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For real, why are K-Dramas so popular?

lime_pickle

Voices. 

For me, at least, 

Korean voices are nicer to listen to than the (bad) dubbing on some  Chinese dramas - giving all the women high, squeaky 'baby' voices and the weird, random shouting/toddler with emphysema voices on (some) J-dramas.

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Softsoft_girl
 emaureeng:

I don't understand. I was saying your post was wonderful.

(HECK is the expression of disgust...)

When i read it, i immediately took it to the other way ... Seems like u meant the opposite ...So, next time pls try to refrain from using words like that ...

I AM so SRY 4 ACCUSING U LIKE DAT .... Pardon me 

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Softsoft_girl

I am terrible 

Sorry !!

I pulled my post off .... so, it seems we are settled now ??

i hope we will talk privately and not use this place for our personal talkss... SRY again

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ArniA

But in reality, how popular is kdrama?

Where I live, in my country, I know of only 1 other person that watches kdrama, and that person doesn't watch nearly as much as me. But it's still nice chatting about kdrama with that person.

I've promoted kdrama to my coworkers, and only one has actually watched 1 or 2 series, but that person doesn't watch it anymore.

So, kdrama is that not popular where I am living. 

I think kdrama is mostly popular in Asia, but in the West and other places it's not as popular, and in some places 99,9999% of the population hasn't even watched anything korean.

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John Smith

I actually read the post as asking why are Korean dramas so popular on MDL versus the other available countries.

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kardasx
 ArniA:
I think kdrama is mostly popular in Asia, but in the West and other places it's not as popular, and in some places 99,9999% of the population hasn't even watched anything korean.

I think that the main problem is that local TV stations do not broadcast it. Many people watch only normal terrestrial broadcasting and they don't know about anything that is not shown there. Many people in my country watch telenovels (e.g. Muñeca Brava), so I think that korean dramas would be also popular, but no TV station broadcast them. :( In my surroundings I don'k know anyone who would watch any asian drama. Only one of my friends started talking about them, that they are on Netflix, but he doesn/t like to read subtitles. So I am not sure if he will start watching them or not. Some people surely watch them in my counry, but it is not mass activity.

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Knavery

Availability is obviously one big part as others have mentioned. Korea makes an effort to have the dramas produced in their country subtitled - especially in English which opens up the doors for translators to translate from English to their native language.

But I think stuff like Japanese dramas have bigger issues. They're more of an acquired taste.

I take a look back and I've watched four Japanese dramas this year and have enjoyed them. But they were all set in modern times and the acting and pacing could best be described as slapstick. And that's behind the times for most global audiences no matter where you go. And the people wanting slapstick can easily turn to anime where it's easier to portray than on real actors.

Now what do I mean by slapstick? I mean the main story, the ridiculous hook of the storyline is played up and exaggerated throughout the show. Usually it's a quirky feature of one of the leads like Takane no Hana-san where she constantly berates the male lead and it's called 'tsundere'.

It doesn't feel natural. It feels overplayed by the characters involved. And I do believe this is a common 'problem' for Japanese dramas in terms of attracting the global market (especially the Asian market). They overplay a character trait or a theme in the show and beat it like a dead horse. Did the story need to reinforce it that much? I don't think so. It wears thin after a while. Kind of a "haha she has feelings for the male lead but insults him publicly all the time". 

And keep in mind I gave Takane no Hana-san a 7.5/10. I don't think slapstick is horrible but I don't think I could watch another drama like that for a few months at least which is why Japanese dramas won't ever rival say Korean or Chinese dramas on my watched list.

As for Chinese dramas being less popular - again, less availability to global audiences, censorship by the authoritarian regime and dubbing are all reasons it's not quite as popular. I really think it matters that a mouth lines up with the sounds being made and that's not as true from Chinese dramas (and I have probably watched more Chinese dramas than Korean ones at this point). What make the dubbing even more frustrating is sometimes it's spliced into the show very poorly. I'm not sure if this is because of re-writes or government censorship but dramas in 2021  will have someone talking and then their voice changes, same voice actor but obviously in a studio so the sound doesn't match the room or atmosphere. A real immersion killer. 

This also brings up something interesting - Korean dramas do actually dominate in Asia and do really well in places like China. But remember Chinese dramas themselves tend to have subtitles so people with different dialects can understand what is going on. That might make many Asian audiences more accepting of subtitles where a German audience or an English audience would not be and why a Korean show will not be the hottest new thing in Germany or England or wherever but could be the hottest thing in China where subtitles for viewing is much more common and normal.

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ArniA

Same thoughts.

Japanese drama is very.... strange, acquired taste. Not very targeted for international audience.

Chinese drama, I really enjoy the Xinanxi, historical aspect of chinese dramas. But contemporary chinese dramas are inferior to korean because they demand certain morality of their entertainment. You never see corrupt detectives in chinese dramas, because that depicts the government being corrupt. So the freedom of expression is greatly inferior. That's why historical content, fantasy xianxi, etc. is so popular because it's in a gray area, the makers of tv dramas find a certain worry-free risk in creating such content.

Korean dramas really manage to incorporate everything into a nice package because they have no creative hinderance and also they want to attract global audience.

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kardasx
 ArniA:
Japanese drama is very.... strange, acquired taste. Not very targeted for international audience.

I am glad that they stay the same and do not target international audience. People who like japanese culture, also like these dramas and those, who want to watch something for international audience,  can watch US production or korean. For fans of jdramas it would be enough if more of them have english subs and these are available at official streaming sites like Netflix.

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polarmacaron

I think that, if you look at Western, Latino, or even Turkish drama, K-drama gives a concise format, better topic treatment, and visual representation. Also, there is less focus on the explicit physical and sexual content, whilst Latino and Western drama portrays it almost on an episode basis, mostly with no context. There is much choice when it comes to things that current youth can relate to in terms of lifestyle expectations, struggles, and ideas. Every good quality k-drama has the perfect blend of in-depth plot, smoothly connected episodes, and good acting skills. Other cinematographies usually lack something or focus too much on surface-level storylines.  Popular Turkish drama e.g. focuses too much on complicated love twists and violence integrated into the contemporary business world. Latino drama has few in-depth plots, focuses too much on physical communication while verbal communication is usually bland. American drama itself is an umbrella term that covers a million genres. Yet, it rarely goes beyond the mainstream trends and views. K-drama is improving, and it is Korean-centric, there are formulaic plots, but there is much more to that in terms of the context and I think that many other cinematographies started to remake successful k-dramas for these reasons.

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