I'm with @dramaddictally. Not a huge fan of piggyback scenes - probably because of how over-used they are in dramas. The only memorable one I can think of is from Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, where Bok-joo is just too tall to piggyback so the ML has to drag her along until he gets the idea to escort her home in an empty shopping cart 🤣.

My favorite piggyback scene was a reversal of roles that just highlighted how much our female lead actually do care deeply for our beta male lead. Its Yeon Su carrying a drunk Ung in Our Beloved Summer.

I don’t pay attention to piggyback scenes since they are so common. However, it’s been a long time since I rewatched COFFEE PRINCE and I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly but I think there was a scene where Eun-chan carried/ piggybacked Han-gyul back home? The scene was memorable because I was just starting my kdrama obsession and it’s the first time I seen a of that subversion trope.

Can any of my Beanies shed light on this practice? It isn’t confined to SK, is it? I had not come across this before watching KDs as in the west, piggybacking is mainly given to kids and not adults. I don’t think it exists in the Middle East for all sorts of reasons. Is it a way for men to manifest their masculine strength without manhandling the women? I have noticed that in KDs, where the dudes hands are placed are very carefully calibrated.
It is mostly given by boys and men to girls and women respectively and older women get them too at times. Is it feasible because KD female actors are by and large all so thin that they can be carried but that’s not really possible when women have ordinary bodies.
As you see, I have so many questions about this.

I have a tie, both piggy backs including death:
@alathe’s pick from Mr Sunshine
And
Kang Ha Neul carrying his wife through the snow as she passes away in Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, both of them followed through the drifts by the woman he really loves (IU).
Both were Sob City for me, and unforgettable 😭

Coffee Prince. Hands down.
Eun-chan carrying Han-kyul made me laugh.

My favorite though is when Han-kyul practically dances down the street carrying Eun-chan.

My favorite piggyback scene is from episode 5, My Ajusshi when Dong-hoon piggybacks grandma up the stairs to the house.
Ji-an had taken her grandmother outside in a shopping trolley so her grandmother could see the moon. After he helps her home, Ji-an settles her grandmother and comes out to thank Dong-hoon and he turns to her and says to her" you're a good person" .
A beautiful scene with few words but so many feelings.

I like piggyback scenes where our leads secretly like each other. I loathe drunk piggyback scenes because being passed out drunk is not cute.

So I pick the piggyback scene in May I Help You? that happens because Tae-hee drives his car into a ditch, forcing Dong-joo and him to stay the night in the countryside. As they walk back to the house, she scolds him for reckless driving and whines about her sprained ankle, so he carries her, and when she asks how are they going to get home tomorrow, he cutely answers, "I'll piggyback you if I have to."

I recently watched Search: WWW and tiny Tammy piggybacking a very tall Scarlett was cute!

My very favorite piggyback scene is from Hello, Me! The ML (a wonderful Kim Young Kwang playing one of the nicest chaebols ever) has been getting to know the FL. He runs into her after she's been drinking, and they have a conversation while he gives her a piggyback home. He realizes that she's started crying, and without drawing attention to that or asking her why, he takes her around the block one more time. It's a lovely moment of companionship and comfort.

Mr. Sunshine!

Question: Do S Koreans still piggy back? Or does this happen in dramas only? I've been to Korean and I've never seen anyone piggybacking.

I have seen many but nothing sticks to my mind but reading the post and fellow beanies comments I think Mr Sunshine and the scene where Kang Ha-neul's character carries his dead wife on his back in Moon Lovers are the most emotional ones.

This one is quite dark cause it followed with death and a funeral.

Dae Jo-young - Two of Dae Jo-young's finest are trapped in a skirmish with Tang warriors and Guem Sa-wol has hurt her leg so she's unable to run away. So while they were able to get away from been caught in the middle of enemy soldiers, they still had to escape as quick as possible. In what was both one last act of bravery and love, Guem Sa-wol asks the guy who is also her love interest to piggyback them out of sight. Pros - she can't run so it'll take them quickly out of enemy lines. Cons - there's a 100% chance she'll get hit by enemy arrows.
Both the pros and cons played out. Both of them knew there was no way they were both getting away alive if the piggyback didn't happen due to her injured leg. Both of them also knew she was signing her death warrant with her suggesting the piggyback.

