sooo we talked about demons and monsters and there were quite many people but our star power is not as great as some others so only 13 people ( but an appropriate number) and it was book related sooo... next time I hope to share a clip we made, you won´t understand the language but you can see me getting hit by a book.

17 years ago I hadn't discovered K anything.

And it was all U.S. and UK entertainment for me.

Glad I discovered K stuff now.

Given the option to go back to visit 17 years ago, I would run as far as possible in the other direction! Not at all a time in my life I would care to revisit.

But occasionally I hear people started blogs that became communities that are still relevant 17 years later 😁

I don't know. I have only been here since Open Thread #129.

You just blew my mind 🤯
I don’t mean this in a boastful/bragging manner, but I’ve been with Dramabeans since it first started (give or take a few months after its initial launch, but definitely within a 6 month window).

OH MY KITTEN HAS IT REALLY BEEN THAT LONG???? Ahhhh 🤯🤯🤯

I was like, getting ready to start elementary school. LMAO No kdramas on sight back then. It took me another three years to discover them. And at that time my sis would read all these blogs and share all the info/gossip with me.
Then I got here like a decade later when my English was less crappy.

I will never forget my sis translating all the comments from Cheese in the Trap, and talking about the theories about the title and the BTS drama with the actors and PD...

DB thanks for everything! For another 17 years? 🥂 🙈

It is an auspicuous number! How quickly time flew by 😊

I forget when I joined since I was a lurker in my early DB years. I miss javabeans and girlfriday snarky recaps and comments. They did leave behind a great community of like-minded kdrama fans.

I feel like this last point seems so obvious to us on the outside and I wonder if it is as clear to those in power. Do they have no idea what would help the birth rate, or do they know the kinds of changes they could make and just don’t want them?

I love your weekly notes on Korean Women's news - thank you!
I've been watching Korean and Japanese feminism with great interest since a few years/decades, both are very different, and yet the problem is the same. In short: Men have reached a level of toxicity and misogyny that is absolutely intolerable, no wonder women don't go around "Wow, what a prince, excellent father-of-my-child-material" when the guy throws a hissy fit about a woman wearing a t-shirt with "Girls can do everything" on it or certain hand gestures.
It's like the Margaret Atwood quote "men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them." Because these incels don't just throw online hissy fits.
I really do wonder if I will live long enough to see a solution for this, both sides seem pretty irreconcilable.

Ok think I saw many couples out when I was just on Korea this past month. Groups of people too. We were in an area a little hit outside the tourist areas and the Seoul center though. I do think the loneliness line is a great idea. Almost like a suicide hotline before getting to that point.

Fancam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGfVncP2x1s

Spotify link to official audio:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0Y6y8uLxBCNMWJYZ1MsHoH?si=0cad3c6c56df41d5

Last time I promised yall more music, meaning we have to go back to his old covers. Thankfully, these can fill out this playlist for a lifetime))) For example, his take on Wang Tongyu's “Girl”, which sounds nice, but for the life of me I couldn't grasp what its lyrics are about, even with a decent translation. It appears to be sweet serenade to one's girlfriend, but man, such chaotic stream of consciousness would've make James Joyce proud!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AlMKxVmIoA

Speaking of vague love ballads, there's more of them! Unlike the previous track, this cover of Yoga Lin's “Cruel moonlight”, supposedly from the same day/livestream years ago, is not happy or even hopeful – seems like a particularly painful case of unrequited love where hero is desperate for any crumbs he can get, price or pride be damned... Borderline villainous SML serenade drama OST with that vibe^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zLZYIAaNPQ

And since love angst mood is a highly infectious thing, have one more with Ren Ran's “Empty”. At least this text knows what it's trying to say with hero lamenting over still hurting even a year after breakup. Ning-ge's delivery sounds oddly cheerful for me, idk why – maybe he's embarrassed on protagonist's behalf or just was in too good mood that day. No comments on what he's wearing here – everyone has bad days once in a while, OK?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slisdcaqggM

First time listening to "Falling". This is a beautiful song, imo. Of course also a great performance.

