Piggyback me!

When I wrote about what works in dramas, I mentioned that I've never been piggybacked home when I'm drunk. That made me realize that in fact there are 3 types of piggybacking in Asian dramas! And now that I think about it I have been piggybacked (during the time I remember) - one time we went to the beach and something sharp in the sea cut into my foot. As the cut was pretty deep, my father gave me a piggyback back to the shore. My father is the best.

1) the most usual one -"too drunk to walk on my own feet" (or "Please don't puke!!!")
As I said this is what I have yet to achieve. This kind of piggybacking has the purpose of adding comedy while developing the feelings&communication between the characters. Even though mostly the "more drunk one" barely remembers anything, the skinship part of piggybacking is also very important in this types of piggybacks.

Buzzer Beat

Heartstrings

Playful Kiss

Marriage Plot - the reverse piggyback
('cause not every man can handle 6 bottles of soju)

2) second to most usual one - "I hurt my foot" (or "to the hospital, my horse!")
This type usually carries more emotional meaning. As one character (as it's usually girl, I'm going to write on like that) is hurt (or sick), then the guy has to carry her as there. Yes you can say there is an obligation, but usually it is taken on by the guy himself. Why? because 1)he's to blame why the girl is hurt 2) he feels he's the rightest person to do it. As you see it is piggybacking that results from the emotional attachements the guy has for the girl.

Deka wanko

Hanazakari no kimitachi e

Operation Proposal

Ranma ½  - who says a girls can't piggyback other girl
wait? I shouldn't say "girl" about Ranma, should I?

3) the least usual one
This happens in scenes dealing with family relationships. While there no actual need for piggybacking they still do it as "it is normal thing to do". I find them the most beautiful as they are relaxing and emotional.

 

Code Blue 2 - this is actually one of favourite moments from CB

Zenkai Girl

It was supposed to become a picspam, but as I see I've failed. If you want to read more about piggybacks (in the context of Korean dramas), then girlfriday made a great post about it (even though it's some years old, the content still holds true).

The eternal battle: Jdrama vs Kdrama PART 1

If you follow us in Facebook, then you already know that I'm enjoying my one week holiday back at home, :3 but that also means no wifi so I hope you forgive me my late post.

To be honest I was really hesitant about writing this post - as it has torn the "drama fandom" into constantly battling "K-drama fandom" and "J-drama fandom". I find it rather funny as I enjoy both of them (even  though I watch more Japanese dramas) and with this post I hope to stay more "academical" about the analysis of them both. The point of this post is to show the typical differences between Korean and Japanese dramas. Of course there are dramas that do not fall into these measurements.(This is only Part 1 so only a little  part of this topic is being discussed). But I am ready to get the hate-comments.

1) PLOT(career, love and relationships)
Japanese dramas are more down to earth - in many cases it is because Japan does a lot more “career-dramas” in which the plot is simple: a person doing its job. End of story. 

RESCUE - drama about rescue workers

If you checked the list of dramas of the airing season – I can bet that 50% of them are “career-dramas” (it is only 2% for Korean dramas). There has been the faze of medical dramas (Code Blue, Juui Dolittle), detective/police dramas (JOKER, BOSS, Deka Wanko), teacher dramas (Gokusen, GTO, Dragon Zakura) and of course the legal dramas (Legal High, Hokaben) and they keep coming and coming. Even though they all have moments of comedy and romance and so on, those are never the main points of the storyline – in many cases the romantic sidelines are never developed and basically stay the same from the beginning till the end. If not career-drama, then usually Japanese dramas tend to be rather slice-of-life. Yet even in romance dramas the fairy tale stories are quite rare - Japanese romance dramas are realistic about characters emotions. Yet most romance jdramas lack of actual skinship even between couples - when it happens, it is usually unintentional or done because of male characters overwhelming emotions (I am not going to go further into this as I bet none of you want to read about "the theory of Japanese uniqueness" - I wrote an essay on the topic "Skinship in Japanese society"-just some months ago - got an A :D) Of course Japan also has its perfect melodrama stories, but as they belong to the "older part of dramas" it almsot makes me feel like the era of Japanese melodrama ended some years ago.
On the other hand Korean dramas are the opposite: most of the dramas airing are centered on romance and relationships (as I mentioned earlier - 2% of dramas airing in one season are "career-dramas" - others are about romance and family). 

