I’ve never smoked. I hate the taste of alcohol. I’ve never done drugs. I did well in school and became successful at an early age. I save way more than I spend, growing my family’s investments every year. I’m far more productive than the typical person in my country. Specifically, the average American spends a staggering 34 hours per week watching television, whereas almost everyone in my household redeploys those hours to reading, cooking, video games, music, or practicing whatever skill we’re trying to pick up at the moment. We don’t even have cable at home because it’s a waste of time; we’d rather watch a few series a year, in one sitting, either on Netflix or Hulu.
Will the tough daughter of a dry cleaner be able to navigate the corridors of power without having her heart broken?
Yet, there is one thing against which I simply cannot control myself. It’s been six months since I relapsed, because once I get going, there’s no end in sight. But two nights ago, I decided to go down to the gym, walk for a couple of hours, and strategize. After awhile, on the elliptical machine, I had my iPad and just … I couldn’t help it. It was curiosity. I didn’t think anything would come of it but I made a horrible mistake and fell off the bandwagon.
I clicked on the Korean Drama channel on Hulu Plus.
I’ve been home ever since. I’m 15 hours into some show called 꽃보다 남자; and I can’t get any work done! What’s going to happen to scrappy upstart Geum Jan-di, the daughter of a dry cleaner, as she tries to make her way in a world that still pays an almost religious-like deference to family connections? Will Chu Ga-eul ever have her feelings reciprocated? Will Goo Jun-pyo learn that you can have love and run a business, instead of being the stubborn idiot? I don’t know, but I will find out soon.
It’s like a window into an entirely different value system. I don’t get the appeal of soap operas, American in particular. Yet, these one-off “shows”, that are really more like extended movies with entirely self-contained worlds lasting between 20 and 25 hours, have me hooked. They’re like visual novels with their own rules. They use of motifs like Wagner’s opera to signal that the situation has changed (there’s the “love” music, the “sneaky” music, the “action / this is awesome” music, the “power” music). There’s almost always an evil would-be-mother-in-law who wants to thwart love for the sake of a better marriage. There’s the mis-understood-jerk-who-really-has-a-heart-of-gold. There’s the quirky-odd-somewhat-genderless-boss/employee/friend who lives on another planet. There’s random martial arts thrown in when out of nowhere – BAM! – roundhouse kick to the face Chuck Norris-style.
And the thing that makes it worse? In at least 1 out of 3 episodes, I see some coat, pair of shoes, watch, hat, or flatware pattern that I love so I have to track it down and get it ordered. Do you know hard that is, going off a visual description in a show filmed 6,541 miles from my home in a language I don’t understand? There’s still some white equestrian coat with a tiny bit of black piping that I’d pay thousands of dollars for if I could find.
[mainbodyad]It’s funny to see the similarities, though; the truly universal nature of brands and brand equity. At one point, Geu Jan-di was making valentines chocolates and put them in a bag with a bow over the name. Yet, anyone who had ever bought a product there would have recognized it as one from the Brioni boutique. They, along with Charvet, make my absolute favorite ties in the world. They are miles ahead of everyone else; insanely good. They are so heavy, and hold their form so well, that once you’ve had one, you almost always find yourself choosing them over anything else in your closet.
Anyway, I should stop writing now because I need to get back to my episode then go make up for my dereliction of duty with overtime tonight. It’s 1:29 p.m. here in the Midwest, and I’m curled up in my bed, having returned to it after getting up, getting dressed, and deciding that I might as well just get this out of my system instead of fighting it.
Fun fact from the world of socioeconomics and geopolitics: The Korean Wave is now so popular and powerful, that some nations think it is a new form of colonialism and are concerned that the cultural influence it is having over their citizens is a bad thing. The governments of Japan, China, and Taiwan are generally not pleased about it.
I had managed to avoid this time drain until Coffee Prince back in 2010. Negotiating interest rates with your grandchildren as a major plot point? That’s my kind of show. Then it was Secret Garden. Again, major plot blowups as disinherited children are forced to return all of the cash dividends they had received on their common stock? Yep. That interests me.
But for now, I need to see if evil mother is going to win, using her massive business empire to crush the little dry cleaner family.
With her billions of dollars and global diversified holding company, will evil mother win? Will she crush the dry cleaner’s daughter and keep her son from love? Many of her tactics wouldn’t work in the United States. An illustration: You can’t bribe landlords to change the lease terms, as most commercial leases here run multiple years with extension options that would make such a course of action impossible. It simply could not be done. If it were, the financial damages would be significant, defeating the entire point of doing it. So I am grateful for many of the protections put in place over the past 100 years in my home country. Though it makes for even better Korean drama when the gloves come off as family lives are on the line.