My favorites have been mentioned already (My Ajusshi, Coffee Prince). I'm not that crazy about piggybacking as a romantic device because it assumes a certain gender size/weight ration akin to pairs figure skating. But I did like the one in Jang Bori Is Here, which was both nice and comedic. Also amusing as I recall was Jung Gyu-woon repeatedly lugging Hong Soo-Hyun uphill in History of a Salaryman. But my final pick is Arang in Arang and the Magistrate pretending to be out cold and then alertly jumping off at the piggyback destination.

I don't really swoon over piggyback scene. It's often about a drunk girl who's about to vomit on the poor guy...

So I guess the most remarkable are the sad ones. And Mr Sunshine did so well. It was connected to their first beach scene when he asked her if she wanted a piggyback ride to comfort her. Both actors did so well. It wasn't very easy for YYS to carry her on his back, walking in the sand and acting an very emotional scene.

I was very impressed by Kim Seul-Gi (1m62) carrying Lee Jin-Hyuk (1m85) on her back in Find Me in Your Memory 😂

My favourite piggyback scene is in "Possessed" (towards the end of episode 9).

Pil-seong (whose body has temporarily taken over by a dead cop) carries the cop's drunk daughter on his back. She does not recognise him as the ghost of her father of course, but she talks about her childhood and how it feels like her dad is carrying her on his back.

Without the context of the drama, the description of it sounds weird, but it is quite a moving scene when you watch it.

I'm not a fan of piggyback rides. (I don't even count them!)
It's quite often when one is drunk, and I find it a little tedius.

However, when reading the promp there is one scene that came to my mind : in My holo love it's the koala ride, particularly in the last ep. The koala as a subversion of the piggyback, now that's amusing.

I also don't like scenes where drunk characters given piggyback rides.

I like the piggyback ride in Business Proposal where Jin Young Seo (Seol In Ah) sprained her ankle while being irritated at Cha Sung Hoon (Kim Min Kyu) while mountain climbing/getting lost. They made up right after the piggyback, then there was another piggyback where Young Seo wanted to go home for shenanigans and Sung Hoon wanted to go to the hospital for safety reasons.

I find that I actually do have “only one” of these…and it’s directly related to my “Only One Park Seo-Joon Drama,” because it’s Itaewon Class again.

Now, before you think I only like one drama…hear me out. What I like about the use of this trope here is that it is, IMO, sets up the full character arc for both parties. It’s really well-done.

The piggyback ride in question is in episode 2, so, very early on for a drama that feels like every minute of its 16+ hours (even for fans!). Park Sae-ro-yi has just been released from prison and he heads straight to Oh Soo-ah in Itaewon, because of the letters she had been writing him while he was incarcerated.

He finds her there and they have an unexpectedly normal (for both, but especially for him—as he’s been very quickly thrown back into society without help) night out on the town.

At the end of the evening, Park Sae-ro-yi then gives Oh Soo-ah a piggyback ride all the way up what must be one of the tallest set of neighborhood stairs in all of Itaewon to her house. Step-by-step he carries her home while they talk about who they are to each other in semi-cloaked language.

The drama downplays that they were drunk (for example, PSJ’s clown makeup is mysteriously completely gone), and instead focuses on Park Sae-ro-yi’s strength and commitment (literally and figuratively). We watch Oh Soo-ah basically learn how much she still means to him, and this is the first time I feel she really has to figure out what to do with that given her own life choices—and this is the crux of the drama, frankly. Seen first, right here on this piggyback ride.

At the top of the steps, they then talk face-to-face in what ends up being one of the most heartbreaking moments of the show (again, IMO). When they are in piggyback, they can connect. When they are not, it appears much harder, perhaps impossible.

I agree that the one from "Mr. Sunshine" is perhaps the most memorable and emotionally powerful, but I hated that that was the end of their never-quite-got-there romance! Beautifully acted scene, but in a drama filled with tragedy, it felt like too much at the time.

So I'm going with Reply1988. When I watched it, I already knew which man would ultimately win Deok-sun's heart, but I still wasn't sure who would ultimately carry her off the soccer field when the game suddenly broke up because of a hemorrhoid explosion (still don't quite get this medically, but ok) and due to her already injured ankle, someone had to give her a piggyback ride home, and someone else had to take care of Mr. Poop Pants. There was something about Park Bo-Gum's character awkwardly and then determinedly picking her up in the midst of all the chaos and making sure she wasn't left behind that got me. Prior to that, his character didn't have many typically or overtly manly moments, and that was fine with me. His mastery of Go and awkward sweetness were both plenty attractive. But when he makes sure Deok-sun is taken care of without hesitation, it made him finally seem like a person who could not only exist outside of his own headspace, but who also would be a loving, involved partner.

