Is it just me or is the Song of the Day not downloadable?

I think that is the accepted generalization (Chinese and Taiwanese are in between.)

That is, unless when The Messiah of K-drama visits His people . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXHjQS8y7s

“Perhaps it has to do with how the two cultures view life?”

There’s some truth to that. If you watch Alone in Love carefully, there’s marvelous tension between the dialogue and monologues, the latter which seems lifted from the actual Japanese novel. Alone in Love has a happy ending . . . but the ending is actually kind of a tragedy. But it depends on what cultural filter you apply to the story.

I think it’s just more that Korean trendies tend to follow a telenovela/soap opera structure, and so many Japanese idol dramas are based on manga (or adopt a pulp-like approach to drama), and so are very linear about the story. (And even the really, really good stuff like Ashita no Kita Yoshio is a very A-B-C contemplation on its subject.) If I’m watching J-drama, I’m looking for story, whether the narrative blends in different genres, and themes. When I’m watching K-drama, it’s more about acting, chemistry, and likability/complexity with characters. The difference is that in Japanese shows, sadness comes from putting yourself in that place and thinking “that’s awful.” Whereas in K-dramas, sadness comes from emphasizing with the emotional responses of the leads and thinking “poor So Ji Sup!! somebody hug that boy!” Likewise, J-drama comedy is VERY slapsticky, even when there’s verbal tit-for-tat, it’s done so broadly with the timing and reaction shots, emphasizing the comedy in situation. When it’s good, it approaches the absurd of Monty Python. Whereas in K-drama comedy, everything is screwball — clash of personalities, verbal duelsmanship, mistaken assumptions — situations are just an excuse to watch the leads go crazy.

“And why Korean teens like j-dramas because they feel their life is currently controlled by some outside force.”

I just think it’s because many popular J-dramas take place in high school and involve coming-of-age stuff that speaks to every adolescent out there. But at the same time, the fact that “Gestu 9″ shows primarily focus on late teens/young 20-somethings as leads also is telling too. (Eun Hye at 23 would be considered a veteran in J-drama now.) A friend of mine tells me that the truth is Japan doesn’t really watch their own dramas that much anymore. They’ll watch morning dramas; they’ll watch the variety shows; they’ll watch taiga; but now only the teenagers steadily watch J-dramas anymore.

That’s an amazing insight!

Perhaps it has to do with how the two cultures view life?

The Japanese see life has a river, where they need to go with the flow, whereas the Koreans see life as a road where they get a bit more leeway to walk their own pace. (And I guess Americans see life as an open field where they can go wherever they want! )

This would explain why perhaps the 40+ year old Japanese ladies can really sympathize withe k-dramas more. And why Korean teens like j-dramas because they feel their life is currently controlled by some outside force.

Yeah, I can see how mixing the 2 styles can be quite difficult!

Yeah, some of that is cultural and, of course, very relative. Americans are “obnoxiously” affectionate compared to Asians.

J-drama romances tend to be quieter and more situational. People fall in love due to specific circumstances within the story. Many great J-drama romances weave in a coming-of-age narrative whereby that love elicits a great life lessons that changes the protogonists. Many great J-drama tearjerkers riff off the existential anxiety that without those life lessons, there would be no meaning to them or their lives. What good is it all for? And that is a powerful foundation for the coming-of-age structure of the J-drama romance.

Korean tearjerkers still carry a heavy dose of screwball (poor girl/rich guy, lots of pride and prejudice) dynamics. People fall in love because they either get along or really piss each other off. The story is there as a roadblock — the screwball narrative usually involves some family or social construct which the two parties, having realized their differences, must overcome in order to “win.” Here, love becomes a triumph of will. Great K-drama tearjerkers thwart that outcome, but in doing so, memorialize the love through that will. Martyrdom guarantees eternal love. As a result, there are more truly beautiful losers in K-drama than in J-drama and TW-drama put together.

Nowadays, what you see happening is that Japanese housewives really like Korean melodramas, and Korean netizens really like Japanese idol dramas . . . but both sides are still watching from domestic sensibilities. Winter Sonata is viewed as a profound story (due to all the crying, quiet seriousness of the people, and professions of love) of unselfish junai and familial obligations/sacrifice to many Japanese housewives. Meaning, they take the well-worn childhood love plot thematically (as they would in normal j-drama) rather than as a standard soap opera device to bring the characters apart and together. Netizens like shows like Hana Kimi and Nobuta wo Produce, because they see teenage and early-20 leads in unpredictable/original storylines and associate the circumstances with their acting and chemistry. In other words, in K-drama, you’ve seen a guy long from a long distance for his love a 1000 times. But, what if the guy was really a girl?!? In J-drama, the acting may be virtually identical (and they tend to be, regardless of the plot) but you, as K-drama viewer, may view the acting as new or novel because you haven’t seen that specific situation before. This is especially true when people watch “mania dramas.”

The core problem is that there’s very little middle ground with either audience. Whenever you’ve seen a show that actually try to fuse the two, be it Alone in Love or Tokyo Wankei or Rondo, it ends up sucked into a black hole. How am I to explain to Korean viewers that SuJu’s #1 Japanese audience aren’t teenagers, but 40+ year old women?

btw, majimak scandal is SUCH a great drama! hehe just had to say that

I guess it’s b/c sometimes positive * positive = negative?