Which Kind Are You? 5 Kinds of Kdrama Fans

I just did a guest post at DramaFever about the5 kinds of kdrama fans. After I was done, my husband read the post over my shoulder and said, "Wait, aren't you just writing about yourself for most of these?" Why yes, yes I am.

Does anyone else fall into these categories?




1.The Valiant Defender



Once you decide that you love a drama, you become like a mama lion protecting her cubs. You won’t let anyone get away with talking smack about your show! Did someone criticize the series extension? You thought it was perfect to really develop the relationship! Did they hate the costumes? But they were meant to show off the characters’ personalities! Did they say that the acting was melodramatic? OH NO THEY DIDN’T! How would they feel if they woke up with amnesia and cancer? Huh? Everything was perfect and wonderful and amazing and you cried in every single episode.

2.The Closet Viewer



You love Kdramas. I mean, you really love them. You spend your free time reading recaps and listening to the OSTs of your favorite shows. The only problem is that you are an adult, and you don’t know how to explain your obsession to your real-life friends in a way that they would understand. Instead, you lead a double life. When you tell your friends that you spent the weekend helping your mom clean out her basement, what you really mean is that you marathoned Prosecutor Princess for sixteen hours straight.

3.The Academic



You enjoy watching Kdramas, but you also have an advanced degree in psychology or literature or something. You reconcile these two interests by constantly talking about gender roles and socio-economic factors in your favorite shows. Most of your Kdrama-watching friends roll their eyes when you start conversations with “This episode reminded me of something Socrates once said…” but you don’t let that stop you! When that Wall Street Journal blog post criticized Kdramas as being “lowbrow,” you responded with a ten-page manifesto peppered with words like “dichotomy” and “pedantic.”

4.The Bias Stalker



Plot? Not important. Dialogue? Who cares? The one and only determining factor in helping you choose your next drama is how much screen time your favorite actor or actress will get. Now if only the writers would get rid of all these side characters and just put Oppa in a shower scene already…

5.The Seasoned Veteran



You were watching Kdramas looooooong before Full House or Coffee Prince even came onto the scene. As someone who has watched dramas for over a decade, you can dazzle younger viewers with extensive knowledge of the progression of kdramas. You have also gotten to a wise transcendental state of mind where Kdrama trends no longer impact you. You can wait until a popular show finishes airing before you watch it. You have also mastered the difficult art of watching only one episode at a time—something most Kdrama fans see as an impossible myth.

What are your Kdrama habits? One of the above? ALL of the above? (*raises hand slowly*)

Which Kind Are You? 5 Kinds of Kdrama Fans

Some More of Something Completely Different: Youtube Review of The Master's Sun Episodes 1-4

Remember how Coco recently tried doing a Youtube review of Who Are You? And I said I would never, ever do it?

Yeah, me too. 

And then Coco tried to convince me: "But someone has to review The Master's Sun and you're already doing it!" "I can't do it by myself!" "C'mon! It won't be that bad!"

And then I caved and taped a review. And then I gave Coco one of my kidneys. Because she might just be the most convincing person on the planet.

Yep, that's...a lot of my face. And a gigantic cat tower in the background. Don't judge.

If you don't love awkward things, a better option might be to head over to DramaFever to check out my Drama Club reviews of the series. I'm working with Rosie and Drama Debussie in this Drama Club, and so far, we're just having a grand ole time! There was a hubbub over on DramaFever's facebook page when they featured the one negative quotation from my first article, but I promise I'm actually enjoying the show!  (Pats angry fangirls on the head soothingly.)

Who else is watching The Master's Sun? It's my first time watching an ongoing series, and I don't know how I feel about this whole two-episodes-a-week thing.  Wait, I do know.  It's killing me!

And, for those of you who caught the Monty Python reference in the title:

Some More of Something Completely Different: Youtube Review of The Master's Sun Episodes 1-4

Who Are You Episodes 1-4 Review: Guest Post at DramaFever

For a little bit of fun, Vivi and I are joining some other cool bloggers to do reviews of two currently airing horror/mystery shows for DramaFever's Drama Club. I'll be reviewing Who Are You, and Vivi will be reviewing The Master's Sun. Here's my written review of Who Are You episodes 1-4 on DramaFever.

Isn't Si Ohn the best?

