Why is Korean drama so corny but still addictive to people?
Why is Korean drama so corny but still addictive to people?
Referring to the tearful scenes as the viewer think about Korean drama, It’s always seems like Youngsters, elderly, pretty boys and pretty girls in Korean dramas are always ready at the drop of a hat to burst into tears which makes the audience feel touched and even hurt.
An actor must know how to cry.
From the early ’90s until now, most Korean films always have tearful scenes with the main characters crying catastrophically. Indeed, if the actor’s forte is not “the ability to cry prettily”, it’s very hard for them to find themselves a starring role. Therefore, a series of “crying queens” was born, a few familiar faces could be named here are Shim Eun Ha, Go Hyun Jung, Lee Young Ae, Choi Ji Woo, Choi Jin Sil … Of course, “crying beautifully “is an art, which can agitate the audience’s heart and make them deeply choked with emotion. Inevitably, if you want to have a bright future in Korean filming world, you must be able to cry on command.
Crying scenes are not only carried out by actresses anymore. Even actors also have to try their hands at doleful crying scenes and shake millions of hearts who watch these scenes. Actor Park Yoo Chun in “Missing You” once “complained”: “I cried so much in this drama. At first, I just dropped a few tears, but then, I sobbed while eating. In the near future, I will cry as if it were pouring rain. Then, he began to give a grimace and pretended to cry.
However, only several crying scenes are not enough to touch the audience’s hearts. Main actors must metamorphose into characters by heart and experience many difficulties to fulfill a touching scene. Most recently, in the hit drama “Queen Ki”, actress Ha Ji Won also had a once-in-life scene which actually stole viewer’s tear.
In episode 23, Seung-Nyang (Ha Ji Won), in her best endeavor to find her child, she plunged herself into water and cried in pain. This scene received a lot of good comments from the audience. In extreme cold weather, Ha Ji Won resolutely dipped herself into water, made light of the toughness of weather and even her health. She really made the film come up to roses.
Amazingly, in the previous scenario, no diving scene was mentioned. The mother only cries near the waterfront. When filming, Ha Ji Won read the script and said, “In this world there is no mother who knows that her son falls into the water and just stands crying on the shore.” Then, she suggested to plunge into the water. Jumping down into frozen water is not a simple decision, but Ha Ji Won for her role, expressed no regret to sacrifice herself. Ha Ji Won is just one of the many Korean actresses who are willing to work hard and accept risks to successfully produce an emotional scene.
Scenario is an important step
Korean films, especially drama revolves around the biggest problem in their works – “love”. Korean drama scripts in simple, but sometimes producers know how to exploit the details thoroughly and creatively. In Korean dramas, there are some old themes and plots that everyone knows and so many people can even predict the ending, but they still love watching it because the dramas express meticulous circumstances and match their attitudes towards the main themes. Actually, Korean movies and dramas are sometimes a little bit bamboozling but in overall, the stories have always been rooted from the real world that we are living in.
Why do we have to shed our tears for those very simple scenes in real life? Nothing can do it but Korean actors’ ability of living the characters’ lives truthfully. Noticeably, all members in production team, including script writer, director and actor respect psychological reactions of human nature. An affected play-acting is strictly not allowed in K-drama world.
For instance, the drama stream dedicated to the housewives mainly goes into family topics, women in gender-discrimination society or stories of turbulent marriage. “What to eat tonight”, “The glamorous wife”, “Come back to me” or “Seven princesses”… are popular films that people cannot help themselves burst out into tears. Korean drama fans cry a lot with the characters, but they are truly happy to do that, because there existing sadness, grief, sorrow and happiness inside those tears, which can be shared with their darlings. Viewers do not wallow in desperation, they are satisfied to see a so-called personal dreams and to live and laugh with the characters. In other words, a smile is concealed in a subtle way through the tragic fate of the characters in the drama. No matter which sides those characters are in, positive or negative side, the audience always sees the effort that a character goes to pursue their dream and ambition.
Many dramas deeply refer to actual social problems, like “Alice in Cheodamdong”. She said that the world cannot be changed, all the things that we can do is just adapting to it. One special thing about Korean drama is that the ending is normally dependent on viewer’s opinion. Because the filming time and the broadcast time of these dramas are usually concurrent, producer is willing to change the drama’s events and even the ending to increase ratings. Of course there can be a sudden and abrupt ending, but the way they respect viewer’s opinion should be applauded warmly.
Korean drama is also known for classic lines that live on through time. In “Alice in Cheodamdong”, the heroine cried and asked her lover: “If we are good people, living in good faith and effort every day and still cannot have a better life, then what we have to do … “. Or in “Reply 1994”, the boy who is having difficulty in creating his own career path for future said: “My 20 years of age on this earth is like a suffocating exam” Obviously, this is the fact taking place every day as many young people are building towards their dream. Such dialogues make the Korean drama get warmly welcomed by audience.
The strength of music
One thing that cannot be denied in explaining the success of Korean drama is the strong effect of music on viewer’s state of mind. Sometimes, a specific scene cannot necessarily make you shed your tears but when the soundtrack emerges, you can easily have a “good cry”. Many Korean dramas are not impressive in terms of content but they win big due to the music. When the actors are expressing the character’s emotions, music integrated into the scene can make the viewer’s emotion. Korean filmmakers are really very careful in selection of songs for making OST. They are willing to spend money hiring an excellent music composer to write songs just for a particular drama. Therefore, sometimes the characters only look at each other silently, but the viewer can still understand implicitly what messages characters want to deliver.