Three Random Notes

Random note the first. There were lots of new updates on my list of Kdrama links this week.

Random note the second. I just won two free months of Drama Fever, thanks to a drama review contest they sponsored for bloggers. (Presented without comment: my Spring Waltz review came in fourth out of five winners. Right behind a glowing review of Gentleman’s Dignity.) Drama Fever often awards premium membership time to contest winners; check out their blog if you’re interested in entering.

Random note the third: This week’s New Yorker includes an interesting article on the business of Kpop that also touches on Korean drama. Naturally, there’s also an article about about the omnipresent “Gangnam Style.” (Was some sort of law passed requiring that it appear in every currently airing drama?) My musical tastes run toward Mumford & Sons and Imagine Dragons, so I’m more of an interested observer than an actual listener when it comes to mainstream Kpop. But I have to say that all this coverage of “Gangnam Style” actually sort of bums me out—the furor reminds me of when William Hung became a temporary household name after butchering Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on American Idol. As we all know, finding your fifteen minutes of fame in America isn’t such a challenge—like the Kardashians, like the Jersey Shore cast, Hung was both a laughable curiosity and a walking stereotype. Musically and creatively Psy clearly has a lot to offer the world, but I’m not convinced America knows how to accept his gifts. The average Kpop song is every bit as polished and compelling as the most popular of American music, but this is a big, insular country full of people who see themselves as alone in the world. Getting us to wake up to the fact that we’re part of a global culture—and not its arbiters—is going to take more than some horsy dancing.

News Flash: Kdrama Is Occasionally in the News!

As an American fan of Korean dramas, I sometimes feel as if I have a secret window into a magical kingdom that’s every bit as divorced from the reality of my day-to-day life as Oz or Narnia: For most people I know, Korea is just as foreign and inconceivable as any fictional land you can imagine. My friends and family know that I spend an inordinate amount of time watching Korean television, but they don’t understand why I bother or that there are lots of other Americans who do the very same thing.

And yet, every once in a while I run into some hint of the Never Never Land that is Kdrama in my everyday life as an American. This happened twice recently, so I thought I’d share.

Entertainment Weekly
As a lover of all things pop culture, I’ve subscribed to this magazine for more than a decade. When I finally got to the end of last week’s issue, I discovered a little section headed “Global Hits You Can Watch at Home.” Naturally, my first response was to look for Kdrama—and there it was.

“South Korea (Netflix)
Boys over Flowers
Don’t be fooled by the cutesy title. This fish-out-of-water saga about a working-class girl in a love-hate relationship with a rich bad boy at her cliquey private school has all the catty elitism of Gossip Girl mixed with the heated back-and-forth banter of 10 Things I Hate About You.”

This feels a little bit like how Death works in the Final Destination movies—if it skips you once, it always comes back for you later. If I wasn’t already unhealthily fixated on Korean drama, this little calling card would have been the catalyst.

It also struck me as bizarre to read such positive things about BoF. Even though it’s my beloved V-card Kdrama, I’ve been busily apologizing (even to myself) for liking it since day one. I think I may have to devote some time to a first anniversary viewing, to see if it holds up now that I’m better informed about what Korean drama has to offer.

National Public Radio
Much to my surprise (and the surprise of everyone I know), I love listening to NPR’s financial coverage. And was I ever shocked a few weeks ago to hear a Marketplace World segment that discussed Dramafever, every American’s favorite source for Kdrama. It focused on startups that don’t want to become publicly traded companies, but also included a good deal of information about the inner workings of Dramafever. (My greatest fear? That the influx of new funding they’re receiving will inspire them to overreach, thereby causing the company to shut down and leaving me with no easy, cheap source for streaming drama.)

Here’s the link: All the Cool Kids Don’t Want to Go Public

Random Internet Find
From an interview with Daniel Henney in support of his new movie, Shanghai Calling:

Interviewer: You know, that’s indicative of a lot of Asian movies, where they have someone who’s speaking English or a Westerner—not just in Korea, but I grew up watching Hong Kong movies and sometimes I would just cringe at the dialogue.

Daniel Henney: Oh man, it’s terrible.  I used to get scripts and I would just [ask], “Are you serious, you want me to say this?”  This is…no.  I would stay up all night changing the lines.  But I don’t know, those characters, those experiences have helped me so much and I appreciate what I have so much more now because of that.

[Amanda: Daniel, you should have tried a bit harder with your revisions to the dialogue—although I guess some things are beyond the help of even the best editor. (Spring Waltz, I’m talking about you.)]