You're beautiful - a good example of cinderella stories

When work is brought into the story it is always to build up the love story. Even when the synopsis says that it’s about “young people trying to make their dreams come true” – the main emphasis still goes on love and relationships. And don't we all love those Cinderella stories of rich arrogant main lead and the poor hardworking girl that somehow through all the screaming and tears fall in love? Oh and also skinship is much more frequent in Korean dramas (have you ever counted how many times "hand grabbing" or "pulling clothes" happens in Kdramas? well a lot more than in Jdramas!).
So in summary: While Japanese dramas focus on person and how she/he manages in the society, then Korean dramas are about love and family. Of course there are a lot of exceptions for both of them. Now that I think about it - it would be fun to do a research about why there's this kind of difference - and my "academical brain" went flying again -.-

2) FACTS (average length, beauty shots and budgets)

The average length of Japanese dramas is 11 episodes (45 minutes each). The average length of Korean dramas is 16 or 20 or 24 episodes (1 hour each). So basically you can watch one Japanese drama with 9 hours while for Korean drama it is at least 16 hours. It does make a difference. 

as much as I love staring at Jung Yong Hwa
his beauty shots in Heartstrings were too much

I've heard a lot of people say that as Korean ones are longer, they have more time for character and story development - I'd say that for many dramas it just gives extra time for unnecessarily complicated relationships and for “beauty shots” – things I loathe in Korean dramas. By beauty shots I mean those long annoying scenes where character just looks at some uncertain direction while dramatic OST is played over it – sometimes it’s even two characters doing it at the same time close to each other WITHOUT seeing each other – and we are not talking about this happening once in a drama – it’s more of a once in a episode thing. Probably those are the 15 extra minutes that Japanese dramas do not have.
Also I have to mention the difference in budgets. Korean entertainment business has a lot more money to spend - meaning more shooting locations (you think filming in California was pocket money  for the making of "Heirs"? It's probably the drama with biggest budget in years - if not in the history of dramas), a cast full of notable names (the bigger the name, the bigger the paycheck), 

"Chiisana koi no Uta" by Mongol800 in Proposal Daisakusen
was part of the story as Rei borrowed their album from Kenzo

longer episodes (the filming of every scene costs money - the more one has to film, the more it costs - and every NG is wasted money) and of course more promotions. Japanese ones do not have that big budgets. It can also be seen while comparing the OST's. In Japanese dramas usually the opening and ending are done by an artist and the other ~20 soundtracks - that are all instrumental pieces - are done by the musical director - of course at times 2-4 more lyrical songs are added to the OST but mostly then they are somehow related to the story. Korean drama OST consists of about 10 songs by different artists and more 10 instrumel pieces. Remember that every singer wants its share (even using "old songs" means paying for the copy rights).
In summary: Korean drama industry has the means to do longer dramas, but that doesn't always mean better quality. And of course the basic calculation of lengths: 1 Kdrama= 2 Jdrama.

At first I wanted to do only one post about it, but it got so long that Cypsis said, it's better do cut into parts. So sometime later I will post also other parts of this post (I still have to analyze CHARACTERS, EMOTIONS, VISUALS, etc).
I hope it was interesting to read. If you have anything to add or something that you disagree about, feel free to comment! :D

"It worked in dramas!" aka Things I want to do PART 1

As Seol Chan from Monstar said: "It worked in dramas!". It made me think about all the things that work out just fine in dramas, but in real life they wouldn't be so easy. All those heartbeating moments and illogical behavior - there is so much I want to experience in real life too! So I'll just write them down in random order:

I WANT TO:
- Lie in bed like Seol Chan and his-fantasy-Se-Yi did in Monstar episode 3. 

