Oh yes, titles! I often look at the Korean title, and not that I know Korean, but I try to use the English translation that better fits the Korean. Case in point is MY STRANGE HERO/BOK SOO IS BACK. The latter has a pun. I prefer puns hehe.

This made me smile: "Have you ever watched a drama that was so poorly titled you felt like you had to correct people’s assumptions about its value and substance?"

Yes. NAKED FIREMAN. Right @mary ? XD

This is a great write up. I've never thought of drama titles as covers in the sense that book covers are. This is because I'm an international viewer and I read subtitles. So I always assume the English translated title isn't very good. I tend to think of the actors or writers as the covers. I will judge a writer or actor before I ever judge the title I only remember the title in order to recommend the drama lol, otherwise the title is irrelevant. So this is an interesting perspective.

Great article. I remember a discussion here a long time ago about the subtle meaning of High School King of Savvy.

I do have an issue with some of official English titles. For example Goong. When YA Entertainment production team brought over the DVD rights to North America, Goong became Princess Hours!! Like 💁‍♀️ How?? Goong is Palace in English and I would have preferred that one word title since it’s totally related to what the drama is rather than Princess Hours. Like what is even Princess Hours?

Also mentioning here my most hated drama ever - Exhibition of Fireworks. Lol. How is that title related to the drama beats me. I hate that drama with a passion for a reason.

I dont even consider titles when choosing to watch a drama. I find titles often misleading or just... they don’t even make sense. I usually even refer to dramas by the title’s initials or by the main actor’s affiliation to it (ie You know the drama with XXX actor). Now that i think of it, i think my favorite titles are those that express the theme of the drama, or those that express a random meaningful sentence said in the drama (misaeng or incomplete life).

I dont even consider titles when choosing to watch a drama. I find titles often misleading or just... they don’t even make sense. I usually even refer to dramas by the title’s initials or by the main actor’s affiliation to it (ie You know the drama with Such or such actor). Now that i think of it, i think my favorite titles are those that express the theme of the drama, or those that express a random meaningful sentence said in the drama (misaeng or incomplete life).

I prefer literal titles to English titles e.g., Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food, Fox Bride Star, Red Moon, Blue Sun. Unfortunately, wordplay and puns are lost in translation. For Her Private Life, international K-drama fans are expected to know "Private Life" is a wordplay on "sasaeng fan." Like My Strange Hero's Bok-soo, Touch Your Heart and Marry Him If You Dare also play with their heroines' names Jin-shim (sincerity) and Mi-rae (future).

Occasionally, Dramabeans uses unconventional titles. @javabeans lamented ending up on the wrong side of history on Boys Before Flowers. Outside of Dramabeans, Descendants of the Sun is never called Descended From the Sun.

Oh well Manhole was definitely the winner of the worst title (and also story). Even my idol bae Jaejung could not keep me watching the story..it was a huge mess.

Or when a drama has too many English title, and sometimes each website uses it differently..

Mysterious Il Seung/Doubtful Victory/Oh The Mysterious

Most recent for me is Mr. Temporary/Class of Lies/Undercover Teacher

Like, why can't you stick to one title only? 😣

I had great expectations for a drama called Big but we all know what happened to that.

I almost didn't watch My Love From the Star due to the hoakey name, but You Who Came from the Stars was an excellent show. I have tried to learn not to trust the title. I even started Manhole, but only got three episodes in before dropping it like it had the pox or something.

But Manhole works though. Man fell into a manhole and make a mess of everyone's life, you'll feel like you in the manhole with him too the longer you watch it~ ha!

Rather than the title, I think teasers always mislead me. I generally just not really care about the title tbh. Some are weirdly worded but I just assume because it is a direct translation.

I still can't stop lamenting the underwhelming title for both Life and Live. I know it's actually makes sense given their slice-of-life vibes. But the dramas are so much more than that, and I wish someone came up with something better or more intriguing to represent it.

Personally, title didn't really affect my choice to watch full-length dramas. But it's a differrent story for drmaa special. I've lost count how many times I decided to watch those 1-hour-long dramas based on the intriguing titles alone.

