This isn’t a walk, as you can probably tell from the title. But making the list amused me, which I guess is what this blog is all about. As you all know, I love Korean Dramas, but I wanted to write this up for kicks since my husband keeps poking fun at all the items on this list, and I realized he’s a bit right. Hopefully I haven’t ruined this show genre for myself.
Pick at least 4 elements out of this list and you’ve got yourself a Korean drama:
1. The quirky, and usually not super attractive, but loveable female lead
2. The arrogant male lead who secretly hides a sensitive and romantic nature (usually due to something that happened in the past, or a family issue)
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| “Boys Over Flowers” |
3. The poor female/male lead
4. The ridiculously rich, unbelievably handsome, incredibly well-dressed male lead
5. Fans of the male lead who fall over themselves and/or scream whenever they see him because of how handsome/eligible he is
6. The best friend who falls in love with the male/female lead but is destined to be nothing more than a best friend, and yet ends up being happy for their friend anyway (yeah right!)
7. The old lover who comes back and tries to ruin everything but fails
8. The gorgeous but out-of-this-world bitchy other girl
9. Someone gets amnesia
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| A secretly amused Hwang Tae Kyung, from “You’re Beautiful” |
10. Someone needs to go to the hospital, this may happen due to
– too much drama in their lives they can’t take it anymore and faint or stop eating
– amnesia
– car accident
– a grandparent/parent/former lover who is weak/sick and therefore the child/ex has to give up their love or something they want to please the hospitalized person
11. Someone goes to school in a foreign country, usually the US or somewhere in Europe
12. Ice skating montage with scenes like
– holding hands
– accidentally falling on top of the other person
– general merriment
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| “Secret Garden” |
13. The “intense hug” (used in lieu of an actual kiss, for the more conservative dramas, usually because one of the leads is so overcome with secret affection)
14. The parent who disapproves of the romance
15. The karaoke scene, usually with maracas and/or tambourines for some reason
16. The dramatic/sentimental/fun beach or Jeju Island scene/episode
17. The running to catch someone at the airport scene
18. The long (fast-forwarded) separation at the end before the leads finally get together and live happily ever after
19. The really strange open-ended ending where no one is really happy, least of all the person who wasted 16-20 hours of their life watching the show
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| “Lie To Me” |
20. The romance that doesn’t really get started until 1-2 episodes from the end, so you basically have an episode or two to enjoy it
21. The unrealistic ending where everyone is happy (my favorite)
I’m sure there are PLENTY of common elements I missed, so if you’ve thought of any it’d be fun to see what other people have observed. 🙂