I agree with you about the red hair highlights, they suit him.

Thanks as always!

Happy Friday!

Thanks for all the new LYN goodies!
I wouldnt want to be at the end of that glare. Our guy looks very upset about something.

I am also not a fan of that book photoshoot. The set looks like it was thought out last minute and books were added just to fill the empty space. He tried to make the most of the situation.

I do feel like older dramas were more creative with showing meaningful romantic development (examples that come to mind are Greatest Love's use of potatoes, or Master's Sun's use of a necklace). I haven't seen that as much in modern dramas. But, also, these are dramas that have stood the test of time so maybe they're unique.

I also feel like older dramas have more of a slow burn, but that might also come from my place of frustration that modern dramas just aren't showing me romantic development as much as a whole (so many recent ones they either go from 0 to 100 really quickly, or they start out in love with each other).

There are a lot of things that I prefer about newer dramas, though, and my top favorites are all from the past five years.

Lovely Runner is definitely going to be a modern classic, especially for younger generations. With No Gain No Love, I can see Hae-young becoming a kind of exemplar of modern well-written women, similar to the ladies from Be Melodramatic (which is already kind of a modern classic).

But yh the idea that modern dramas are worse now is a little silly. I for one don't miss those obnoxious male leads.

1. People will ALWAYS say "old is always better".
Go to any fandom, go to any place, it's always there. People will always complain when things change and see the past with nostalgic charm.

It's not that kdramas were brilliant a couple decades ago and now they're trash, no. They're just different in some ways. Good and bad dramas can be found in anytime.

Also, it can depend on people's preferences. What genre you're focused on, and what you expect from those trips of shows.

For ex romcoms. Some people like the rude and arrogant MLs who needed a special girl to teach them how to be decent, from the past; others like the fantasy obsessive first love guys without a personality from nowadays.
By the way I describe them, it's obvious I hate both. So I don't really care about those changes. I've dislike MLs ten years ago and today too.

The same way Secret Garden didn't work for me, is the same way Lovely Runner didn't work for me. Both are very famous, instant classics. But it's not like "classic" ever meant "masterpiece". No one will deny that Heirs or BOF are classics, but no one thinks of them as masterpieces.

I think kdramaland was definitely on slump recently. As a weekender/family dramas fan. I haven't been able to watch one in YEARS. But Unpredictable Family and now Iron Family are bringing my faith back in this land.
But that doesn't mean that all the good weekenders are from decades ago either.

I think people are just feeling nostalgia, in this slump era. Because there's no way that the good kdramas are all from early 10's. Before and AFTER that era many good dramas happened.

Coffee Prince is 2007 and Reply 88 is 2015-6, for ex. W is 2017... So what are people talking about exactly.

2. I don't believe that things need to "age well" or "be ahead of their time". All content reflects its time (even as an opposition to the notions of its time), so I don't know why something from 30 years ago needs to work nowdays. Unless we're trying to say that we haven't change as a society?

It's good when something doesn't age well. It means that we are changing. Idk if for the better, but at least we're not stuck in the past. That means we have a future.

Or do we expected PDs to travel in time to see what's going to be politically incorrect in ten years from now? It's not like we even care that much about what's correct these days (kdramaland isn't the most progressive land, is it?), so why care about what we didn't care about ten years ago?
I never watch old shows or movies expecting them to feel recent. Then what's the point? What I want from them is the charm of their times. I want to go back to that era of my life. And I was very ignorant and political incorrect ten years ago, too. Not sure if I'm that better these days, so how can I blame an old tv show?

