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[Drama chat] The drama moment that made you ugly-cry

by missvictrix


I’m funny about crying over dramas. Categorically sad and heavy dramas make me too sad to actually cry — instead, it’s the overwrought (I hate to say “cheesy”) drama moments that will make me cry hands-down, every time.

For instance, the main thing I remember about the 2013 melo Secret was bawling my eyes out when Hwang Jung-eum’s character was grieving over her father and all the hardships he had been through. She said she wanted to be reincarnated as his mother to pay back all the love he had given her (or something close to that), and yeah, I was an ugly mess.

Similarly, the DMZ goodbye scene in Crash Landing on You definitely made me ugly-cry, too. Heck, I couldn’t even select a screencap of the scene without feeling a gigantic lump in my throat. Now, I’m not saying that scene was cheesy. Different than the usual melo moments or deceased parent plot lines that make me into a blubbering mess, the Crash Landing on You scene was so beautiful, heartfelt, and exploding with raw emotion, that it became the best moment of the drama for me.
 

What drama moment (or, drama moments) made you ugly-cry?

 
Let the chatting begin!
 
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    East of Eden. I don’t even remember the exact scene/s but I know that show got me. Later on I will realize that every show that involved familial love and bond would get me every single time so yeah..

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    Warrior Baek dong soo: the ending when I'm died the stab sword haunted me for months thinking about it, I cried bitterly..it takes the cake

    City Hunter: prosecutor died

    Queen of shilla: Bidam, oh Bidam oh Bidam

    Jumong, the Iron king,emperor of the sea...

    Also cried during Secret, Hwang Jung Eun really suffered a lot..

    Tomorrow: The Korean war veteran person ,Winner Seungyoon scenes bawled my eyes during those scene

    Chicago Typewriter: can't remember the scene that made me cry but I did cry

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    There have certainly been a lot for me, but I just wanted to mention one I didn't see come up yet (sorry if someone said it and I missed it!).

    Y'all. That scene in Live Up to Your Name in the final episode when they know that Im has to go back to war-zone Joseon, and Kyung stays with him so that he's not alone when he dies and helps him drive the needle into his chest, and then the next thing you know they are both gasping on the ground, never to see each other again. ALSO, the one shortly before that, when Kyung is crying to her grandfather that she wants to go back to Joseon with Im. Wrecked.

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    I never hear anyone talking about Live up to your name I loved that drama, such an interesting concept.

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    I almost never do either! But I loved it so much, it's definitely in my top 10 current favorites. It has a very small but very loyal following.

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    I am thinking I need to do sub categories for my top ten as it’s too hard to get all my favourites in. I think a category for historical dramas then I could get it in there but currently the demand for space is too tight I need a top 30 at least!

    What are the others in your top ten? What’s your favourite genre. I think I would need also need sub categories for Rom com as that is my favourite and potentially for medical dramas as they can be slice of life/thriller/rom coms.

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    I actually do have mine in sub categories! There is a spreadsheet... I just split them up into super broad categories (Action/Thriller/Mystery, Sageuk, Romance, and a last one for dramas that don't fit the other three that I just labeled Character Growth/Slice of Life. I'm still pretty new to dramas, so I don't have as many watched as lots of other folks, but these work for me for now.

    I honestly haven't met a genre I didn't like yet! I like to meet a drama on its own terms first and then decide later if it is meeting its own expectations. I also like to switch up genres all the time, so if I've just watched a heavy psychological thriller I'll watch a fun rom com next.

    CLOY was my first drama and is definitely in the list, so is My Ajusshi, Signal, Just Between Lovers, Move to Heaven, IOTNBO, Vincenzo, and The Good Detective (unless it's recently been displaced - I don't have the list in front of me). There are *better* dramas I've watched, but these won't let me go.

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    I think for a newbie your range is really good and will help with the baseline for choosing what is a good or not worth the time drama for you. I tend to stay away from anything too heavy because of my need for fun and low level stress in my entertainment but there is a growing tendency to mix the genres so it keeps creeping in. Sometimes this means I have to stop completely or fast forward through the hard for me to watch sections and sometimes it’s bearable like Hospital playlist, 25,21, Love all play and Shooting Stars.

    I have seen an end of year round up on 31 different categories covering actors, characters and dramas so I am making a note of these so I can start adding the answers rather than struggling to remember by the time December comes about.

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    I have just checked and there are only two reviews on here so we need to add ours so that there will be something to guide others to this hidden gem.

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    I am on it! ...Sometime this week. But I definitely will!

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    I just clicked on the "shows" tab to check something, and Live Up to Your Name was at the top! We made it trend!

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    Yay thats fab news♥️🍾🥳. I hope the new generation of beanies take a look at it.

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    Live Up to Your Name is one of my most favorite dramas ever

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    Hey its good to know we are not alone☺️ Are you up for writing a review too?

