Fugu Talk

I don’t know if I’ve gotten pickier or if the Korean dramas have dropped off in quality, recently, but in contrast to least year, when I watched a bunch of series beginning to end (Arang and the Magistrate, Nice Guy, History of the Salaryman, The King of Drama…), now I’m dropping the current ones after a few episodes. It might be genre – I’ve been trying out spy stories, and gotta say – worst spies ever. Let’s have loud conversations about state secrets while someone’s lurking behind a pillar a few feet away. And a ditzy  lady spies accidentally fire their guns and moon after other spies like schoolgirls. And male spies who moon after female spies and cover for them repeatedly if they happen to be traitors. And not all of these shows are comedies.

Also, the cliches – I was a newbie last year, so everything was fresh and wacky, but now, amnesia again? The patriarch of the family just got bad news, so get ready for the heart attack. And the heroine is about to step into traffic without looking so the hero will pull her back into a deeply moving hug (they should put up warning signs showing high-heeled women staggering into traffic). This feels wrong, but I’ve started laughing at the sad moments in the melodramas.

Still, there’s one current series I find absorbing – That Winter, the Wind Blows. In episode 8, the meaning of the title is explained, sort of, but it still sounds weird and cryptic. Nevertheless, the show’s got good acting, a cool almost noirish vibe and I haven’t laughed inappropriately, yet (despite a few familiar drama obsessions like blindness, brain tumors, parental abandonment, orphanages, birth secrets and corporate machinations).

I’m using Hulu Plus as my current substitute for regular TV. It’s got a lot of content but lacks most of my must-see shows – currently I’m missing out on Walking Dead, for example. To fill in the gap, I’ve been checking out their bevy of Korean drama – it even has its own category in the Genre page and a “beginner’s guide” of selections.

I gather I’m late to the “Korean wave” of entertainment (even Obama has extolled its virtues) but I’ve been playing catchup with Korean dramas on Hulu Plus, my current substitute for regular TV, since they don’t have much in the way my usual must-watch shows (I’m missing out on Walking Dead right now), but they have an abundance of kdrama, even given its own category and a “beginner” selection. I peruse dramabeans.com for recommendations, though.

I won’t make any assumptions about Korean culture based on the shows (might be like piecing together a picture of the US based on The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl), but here’s the universe of kdramas:

Stories run for one season, twenty episodes or so, like a really long miniseries.

Episodes last more than an hour, so they pack a lot of story in each one.

The beginning typically starts out wacky, even if it gets really serious later, and often includes an out of the blue action sequence, like a motorbike race or fight sequence. I usually can’t tell if I’m going to like the series until I see the second or third episode.

The last episode of the season is often a mixed bag since they have to wrap everything up, sometimes too neatly, sometimes not neat enough.

There’s a lot of head slapping. They should wear helmets. Actually, some of the guys have hairdos that look like helmets.

Lurking is easy. Stand behind a pole or corner, stick your head out to eavesdrop on some people twenty feet away and somehow you’re invisible.

Romantic gestures include piggyback rides (tall women need not apply), dragging by the wrist (I keep thinking a dislocated shoulder will result) and back hugs.

Despite all that dragging around, most of the stories are led by women or split 50-50 in importance between the male and female leads. The female lead is typically spunky, sometimes a tomboy, has a healthy appetite, likes to kick men in the shins, is a good cook, inexperienced in romance, wants to have a career and doesn’t want to get married early.

The leads are ridiculously cute. It’s like watching puppies mate.

Every story has “second leads”. Thus the love triangle. Or love triangle list, as the potential pairings grow.

There’s a lot of drinking, drinking competitions, drunken karaoke. Both men and women.

There are no medical privacy rules. Doctors will cheerfully supply any and all information to the villain.

Many actresses started out with a singing career. Very handy for all the singing scenes (it’s not bad, I enjoy the drunken karaoke numbers).

Some plots are wickedly complicated. Like he knows that she knows he’s lying, but she doesn’t know that he knows that she knows that he’s lying. That’s where I start yelling at the screen, “what’s going on?”

Don’t watch hungry. There’s always footage of good food, especially barbeque.

Lots of crying. And not just by the women. I hope they have a lot of water bottles on set – dehydration must be an issue.

They excel in the romance department. It’s like they have design patterns. For example, woman upset or drunk staggers into traffic, guy pulls her out of harms way and into a safe hug.

I don’t know if I’d enjoy them more or less if I understood Korean. Possibly less – I’ve read complaints about an actor’s pronunciation (which might distract me like English actors who struggle to speak American). Instead, I’m enjoying the range of inflection, from cutesy girl talk to something that sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball. I especially like exclamations like “Aiissh!” and “Aigoo!”

Any non-Korean language is spoken excruciatingly slowly, whether it’s Chinese or English. I think they must recruit English-speaking actors from tourists (to say it’s wooden would be an insult to Pinocchio). The most natural sounding English is from actors who are probably Korean-American or at least spent their youth here.