Learning Korean, cultural familiarization, and genre acceptance

Further charting of my headlong fall into obsession! I wrote this only three weeks ago, and I had drafted most of it about two months ago, so it encompasses about 34 hours of kdrama watching and was probably drafted when I had seen about 18 hours worth. This post is being written on about 72 hours of watching (i will not figure out how many hours i watch a day because it is just too embarrassing).

On the nostalgia side of things, I told my mom I was mainlining kdramas, and she seems to heartily approve of my consumption of anything Asian. Well, she's not that excited about my manga and anime addiction (although she does approve of my reading manga translated to Chinese), given the Japan thing and the comic/cartoon thing, but there is still approval. Possibly it also stems from the fact that I asked for cdramas too, and from the fact that a lot of her friends watch dramas as well, as does my sister. I suspect dramas just feel more mainstream to her. Not that I'm arguing, since she sent me a giant pack of old cdramas based on the novels of Taiwanese writer Qiong Yao! And I told her to watch Damo if she can find it, and I told her to ask her friends for more recommendations!

I actually had no idea who Qiong Yao was until I wiki-ed, only to discover that Qiong Yao was behind almost all the cdramas I used to watch in middle school, including Huan Zhu Ge Ge/Princess Pearl, which is the main reason why I am obsessed with Qing Dynasty court clothing! And why I know how ladies of the court would bow with a little handkerchief sweep that possibly me and my sister used to imitate! I'm sure it's not entirely historically accurate, but whatever. I grow interested in things via pop culture exposure; having stories in my head gives me a context for historical events and politics.

Oh! And! The drama pack includes all of Qing Qing He Bian Cao (Green, Green Grass by the River), which OMG! I used to watch! It has two orphans, one of whom is an entirely-too-adorable moppet! The moppet gets a wasting illness! The older orphan falls in love with the master of an upper-class house and there is much angst! She sucks snake-bite poison out of his leg in one very memorable scene!

And! It has the drama with a husband in a Phantom-of-the-Opera-esque mask called "Ghost Husband," and the one in which a lost child is found again because she has a plum blossom brand on her shoulder!

I cannot adequately express my glee! I thought I would never, ever see these again. Maybe my mom will next unearth the old 90s version of Yi Tien Tu Long Ji, which I used to watch and then talk about at school with friends and is probably responsible for my affinity for wuxia.

I cut-tagged all the blathering about language and cultural references and genre tropes for people already sick of my kdrama obsession; I'm mostly writing it down because I think I will have fun rereading later and laughing at myself.

( Language )

( Cultural familiarization )

( More genre tropes )

Dal Ja's Spring, ep. 01-04

I rewarded myself for finishing the first programming homework of my class by watching three episodes. Originally it was only going to be one episode, but I got a bit carried away.

Oh Dal Ja is 32 and unsuccessful in love. After being dumped, she runs into the younger Kang Tae Bong, who is apparently in the business of boyfriends for hire ("Need someone to meet your parents?" he asks her). As revenge, she hires him on.

I thought I knew where this was going, despite the Dramabeans praise; many hijinks ensue as Dal Ja attempts to get her old boyfriend back, female rivalry with her old boyfriend's new girlfriend, blah blah blah.

Only two episodes in, the show didn't go where I thought it would, and now that I'm four episodes in, I have no idea what it's going to do.

Right now, I particularly like the focus on Dal Ja's work life; she worked her way up and is now a manager of a TV shopping network (I think), and she very much enjoys being single. I also really like her relationship with network star Wee Seon Joo so far -- I had thought they would be rivals fighting over the same guy (tiresome), but there's a really nice bit in which the two don't end up as friends, but also don't fight.

( Spoilers for set up bits )

I would be happier if there were less jealous women; I wish they wouldn't be the focus of so many kdramas. Whenever we get them, I feel like the focus should be on the philandering guy instead. On the other hand, I very much like Dal Ja's relationship not only with Seon Joo, but also with her work eonni and with her mom and her grandma. I am also completely amused by her mom and her grandma's relationship -- is it her grandma from her dad's side? I'm sort of guessing that because the grandma keeps calling the mom "Dal Ja's mom," but she could just be crotchety. And ok, the liberal grandma vs. the conservative mom has been done before (Stephanie Plum!), but I still found it hilarious that the grandma liked Tae Bong a lot ("He's young! So much energy. That's very important for a marriage").

Alas, the grandma has yet to hit anyone over the head with a handbag.

I'm now curious as to how common marriage meetings/date set-ups are in S. Korea. I'm fairly sure dramas exaggerate it, but I can't figure out if it's a common plot point because it's handy for romantic comedies, or if viewers will sympathize with it, having been set up themselves.

On a side note: Han Kyul's grandma, hello! And Waffle Guy too! It's like Coffee Prince all over again!

Also, to join the bathroom humor often in kdramas, we have drunk vomiting too! Fantasy Couple had this as well, so I suspect it shows up even more in other dramas. I also laughed and laughed at the male impotence because I am evil like that.

In conclusion: I guess Dal Ja feels a little like Kim Sam Soon in that she's not afraid to tell people off at times, but she also reverts to girly speak fairly often (sunjeong mode?), which cracks me up. And did I mention that Kang Tae Bong is really cute? And nice? And really cute? And nice? Sadly, I think he lacks dimples, but that can be overlooked. (The noticing of dimples is also my sister's fault.)