Reader Comments (18)
Comments are presented chronologically, with replies indented beneath the comments to which they respond.
Andrew
October 25, 2013
Regarding your introduction paragraph - that's funny, you totally seem like the perfect wine-snob. With your situation, you could have such an incredible collection too.
Joshua Kennon
October 25, 2013
Replying to Andrew
The flavor is so overwhelming, I feel like I can taste everything in it. It's like getting slapped in the face. I think my taste buds are hyper sensitive to some things. The other day, I was served a type of cheese on a cracker. Everyone else was commenting on the cheese but I was so distracted because all I could taste was a certain blend of Starbucks coffee. Taste isn't quite right; it was like a subtle fragrance when I was chewing. I asked if it had been stored next to that particular blend and was told it had, for a few days, but that was a week ago. They acted like I was psychic for knowing that, but it was so strong, I don't know how anyone else couldn't tell. Raspberries are the same way. I can hardly have them because they seem to hit my system much stronger than other people.
On the upshot, it's fantastic for cooking reductions. When the alcohol itself is burned off, and just the flavor remains, I can appreciate it. So I think it's probably the alcohol content itself. The only drink I ever had that I didn't feel this way was during a college graduation ceremony when a friend of mine had me try something called a White Russian. That was perfection.
Andrew
October 25, 2013
Replying to Joshua Kennon
You're just further convincing me! That level of taste sensitivity is rare. You could also be the one writing the tasting notes for the finest wines in the world. I can see it now - hanging out in fancy French chateau's writing notes for a high-brow magazines from some aristocrats multimillion-dollar collection.
MarcKS
October 25, 2013
Replying to Joshua Kennon
White Russian's are pretty darn divine...
m r
October 25, 2013
i'm picturing you dancing around in a white coat to gangamstyle. heeeeyyyy sexy lady
Ian Francis
October 25, 2013
Replying to m r
I would pay to see that...
-Ian Francis
Steven
October 25, 2013
"There’s still some white equestrian coat with a tiny bit of black piping that I’d pay thousands of dollars for if I could find."
Joshua, you are not taking advantage of the platform your blog offers. Post an article about this including a screen shot/description/etc... of this and offer a $500 bounty for it. I'm sure even if your readers couldn't find it, news of the possibility for a reward would make it over to South Korea! You might even pick up some new readers.
Fiona Skallerud
October 26, 2013
Replying to Steven
I have some Korean friends, with some more info I'd be happy to ask them to do some searching around.
Joshua Kennon
October 29, 2013
Replying to Fiona Skallerud
I appreciate that very much; I'll keep it in mind for the future. Many thanks!
Joshua Kennon
October 26, 2013
Replying to Steven
This is a brilliant point. I will try and diligently take screenshots from here on out just in case I ever need to use this bit of advice. I can see it now - digital scavenger hunts with real cash prizes! It's awesome!
Kevin
October 26, 2013
Joshua, do you mean the coat on this page? http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=dmsdud7993&logNo=20062581317
If so, the designer was Lee Young Jun (이영준). It was available here http://www.206homme.com/product/detail.html?product_no=1024&cate_no=155&display_group=1 but has sold out. I'll see if I can find out more (I lived in Korea for 7 years, so I'm fairly fluent in the language), but the England vs Australia rugby game is starting now, so I'll have to do it later!
And, although this may be like dangling a bottle of whiskey in front of an alcoholic, I'll have to recommend 보고싶다 (I Miss You) and 부활 (Resurrection), they're both really good. I couldn't resist watching the last four or five episodes in one day 🙂
Joshua Kennon
October 26, 2013
Replying to Kevin
That's not the particular jacket, though I did love that one and appreciate you looking very much! Thank you for the effort.
I finished 25 hours of the one I mentioned in this post (꽃보다 남자;) in a 3-day period, and generally liked it though I think Yoon Ji-hoo got the short end of the stick one too many times to the point of almost being cruel. And I never felt an emotional connection to Geum Jan-di. (There were not many moments when I cared about her or her happiness as contrasted to, say, Gil Ra-im from 시크릿 가든;, a character I found more sympathetic. I wanted her to win.) In fact, I was much more heartbroken for Ha Jae-kyung (I mean, that's the girl you grab and marry - what kind of man would let her go?) and wanted to see Chu Ga-eul happy.
