Your article made me smile :) Yes, I think, drama in general are expected to be close to reality but NOT reality ever; then they'd be documentary!! That is what keeps us hooked on them. It is amazing writing which brings us a very high possibility of similar romance or heartwarming incidence happening to us since it is an expected and accepted human behavior to our minds. As you pointed out, world has shifted from simple human emotions and actions to complex and weird reality; so those very expected and accepted incidents never happen to common people!! :D :) But we switch on our TVs/screens every night to just view it happen to others ( characters in drama) with a sigh !! :D

Example is 'crash landing on you'; Of course North Korean soldiers are humans and as humans, one expects some humanity; thus Hyun Bin's character saving Son Ye Jin's character and ultimately falling in love is very much possible or even should 100% happen per human psychology!!!! BUT surely disclaimer should go to everyone that do NOT go to North Korea because the chance of you getting shot on sight is 99.9999999% !!!!!!! :D of course, every episode of crash landing on you, this statistic fact is far far away from my mind, and I am wowed by Hyun bin every time!! :)

Reading newspaper can be very depressing, reality is pretty hard these days.

Kdrama's reality is fun and let me be in a bubble for a moment :)

It’s fun to go through life with K-drama lenses on, and I’ve enjoyed so much because of it.

This! So much! I often smile at random things that happen around me because I think they would make the perfect kdrama meet-cute. That those happenings are only amusing in my own mind (or in the mind of any other kdrama fan if only there was one around to share it with) actually make it better.

There is a Chinese quote I always keep in mind.
"Without coincidences, there is no story"

So a story is actually made up from a series of coincidences like chance meetings, crash landings etc. Without these, it is called Real Life, and we will not be interested to watch them :)

This is a sweet write up. I think kdramas are great because they are incredibly entertaining and fun. Much like any TV show I watch. I don't walk around with kdrama lenses because it is easier for me to detach myself when I have to read subtitles to understand the show and none of them look like me. It of course doesn't take away fully from the fantasy aspect of finding a nice man who helps me and we just hit it off, but it tempers it a great deal for me. I am also a bit of a realist and pessimist so that helps as well, lol.😊😉

I'm becoming more intune to the intricacy of life that many time I think "Oooh, this still make a great drama plot.". Real life offers as much twist and turn and its own fair share of Makjang for me, although admittedly I've never met anyone with amnesia...

I really like this piece. I am less likely to superimpose kdrama life with real life, because I’m actually a realist in real life, but then something happens randomly and I think, that would make a great story! I like stories. There’s a great one unfolding on the Beanie wall right now which shows me that meet cutes do happen in real life and enjoy them when they do because, inevitably, all the trappings of real life are also not far behind.

I think the dramas feel relatable but also feels like those things can never happen in real life is all about perspective. All we see is the snips of the characters' lives the writer wants us to see. We might have gone through a pretty similar experience, but never realized it because 'hey, it's just me, what drama worthy thing would ever happen to plain old me?".
I once had a romance pretty similar to the one in reply 1988, but only realized it after my lil' cousin pointed it out. It didn't feel as special as Deok seon and Teak because it was just us.
That one small incident totally changed my perspective on dramas and real life.A

I love this so much @missvictrix and agree with every bit of it. I've had to yank myself back into the real world after going for days on end bummed that something trope-y didn't happen to me when the opportunity was right there. I do however, know that my life wouldn't be any less richer if I went about it changing flat tires or broken light bulbs and putting on bandaids myself.

For the most part I am able to take off the k-drama colored glasses and actually look at the world around me and while I do find magic and joy in it, I love what K-dramas give me in all their glorious trope-y goodness. When it's bad, it offers a "better them than me" sort of removal from the hurts of life(and it does help that they are characters so I know no humans were harmed in the making of the drama). When it's good, sweet, and swoon-worthy it gives me something to look forward to even though I know chances are it won't happen to me in real life. I hope, not because I am 100% certain it will happen but because those moments provide a little bit of sunshine in the drudgery that can be life sometimes.

I get to laugh, cry, fall in love(about 10 times or more a year), fight and grow and I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world.