    I aim to do it after work today as my lunch break is done! I have been slowly working my way through the dramas I want to review and I think this one has to be next.

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    I guess I have to read some reviews first to learn how to write them compellingly but spoiler free.

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    Its true, it’s really hard to be vague but sell something as good enough to invest our limited time🤣

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    I rarely cry while watching a film or serial. But very recently I choked with emotions while watching something, it was hard to continue and I had to pause it for a while. But it was not a K-Drama, it was a Japanese Anime called "Kotaro lives Alone". Will not add details on which scenes I am talking about to not give spoilers.

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    I haven’t read the other comments here so hope this isn’t going to sound like a broken record but Kim Woobin’s scenes with his absurd mother in UF always starts my waterworks. In particular, their last encounter when he doesn’t initially remember her but as he starts eating her food, it dawns on him who she is and he crumbles. UF was/is ridiculous in so many ways and replete with every conceivable trope but it remains a wonder to me that Kim Woobin’s acting range time and time again elevates that show to something worth remembering. ps - There were a number of other wonderful actors in that show too.

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    Thank you for bringing that scene up as that mum drives me mad and I was glad that she heard him say that as it was her own fault for staying away. That mum character is the worst I have seen on any drama because it makes no sense that she would distance herself when she knows her child is dying and earlier had reinforced his separation from the love of his life when his days are numbered.
    You’re right that were many ridiculous elements to that drama but still his acting was on point and I was glad he died with the love of his life right by him giving him permission to go. I was so sad when she said he didn’t always remember who she was so she pretended to be the housekeeper. I thought he needed to have her by his side in those last days but I guess he slept alone.

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    @reply1988: Let’s bond over this as well! The mother was pitiful and absurdly vicious for most of the drama. What a bizarre characterisation. I know people idealise and venerate lost loves for a host of reasons but that was so extreme, it made no sense at all.
    Yeah. His acting was so on point. I miss seeing that acting hurricane which is Woobie. In ‘Our blues’ he has largely been on acting tranquilisers which I get given his ordeal, only recent return to acting and the need to pace himself but I miss seeing his range.

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    I know, even when he showed her how outrageous the man was that she had idolised all those years she still did not sort it out. She never apologised or accepted that she was out of order. They had a little bit of mother/son time but it was always on her terms. Even her boyfriend had to tiptoe around her.

    A prime example was when she led him to believe that she wasn’t going to his awards show. What was the plan did she intend to sit quietly in the audience and then leave without telling him she was there? I am glad he left so she got dressed up for no reason.

    I have seen so many dramas where the characters learn and redeem themselves and with the stakes so high she really needed to sort herself out for her son’s sake as well as her own. I don’t accept that last meal as a good enough way to make up for all the pain and hurt she caused him when he just wanted to be loved and appreciated by his own mum after all they had gone through. Mum’s cooking represents so many memories and she denied him that, her company and the love both of those things represented for all those years.

    It really tested my therapist skills trying to understand her and in the end I had to just remind myself that as she is a fictional character we didn’t have enough info to fully understand all that made her who she became. We didn’t see her thought processes and maybe if it was remade today they would have added or changed her.

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    ITA with the bridge scene in Crash Landing... that one and the moment she wakes up and calls him to ask wtf, why aren't you here?... but also the scene in Oh My Venus where she is standing outside his hospital room getting "tap, tap" text messages and sobbing. When he starts to cry too and tries to get up to comfort her, I lose it.

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    Oh my Venus noble idiocy exemplified. He was with her through the hard slog of losing weight but she could not be with him when he had to go through a serious mental and physical recovery process😒 I get he wanted to be her sexy man but seriously…

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    You know, I don't consider myself a super emotional person when it comes to stories, but I surprisingly have a bunch of shows I could almost see myself crying in but don't actually remember. We'll start with the one's I'm sure about:

    Signal - I KNOW I cried when our best detective went to the movies with the ticket his first crush had bought him. Many tears.

    Marriage Contract - I'm pretty sure I cried at least a few times during this drama, but the ones that get me are when UEE dressed up and put on makeup and everything by herself late at night, and when she broke down in the bathroom at her apartment, and the entire final 20 minutes.

    My Love From Another Star - My first drama. I know I cried at least once when he stopped time (at the amusement park, on the ice/during their date, etc).

    Goblin-the last episode did a number on me. It's not even my favorite drama objectively, but I watched it with a roommate at the time and we were up past 1AM bawling our eyes out as the last 45 minutes played out. It was an ugly, ugly cry.

    Hospital Playlist (some of the patient stories are just so heartwarming... or heartbreaking) - Maybe
    Just Between Lovers (I can almost 100% guarantee I cried during my first time through this drama... but I've seen it at least 3 times so I can't remember lol) - Maybe
    Misaeng (I think I remember crying buckets and wondering why I would make myself watch such a depressing drama... but it was so good) - Maybe
    Prison Plabook (When the drug addict gets released... and all his story after that) - Maybe
    The Red Sleeve Cuff Some of those later episodes man. I don't know why, but I feel like I cried. I just don't remember it.