I'm at a desk at the moment going over a bunch of stuff that should have been approved earlier this week but I will find a way to persevere and check out both of those series you recommended despite the lack of time. It's a hardship everyone in my family will just have to endure - me up, in the darkness, at 4 or 5 a.m., glued to the television - haha!
Kevin
October 27, 2013
Replying to Joshua Kennon
In your original post, you mentioned the average American watching 34 hours of TV a week. It never really clicked in my mind quite how much that was, until I realised that would be like watching the entire series of 꽃보다남자, plus over an hour a day of other TV programs. I mean, I'd struggle to justify to myself watching that much, even as a language practice thing, which is what I usually tell myself about Korean dramas. But as a normal thing, week in week out? That's... insane. Especially since, being an average figure, that means many people actually watch more than that. Do they do nothing but work and watch TV?
Hope you enjoy the ones I mentioned. I found myself really wanting to see the main characters happy. There's definitely a character in 부활, Lee Gang-ju, I did feel sorry for though. It becomes quite clear that whatever happens to the main two characters, she's going to be left holding the shitty end of the stick, as it were. What would be good for them would be bad for her. What would be bad for them would also bad for her. So you're rooting for the main characters, because everything getting resolved in their favour is just... the right thing. You don't actually want anything bad to happen to her, but not much can be done about it. Still, she manages to get though it all! I always worry excessively about the characters in Korean dramas - some endings can be so unnecessarily (and unexpectedly) cruel, whereas some characters come through the most ridiculously complex situations and arrive at a fairy tale ending.
I'll have to put 꽃보다남자 on my list, as I haven't seen it yet. Probably not this week though, as I've just finished watching the first series of Forbrydelsen (The Killing), a Danish police drama, and I need a break from TV for a while!
kimchee on ice cream
October 26, 2013
I know what you mean about Korean soap operas. In the SF Bay Area, we are lucky because we have so many foreign language TV channels, esp. Asian. All over the air, all free. 2 or more Korean, 3 Chinese, some that change languages on different hours and days, etc.
And in recent years, the Korean serial dramas are the best. Occasionally the Chinese ones are good, but rarely great; mostly mediocre, often hewing the the Chinese government view of the world and themselves. Sometimes the Japanese ones are very good, but they are very rare.
grendl
October 28, 2013
If you haven't yet seen Pasta (via Netflix: http://goo.gl/mtC1xv), then I apologize in advance for the 20+ hours of your life you are about to lose. Worth watching for the costumes alone. Even more fun for a foodie as the setting is a high-end Italian restaurant. Bon appetit 🙂
Joshua Kennon
January 19, 2014
Replying to grendl
Thank you for this suggestion. I'm 17 hours into it, you're right on the costumes (I want the orange leather gloves one of the character wears in a certain scene and I love the way the restaurant owner dresses; I'd buy his entire wardrobe if it was a button off to the side of the television screen), and I've now been testing some of the recipe debates from the show.
Any other suggestions, send them my way! I'm already trying to figure out what I should watch next now that I see the end of the series approaching in the distance.
grendl
January 22, 2014
Replying to Joshua Kennon
Glad you enjoyed it. Though we haven't tried to recreate any of the recipes, we're considering a trip someday to "La Sfera" (Buonasera, in Seoul, http://www.buonasera.co.kr/about/about.asp). "If it was a button off to the side..." -> great idea. I'm sure I'd have purchased at least the scarves and a few sweaters. Hmmm, surely someone's doing that -- sort of monetizing and capitalizing on ad hoc product placements...
Brandi
March 20, 2014
I love it! ThKorean people".at is SO my family. 1 strongly believe and passed it to my Children →T.V. Rots your brain. I have never watched a Soap Opera. I have Dr. that is Korean + hates her heritage-but it is such an intriguing Culture. She was dumbfounded that I watch the"Korean Soap Operas. I get the Impression her picture of me has lowered. My description is the same-20 hour movies that take you on a ride through every possible emotion and are so riveting you have to watch. Out of Curiosity I Watched my first Korean drama and was hopelessly hooked. Boys over flowers Was my second drama. I Was staying up 1/2 the night Watching these Shows. I had to cut my-self off to get back to "life" - I'm currently nursing a relapse and am trying very hard to use restraint. You had me rolling with the hunting down items worn! That will now be something I won't be able to not notice.A new obsession... thanks! My daughter (9) has a friend, Whose dad is Korean. My daughter told her , "Oh, my Mom likes Korean people" that was embarrassing and funny!