I also think it depends on why you watch K dramas. I love it when a drama rises above the rest, but I watch them because I enjoy them. I’m not always concerned if I’ll be thinking about the show in two years, but whether I laughed after a hard day. I know a lot of people didn’t like love next-door, but I really love the leads and I enjoyed it plenty. I don’t know if it will go on my top 10 list, but it helped me pass the time when work was difficult. I also don’t like to rewatch dramas or reread books much. I enjoy new stories even when they’re not perfect.

Americans are interesting in our hypocrisy or maybe a nicer phrasing is duality. There are folks who consider America a very sexual place and open about sex & sexuality but it's really quite prudish.

And I think younger people are also influenced by Korean or Asian media that isn't as overtly sexual or sexual at all.

I swear it's like people or maybe it's the people making the calls don't know what it means to *BALANCE*. Sex or physical intimacy can be used for storytelling purposes. For good or bad.

For example, the 1st season of Outlander had their wedding episode have 3 sex scenes and each moment was supposed to convey something different. It was filmed differently, lit differently, etc.

It's been a long while since I watched Outlander but from what I remember, all the sex scenes, especially in S1, served a purpose for showing the relationship's development.

Sidenote: S1 of Outlander is really good in my opinion haha. Again, the beauty of a story being given enough time and space to develop.

Also with the employment of intimacy coordinators, the scenes are supposedly shot in a more respectful and meaningful matter.

"Just watch porn"🙄😒
Seems like the words of people who don't actually watch it.

Seems like society moved from bitter old puritans to bitter young ones... Just the other day saw someone raging on reddit about how cdrama censorship is "a great thing actually" because it limits "nauseating" skinship. Oh, and according to that anonymous little killjoy, everyone who thinks otherwise is a voyeur. Is it just me or world is really half-step away from bringing holy crusades and other utterly medieval fun back into vogue?

Physical intimacy—sex— is a beautiful thing that brings two people together in a very sacred way in a very sacred time and in a very sacred space. When people are now asking for less and less of it, it shows the devastating impact—frankly, perversion and damage imho— that the media has had on displaying and treating something (sex) so casually by (over) using it as a tool for the sake of shock value, and using it as a tool in the first place. It’s so, so, so sad that something so beautiful is now diminished and ruined

I don't know but Titanic would have been less awkward without the nudity and love scenes. I made my family watch it with me because I loved it so much but forgot about the those scenes. They didn't end up even liking the movie, saying that the original black and white version was better lol~~~

my point is that a lot of those scenes are not necessary to the story and could have been a great family friendly movie without the gratuitous scenes. I have to agree that I don't enjoy intimate scenes that much in movies and dramas just because they never really seem necessary. And for actors, I just think it messes with their minds and personal relationships to have to act in intimate scenes with other actors. I really feel sorry for actors who have to kiss in dramas after dramas with people they don't love. I got sick of watching Gong Yoo after watching him lock lips with different co-stars in dramas.

@vienibenmio I don't know that one year's result is definitive of a trend--the number of survey participants ( around 1000, probably enough to be statistically significant, but not exactly the majority of teenagers) who thought sexual content was not needed jumped from a minority (47.5%) to a majority (62.4%) over the course of the year. But if it is, its more depressing to me that is, a lover of romance stories with a lot of physical intimacy. The majority surveyed don't want to see any romance at all. They don't want to see any sexual attraction either. What do they want to see? Cartoon characters and fantasy, with uplifting stories, but a lot of violence and fighting. In other words, Harry Potter. Or more generally, video game quality story telling.

So I don't necessarily think what is being reflected is some sort of new puritanism, or a "puriteen" as the trendy term goes, that sees the depiction of intimacy and kissing unnecessary. Rather, its a dismissing of romance as a valid topic for movies or dramas. Fortunately, so far this trend hasn't hit kdramas!

