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.