To also try something new and completely uncomfortable, we'll be doing YouTube video reviews of these shows as well. I know my first attempt was a little awkward, but a girl's got to start somewhere, right? Hopefully Vivi will be better. We're going to share our memes and YouTube videos of the reviews here on our blog, and link to our posts with DramaFever for you to go check them out there. 

So who's watching Who Are You right now? It looks like there's been some controversy over whether Si Ohn is in fact a strong Kdrama female lead on DramaFever's facebook post of this meme. What do you think?

Who Are You Episodes 1-4 Review: Guest Post at DramaFever

Korean Ice Cream Taste Test: Guest Post at DramaFever

It’s summer, it’s hot, and you’re watching your favorite K-drama on DramaFever. All of a sudden, the leading man buys the female lead ice cream to demonstrate his love, like in Lie To Me, or the leading lady shoves ice cream in the leading man’s face, like in Boys Over Flowers, or the main couple finally get together after all the turmoil and are now able to share ice cream as they cuddle, like in Coffee Prince. What better way to share in their experience than to go out and try some Korean ice cream for yourself?

At DramaFever, we did just that. I took a little trip over to K-town here in New York City, and got some delicious Korean frozen treats for the DramaFever staff to taste test. The taste testing panel included Jeremy, Nick, and Ahnmin from DramaFever, and I. We scored the ice cream on intensity of flavor, sweet balance, texture, and aftertaste to determine which Korean ice cream is the best.

1. Melona: This is a Korean ice cream classic that is very popular around the world. The light green, melon flavored ice cream is shaped like an American popsicle, but has a creamier texture.

Impressions
Nick: “Melt in your mouth melon!”
Ahnmin: “Flavor and sweetness are most pronounced. The creamy texture could be both a good and a bad thing.”
Jeremy: “Refreshing and flavorful. Not too sweet. Perfect flavor.”
Coco: “Smooth and tasty! The green melon flavor is delightful.”

Score
Intensity of Flavor: 15/20
Sweet Balance: 17/20
Texture: 18/20
Aftertaste: 12/20
Total: 62/80
Rank: 2nd Place

2. Tank Boy: This white, slushy ice is Asian pear flavored. It comes in a plastic squeeze bottle.

Impressions

Nick: “I’m just confused what this is...”
Ahnmin: “Tasted like a foot.”
Jeremy: “Way too sweet. Nauseating.”
Coco: “Has a slightly odd, slushy texture.”

Score
Intensity of Flavor: 11/20
Sweet Balance: 12/20
Texture: 10/20
Aftertaste: 8/20
Total: 41/80
Rank: 4th Place

3. Sweet Corn: This yellow ice cream bar on a stick contains whole pieces of corn in it’s creamy base.

Impressions
Nick: “Corn is not meant for dessert. Ever.”
Ahnmin: “Actually not that bad. The natural sweetness of corn works, but the texture was strange.”
Jeremy: “This should not be an ice cream flavor!”
Coco: “I was intrigued by, but also scared of, the visible chunks of corn. I was right to be scared!”

Score
Intensity of Flavor: 7/20
Sweet Balance: 14/20
Texture: 8/20
Aftertaste: 6/20
Total: 35/80
Rank: 5th Place

4. Screw Pop: This pink, fruity popsicle is curved around like a screw.

Impressions
Nick: “Just your average ice pop.”
Ahnmin: “Too sweet! I got a cavity from one bite.”
Jeremy: “A cold, refreshing fruit flavor.”
Coco: “The sweetness was too intense. Nothing unique about it.”

Score
Intensity of Flavor: 14/20
Sweet Balance: 11/20
Texture: 15/20
Aftertaste: 14/20
Total: 54/80
Rank: 3rd Place

5. Samanco: This fish-shaped rice wafer is filled with layers of vanilla ice cream and sweet red bean paste.

Impressions
Nick: “One of the Korean desserts to taste!”
Ahnmin: “Wafer, vanilla ice cream, and red bean create a stunning flavor combination. Would be perfect if it was more crunchy. The wafer tends to get soggy.”
Jeremy: “A fishy ice cream sandwich, without the fish taste. Love it!”
Coco: “I love cute things, and this is totally cute and delicious. Score!”

