A Korean Love Affair

How I became a Kdrama aficionado.

There was nothing special about the day my entire life changed. The sun viciously awoke me that morning as usual, blinding my tired eyes as I struggled to pull myself out of bed. I ate my usual breakfast, cereal and cold milk, and then chased my tiny, white dog around the house so that I could pick him up and cradle his fuzzy body in my arms. I did my usual winged-eyeliner and fumbled in my closet for an hour before finally deciding what to wear.

It wasn’t until I was sitting cross-legged on my bed with my MacBook resting in my lap, scrolling mindlessly through YouTube, that I came across something altogether different and foreign to me. I held my cursor over a video link, unsure of whether or not I wanted to indulge my curiosity, but finally I gave in and clicked.

Once I clicked that link, there was no turning back. I was beginning a journey with no visible end--one that would open my eyes to the marvels of this world and change my life forever.

That click led me to my first Korean music video. In that video, a group of Korean girls and guys danced to a catchy, upbeat song. They were all ridiculously attractive and colorfully dressed, and their dancing style was unlike anything I had ever seen before. If Katy Perry were Asian, then her performance style would probably look something like that music video. I was so entranced by the video that I replayed it multiple times, stuck in a state of utter disbelief at the marvel I was witnessing. Until that point, I had no idea that kind of music existed, and I was hooked.

O.K., so maybe my first experience with Korean entertainment wasn’t that dramatic, but I was definitely intrigued after that first music video, and it marked the start of a Korean love affair that would only intensify as time passed.

In the beginning, I primarily focused on the Korean music world. I explored many different groups and picked out my favorites. I watched all of their music videos and bought some of their songs on iTunes. I even watched their American-esque reality TV shows on YouTube. My obsession with Korean dramas didn’t start until much later, and even then it wasn’t love at first sight as it had been with Korean music.

My first experience with Korean dramas was one I didn’t recognize until much later, after I had become a Kdrama aficionado. I remember one day watching a video clip on YouTube of what I determined to be Asian actors on a TV show, and I thought it was one of the most bizarre things I had ever seen. The characters were all dressed in awkward, complex-looking outfits, and one of them was so sexually ambiguous that I had absolutely no idea if it was a girl or a boy. I wrote the video off as just a strange part of Asian culture and never thought about it again.     

I don’t remember what exactly triggered my interest in Korean dramas after that, but I discovered a website that streamed the dramas for free, and I decided to try one out on a whim. The drama I chose was named Bad Guy, and it was about a man seeking revenge on a family that had wronged him as a young boy. It was a melodrama, and I found myself in so many different states of emotional instability as I watched it that I gave up around episode 13. After that experience, I stayed away from the dramas for a while and focused more on the Korean music industry.

The drama world, however, did not stay away from me. Eventually my interest in Kdramas was rekindled and I drifted back into the drama scene, trying out dramas that were more along the lines of romantic comedy than melodrama. I found that I enjoyed romantic comedies a lot more, and that’s essentially where my love affair with Kdramas began. I got into the habit of sitting in my room and watching episode after episode of dramas, finishing some series within a few days.

Somewhere along that road I ended up watching a drama called You’re Beautiful, which is about a nun who replaces her injured brother in a band until he is released from the hospital. In the drama, she and her brother are twins, so she masquerades as a boy so that she can pretend to be him. There was one scene in the drama that struck me as oddly familiar, and I realized as I watched it that she was, in fact, that sexually ambiguous character that I had witnessed so long ago, and this was the drama that scene was from. This time around, though, I found the scene funny, entertaining, and not bizarre at all.

Now I watch dramas as often as I can, which is not nearly as much as I would like to because of school. I generally watch two dramas at a time, and although I favor romantic comedies, I’ll occasionally venture into a melodrama or historical drama. I can proudly say that I have learned numerous Korean expressions and will sometimes inadvertently think about them in response to something someone has said, and I also have a working knowledge of Korean culture and social habits.

Korean dramas have become a sort of therapy for me when I’m stressed as well as just a unique interest of mine. If you don’t mind subtitles, I think that Kdramas have something to offer for everyone, and I highly recommend them. There are all kinds of genres and literally hundreds of dramas to choose from, so you’ll never have to worry about running out of new material. Of course, I still enjoy my Kmusic and keep track of my favorite music groups, but watching Kdramas in particular has really developed into a passion of mine, and I’ll always be grateful for that one fateful click that brought the two of us together.