[DR] Drama Cliches

Korean dramas tend to have a lot of cliche story-lines or at least similar events. I’m going to share some of the most typical things in all Korean dramas.

To start off the list, let’s just state the obvious, there’s almost always a second guy who never gets the girls no matter how sweet he is. That saying about how good girls like bad guys applies to Korean dramas as well. Some of the most memorable characters that pertain to this quality would have to be BBF’s Ji Hoo, You’re Beautiful’s Shinwoo [& Jeremy!], My Girl’s Jung Woo, and Goong’s Yul goon. It’s not fair but we can’t do anything about it.

Rich guy poor girl spells out your typical Korean drama. And in a way, I don’t think I could watch it if it was the other way around. The rich guy turns out to be an arrogant jerk and the two main characters don’t get along well but in the end they can’t stay away from each other.

Rich guys lead me to another thing. Their evil mothers. Sometimes, there are evil step-mothers as well. So if it’s not the guys mother paying the girl to stay away from her son, it’s the girl’s evil step-mother making her life miserable. Does this sound like Secret Garden and the forever a classic, Stairway to Heaven. Warning: Evil siblings are also included in this package.

And you thought I would leave her out. -_-

Soju and Karaoke! All dramas have one or the other if not both. Thanks to dramas I think I know what I’ll do if I ever go into depression while in Korea. From Prosecutor Princess, I learned a cool way to drink soju is to mix it with beer. If you do it right, it will create a tornado in your glass [I think it's called sameok]. And noraebang [song room...aka karaoke] is another unavoidable place.

Phobias, illnesses and accidents [that may lead to memory loss...or death]. Protect the Boss’s main character, Ji Heon, had agoraphobia [and ochlophobia]. And those darn sad dramas where the main character girl dies [SPOILER: Stairway to Heaven, Autumn In My Heart, 49 Days, etc.]. And we can’t forget the good old amnesia that always comes into the picture [again Stairway to Heaven, Winter Sonata, Boys Before Flowers, Couple or Trouble, Secret Garden].

And Kdrama foods! Kimchi, Deokbuggi, kimbab, and ramyun. If you’ve seen Boys Before Flowers, then I’m pretty sure you can say all these cliches come from there. On the bright side, we get to learn a lot about Korea’s food just from watching dramas.

Other miscellaneous stuff includes the game go stop. I remember this well from Romance town and Prosecutor Princess [also We Got Married but that doesn't count]. It seems kind of hard though because from what I know, the pictures represent numbers and there’s certain combos you need to get.

And every drama has an important item right, like the baseball in Spy Myung Wol, the Gioberni shoes in Prosecutor Princess, the star/moon necklace in BBF, the tear drop necklace in 49 Days, and the pig rabbit in You’re Beautiful. And who can forget Kim Joo Won’s sequined tracksuit [along with all the memorable kiss scenes: cappuccino kiss, sit-up kiss, etc.]?