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Dramabeans 5-Year Anniversary Giveaway #1

javabeans: Happy New Year! Another year has zoomed by — time flies when you’re watching dramas, don’tcha know — and 2012 marks an extra-special moment for us at Dramabeans, because the site turns 5 this month.

girlfriday: Happy birthday Dramabeans! You’re finally old enough to go to kindergarten!

javabeans: Or advanced into middle age, if we’re talking cat years. And as we know, the internet = cats.

girlfriday: Well that explains where all the time from the fourth dimension went to, ‘cause I certainly don’t FEEL five.

javabeans: I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for half a decade. K-dramas have sucked away my youth! How is this site still going? To think, when I started in January 2007, my primary mode of thought was, “I wonder how many people would stumble onto this place randomly.” Because then that would be a measure of how many people were interested in dramas in the English-speaking world. As it turns out, a whole damn lot.

girlfriday: I find that most of life’s truths can be found in quotes from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

javabeans: Also “This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.” And “I have just created something totally illogical.”

girlfriday: See? Maybe internet also = baseball.

javabeans: In any case, we decided The Big 5 called for some celebratin’, and how better to celebrate than to give tons of stuff away? It’s a month-long Anniversary Giveaway Extravaganza!

girlfriday: We’ll be raining down presents during the entire month of January, because if you’re part of the Dramabeans community, it’s your birthday too, and birthdays call for presents!

javabeans: You might want to mark Sundays on your calendar, because every Sunday (or Monday, if you’re ahead of us in the States) we’ll be giving away something super-duper-fantastico exciting. Wait, am I overselling this?

girlfriday: Only if you’re a grinch who hates presents. Every week we’ll be asking you a question, and all you have to do is leave a comment with your answer and email address, and you’ll be entered in that week’s drawing.

javabeans: We’ll select winners by random draw. Check back a week later, and see if you’ve won! If you haven’t, fear not, because we’ll be announcing the next round as well. More prizes!

girlfriday: And they get better each week!

Giveaway #1

Question: What was your Drama First Love? Tell us about the first drama you fell in love with, that brought you over to the dark side. Don’t forget to leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win.

Prizes:

  • You’re Beautiful Director’s Cut DVD set
  • one $25 Gift Certificate to Yesasia.com
  • one more $25 Gift Certificate to Yesasia.com

Winners announced: Sunday, January 8th, at 8pm, Pacific Standard Time.* This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering!

 
*Or, 10pm in Mexico City, 11pm in NYC, 1 am in Buenos Aires, 4am in London, 5am in Paris, noon in Singapore and Manila, 1pm in Seoul and Tokyo, or 3pm in Sydney and Vladivostok. Okay, you get the point. (You can refer to this handy Time and Date converter to find out what this is in your time zone.)

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Coffee Prince was, and still is, a favorite of mine. I watched it freshman year of hs, so the drama brings back a lot of good memories for me. I had no idea that korean dramas could be that good, so my obsessions from then on spiraled, and I have long past the point of no return.

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believe it or not...it was popcorn with song seung hun (LOVED him...not so much anymore)! in hindsight, the drama wasn't so great, but that led me to autumn story, then winter sonata, and the rest is history!

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My first drama was "Autumn In My Heart", and Won Bin was my first actor crush, although I hated the drama a lot. However my first drama love was "Dae Jang Geum". It not only introduced Korean dramas to me and made me fall head over heels for Korean dramas, I also fell in love with Korean dishes. All the TV specials made afterwards, I watched religiously because I am highly fascinated by all the meals and herbs that Jang Geum made throughout the entire 80 episode drama. From henceforth, I succumbed. But weirdly even until now the dramas that I often go obsessed over has something with food. Note: Pasta, Baker King Kim Tak-gu, Ramyun Boy Flower Shop, Coffee Prince. The only one not included with food would be President. I loved that series so much.

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Happy Anniversary Dramabeans!

My first drama love is definitely Boys Over Flowers! What a hot mess that drama was and what a crazy obsessive fangirl I was! Ohh the good old times! ^_^ oh and my email is jennyng60 (@) yahoo.com
thank you!~

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although its not my first kdrama, the first drama that i really fell in love with is probably sungkyunkwan scandal. after that, my life changed. and not in a good way :D

email: emilysuzukim123@yahoo.co.jp

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My obsession for Sungkyunkwan scandal was extremely unhealthy and bordered on insanity... So I understand.

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the first drama Ive ever watched and came to love was Boys Over Flowers and after finishing it i just couldn't stop my obsession with kDrama
ezy.fuentes@live.com

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Thanks to the hallyu wave, i was able to watch korean dramas on my chinese cable :D
And the first drama that forever hooked me since i was a child was All About Eve.

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Happy birthday dramabeans!

My first drama love was Delightful Girl Choon Hyang. This was five years back when I had just started watching k-dramas. I did not have any background knowledge of the Choon Hyang fable but the first scene of the series hooked me in. Choon Hyang has the evil magistrate with his hands up when her husband arrived to rescue her. From there on the humor, chemistry between the characters and swift unfolding of the story led me to marathon my first k-drama. Who knew one could be awake for 17 straight hours!!! This drama still holds well in my dictionary even after four years of my foray into the dark side. This also led to other Hong sister dramas (positive experiences), Han Chae Young dramas (not so positive experiences) and spotting game (where I can now see a supporting actor and remember which drama I saw them before)!

