home audience, and not necessarily the int'l one. And that's why the home ratings matter more than the int'l interest.

I'll say it again - once the production team sells the drama to int'l networks or streamers... that's it. They usually don't make more money unless so written in the contract, and it usually isn't (because of the inherent risk it won't be as successful as needed).

So yeah, other than making waves for the cast, I guess SK producers are not going to see much profit from an int'l streaming site after the sell.

PS AFAIK, once upon a time, there WERE money to be made from selling a drama to an int'l or regional audience, AFTER it had reached high success and was really buzzworthy. Sadly, nowadays they're made and sold before they had a chance to succeed - or not - internally, so it's all sold at initial value's worth.

WHC1 was too long ago for me, I only remember the ML LOL.

... Now I want them to do just that, LOL. As a cliffhanger of the week, so we could all go crazy together :D

I think HID was the father, and that's why DeokHui went ballistic - she wasted no love on her actual husband, but she was all over HID, they still are.

She was another one of the "want the cake and eat it too" type, no wonder her daughter turned out the same.

"What are you doing, step-brother?..." moment :D

I want to see who's that courageous to write that in a main-network drama and leave it as is, LOL. They would be eviscerated.

Nah, they're not siblings (now imagine if they had had her pregnant with him.... Nuclear bombs would have gone off already :D)

There ain't a script writer as bold in the whole South Korea, don't worry, they're not.

He was the bad guy in Study Group LOL. (The manhua has a redemption arc for that character, but SG didn't get as far).

Even the reprise got 4.5 in ratings and ranked in Top20 (8th place, compared to 2nd for the day's ep), wow. I didn't even know they did reprises on TV these days hahaha~

The thing is, it's been established that if he gets too shocked he gets amnesia LOL. Here's hoping he doesn't forget anything this time :D

1. Because she's stupid (she seriously is).

2. YHC is letting her go because he loves her. I hope she gets confused by it and when SDJ inevitably rejects her (at least in the beginning) next ep, she'll go back. (I hope they put a revolving door in place for her, at the Yeom place, 'cause she's worse than the Terminator with her "I'll be back"'s LOL).

3. Men with earrings are hot. It depends on the age, type of earring and their confidence wearing them... but they're hot. (Not me imagining to the yey days of SRK playing Asoka, with those silver hoops in his ears. Man was he so hot...)

He sure was - that torture scene was from when he was a student, that has to be some 30 years back at least, and Yeom wouldn't have let him go without being sure of him.

Maybe Yeom fixed the initial removal of Mme Chu and SeongHyeon in order to plant HID in the Cha conglomerate through his marriage with DeokHui. And that would also explain why the second accident had to happen - when the Ko parents died, since SeongHyeon wasn't gone (maybe someone recognised him or something, or maybe they drew attention while trying to find his parents. I mean, it's only human to try and locate a lost child's parents, isn't it? So Yeom could have caught wind of it and learn the kid had survived.)

Oh well, I bet the writer's going to send us for another loop next week :D