Adventures in Asia

Oh, how times have changed. I once only watched Korean dramas, content with the innocent modern romance of witty bickering, occasional wrist grabbing, and oh-so-sweet back hugs. Everything I had heard about Chinese dramas was negative: they're dozens of episodes long, poorly written with little plot movement, pretty actors who can't really act, etc. But in the last few months, everything changed. I've fallen for Chinese fantasy dramas. The Untamed , a low-budget BL drama based on an online novel that has become incredibly popular in China and abroad But I have not succumbed to this new genre without assistance! As it turns out, the magical norms of Lord of the Rings / Narnia / Harry Potter do not apply to Chinese fantasy, and while watching some new shows I was often confused -- and not by the translation. My Chinese husband had to explain a lot in the beginning, and I am here to tell you the secrets... How Heroes get their Magic (or, Who are Cultivators and what in the wo...

Do I have time to watch a Korean drama? No. Do I have slightly more time recently than usual? Yes. Was this one worth it? YES. I had a few reservations about “I Am Not a Robot” (2017) at the beginning. First, I wasn’t a fan of the shorter episodes (30 minutes each) and didn’t recognize the channel, and thus thought it might be a cable show – which didn’t seem promising. Second, it was clearly a rich-guy-falls-for-poor-girl story, which is a bland trope in dramaland. However, it was recommended as “cute” by a friend and ranked highly online, so I decided to give it a shot. I quickly discovered that though the episodes are shorter, there are 32 of them, which allows for 16 hours of drama, which is a normal season. Also, the acting was excellent and overall quality of the drama certainly wasn’t lacking. As for the trope, I’ll dive in to that later. The story is something like this… Kim Min Kyu is a wealthy, successful chairman of a financial company with ...

Ah, I haven’t reviewed a Korean drama in ages! It’s good to be back to watching the best genre of TV in the world. I’ve been sick recently, so I’ve had plenty of time to watch, and chose the well-reviewed “Moonlight Drawn by Clouds,” also translated “Love in the Moonlight.” “Moonlight” is a historical drama set in the Joseon era, in which a girl disguised as a man is recruited as a eunuch in the palace, the Crown Prince hopes to teach his little sister’s secret admirer a lesson, and the King is constantly manipulated by the sly nobles of the court. The Prince’s only friend is his cool, butt-kicking bodyguard, though he quickly becomes entangled with his new “eunuch.” The grandson of the most conniving noble family also finds himself attracted to the effeminate eunuch, who only has eyes for the Prince. And behind it all is a foggy back-story of a failed rebellion. This drama aired in 2016 and has eighteen episodes, plus a nineteenth behind-the-scenes-and-highlights episode....

Lately I’ve been thinking about media, why I like the music and shows that I do, and the censorship (or lack thereof) that governments impose on it. There are countries like China, where censorship is so strict that creativity is stifled and/or stamped out. No one outside of China really watches Chinese media (that I know of), despite the country being large and developed enough to potentially produce some good stuff. (I mean, Korea’s Man From the Stars took over China for a reason. China didn’t have a show that could compete with it.) I consider consuming Chinese media for linguistic benefits, because I need to learn Mandarin in order to live here – not because it’s anything new or interesting. Then there are countries like the U.S. with no censorship, where the media is always selling you something, always feeding some primal need, creatively finding new ways to dumb down content to a single common denominator that will reach the biggest audience and generat...

Kdrama. In case you didn’t know, Korean TV is currently translated into a plethora of languages and is viewed around the world. And secret’s out: I’m hooked. I barely watch any American TV, just an episode or so of whatever my family or friends have on. But Korean? I can’t stop. In under a year I’ve watched 8.5 kdramas (and re-watched 3), each about 16 winsome, exciting, heart wrenching, blissful episodes long. (And yes, I am currently in the middle of one.) There are some definite reasons why kdrama is taking over the world. Here are my theories: 1. Kdrama is plot driven. Story is king. It’s not about the wit or comedy, though that’s there. It’s not about sex. It’s not about shallow, stereotypical selfish-people-backstabbing-each-other drama. This is K drama, in which good, old-fashioned “What’s going to happen next???” keeps me clicking the next episode – and analyzing every twist and turn in the plot, every moment of character development. 2. Kdrama doe...