Other than Kpop, I am a huge fan of KDramas. I know, I know, I hear all the sighs and eye rolls through the screen. How much more Korean can I get, right?
Turns out, KDramas are not just popular in Korea.
Generally, everyone thinks KDramas are a pastiche of cliche elements of fiction. I can’t completely deny that this is false. There are some that really play up to the stereotypical a-poor-girl-who-believes-the-world-is-unfair-meets-a-super-rich–but-mean-guy-whose-parents-don’t-believe-she’s-the-right-match-for-their-son-and-the-nice-second-lead-doesn’t-get-the-girl. But there are many more that are much different.
So I wanted to list some of my favourite Korean Dramas (in no particular order) that will break every negative pre-conception that you may have had about KDramas..
1) The Princess’s Man
A fictional historical tragedy, a girl finds out she is to be married to a boy from another noble family. He is also to become the personal tutor of the princess, the girl’s best friend. The princess has no interest in her studies and gladly allows her friend to take her lessons in her stead. The girl, interested to find out who her husband-to-be is, pretends to be the princess and meets the boy. I don’t want to spoil anymore, but the political unrest among the nobels makes this drama action-packed and full of plot twists.
2) Gu Family Book
Another fictional historical tragedy, a family is brutally murdered on false charges of treason. The oldest girl in the family gets sold off as a prostitute. The man who framed her father of treason wants to spend a night with her. In her escape, she meets a man, who helps her and eventually they fall in love. Unbeknownst to her, he’s a nature god/sprit. But he loves her so much that he wants to become a human, and he can do so if he finds the “Gu Family Book.” While they are running away from the people who wants her back at the prostitute house, they are captured and the god/spirit turns into his natural form, which horrifies the girl. She abandons him and follows her captors back to civilization, while the men kill the god/spirit. She gives birth to a half-human half-spirit and abandons him at a river. He gets adopted by a noble and their family, too, gets framed of treason by the same guy that framed his mother’s family… The real story unfolds from here.
3) Good Doctor
An autistic man wants to become a surgeon. Whenever he was bullied as a little kid, his brother stood up for him. They had an abusive father and their mother had escaped the domestic abuse, but had not taken her children with her. His brother was his only friend. One day, the bullies tell the boy and his brother to go into the abandoned mine. The mine, worn with age, crumbles and their rescuer could only save one person. That was him. His brother wanted to be a doctor. He wants to follow his brother’s dream and he doesn’t want anyone to die like his brother. However, society is not so willing to accept an autistic man as a doctor. But he has to. For his brother.
4) Descendants of the Sun
The final episode of this internationally hit drama aired last week. Now exported to 32 different countries, this drama tells a fictional story of a doctor, who believes all the odds are stacked against her in her becoming a professor and a mysterious high-ranked military officer,. Through a series of coincidents and accidents, they keep meeting. Only after two dates, both of which get cut short due to military and hospital work, they decide to call it quits. After she refuses to sleep with the chairman of the hospital, she gets sent on a humanitarian volunteer trip to a fictional country, Uruk, where she meets the military officer again.
5) The Moon Embracing the Sun
Yet another fictional historical drama, the king is looking for a match for his son, the Crown Prince. One of the candidates is a girl, whose brother is the tutor of the prince, and whom the prince already met, through an accident. She is mature and wise for her age, but not like most other noble girls. She treats her servants like friends and talks with her brother about literature and other studies. The girl likes prince, but so does the other candidate girl. Their fathers are leaders of opposing parties. Though she gets chosen to be the Crown Princess, the father of the other candidate, orders the Royal Shawman to kill her.
(dramacool.to has very reliable English subtitles for all of these dramas. I hope you enjoy!)
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