I've been thinking a lot about that too, @vienibenmio
I laugh a bit at some of the theories that, supposedly, "conservatism" took its puritanical hold on our youth. I think the reason is more prosaic. As @ahjummaaa pointed out, "a lot of those scenes are not necessary to the story", and I think she hit a nail in the head. The youth is more cosmopolitan and precocious these days ("blame" the social media and easily accessible p-n, lol) Plus, their attention spans are shorter. No one wants to sit through the gratuitous sex or violent scenes if they don't add to the story. It doesn't make me sad, actually, that the modern youth is getting a bit jaded. It makes me hopeful that the writers are more aware of the youth's tastes and add scenes not simply for the sake of it or for sensationalism but to propel the story forward. @britney gave an excellent example in Outlander.

Gift to you: MOZART IN THE JUNGLE (2014). When I told my adult children what a great show this is, they started the snoring noise that signals, Mom...we are never going to watch a show about classical music. Snore snore.

It's NOT about classical music, and it is. It's about human nature and the gifted performers who make up a team called an orchestra. It's funny, endearing, surprising, upbeat and in my book, a series classic. WARNING: it's addictive. Give it a whirl.

Amazon made a huge mistake cancelling this show before the advent of limited series really took off. It was before its time.

Even if I spend a lot of time kdramaland, I always catch up with the rest of my world. So here are some recent shows:

-The Bear (dark and stressful comedy).
-Severance (drama... Thriller...).
-Abbott Elementary (sitcom).
-I May Destroy You (drama. This one is kinda old but underrated)
-We Are Lady Parts (comedy, music)
-Ghosts UK (comedy)
-Heartbreak High (teen)
-This Town (music, drama)
-Gangs of London S1 (action)
-The Midnight Gospel (animation)

Talking about cancelled shows, I really loved the first (and only) season of "As we see it" (2022).
I still highly recommend it.

Two points:
1. Yes there are some excellent "western" shows with multiple seasons. I'm enjoying the latest season of "Only Murders in the Building" right now and earlier this year I watched the latest season of "The Bear" and I've watched a few funny episodes of "Abbot Elementary." These shows are far more satisfying to me than mediocre kdramas, and I've watched a lot of these this year. (Although also some good kdramas as well!)

2. Taxi Driver NEEDS a love interest between Do-gi and Go-eun, because otherwise, it will be way too boring. That show should not have been renewed for a third season, because the concept is way too tired.

agree 200%! one cannot imagine the magnanimity of the redwoods unless you stand and try to see the tops of the trees... you can't, btw. it makes you feel so tiny, and we are, in the world of such ancient trees. imagine the world the trees have lived within, the people and cultures milling around their roots, how sad that the environment has deteriorated around them...

I mean I thought the redwoods were overrated prior to the trip based on photos and videos I saw previously online but they were very very impressive in person, not overrated at all, especially in the right season (autumn, spring?) and time of day (afternoon) and without too many other cars and tourists around (weekday)

To put bluntly, a memorable role consists of 3 major elements: writing, actor's performance and actor's charisma. Technically you can still make do with just 2 of these, but that'll require them being extra good to overcome the lack of third element, whatever it is. MMH ML, from what I've read in recaps here, suffered not as much from simpleton writing, but mainly from actor lacking a charisma/spark to make his character work regardless. So while drama romcoms MLs usually do not possess great characterization depth, casting capable AND charismatic actors for such roles is totally crucial. For all the flack older dramas get from community, me included, they understood the importance of ML's rizz very well. Current crop of rising actors may have looks and chops, but majority of them clearly lack flavor. Whether they'll develop it with age and experience remains to be seen.

I have been told it doesn't do anything. They get a notification that you are following them. So, maybe you gave some validation to some people.

I think in the past, if I followed someone, I got a notificication when this person posted a comment but it didn't last. So now, it seems useless.

https://dramabeans.com/tag/what-were-watching/

They post a new one every Saturday.

You are not alone with your questions regarding Dear Hyeri. Tho the whole drama isn't getting recapped, it has very active hangouts you can find here: https://dramabeans.com/shows/dear-hyeri/

Oh sorry, I think I got the series name wrong ... what was it again? Or am I correct with that title «Cinderella etc.» ?