"Misty" (a direct hangul transliteration of the English word) was a pretty bad drama title for a pretty great drama. A title whose baffling significance to the show was only revealed in the last baffling minutes of the last baffling episode.
'Goblin' was also a very awkward title (I don't much like 'Guardian' either) they should have simply kept the Korean name? "The Great and Lonely Dokkaebi"

One more post then I'll stop. Worst K-drama title change EVER was the 2015 "Fall in Love with Soon-jung" changed to "Beating Again". Good grief!

well i'm guessing it's agreed upon by collaborators. it's interesting because i've always knwn JBL as JBL as opposed to rain or shine. i think the dramas that try to be esoteric make the titles so in english. like rain or shine makes sense to me after seeing it.

you're right about titling and work. i know that titles for my films have been really important and it can shake people off but if it's a good piece of work, we can forgive.

I like to say the Korean title for Bridal Mask . . ."Gakshital!

Personaly, I like the title Something in the Rain because even if it doesn't explain the topic anymore, a lot of important romantic scenes were taking place in the rain. Their red, green and finaly yellow umbrellas made their scenes very beautiful.

I remember recommending Age of Youth (literal title) to my friends only to have them not watch it because they can't find it on Netflix. Turns out its title on the streaming platform is Hello, My Twenties! (English title)

Why can't English titles stick to the Korean title and translate it from there? Korean titles are much more creative than the translations in my opinion.

"Let's Hold Hands Tightly And Watch The Sunset" LOL

I laughed when Netflix changed the title of 'Heirs' to 'Inheritors'

The only good reason for this I could come up with was that they were trying to con us into thinking it was a different show and we'd watch it by mistake.

Titles do play a crucial role at times. I know I missed few kdramas in the past few years and that is why from time to time I go over a list that contains kdrama titles and from that I choose those I find interesting from the title alone, some titles speak to me, grab my attention, some just don't. Depending on titles alone is not very smart move though, because there are so many great dramas out there with not-so-good titles, unfortunately.

Healer - the title is cool but that's because I know it's the lead's code name, otherwise it's seems a generic title with little impact.

Hundred Million Stars from the Sky - it sounds really good but I couldn't figure out what's with the title and why.

My Wife is Having an Affair this Week - pretty accurate and straightforward.

Drinking Solo - love the title and the show.

The Third Charm - not sure if the title is misleading or it's just me being bitter.

Because This is My First Life - this is my favorite of all the titles out there. It's simple yet so meaningful I just love it.

To be honest the title translation happens in every language and most of the time it is just a disaster. I was always wondering wht k/j/c-dramas always have an English title.
I recently watched Moonshine & Valentine (Chinese: 结爱·千岁大人的初恋), also known as The Love Knot: His Excellency's First Love. I scratched my head a lot wondering why those 2 English titles were so different.

When I first watched Romantic doctor, teacher kim, after watching 4 episodes I felt where is the romantic doctor you promised SBS 🥴...
Another 2 episodes and then I realised the appropriate title should have been Idealist doctor teacher kim. Phew! Taught me to check out the hangul title thoroughly before judging

I don't think anyone has mentioned Shut Up Flower Boy Band yet. The title makes it sound like some teenybopper show, but it's actually really well done. Though, honestly, I don't think I would change it if I could. I've become kind of attached to some of these amusing titles. They're fun to make fun of.

Also, why is the wind always blowing in melodramas? The Wind Blows, That Winter, the Wind Blows....

What is the drama in the 7th picture, where he is drinking a soda?

great article...i always wondered about the titles in the kdramas but never really thought about this way, i will definitely pay more attention going forward.

I almost didn't watch Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo because I thought the title sounded stupid and silly. Wow! I'm glad I was reading blogs that praised it, so that I was willing to give it a try. I love that little show and would hate to miss out because of a silly title!

Interesting article !

I used to make a list on paper of what drama i was watching, how many episodes i had watched yet, etc... A bit like mydramalist for someone who don't use internet much. I used to bring it everywhere with me, but I was feeling ashamed whenever people who didn't know anything about kdrama would see all the cringy titles... There's a lot of good ones, and you mentionned some of them, but i usually find kdrama english titles cringy, sometimes even for shows that are not that cringy themselves. The worse is those app, that automatically translate the titles in my own language... I mean we don't use those kind of cringy titles in my country. And as you said, some good titles loose their wordplay with translation.

Has anyone mentioned 'Dr. Romantic' AKA 'Doctor Romantic, Teacher Kim' on here? That one really threw me off. I thought it was some cheesy story about a relationship coach or something. I've never been more pleasantly surprised!