Score
Intensity of Flavor: 17/20
Sweet Balance: 18/20
Texture: 15/20
Aftertaste: 16/20
Total: 66/80
Rank: 1st Place

The overall favorite Korean ice cream from our sample was Samanco! The fish shape is just so cute and fun! The red bean paste makes it distinctly Korean, while the vanilla ice cream and rice wafer give it a delightful texture that tastes similar to a standard ice cream cone. Melona came in at a close second with its smooth and creamy taste. The least favorite was Sweet Corn. Sorry, but we decided that corn should just not be in ice cream!

Overall, we had a great time trying out these Korean treats, and now we will be able to recognize them in our favorite Kdramas. Hopefully you can go out and try them for yourself. What is your favorite, or least favorite Korean ice cream? What is your favorite Kdrama scene containing ice cream? Comment below.

Korean Ice Cream Taste Test: Guest Post at DramaFever

Essential Korean Terms for Love Interests: Guest Post at Viki

Coco ad Vivi are both currently out of town, but we still found some time to do a guest post for Viki.  We are working on some more reviews as well!

Source

As summer heats up and Kdrama fans make plans to visit Korea (we wish!), we thought it would be helpful for us to share some Korean phrases that you will need to know for when you run into those rich chaebols and heiresses. We all know, from watching Kdramas on Viki, that when you meet your love interest there is a progression of emotions that you will feel. Here are 5 essential Korean phrases for each phase of your relationship.



1. Phase 1: Hey, do you want to die?

According to Kdramas, most romantic relationships don't start off well. Usually the male and female have a bad run-in with each other that results in mutual hatred. Sometimes this takes the form of violence and/or threats, as in Boys Over Flowers and Protect the Boss. In case this is how your relationship begins with your love interest, we recommend that you learn the Korean phrase for "Hey, do you want to die?".

2. Phase 2: Stop appearing before my face!

Oftentimes, the hatred between two characters evolves into a milder feeling of mutual annoyance. This usually occurs after the main couple has had several awkward encounters, such as in Lie to Me. In case this happens to you, we also recommend that you learn the Korean phase for "Stop Appearing before my face!".  Don't worry though; most likely you will enter into some sort of agreement to fake a relationship that is mutually beneficial for you, and which gradually ramps up your romantic interest in the other person.

3. Phase 3: Now do you see me as a man/woman?

Once you and your new Korean love interest have been tolerating each other for a while, it's time to take the next step by willfully invading the other person's space and asking awkward questions. See A Gentleman's Dignity as your guide to this move. Even though the obvious answer here is "Am I blind?  What kind of person could NOT see you as a man?" it is actually in your best interest to slide away coyly and feign disinterest--for now.

4. Phase 4: I don't have the confidence.

All great Korean romances have absurd obstacles thrown in the way.  Without them, it just wouldn't be true love!  At this point, the most advanced lovers think, "I know!  The best way to deal with this problem is to totally cut off communication and give up on our relationship!"  If you have seen anything with Park Shin-hye in it (You're Beautiful or Flower Boy Next Door, for example), you know exactly what to do.  Work those puppy eyes!

5. Phase 5: I love you.

If phase 4 makes you sad, don't fret!  It's only a temporary ploy until you get to the final phase: complete and total bliss with the one you love!  Just pray that you get a good kiss instead of one of those frozen ones.  You've earned it!

Essential Korean Terms for Love Interests: Guest Post at Viki

Guest Post at Viki: More Kdrama Texts to a Bestie

The team over at Viki has kindly asked us to write another guest post for them.  In case you missed our first guest post, check it out! This time, we decided to do a second installment of one of our popular posts in the past: Kdrama Texts to a Bestie: We sometimes wonder how we would react to the female leads if they were our best friends in real life. Can you just picture the text conversations we would have? In Part 1 of Texts to a Bestie, we imagined texting Jan Di, Eun Chan, Gong Ah Jung and Park Ha. Here are more imaginary texts with some of our favorite Kdrama heroines:

 1. Flower Boy Ramyun Shop

2.  You're Beautiful

3. Full House

3. Flower Boys Next Door

5. Personal Taste

Which other kdrama heroines would you like to text with?

Guest Post at Viki: More Kdrama Texts to a Bestie

Guest Post at Viki: Kdrama Love Squares

Hey guys, the excellent streaming/news/everything kdrama(and every other kind of drama) website Viki asked us to do a guest post for them on their blog!  We were really honored that they even found our little blog over here, let alone that they let us work with them!  Thanks, Viki!

