2010: The Noona Year?
Jan. 27th, 2010 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousie(For those not familiar with kdramas, Noona = the way a younger guy refers to an older girl he is friends, family or is close with).
It has not escaped my notice that we are barely a month into 2010 and there are already 3 (!!!) dramas either airing or shortly on the horizon which feature Noona love - a younger man in love with a rather older woman. Kim Bum is currently the Noona lover in The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, playing a 22-yr old college badboy musician romancing a lady 10 years his senior - they are the drama's main pairing. Just a few weeks ago, the news came out that Lee Min Ho signed on to star in Personal Taste, playing a 23-yr-old who pretends to be gay in order to rent an apartment from a girl who only will let a guy be a roommate if he is gay. The girl in question (and his eventual OTP) is the 29-yr-old Son Ye Jin.
And finally just a couple of days ago, the news about what March's Oh My Lady is going to be about and who has been cast in it has come out. And it stars 31-yr-old Chae Rim and 23-yr-old Choi Siwon, who play a 35-yr-old woman undergoing a bitter custody fight for her son and a spoiled young actor whom she manages respectively. (Side note: YESSSSSS. I adore Chae Rim and I have always wanted to have Choi Siwon headline a drama - he was adorable in 18vs29 and Spring Waltz).
Kdramas are fairly unusual (compared to Hollywood) in that pairing an older man-younger woman (I am not talking a couple years' difference but difference big enough to put them into different age brackets) is fairly unusual outside of period drama contexts (the only ones which come to mind are My Fair Lady and Who Are You). Even in period dramas, the age difference is usually pretty negligible - Yi San, Damo, Legend, Hong Gil Dong, Return of Iljimae, Jumong, Emperor of the Sea, Seoul 1945, Chuno, East of Eden, Capital Scandal etc etc - all of these are period dramas as varied as very traditional to incredibly purposefully anachronistic and set from dawn of time to 1970s, but feature almost no age difference between the main couple. (Upcoming Dong Yi does feature the age difference between male and female leads of 10+ years but as it's about a King and his Concubine, that rather makes sense).
Kdramas love their reverse - noona love - dramas where the man is younger than the woman, and not just by a year or two - Dal Ja's Spring, Hello My Teacher, What's Up Fox, Spring Days, Kim Sam Soon, Shoot for the Stars, Loveholic, Snow White, La Dolce Vita, Romance, upcoming Daemul are just a few of the ones I can think of (if you know more, do rec!).
But even by kdrama standards, 3 noona love dramas in 3 months is pretty impressive. I wonder why and what gives with this, in 2010?
Kdramas do have one casting peculiarity they must deal with due to mandatory military service by age 30 for men - a lot of their big stars go off to the military when they hit 30 (because they put it off before) and male actors 30-32 are sort of thin on the ground. But that doesn't really explain it. There are plenty of 30+ actors out there (Chuno, which is currently kicking everyone else's butt in the ratings is chock-full of them), not to mention there are plenty of 29-and-younger actors. It's not scarcity of leading men forcing kdrama makers. So I wonder why the sudden popularity?
Not that I am complaining but that is rather odd.
This has been brought to you by Dangermousie's Random Kdrama Thought of the Day. Next random kdrama pondering of the day will be on why kdramas are the only industry where actors play OLDER than their age :) (Short answer - kdramas don't have many stories featuring characters younger than college graduates and younger actors do need to eat :P)
It has not escaped my notice that we are barely a month into 2010 and there are already 3 (!!!) dramas either airing or shortly on the horizon which feature Noona love - a younger man in love with a rather older woman. Kim Bum is currently the Noona lover in The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, playing a 22-yr old college badboy musician romancing a lady 10 years his senior - they are the drama's main pairing. Just a few weeks ago, the news came out that Lee Min Ho signed on to star in Personal Taste, playing a 23-yr-old who pretends to be gay in order to rent an apartment from a girl who only will let a guy be a roommate if he is gay. The girl in question (and his eventual OTP) is the 29-yr-old Son Ye Jin.
And finally just a couple of days ago, the news about what March's Oh My Lady is going to be about and who has been cast in it has come out. And it stars 31-yr-old Chae Rim and 23-yr-old Choi Siwon, who play a 35-yr-old woman undergoing a bitter custody fight for her son and a spoiled young actor whom she manages respectively. (Side note: YESSSSSS. I adore Chae Rim and I have always wanted to have Choi Siwon headline a drama - he was adorable in 18vs29 and Spring Waltz).
Kdramas are fairly unusual (compared to Hollywood) in that pairing an older man-younger woman (I am not talking a couple years' difference but difference big enough to put them into different age brackets) is fairly unusual outside of period drama contexts (the only ones which come to mind are My Fair Lady and Who Are You). Even in period dramas, the age difference is usually pretty negligible - Yi San, Damo, Legend, Hong Gil Dong, Return of Iljimae, Jumong, Emperor of the Sea, Seoul 1945, Chuno, East of Eden, Capital Scandal etc etc - all of these are period dramas as varied as very traditional to incredibly purposefully anachronistic and set from dawn of time to 1970s, but feature almost no age difference between the main couple. (Upcoming Dong Yi does feature the age difference between male and female leads of 10+ years but as it's about a King and his Concubine, that rather makes sense).
Kdramas love their reverse - noona love - dramas where the man is younger than the woman, and not just by a year or two - Dal Ja's Spring, Hello My Teacher, What's Up Fox, Spring Days, Kim Sam Soon, Shoot for the Stars, Loveholic, Snow White, La Dolce Vita, Romance, upcoming Daemul are just a few of the ones I can think of (if you know more, do rec!).
But even by kdrama standards, 3 noona love dramas in 3 months is pretty impressive. I wonder why and what gives with this, in 2010?
Kdramas do have one casting peculiarity they must deal with due to mandatory military service by age 30 for men - a lot of their big stars go off to the military when they hit 30 (because they put it off before) and male actors 30-32 are sort of thin on the ground. But that doesn't really explain it. There are plenty of 30+ actors out there (Chuno, which is currently kicking everyone else's butt in the ratings is chock-full of them), not to mention there are plenty of 29-and-younger actors. It's not scarcity of leading men forcing kdrama makers. So I wonder why the sudden popularity?
Not that I am complaining but that is rather odd.
This has been brought to you by Dangermousie's Random Kdrama Thought of the Day. Next random kdrama pondering of the day will be on why kdramas are the only industry where actors play OLDER than their age :) (Short answer - kdramas don't have many stories featuring characters younger than college graduates and younger actors do need to eat :P)