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My Name Is Kim Sam Soon! I got it on a disc and watched it over and over again on repeat. I fell deeply in love with it and Kim Sun Ah! It was the first drama that really got me hook, line, and sinker. It is still one of my obvious favorites.

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My first drama that brought me to this site was: My name is Kim Sam soon. I was looking for the new episode with subs online and somehow ended up here and have never left (or stopped watching dramas... LOL) Happy Birthday Dramabeans!

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The first K-drama I ever watched was Autumn in my Heart. But it was definitely Goong which brought me to the land of no return. I remember learning all the royalties term in Korean. Lol.

Anyway, happy 5th anniversary to dramabeans. Enjoyed reading all ur drama recaps n reviews. Looking forward to a better year ahead!

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My first ever was a HK drama called Taste of Love. I think for Korean, it was Full House or My Girl.

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When I saw Autumn in My Heart in 2000 randomly on Chinese TV!

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My first drama first love is Stairway to Heaven and after I became addicted. I fell in love immediately with K-Dramas...

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Congrats Dramabeans! :]

I have to say the first drama I recall watching was probably Boys Over Flowers....I was definitely caught up in the craze, but after I watched it, I didn't like it that much.

However, my first favourite drama was Goong, since I finished the whole drama in less than a day due to the fact that I was sooo hooked.

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It was stairway to heaven! I remember crying all night long as I was watching my first ever kdrama. Couldn't read the subtitles at times because of all the tears! A whole box of tissues later and I was sucked into kdrama land. >.<

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Wow, look at how many responders there are in a matter of minutes! A lot of the responses are Boys Over Flowers (which totally surprises me o.o). Anyways, my first drama love is probably My Girlfriend is a Gumiho. I don't think I've loved any romantic comedy as much as this one (even though I really liked My Girl and You're Beautiful as well), but this is the one I love the most. Awesome cast, characters, and story (love, love, love the Hong Sisters)!

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My first love is My Name is Kim Sam Soon and I have a feeling it will always be my most beloved drama. I caught the Cantonese dubbed episodes while I was on a trip to Hong Kong and being at the age where I finally figured out how to use the internet, the first thing I did when I got back to Toronto was re-watch the subbed version.

After entering the kdrama black hole, I tried exploring twdramas, hkdramas, and jdramas. Although each are lovely in their own way, I'll always favor kdramas. I'll always have a soft spot of Hyun Bin and Kim Sun Ah <3

Congratulations on turning 5!

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embarrassed to say this now, but...boys before flowers in 2009. that drama definitely started the addiction. after BBF, it was Dae Jang Geum...i officially lost my life!

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Autumn in my heart.
I know, its the epitome for what I know a makjang story is.
But it gives me solid tears and happiness, AND eye candy for sure.. For sure.. For.. surree..

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My descent into the dark side began when I stumbled across Boys Over Flowers on hulu. By the end of the 25th episode, the show (or more accurately, Lee Min-ho) had me hooked and begging for more.

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Well, I guess my answer will be Beautiful Days, starring Choi Ji Woo and Lee Byeong Hun. I don't watch it anymore but it was my (and my mum's) very first korean drama. We saw it on a malaysian channel and was immediately hooked. Since then, I started watching korean dramas (though there was a period of inactivity).
A bit off-topic: My mom wanted to buy the series, but at that time (2002), hallyu wave was still very new so it was hard to get a hold of it. My dad finally found it but sadly it was chinese-dubbed and chinese-subbed. We don't even understand chinese so we just watched, making up our own storylines. My uncle went to Indonesia and found the drama, it has Indonesian subtitles so we finally understood the drama. But the chinese-dubbed made the drama lose its flavour. I think it was only after 2 years, that my mom managed to get the one which is un-dubbed. Haha, my mom still have all 5 (if I'm not wrong) vcd boxes of Beautiful Days.

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full house!

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Coffee Prince was my first drama, love, my happy pill. That's when I wanted someone to not care if I was an alien and just love me.

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my first drama is autumn tale... well i watched the dramas when i was in middle school. i love the dramas because of the story and the casts (hell yeah of course!!!) the dramas leads me to my darkest time full of tears... i kept crying when i watched it at that time. (well i'm a tomboy so i never shed tears before)... the drama really have touching story. because of this dramas i started to watched another and another korean dramas. till now. i'm ADDICTED to korean dramas.

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Dae Jang Geum
The drama brought me into cooking world, the ost. brought me to korean language, the story brought me to history.
Though not my first k-drama (hello Winter Sonata) or the best drama ever, but this drama make me stay, curious, and learn and keep learning and obviously falling to the land named K-Drama...
Please welcome me to this land of wonder...

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If we are going with Korean dramas - My Lovely Sam-soon!

But my love for dramas happened long before that with Japanese dramas and even a few TW ones.

That said, Hyun Bin won my heart and made me come over to the K sides of things! Man, it was awesome, and I have never regretted my addiction.

