Dangermousie's Drama Manifesto :)
Dec. 7th, 2009 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieSince I mainly post about dramas, I thought it would be fun to make a little manifesto summarizing my likes and dislikes - so when someone reads a raving or bashing post they know where I am coming from and be able to interpret if it's a drama they want to check out or not, in light of my biases.
1. I watch Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and even Mainland dramas but Korean are by far my favorite - that is what I watch most of. (Followed by Japanese, then Taiwanese, then rarely Mainland).
2. I love fictional angst. If a drama is a bunnies-and-puppies fluffest, chances are I won't be too interested.
3. Unless it's 2 million episodes, I am preemptively interested in any Korean period drama - the only thing I love more than swords and beards dramas are the ones which are set in the earlier part of 20th-centrury. I am, however, really not keen on Japanese period dramas and like wuxia more in theory than in reality (I always get enthusiatic for them and then forget to finish).
3a. I do have a short attention span so despite my best efforts and admiration of the story my mind can wonder if it's too long, so I will finish it but it will take a while.
4. In a romance, a hero I can love is a bonus, a heroine I can love is a necessity. I am pretty easy about my heroines - they can be smart or not so smart, ladylike or tomboyish. The only combo I cannot stand is silly AND helpless. I can take one of these but not both.
5. Perhaps I am showing my age (31, why do you ask? :P) but in modern dramas I find myself more interested in dramas where people are already out in the workforce. 30+ is the best. I don't care about high school stories (with some exceptions - see Goong) and outside of a period drama, coming-of-age stories bore me.
6. No terminal illness, please. Except Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake and Snow Queen. I adore them but 2 dramas of that sort is enough.
7. My interest in a jdrama is inverse to the number of Johnny's in it.
8. Things I love in dramas: spies, women and men with swords, pirates, height difference, hats, older woman-younger man, hurt/comfort, quasi-cest, forbidden love, swindlers falling for targets, revenge, politics, rebels, eccentric artists, pride in one's work, guns, single mothers, shirtlessness.
9. Things I don't love in dramas: much older men, hordes of skinny boys, over-the-top comedy, spiness people, school stories, 'harems' (i.e. a bazillion people falling for our hero/heroine).
10. I live for hurt/comfort and manpain. Womanly h/c and womanpain are fine, but male h/c and manpain are where it's at. Give me a man protecting a woman with his own body, or otherwise being super-sacrificial, and I am set.
11. I have no objections to rocks-fall-everyone-dies endings or main characters that turn into monsters, murderers, cheaters etc as long as it's well-written. (See Byaukuyu, Bali, Princess Ja Myung Go). I will, however, not be able to put with a drama if the main character is weak-willed.
12. Office dramas about single women looking for love are the bane of my existence. No, thank you.
13. Worlds Within is the best drama ever made, with Legend coming in a close second.
14. If they are fighting against authority, I am in.
ETA: 15. I love the set-up where hero and heroine fall for each other very quickly and then spend the rest of the drama fighting obstacles (e.g. Mars, Worlds Within etc) but I am not in the least averse to a slow burn either.
1. I watch Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and even Mainland dramas but Korean are by far my favorite - that is what I watch most of. (Followed by Japanese, then Taiwanese, then rarely Mainland).
2. I love fictional angst. If a drama is a bunnies-and-puppies fluffest, chances are I won't be too interested.
3. Unless it's 2 million episodes, I am preemptively interested in any Korean period drama - the only thing I love more than swords and beards dramas are the ones which are set in the earlier part of 20th-centrury. I am, however, really not keen on Japanese period dramas and like wuxia more in theory than in reality (I always get enthusiatic for them and then forget to finish).
3a. I do have a short attention span so despite my best efforts and admiration of the story my mind can wonder if it's too long, so I will finish it but it will take a while.
4. In a romance, a hero I can love is a bonus, a heroine I can love is a necessity. I am pretty easy about my heroines - they can be smart or not so smart, ladylike or tomboyish. The only combo I cannot stand is silly AND helpless. I can take one of these but not both.
5. Perhaps I am showing my age (31, why do you ask? :P) but in modern dramas I find myself more interested in dramas where people are already out in the workforce. 30+ is the best. I don't care about high school stories (with some exceptions - see Goong) and outside of a period drama, coming-of-age stories bore me.
6. No terminal illness, please. Except Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake and Snow Queen. I adore them but 2 dramas of that sort is enough.
7. My interest in a jdrama is inverse to the number of Johnny's in it.
8. Things I love in dramas: spies, women and men with swords, pirates, height difference, hats, older woman-younger man, hurt/comfort, quasi-cest, forbidden love, swindlers falling for targets, revenge, politics, rebels, eccentric artists, pride in one's work, guns, single mothers, shirtlessness.
9. Things I don't love in dramas: much older men, hordes of skinny boys, over-the-top comedy, spiness people, school stories, 'harems' (i.e. a bazillion people falling for our hero/heroine).
10. I live for hurt/comfort and manpain. Womanly h/c and womanpain are fine, but male h/c and manpain are where it's at. Give me a man protecting a woman with his own body, or otherwise being super-sacrificial, and I am set.
11. I have no objections to rocks-fall-everyone-dies endings or main characters that turn into monsters, murderers, cheaters etc as long as it's well-written. (See Byaukuyu, Bali, Princess Ja Myung Go). I will, however, not be able to put with a drama if the main character is weak-willed.
12. Office dramas about single women looking for love are the bane of my existence. No, thank you.
13. Worlds Within is the best drama ever made, with Legend coming in a close second.
14. If they are fighting against authority, I am in.
ETA: 15. I love the set-up where hero and heroine fall for each other very quickly and then spend the rest of the drama fighting obstacles (e.g. Mars, Worlds Within etc) but I am not in the least averse to a slow burn either.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:37 pm (UTC)This used to be one of my favourite cliches - but alas! no more. This is so overdone (especially in Jdrama) that I have a bad case of allergy against it now.
From the top of my head, following this list - have you seen any of "Angel's Temptation"? It started rather slowly (the first guy wasn't too much to look at) but since Bae Soo Bin appeared on the scene the drama has become awesome. Lots of manpain!!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:42 pm (UTC)Oooh, I need to add "falling in love quickly and then fighting against obstacles" to my list.
Re: Angel's Temptation sounds very much like my thing, thank you! I plan to check it out once I finish City Hall and IRIS wraps up because then I will have room :)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:48 pm (UTC)I think this is a problem for me too, this and also the fact that professional women are often represented as lacking something and dying to find a man. Any man. Ok, I understand people wanting to find a partner (I was the same at some point in my life), but still - I prefer these women to be also happy in their achievements at work (this is why I like Hotaru no Hikaru, for example).
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:53 pm (UTC)Exactly. Part of the reason I liked e.g. Sapuri (I know you are not keen on it) was that Minami seemed to be professionally competent, grown-up, and not desperate for a man. (Side note: did you ever watch Brand? You might like it - the heroine is awesome. I don't usually like office dramas but that one is one of my faves). I liked what I saw of Hotari no Hikaru for that very same reason.
Part of it is, however, for me is that I like more excitement and melodrama, usually - unless your office life is, like those of the IRIS guys, in the counter-terrorism unit, any drama office crises aren't going to be of a life-and-death severe emo/drama/emotion variety. It's hard to have an ep where the biggest threat is the copier breaking :) And I love my extreme drama :P
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 08:00 pm (UTC)And I love my extreme drama :P
me too. I back to watching IRIS and I hope "Will it snow on Chrismas" will not disappoint.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:47 pm (UTC)6. No terminal illness, please.
Wouldn't that count about half of Korean dramas? XP
I definitely agree with number 4. A guy that I can love is great but if I am less than pleased with the heroine (and that includes the actresses who play them, sadly), then I will definitely be turned off.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 07:55 pm (UTC)If the heroine is atrocious, my dislike spreads to the hero - what beatings around the head must he have had to fall for her?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 02:58 am (UTC)This season calls for a rewatch. It reminds of sweaters, snow, clear blue skies, and back-hugging. I'm waiting for "will it snow on Christmas" to pass onto the adult story so I can marathon it for the first few eps.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 04:31 pm (UTC)Xmas only has one ep with kids - the rest is grown-up.