Asian dramas
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:51 pm
I'm torn between making separate drama threads to Korea, Japan, etc. and making a general Asian drama thread since I know how messy huge general threads can be when storytelling and budgets may be different... but if discussions become too big, feel free to start a separate thread!
Okay, so I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Asian dramas in general. The actual biggest problem I have is the acting. Lots of Asian dramas I've seen have over-the-top stuff played for comedy and it just gives me second-hand embarrassment for some reason. There's also the "this obviously would never happen in real life but suspend your beliefs for a second" type of stuff, like... a lot of school dramas are like, oh, this dumpy chick (who is actually happens to be one of the better looking girls among the extras) somehow gets with this impossibly hard-to-get hot guy who is a jerk but warms up to her. That's not to say that I never enjoyed some of them. I do like some surrealism thrown into my shows but when people actually expect me to treat it as something "real" without it being something I could see appropriate I'm just like MEH.
My mom watches a lot of them so I grew up catching them watching whatever is on television at 9 PM, and it's usually Chinese period dramas (I like making fun of how the stunt actors "run on air" during their fight scenes) or those Taiwanese coming-of-age dramas that take place in a rural area. I couldn't get into those shows because I couldn't relate to any of them, though I did like one of the rural coming-of-age dramas whose name slips my memory at the moment. I've also seen some Taiwanese romantic comedies like Smiling Pasta (which I enjoyed) but, again, the bad acting kind of ruined some of the scenes.
Well, okay, onto the shows themselves: I watch a lot of tokusatsu (special effects) shows and at one point in my life did go through a Kamen Rider/Super Sentai phase. I've seen Gaoranger (halfway through), Hurricanger (a little bit), Abaranger (half of it), Dekaranger, Magiranger, Boukenger (dropped it halfway), Gekiranger, Go-onger (DROPPED IT BECAUSE IT WAS BAD), and Shinkenger. For Kamen Rider (which I liked because its acting is a little better than Super Sentai and is less formulatic), I've seen Faiz, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva, W, and OOO.
I also like watching dramas if they're adaptations of manga. If I like the drama version I may be interested in seeking out the manga itself. If I've already read the manga I watch the drama to see how closely they adapted it. This happened with ChocoMimi and a lot of manga-to-film adaptations like High School Debut and Lovely Complex.
The only Korean drama I've seen is their version of Boys Over Flowers, and I just watched it for the Soujirou/Yuki parts (whatever their names are in the Korean version)... just like almost everyone else.
Okay, so I sort of have a love-hate relationship with Asian dramas in general. The actual biggest problem I have is the acting. Lots of Asian dramas I've seen have over-the-top stuff played for comedy and it just gives me second-hand embarrassment for some reason. There's also the "this obviously would never happen in real life but suspend your beliefs for a second" type of stuff, like... a lot of school dramas are like, oh, this dumpy chick (who is actually happens to be one of the better looking girls among the extras) somehow gets with this impossibly hard-to-get hot guy who is a jerk but warms up to her. That's not to say that I never enjoyed some of them. I do like some surrealism thrown into my shows but when people actually expect me to treat it as something "real" without it being something I could see appropriate I'm just like MEH.
My mom watches a lot of them so I grew up catching them watching whatever is on television at 9 PM, and it's usually Chinese period dramas (I like making fun of how the stunt actors "run on air" during their fight scenes) or those Taiwanese coming-of-age dramas that take place in a rural area. I couldn't get into those shows because I couldn't relate to any of them, though I did like one of the rural coming-of-age dramas whose name slips my memory at the moment. I've also seen some Taiwanese romantic comedies like Smiling Pasta (which I enjoyed) but, again, the bad acting kind of ruined some of the scenes.
Well, okay, onto the shows themselves: I watch a lot of tokusatsu (special effects) shows and at one point in my life did go through a Kamen Rider/Super Sentai phase. I've seen Gaoranger (halfway through), Hurricanger (a little bit), Abaranger (half of it), Dekaranger, Magiranger, Boukenger (dropped it halfway), Gekiranger, Go-onger (DROPPED IT BECAUSE IT WAS BAD), and Shinkenger. For Kamen Rider (which I liked because its acting is a little better than Super Sentai and is less formulatic), I've seen Faiz, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva, W, and OOO.
I also like watching dramas if they're adaptations of manga. If I like the drama version I may be interested in seeking out the manga itself. If I've already read the manga I watch the drama to see how closely they adapted it. This happened with ChocoMimi and a lot of manga-to-film adaptations like High School Debut and Lovely Complex.
The only Korean drama I've seen is their version of Boys Over Flowers, and I just watched it for the Soujirou/Yuki parts (whatever their names are in the Korean version)... just like almost everyone else.