2007 was a rich year for drama-land. There was something for everyone, whether your tastes ran toward dark thrillers (Devil), intense dramas (White Tower), heart-warmers (Thank You), off-the-wall eccentrics (Mixed-up Investigative Agency), trendy fare (Coffee Prince), romantic comedies (Dal Ja’s Spring), and so on.

2008, on the other hand… not so much.

Every drama has its good and bad points, but it’s a lot easier to decide how you feel about one when those qualities are expressed in the extreme — i.e., very good, or very bad. When everything is a muddle in the middle, though, it’s harder to draw the lines.

That’s why in contrast to last year’s “Best” and “The Rest” designations, this year I don’t really distinguish “good” versus “bad” — or even “favorites” and “hated dramas” — and can only grade on a spectrum. I call that spectrum “MEH” with the extreme poles representing “generally watchable” and “generally unwatchable.” It’s just been that kind of year.

SONG OF THE DAY

Painter of the Wind OST – “색” (Color) by JOO [ Download ]

O, the mediocrity >>

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All right, we’ve seen MBC’s Acting Awards (met with much criticism) and SBS’s awards, so now we close out the broadcast station awards with the 2008 KBS Acting Awards.

No real surprise (or controversy) for KBS’s Daesang, awarded to veteran actress Kim Hye-ja for her role in the popular series Mom’s Dead Upset. Personally, I don’t know that Kim was outstanding in that drama specifically, but there’s no doubt she’s built up an impressive, long-running career and therefore this was probably more of an opportunity to give her a lifetime-achievement-ish Daesang.

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Following MBC’s Acting Awards on the 30th, the 31st saw awards ceremonies for the other two stations. First up: 2008 SBS Drama Awards. (KBS coming up next!)

The big news is that the SBS Daesang was awarded to the very young but very talented Moon Geun-young for her gender-bending role in the gorgeously shot historical drama Painter in the Wind. It had been widely speculated that her co-star, shunned star Park Shin-yang, might not appear after being shut out of the nominations and criticized for his exorbitant asking fees, and he in fact did not show. (I think Park’s management did not handle the War of Money pay situation well, but making a point to blackball him from SBS seems like scapegoating to me.)

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Kamio Yoko, the manga-ka (manga writer-artist) who started it all in 1992 with the incredibly popular manga series Hana Yori Dango, has recently come to Korea to meet with the cast and production crew behind the latest adaptation, KBS kdrama series Boys Before Flowers.

She was actually an unannounced attendee at the recent production press conference on the 22nd, but the news is just being released now; they’d kept it quiet (perhaps to keep expectations from shooting even higher than they already are? If so, somebody needs to revisit the meaning of the word “quiet”).

Kamio drew a sketch of the current cast (Gu Hye-sun, Lee Min-ho, Kim Hyun-joong, Kim Bum, and Kim Joon) on the spot and even told SS501 singer Kim Hyun-joong (in the Rui role) that she’d seen him when he was promoting his singing career in Japan. She also marveled at how closely the Korean cast resembled the characters she’d created.

She said, “It’s an honor to have Hana Yori Dango produced as a Korean drama too.. I hope Korean viewers will enjoy it.”

Boys Before Flowers premieres next Monday. I’m trying very hard to keep expectations low(er), because I hate being disappointed.

Via Yonhap News

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The K-drama world rolled into 2008 still riding the high that was 2007, a year in which a startling number of quality dramas were made, and enjoyed. Maybe it rolled in too fast. It ended up getting smothered by the waves of its previous success. In fact, you could say that it even got hit on the head by a stray surfboard, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Depressing enough intro for ya?

But seriously, 2008 was a dark year for the K-entertainment industry, with not only dramas, but also movies suffering and generally showing poor quality. And not only that, but the economy went kablooie, and we suffered a sobering amount of tragic K-celebrity news.

Personally, this was a supremely frustrating year for a longtime and devoted K-drama fan like me. Before this year, I always gave dramas the benefit of the doubt, and would usually watch at least a certain number of episodes before I passed judgment on them, and decided to continue or discontinue watching. But this year, with every stomach-churning dud, I became more and more impatient, and started going through drama episodes like a vulture searching for roadkill. And boy, did I find a lot of roadkill.

I’m pretty sure 2008 was a record year for me in terms of abandoning dramas. And to think that I used to be the girl who would finish every drama she started, no matter how bad or how boring they were! But the older I get, the less patience I have, and the more critical I become. Besides, I’ve now realized just how precious my time really is. I don’t want to waste it on useless pap, thankyouverymuch.

Still, despite all that, there were a small handful of quality dramas this year. None of them quite matched the heights of some of the dramas of 2007, but still, any kind of quality was more than welcome in this gloomy year.

SONG OF THE DAY

La Dolce Vita – “사랑 꽃” (Love Flower) [ Download ]

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