K-dramas are still better!

[shanshanchua]

I recently watched a Taiwanese drama (It started with a kiss) and couldn't help but compare the difference between Taiwanese and Korean dramas. Of course I haven't watched enough of both to really compare, but I still find that K-dramas are better. They are more to-the-point and not overly-dramatic and the story moves at a good pace. Even the long dramas like Dae Jang Geum have enough action and story to prevent viewers from being bored.

What about K-drama vs dramas from other countries?

[rooraa]

K dramas are my favorite kind of dramas to watch because there are so many great romantic comedies but I also really like j dramas like Kurosagi and Liar Game which are more pyschological and are a bit darker

I too haven't seen enough of dramas from other countries but I'm just more drawn to korean dramas, I love how the language sounds =]

[shichae]

give me days of our lives over a korean drama anyday

[matthew254]

give me days of our lives over a korean drama anyday

sacrilegious...

[shanshanchua]

pardon my ignorance.. what's days of our lives?

[instantstarr]

days of our lives is the american soap opera. it has been airing for so long now..and it seems like the women never age on that show...

[matthew254]

that they don't.

fear not, K-drama fever can be fed a bit more this season:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2008/12/intro ... ramafever/

[shichae]

pardon my ignorance.. what's days of our lives?

an american soap opera that has been on the air for nearly 50 years

[rooraa]

fear not, K-drama fever can be fed a bit more this season:
http://www.dramabeans.com/2008/12/intro ... ramafever/

Fantastic! I can't wait until I can join

[shanshanchua]

wow, that new dramafever site sounds too good to be true. Unfortunately, I don't live in the US But I'm just wondering how they sustain it financially since it's free to users...through ads?

[Monkey_Monk]

Thank you for the links!

[Taliana]

What I don't like about Taiwanese dramas, and possibly the main reason why I have only ever been able to finish one (Mars, love that one *O*) and have never gotten past the first episode of the others I've seen, is the fact that it they seem to be rather low budget. They just seem to kind of be bad quality in terms of picture quality and camerawork.

There's quite a few Japanese dramas that I've enjoyed, and I feel that the overall quality is way better in Japanese dramas than in Taiwanese. The Japanese seem a little prone to over-acting though, which can be hilarious and great in the right type of drama, but when it's supposed to be serious then it can just ruin the atmosphere XD I like how short the episodes are though, and how a series tends to be only about 16 episodes long. Makes them easy to get through.

I find that Korean dramas also have a pretty high quality overall. It just seems like they're made with a much bigger budget - or make better use of the budget that they have. I find the acting generally better as well. But oh my god sometimes they can be SO DRAMATIC and painfully depressing, especially when it comes to the ones focusing on the love stories. But on the other hand, some of them can be so funny and random too.

[kyuree]

What I don't like about Taiwanese dramas, and possibly the main reason why I have only ever been able to finish one (Mars, love that one *O*) and have never gotten past the first episode of the others I've seen, is the fact that it they seem to be rather low budget. They just seem to kind of be bad quality in terms of picture quality and camerawork.

There's quite a few Japanese dramas that I've enjoyed, and I feel that the overall quality is way better in Japanese dramas than in Taiwanese. The Japanese seem a little prone to over-acting though, which can be hilarious and great in the right type of drama, but when it's supposed to be serious then it can just ruin the atmosphere XD I like how short the episodes are though, and how a series tends to be only about 16 episodes long. Makes them easy to get through.

I find that Korean dramas also have a pretty high quality overall. It just seems like they're made with a much bigger budget - or make better use of the budget that they have. I find the acting generally better as well. But oh my god sometimes they can be SO DRAMATIC and painfully depressing, especially when it comes to the ones focusing on the love stories. But on the other hand, some of them can be so funny and random too.

Mars is also the only Taiwanese drama I watched ^^ though I never bothered to watch another one (yet).