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    Prison playbook 😭 that character grew on me like he grew on them. He had to go cold turkey which was so so hard and then got seduced outside before he could meet his love and family so unnecessary. I felt he had been so wronged because he lost everything with that decision. It made the point that detoxing without a full drug treatment programme is ineffective.

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    Last 5 minutes of Damo.

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    I'm one of those weird ones who don't cry at typical stuff, like Main Characters dying. Shocking, I know! xD
    Dramas that made me (consistently) ugly-cry are far and few in between. About 5 in my history of 200.

    -CLOY: I think I started silently weeping ever since Seri's photograph fell out of a mortally wounded Captain Ri's military jacket. That climaxed at probably the goodbye scene at DMZ, where I felt like I almost couldn't breathe. Silent, anonymous gestures of love makes me ugly-cry, lol. That's the secret! :P

    -18 Again: Much in the same note as CLOY, I think every-time we discovered the Dad wasn't as bad as he was made out to be... I ugly-cried. The scene where Lee Do Hyun signs back to his Dad from the basketball court revealing his identity; the scene where Si-Ah finds the passbook & discovers deposits from Dad celebrating every little milestone from her childhood, the umbrella-scene with the voice-over 'Rainy days often reveal the capacity of one's love' against Do-Hyun getting gladly drenched, to shield the twin-babies from the rain while picking them up from kindergarten....the scene where LDH carries baby Si-Ah to the hospital on his back, and finally the scene the 'jaebal' finale scene, where LDH is shooting hoops, trying to go back to his older-self. UGH. MAJOR kleenex-alert drama for me! :') The epilogues, were so, SO heartwarmingly good!!

    -I Don't Love You Yet (J): The scene where Yo's about to leave the dinner-spot, cancelling her order, because once again she's forgotten her wallet. But the owner kindly mentions she can go ahead with her order, as her 'boyfriend' has made a deposit for her before leaving for Hong Kong, cuz she always had the habit of forgetting her wallet. And the montage of the scenes with Ren follow against pin-drop silence, highlighting his constant presence (& now omni-presence) in Yo's life. Masterful. Oh and also the scene where Yo discovers the BG song is actually a piece written by Ren, FOR her. And they begin to play the lyrics clearly, for the first time (& since I understand basic Japanese). Oh God. Unrequited-love is my 2nd kryptonite. </3

    -Someday Or One Day (T): Aside from the fact that Greg Hsu has a face that can move you to tears whenever he appears on screen, compounded with the fact that his character was s'posed to be dead in our present day context. The scene where Yu Xuan brings Li Zi Wei home, and it's been 2 years for her, but it's been SIXTEEN years for him since he's been back. </3 My pillowcase is a witness to my break-down.

    -Our Blues: The back-hug scene between father & son at the sundae-kitchen. And the most recent painting-scene where Young-Ok cries her heart out, I cried with Han Ji Min. Powerful stuff! :')

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    1. I think I cried for every episode in Reply 1988
    2. Most of time I cried for Just Between Lovers
    3. The moment Shin Joon-Young (Kim Woo Bin) can't recognize his mom in Uncontrollably Fond, I'm bawling my eyes and when finally he remember his mom when eating her food, I'm so wreck.

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    After reading some comments, I remember always crying every scene of Dad that actually really loves his family in 18 Again.
    I think striy about parent and children always makes me ugly cry.

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    Pinocchio - when Ki Jae Myung told Dal Po to expose him and he had to lose his brother all over again.

    Tomorrow - The episode about the dog.

    Divorce Attorney Shin - when he won custody of his nephew.

    This list is all about specific scenes that made me cry. There's a different list from dramas that made me cry regularly 🤧🥺

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    Late to this discussion but I want to add my grain of salt.

    I don't cry easily, but there are some k-dramas which made me cry, as I have never cried watching Western TV shows.

    _ Bidam's last scenes in Queen Seon Deok made me cry so much! I barely could see the screen of my tablet.

    _ Live Up to your name. The scene already mentioned by @jls943 in this post, when the FL is asking her grandfather to let her go with Heo Im. And the death of another character.

    _ Prison Playbook. I cried for several minutes in the last episodes. Even in scenes which weren't sad.

    _ Someday or One day. I cried when the end credits started.

    _ C-dramas A Journey to love and Meet Yourself. Only in a few scenes.

    _ Weak Hero Class 1. Last episodes. I didn't expect to cry in that show.

    _ The ending of Mirror of the Witch. That song, those notes...

    And I almost cried in 25-21, Flower Boy Next Door, Misaeng, Navillera, Youth of May, Go Back Couple, Hospital Playlist, Twinkling Watermelon, Fated to love you, Solomon's Perjury, The Nokdu Flower...

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