P.S. You can totally be the heroine of your story even when(or especially when?) you unclog your own sink

Well, instead of waiting for the K drama to come to you, you could be the kdrama.

Co worker gets paper cut? Run over with cute bandaid.

Raining and see a cab pull up to the curb? Run over and open your umbrella as the car door opens.

Neighbor burns in elevator? Pull out your trusty needle and string.

Go out drinking with friends and the one that you secretly hope could be more says he has had too much? Kneel down and offer him a piggy back ride. Make sure to make quips about how heavy he is.

Dear jaded souls,

Take heart that somewhere out there, this Christmas Day, your Destiny awaits. It may start off with a scarf caught in a revolving door, a meeting of eyes in a crowded elevator, a warm hand steadying your elbow, a slow smile from the new guy in the apartment next door...

Romance DOES happen in real life, my dears. And when it does, it is every bit as earth-shattering, as magical and as life-altering as what you see in a drama. It will turn your world upside down, and you will never be the same again.

Merry Xmas, beanies. Ho ho ho.

From

YY The Eternal Romantic,
Who believes in Love and Destiny.

Ughh this is so true. I am actually unfortunately one of those people who daydream a lot hence, I'm not a realist and I like being in my fantasy world more than my real life. However, this jas extreme phases. I was never the I will marry oppa kinda obsessive but I did have similar phases where I totally expected my soulmate to be like a character at times even visually as them. I never expected these coincidents to occur but I definitely had high expectations of the person, I'd say i still do. I'm still trapped. This sounds sad but I think it's high time to create that divide betwee real and fiction which I haven't been able to. Specially when it comes to making scenarios of my perfect life or expectations of a perfect partner that's hard to find in reality.

what a wonderful article! thank you so much for it. i realllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy relate to what you said. i lived in that fantasy bubble for a long time before i could climb out and accept reality while loving dreaming about being in that drama or this situation!

Luckily for me, I don't get romantic expectations. But I just remembered something that was kinda funny... a guy put a sweater around me. I was acutely uncomfortable but I also thought, "hang on a mo, I thought this only happens in dramas. It actually happens in real life??"

I find this 90 percent true. That last 10 percent though? I think kdramas can be more realistic than, e.g., US TV.

This sounds crazy, I know. But the thing that keeps me coming back to kdrama is, for example, the fact that middle aged women exist in kdramas. Elderly people have lives in kdrama beyond "granny." Poor people may have the latest phones (hey there Samsung!) but they also have 4 jobs and no health insurance. When working people go to the hospital, they worry about their bills.

And while these are rarer, there are some shows out there that really do kind of show our realities in ways I wouldn't have expected, coming from US TV. Like, the plight of temporary workers. The drudgery of caring for young children or ill family. The virtues of unionizing, making everyone pay their taxes, and sound engineering of buildings!

Who knew there was os much drama to be mined from cheapign out on building materials?

You're right, I turn to dramas to see something that doesn't happen for me in real life, but similar things happen to others in small doses. Kdramas have to tread a fine line between fulfilling our fantasies yet not seem too out of touch with reality.
What a conundrum.

Loved the last paragraph.
Let's turn this around to ask ourselves about those surreal drama like moments. They exist, we just take them for niceties or for granted, because without the background music they don't really make our heart jump.

I'll start with mine. You know those scenes where heroine gets stranded in the rain ☔ without an umbrella? Something similar happened. I love rains so I never shied away from getting soaked, as long as I had a waterproof bag it was alright.But it was a project submission day &I was lugging around these rolled up chart sheets. The forecast was rainy so I took an umbrella with me.
Class ended, submission was extended with teacher absent. So we all went home with our projects.... Now guess what happened? It rained, as we all knew it would.

So there was me happy with my planning & going about merrily, but then I reached the gate & the umbrella wouldn't open. So while I was there struggling with the stupid umbrella & contemplating just making a run to safeguard my work.... My classmate just gave me his umbrella (no it wasnt red or yellow, just plain black) while he also struggled to open mine.
We looked at each other & came to an understanding that I'd just run back after putting my things in the car so that he wouldn't get rained on.
But then at that moment he managed to open my umbrella, so we exchanged ours back & said goodbye.
Next day it was smile nod & studies as usual.