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Mine was "Resurrection" (or Boowhal in Korean) with Uhm Taewoong and Han Jimin in it. I had seen other kdramas before, but this was the first one I LOVED. Great chemistry, great soundtrack and more importantly, great writing. Tautly plotted, with the politics and the financial stuff not too confusing for the average viewer. Who doesn't love a well done revenge story?

And.....I admit the wrist grabbing scenes between Uhm and Han were very dramatic and fun to watch. It had 17 yr old me squealing in delight :)

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My first love would have to be Goong. I had read the manhwa beforehand and spazzed when I saw there was a drama. Now, I have watched several I love more (You're Beautiful...Best Love...SOULMATE), but Goong started it all.

Congrats!

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it had to be autumn sonata--it looks awful nowadays but back then moon geun young made me cry buckets, as did won bin. i think it was also the first time (but definitely not the last) i liked the second male lead more than the first.

also, congrats dramabeans on turning 5!! here's to many more years of dramas!

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Happy Blogiversary!

Emperor of the Sea. My first k-drama, the one that got me hook line and sinker. 8-) I love that show. We watched on AZN, I bought the DVDs (which are out on loan again, currently trying to snag another one into the web of k-drama addiction).

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Dear Javabeans and Girlfriday,

First off I would like to say cheuk ka hamnida on turning 5! 5 is a very good year.

My first foray into the magical world that is Kdrama was a little show called My Name is Kim Sam Soon. I fell hopelessly in love with Kim Sun Ah. She was so real and she made you care about her and I thought "Wow! Korean dramas are awesome." I discovered after watching 100's more shows that Kim Sun Ah's character is not the norm - sadly most heroines are plucky, beautiful waifs but the deed was done I was already an addict. Sigh!!!

Happy New Year, Amy

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Kim Sam Soon! It was rainy, I was bored, and my roommate had a DVD box set that came with the promise of hot men and baked goods. What I thought would be an interesting way to pass some time, turned into a love affair with an entire genre, and after two years and seventy-odd dramas, I still love Samsoon’s foul mouth, Samsooki's creepy face, and Hyun bin's man-child pout with added dimple!

Plus, I was able to learn passable Korean by watching, and people say TV can’t teach you anything.

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My firsy drama was My Lovely Sam Soon, I watched it on AZN. Loved it! I had everything funny, sad, happy, family and love. It was and still is very good.

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My first drama was My Name is Kim Sam Soon, followed closely by Boys Over Flowers and You're Beautiful. All marathoned within a two week period. :) I've been hooked ever since. MNIKSS sucked me in and I haven't been able to stop since. It was just such a fun, endearing story with a heroine that I could relate to. BOF was just sooo addictive, I don't think I slept until I finished it, and YB was just such a fun, crazy ride. I'm glad I found Dramabeans, the recaps really help me to understand some of the things I don't always understand in dramas, and I'm looking forward to more great dramas and recaps this year. Thanks JB and GF for all your hard work!

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Congratulations Dramabeans on your 5-year anniversary and thank you so much for allowing the fans to participate in this awesome giveaway! Thanks for the wit & humor in your recaps & writing as well. Back to answering the question: I'd say my first drama love is Goong (Princess Hours not Goong S). It was so beautiful to look at and I loved Yul (darn you Shin for winning the girl! Good luck everyone & may the new year bring you lots of blessings!

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Mine was Coffee Prince. It was an awesome drama but what attracted me the most was the Voice and Gong Yoo. : )

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Goodness, I can't even recall which k-drama was my first; it was years ago. But it in the past I only watched a k-drama about once a year; the past five months I have been watching nearly none stop. For simplicity's sake, I'll say You're Beautiful.

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The first Kdrama I watched was in August of 2010, Boys Over Flower. Yes, I started off my journey with one of the most overrated dramas but I think since it was my first Kdrama, I have a special feeling for it. Before I watched that drama, I remember watching some korean videos here and there but for some reason I just did not like the way people spoke. I love beautiful languages and I, for some reason, thought Korean wasn't one of them. Though, I realized that the more I watched it, the more I started to like it and now I am trying to learn it.

Weird how life works out. Anyways, BOF is my first love and no matter how bad or good it is, first love is extremely hard to forget.

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FULLHOUSE it was not hahaha though I watched that one first. It was Goong that made me fall in love with kdramas and start looking EVERYWHERE for more of the same crack. :D

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Goong a.k.a Princess Hours.

Every now and again i still go back and re-watch it because it was my intro to Dramaland! How i miss the days of discovery, staying up untill 4am just to finish watching an episode. Not sleeping on weekends to know what finally happens.... oh those were the good old days. Now I have to wait for every episode week by week and hope and pray that they have been subbed in english!

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I also just wanted to say thanx for all your words of witty wisdom and guidance! You ladies rock!

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Full House! It was light and cute ^__________^

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I started watching Japanese dramas in 2007, dramas based from some of my favorite manga series. From there on I was exposed to Taiwanese dramas and Korean dramas. Most memorable for me wasn't the dramas of those first few months but the movies I watched. They had a much more lasting effect as they were quality. