Long Form East Asian Drama

For thousands of years performance art has revolved around a two hour performance criteria, plus or minus some time. Movies have not really changed that; however, long form tv drama is doing new things.

The long form tv dramas of east Asia have no real equivalent in the west.

A coherent story, with beginning middle and end like western movies; however lasting from 15 hours to over 30 hours. In episodes of course, all done within one year. A modern, creative use of tv technology and it is interesting how the various technical aesthetic problems of this extended format are dealt with. I mainly watch romantic comedy/slice of life/historical drama, maybe better labeled comedy of manners, taking Henry James and Jane Austen novels (Novel in the sense defined in Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism) as my literary benchmark. I will be interested how this particular form of performance art develops, it’s still very new.

     In Korea, protagonists tend to be in early 30s, in China early 20s. I’ve come to prefer the 16 session, 1 hour format favored in Korea: more aesthetic coherence there. Also, South Korea being smaller, the dramas can be more culturally comprehensive and not as urban focused as the Chinese dramas (However, see the Chinese series ‘Meet Yourself’ and Chinese historical dramas). On the other hand, the Chinese dramas have broader cultural interest even with the explicit governmental oversight. In both cases, I’m very interested in the virtue ethics influence going back to ancient Confucian culture (see, for example “Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy by Byran W. Van Norden).

Korea 

See the wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_drama for the following three quotes

“A single director usually leads Korean dramas, which are often written by a single screenwriter. This often leads to each drama having distinct directing and dialogue styles.”

“The main themes of Korean television dramas are friendship, family values, and love, blending traditional Confucian with Western materialism and individualism.”

“In contrast to practices elsewhere, the first four episodes of Korean series are usually shot in advance, but the rest are shot continuously as the series is being aired. Scripts are not finished in advance, and may change according to viewer feedback and viewership ratings, where popular characters receive increased screen time and plotlines are changed to match audience expectations.[9] These changes may occur a few hours before daily shooting, and the crew might receive only a few ready pages. The production usually works with three camera crews, who work in a rotating manner to speed up filming. Because of unregulated script changes and tight shooting schedules, actors are almost continuously on standby, and have no time to leave the set or sleep properly. The Korean media have a separate word to describe irregular, short sleeps that actors resort to, in often uncomfortable positions, or within the set: jjok-jam (쪽잠), or “side-sleeping”. Dramas usually air on two days every week, with following episodes having to be shot within the intervening five days. Some Korean actors have admitted to receiving IV therapy during filming, due to extreme schedules and exhaustion. Nonetheless, the live-shoot model remains widely used since the production team can react to real time audience feedback.”

I started watching Kdrama on Netflix; however, now I mainly use the Viki streaming service. Viki.com is also interesting due to their creative crowdsourcing of subtitling. From Wikipedia: Rakuten Viki is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It streams videos similar to other services, but also allows users to subtitle content available in 200 languages as well as providing original programming. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, it has offices in SingaporeTokyo, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea. The Viki subtitling also subtitles song lyrics!


My Sweet Mobster 2024 (Viki)
That Winter, The Wind Blows 2013 (Viki)
Descendants of the Sun 2016 (Viki)
Now, We Are Breaking Up 2021 (Viki)
Encounter 2018 (Viki)
What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim 2018 (Viki)
Midnight Romance in Hagwon 2024 (Viki)
Do You Like Brahms 2020 (Viki)
Something in the Rain 2018 (Viki)
Backstreet Rookie 2020 (Viki)
Oh, My Baby 2020 (Viki)
One Spring Rain 2019 (Netflix)
Business Proposal 2022 (Netflix)
Crash Landing on You 2020 (Netflix)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo 2022 (Netflix)
Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha 2021 (Netflix)
Welcome to Samdal-Ri 2023 (Netflix)

China

And here are some Chinese tv dramas. In the past, I think Korea has had a better understanding of the artform in general. However, interesting stuff coming from China nowadays and lately I’m mainly watching Chinese historical romances.


Are You the One 2024 (Viki) this is my favorite
Melody of Golden Age 2024 (Viki)
Cupid’s Kitchen 2022 (Viki)
Here We Meet Again 2023 (Viki)
Will Love in Spring 2024 (Viki)
The Princess Royal 2024 (Viki)
Fireworks of My Love 2023 (Viki)
As Beautiful as You 2024 (Viki)
Meet Yourself 2023 (Viki)
Amidst a Snowstorm of Love 2024 (Viki)
Falling Into Your Smile 2021 (Viki)
When I Fly Toward You 2023 (Viki)

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In contrast, in the USA, collegiate hookup ‘culture’ (see, e.g., Tom Wolfe’s novel I Am Charlotte Simmons) is drifting down to the high school level. For example, see the recent Netflix series My Life with the Walter Boys. 

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