It would be totally uncomfortable and weird but cute as Hello Kitty with a strawberry shortcake. The biggest problem I have with this "point" is that I'm not so sure I can just lie on top of someone like Yong Junhyung and not have any perverted thoughts - way to go you stupid fangirl mind! -.-

- Timeslip into the past to confess my feelings to my childhood friend (need examples? Proposal Daisakusen, Operation Proposal).

I've always found the "childhood friends theme" cute and enthralling! Fairy, come to me and make me timeslip!!! What?! I do not have that kind of childhood friend so it's out of question? Damn you and your fairy rules -.-

- Live in the same apartment/ house with the love of my life by coincidence (basically every other Korean drama and of course "Hotaru no Hikari").

At the moment I live in a dorm but the guys next door don't really count as neither of them can be titled as "the love of my life" T.T

- Listen to music from the same earphones! (Buzzer Beat, Heartstrings)

I have no idea why I find it so adorable - maybe because it is a good reason to have his face close to mine? Also this "act" excludes only the two of us into a world separated from others - isn't it special? To be honest I was really close in achieving this point years ago - back when I was still in elementary. We were on a field trip and somehow we made girls and boys sit next to each other. I sat next to the guy who some years later became my first boyfriend. During that field trip I was listening to Enrique Iglesias (how do I remember that??) from a cassette player (yeah the times were like that -.-'). But he declined my sweet offer...

- Fall in a way that ends up with me and the love of my life accidentally kissing (basically every other drama).

I'm afraid I will break my nose before that happens (damn that European face).

- Get really drunk and be piggybacked back home (basically every other drama - but I have doubts about it after watching Marriage Plot).

 I am not going to talk about my quite colorful drunk record, but the thing that isn't in it is being piggybacked back home - mostly because at times like that I am not the only person drinking so if he -whoever takes this responsibility to bring me back home- would try to piggyback me - I think it would end with my face meeting the street...

Best non-main couples TOP 5

Last week I was reminded that in some dramas the non-main couples can overshadow the main couple with  their cuteness. Or their chemistry and nondramatic storyline gives a good change  to the often overdramatic main couple. So here are my TOP 5 favourite non-main couples from Asian dramas.

5. Proposal Daisakusen - Eri x Tsuru

Eri and Tsuru were the first non-main couple that made me constantly be happy for them as their story gave a good twist of humour to the main character's heart ache. Especially as the main story and the sidestory followed the same pattern: guy who has been in love with his friend for years, but has never had an actual chance with her. While Tsuru was the fool of the school, Eri was the queen. Yet love doesn't ask others opinion.

4. Heartstrings - Han Hee Joo x Yeo Joon Hye (aka Natasha and the chicken boy)

For chicken boy it was love at first sight - for him it was special as usually it was "love at first bite" for him. His sincerity - that sounded like stupidity - eventually payed off as his feelings reached Natasha the Ice Queen who actually was just a girl who wanted to fulfill her dreams. While other people saw only their covers, they took the time to read each other. 

3. Summer Nude - Hanae x Hikaru

Their beginning is the saddest in this list, while their ending is the happiest as they are the only ones being in a serious love-triangle (actually it is more complicated than an ordinary triangle). For years they are just friends because Hanae is in love with their other friend and is unable to see Hikaru's burning torch. Who knew that the shoulder that was there to cry on, was also the right hand to hold on to. 

2. Buzzer Beat - Mai x Shuuji

From strangers living together to engaged couple. This simple almost childish lovestory between a flutist and  a basketball player. Sounds familiar? well that's because the main story is about a violinist and a basketball player! After all Mai and Shuuji met because of the main couple. They are also the only couple in this list with reverse age difference - Mai is two years older than Shuuji - adding a little twist to their story as from the first episode on Mai keeps saying how she has to get an older man. But again love never cares about age.

1. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - Noi x Takenaga

Noi is the only woman who can enter the mansion of 4 good looking men whenever she wants it. That's because she is the (un)official sweetheart of Takenaga, the successor of famous house of ikebana. Noi is straightforward and easily admits her feelings fo Takenaga, he on the other hand is really shy making things rather difficult. Yet the cuter it is when he's honest to Noi. Why the first place? Just watch it and you'll know: they are just a match made in heaven.