Which do you prefer in you drama, drunk piggy back rides, injury piggy back rides, or piggy back rides just because?

Chuno has a masterfully directed piggyback ride scene, where the PD juxtaposes two couples. Weary Dae Gil is carrying drunk street urchin Seol Hwa on his back, while reminiscing about his first love Eon Nyeon. When Seol Hwa drops her haegeum (small string instrument), he picks it up. At the same time, 2ML carries injured Eon Nyeon on his back. She drops a small stone (the only keepsake from her first love Dae Gil, whom she believes to be dead), but nobody notices and the stone is lost forever. This is a very beautiful and sad scene which also foreshadows the ending.

in my roommate is a gumiho, when lee dam had to piggyback her hilariously drunk friend do jae-jin. mainly because i was amazed she could carry him at all. and because i loved their friendship.

Just like many other beanies, I'm not a fan of piggyback scenes (but I prefer when the reason is feet pain or broken shoes than when a character is drunk).

I'll pick At a distance, spring is green because it was when FL talked quite sincerely to ML for the first time since they met.

For me the most memorable one on mind right now is piggyback between seo woojin and cha eunjae dr romantic season2. It's also the one when it turn thing around for t
Woojin view on EunJae about her struggle all this time through med school..it's such a surreal scene and welk directed.

Absolutely My Name is Kim Sam Soon - ep 2 - the stuffed piggy punches and ‘chemical warfare’ as Jin Heon piggybacked Sam Soon - this is my most memorable kdrama piggyback of all times!

My favourite, in “Girls’ Generation 1979”, is not so much the piggyback scene itself, but the next-day breakdown in the classroom. Jung Hee spills the beans to her squad, and her friend teases Jung Hee for having rubbed her chest against her crush’s back! I hadn’t seen this aspect discussed in a Kdrama before.

So many good ones! Not my favorite, but the one that I think stuck out to me the most was in Moon Lovers, and I didn't even finish the drama. It's the one where the 2ML/Kang Ha-neul was piggybacking his terminally ill wife. During the piggyback, she dies. His steps faltered and his eyes shook with grief in that moment when she passes, and then he continues piggybacking her. And then you have that Lee Sun-hee soundtrack song playing making it EXTRA sad.

I vaguely remember something but I don't recall from where. Either a reality show of 'behind the scenes' video. Actors/celebrities were in a car stuck in Seoul traffic when one of them looks the her right and squees with delight. There on the city sidewalk right next to them she spots a young couple piggy back riding 'in the wild' like a K-drama come to life. Everyone in the car had an 'Awh...' moment.

Piggy back scenes to me look very uncomfortable, especially when women are piggy backing men who are strangers (even if they are eventual male leads). One of the tropes that I find completely redundant, unless it's a life and death situation. I haven't seen any that has impressed me. The only one that made sense and was done realistically was Seargent Sung-On carrying Crown Prince Yi-Hwan to a pharmacy when he was greiviously injured (Sung-On was sweating profusely while CP looked deathly pale. That was well done). In a situation like this, a tall man carrying another very tall dead weight man with his weight distributed evenly across the back makes absolute sense.

Yeon-sue (Kim Da-mi) carry a drunk Ung (Choi Woo-sik) in Our Beloved Summer.

My pick is (hear me out) Personal Taste. The hilarity of these two is absolutely wonderful 🤣🤣🤣

First off, it's far from romantic because she thinks he's gay, also she's drunk and is suffering for a heartbreak. He is pissed off, snappy and done with her. But then she falls asleep on a bench and sprains her ankle and he carried her.

The most important thing about the scene though is how it moves the plot forward by revealing some things about both characters:

Jeon Junho - It reveals how much his respects women and how kind he really is under all that brusqueness

Park Gae In - It reveals a bit of her childhood trauma with her dad and why why she is a sucker when in love.

All in all, a beautiful piggyback ride 🤗

I love the piggyback scenes LOL you can't write a kdrama without them (or subway LOL). I can't pick a favorite!!