Ask An Ahjumma ~ Spring Episode
It’s that time of the month again! Please note: We’re answering your questions, but we're by no means experts. Like you, we're fans of dramas. We truly appreciate your queries & hope that we are able to answer your questions to your satisfaction.
We'd love to get a big variety of questions from you! Feel free to send questions about tropes and foibles, how dramas (and movies) relate to our lives, frustrating - and not so frustrating - aspects of being a drama fan, weird character quirks, and whatever else you can think of... Askanajumma is waiting for your questions!
Dear Ajumma,
Im desperately searching for this kind of drama where you see the main Girl healing through the Love of the main Guy….I really loved (2012) I Miss You ….also series like Flowerboy Next Door or Healer …everything where the girl suffers because of abuse or bullying and then find her happy end through the Man who Loves and understands her…
Thanks in advance …:) Samsara
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Dearest Samsara,
I love that aspect of dramas as well! I absolutely love the healing processes and the bond that’s formed between the leads from that process! Honestly though, almost all dramas have that element in them. It’s all part of the formula where one of the main leads has issues that need healing or whatever. Sometimes both leads have issues that they help each other get over, be it bullying, past relationship issues, or other trauma. It’s just a matter of how much the healing is needed. That being said, you listed a few good shows! I tried to see what other shows you may have watched, so as to not give you names of shows that you've already seen, but you don't have a list. Here are some of my personal favorites: The Moon That Embraces the Sun; Heart to Heart; I Hear Your Voice; Kill Me, Heal Me; I Need Romance 3; It’s Okay, That’s Love; Marriage, Not Dating; Oh! My Lady; Panda and Hedgehog; Sungkyunkwan Scandal; The Greatest Love; The Master’s Sun; Tomorrow's Cantabile; Trot Lovers; A Witch’s Romance. I hope that you find a few in this grouping that you like! Good luck and happy watching!! ^_^
Obsessive A
Good day Ajumma! =)
May I know your list of slick korean series you’ve watched or are planning to watch?
Sometime it’s hard to shift to a series with a different quality after watching a really good one. I tried to sort dramas per producers/directors/station (if by mbc, sbs etc) but couldn’t still actually compare dramas to each other.
Like, Dong Yi, The Moon that Embraces the Sun are slick but Empress Ki has the best plot.
Marriage, Not Dating is overkill; youthful romance, it’s light, upbeat, comical, with the right amount of drama, complementary cinematography and perfect chemistry among the leads/cast. Super slick.
I’ve watched a lot but this is my go-to list when I can’t find anything new, interesting: Wild Romance, The Master’s Sun, You Who Came from the Stars, Healer, Lie to Me, Personal Taste, Three Dads One Mom, Faith, Fated to Love You, Rooftop Prince, 49 Days, Bride of the Century, Secret Garden, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Witch’s Romance. I’ve re-watched Boys Over Flowers many times so It’s out of my list already and The Heirs is like a BOF rip off, I was very disappointed.
There are almost slick dramas like Cunning Single Lady, Blood, Shine or Go Crazy, Emergency Couple, The Heirs, Hotel King, Maids, but lacked in something, like plot depth, ending, chemistry. Hotel King has too much torture although the chemistry was superb! <3
I’m currently engaged with Angry Mom (ongoing). Aaand it’s crazy how Kim Hee Sun looks so cute with Ji Soo T_T I feel like I’d love a Witch’s Romance twist in it but impossible, because Hee Sun has a husband in this series. lol so now I’m trying to find sparks from other rom-com dramas :)
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Hi TomoeRose,
Thanks for your question. I can see that you have already watched a great variety of Korean romantic dramas so I tried to understand better exactly what you meant by the word ‘slick’.I understood that for you it is a perfect combination of romance chemistry/plot/directing.
I have to say that luckily there are a great deal of Korean romantic type dramas with such superb quality and your go-to list is a perfect example of most of the best ones out there. In fact my go-to list is very similar to yours (I noticed that you didn’t include Coffee Prince, another of my all time favourites rewatched 4 times already).
I also agree with you about the dramas you mention which didn’t quite make it to be in your perfect or ‘slick’ list. It’s a shame that when the potential is there as either the cast is good or the plot is good. Something is missing which doesn’t quite make it all click together in absolute harmony, and we end up being disappointed.
As far as other ‘slick’ romantic dramas to recommend of course it all goes down to personal taste as I would definitely add to the list: It’s OK That’s Love, Kill Me Heal Me, Miss Korea, The King of Dramas and the melodramas Scent of a Woman and Innocent Man.
You don’t mention Japanese dramas and here are a few that I personally considered as ‘slick’ so I will list them here just in case: Long Vacation, Nodame Cantabile, Hotaru no Hikari and the very recent one Date-Koi to wa Donna Mono Kashira.
Out of the on-going Korean dramas I am personally enjoying Falling for Innocence but it’s too soon to say whether it will belong to my ‘slick’ list or not. Happy drama watching!
- Chatty A
Instead of just turning off the phone they have to remove the battery, why?
~ chante
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Darling chante -
You asked an truly stellar question, “Instead of just turning off the phone they have to remove the battery, why?
Drama world is all about drama dear and since we are living in an age of instantaneous everything the act of taking a phone apart, taking out a battery, all to say you did not get a call is simply... old school denial.
Countless dramas have their actors do this silly “I want to ignore you to the point of doing minor surgery act.” Ok, here’s some reasons.
1. Actors want extra manicures to deal with chipped polish and or nails
2. Prove they are not using an Apple phone
3. Actors could not find the off switch or use the decline button
4. Actors get to feel like surgeons
You get the point, there is NO reason to take a battery out to ignore calls since each phone’s been an OFF BUTTON.
Our drama world is full of these odd & wonderful acts of denial.
- Bookish A