Someone mentioned Liar Game, I watched that, too and some other J-Doramas. I guess most of the time I prefer K-Drama.
Tali, 16 episodes sounds more like a standard K-drama to me, standard J-Doramas are more like 9 or 10 episodes. The episodes are also shorter than K-drama episodes. And I agree, Japanese overact often but since I watch 90% comedies when watching a drama it doesn't matter ^^.
J-Dorama seem to have more variety (Like Liar Game or Sports Dramas). Sometimes it's nice to have fewer episodes but then again some of the K-Dramas are sooo good you just don't want them to end!!

Sometimes I feel guilty when I watch J-Dorama because I think that I should rather watch sth Korean to improve me Korean. I recognize some Japanese words but I'm not actively learning the language at the moment...

[Taliana]

I actually dont' know why I typed 16, when you said I said that I was like "No way! They're never that long! I wouldn't say that!" HAHAH must have been a slip of the fingers. J-dramas are usually 10 episodes, like you said.

I don't think 16 is standard for k-drama though, pretty much most of the stuff that's been coming out over the past couple of years have been about 24 episodes long. I think it's tw-drama that's around the 16 episode mark.

But yes, j-drama does seem to have a lot more variety. I wonder if k-dramas stick with certain things because there's maybe less risk involved with doing something that's familiar? It is a pity though, because Korea has some excellent actors that I think could really spread their wings and show what they're really made of if given the chance to take on a role that's vastly different from what they're used to doing.

I watched Liar Game too, it was okay. The overacting bugged me though, and I haven't been able to finish off the SP episode yet because I hate how it shows some old footage but also some new footage from a different POV/what else was going on at the time. I didn't like it enough to be able to sit through the old footage again, and yet I also don't want to miss the new footage since it gives important new information. So it's just sitting there unfinished for months now hahaha. Last Friends was also a darker one, which I really liked, it had some really heavy issues that it tackled and I thought it did a great job.

For a darker k-drama though (and it was remade into a j-drama, I hated the first ep that I saw), I really really loved 마왕. It felt darker than some of the other stuff that's been around, and I really enjoyed it.

[kyuree]

Tali,

yes many k-dramas have 24 episodes, yet all the ones that I watched were 16 episodes (or maybe 17!) - maybe I get scared by 24 episodes like I get scared by thick books ^^'.

I think 16 episodes is a standard length; K-dramas that I watched and finished (all around 16 episodes):

- Sang-Doo Let's go to School
- Attic Cat
- Dal Ja's Spring
- My Girl
- Coffee Prince (17?)
- My Sweet Seoul
- Who are you?
- Get Karl, Oh Soo Jung (or sth like that...)

That's all I remember at the moment (or maybe I didn't watch any others), they're ALL romantic comedy and they're all 16 or 17 episodes long.
Also a lot of k-dramas that I checked out on http://wiki.d-addicts.com were 16 episodes.
I agree that K-Drama actors are high quality! (On German TV all the soap opera actors suck big time...or say 90% of them)

Yes, Liar Game was over-dramatic. One would think only Anime are like that but also their Doramas are like that ^^'.
I didn't get around to watching the Liar Game SP either so then when I finally watched it (like 2 weeks ago) it wasn't sooo bad that it had the old footage (it helped me remember what had happened...). Then at the end I realized I had already watched the SP before -_-'.
I found the tricks and games on the show really interesting and Matsuda Shota is kind of hot ~_~. I saw he is one of the F4 on the Japanese version of Boys over Flowers which is Hana Yori Dango. I started watching Boys over Flowers and I will parallely watch Hana Yori Dango but the Japanese version is 9 eps (though they have several seasons) and the Korean version is 24 eps...

I guess I should watch One Litre of Tears (Ichi literu no namida) some day since it's such a famous drama (also in Korea) but I just don't think I can watch the dramatic/sad dramas...
I never really tried to watch one of those from Korea like Winter Sonata and such either...

Then there are clinic dramas (ugh...) and the new rage: dramas about drama production (i.e. fictional dramas about people from the drama industry)...
I might just stick w/ romantic comedy forever...

Didn't get around to watching The Devil (마왕) yet.