We are including the post here as well for anyone interested, but let's be honest:  You were going to  spend your Saturday streaming kdramas anyway, so you might as well check out our post on their website while you're at it!

Kdrama Love Squares: Keep 'Em or Cut 'Em?

Anyone who has watched more than one K-drama on Viki has probably figured out that the heart of every series is the “love square.” You would think that we would get tired of them after the amount we’ve seen, but they still get us every time – clichés and all. Let’s take a look at what we would keep or cut from the typical K-drama love square.

Female Lead

First up: K-drama female leads – love them or leave them? She’s the girl whose antics get her into all sorts of awkward situations. With two attractive rich men fighting over her, she’s also the luckiest girl in the world! Female leads are typically hardworking poor girls in desperate need of a makeover. They break down into either sassy girls who don’t let anyone mess with them, or girls who are downtrodden and overly accepting of nonsense.

One of the things that attracted us the most to K-dramas were the spunky, confident female characters, such as Sam Soon from My Name Is Kim Sam Soon. This type of female lead is an obvious keeper. But the dramas in which the female lead follows the male lead around like a puppy (Playful Kiss) are ones we might cut.

In their defense, downtrodden female leads are not all bad. It’s really satisfying to see someone go from frumpy and passive to beautiful and empowered, but only if the progress is extreme. For example, in Scent of a Woman, the female lead starts out painfully wimpy and homely, but by the third episode, BAM, she’s a total powerhouse. In spite of problems, we would keep her because deep down, most of us still feel like that awkward girl who hopes to become powerful and miraculously snatch the man of her dreams.

Male Lead

Male leads – at least they’re consistent. Ninety percent of the time, they are abnormally attractive, abnormally wealthy, and abnormally selfish and rude. However, by the end of the drama, they’ll end up with girls who are less attractive than they are, care less about their money, and become decent human beings with deep feelings. Although these male characters are in almost every single K-drama, we love them anyway. (Not to mention the brooding shower scenes!)

These male leads do come with their share of problems, though. Sometimes their version of a “decent human being” isn’t decent enough. Even though we don’t want to cross Boys Over Flowers fans, you can’t tell us that we’re the only ones who found Jun Pyo’s intensity just a little bit unsettling. Especially when he said things like, “I will encircle you forever so that you can never leave me.” There has to be some minimum standard for change.  For example, don’t beat someone’s faces to a pulp. Totally reasonable, right? 

Although they are ridiculous, overall we can’t help but say KEEP the traditional male lead trope.

Second Male Lead

Second male leads are easy to spot. They’re the handsome ones lurking (or stalking) in the background, doing thoughtful things for the female lead while she makes ugly crying faces over the rude man she loves. They’re the type of guys your dad wants you to marry.  

Second male leads occasionally end up with a terrible girl, but most of the time, they just end up brooding and sad. And for all of this brooding, they don’t even get shower scenes. Don’t they have to shower, too? Or maybe they don’t shower, and that’s why they lose the girl.

It’s this sadness that makes us dislike second male leads. And here’s why: we love them too much. We suffer from “second lead syndrome” on a regular basis (Flower Boy Next Door being the most recent example). So when the second male lead implies he will “never love again,” we get a little cranky. If you need to create jealousy in a drama, introduce an old love for a couple of episodes and then send the person on a business trip or have the person get hit by a car. It’s something that happens all of the time in dramas! Just cut these nice guys and give them a break.

Second Female Lead

The girl we all love to hate: the second female lead. Or, as it often happens, the first love who is often a raging monster in disguise.

What we would keep is the flexibility of the second female lead. Although most are monsters, some are kind, sisterly types who respond maturely to their jealousy. For example, Coco loves the second female lead in Coffee Prince. If she could, she would be best friends with her in real life. They would hang out at art galleries and eat brunch (because she’s too classy for lunch).

In reality, we have to recognize that sometimes second female leads literally kill people. In fact, we would rather have her be a horrible person and a murderer, rather than be tricked into liking some previously terrible person. But let’s face it: we fast forward through 90 percent of second female lead scenes anyway, so keeping them isn’t a big deal.

To sum up, we have pretty conflicted feelings about all of these characters. But conflict is at the core of K-dramas, which is why we adore them so much!

Guest Post at Viki: Kdrama Love Squares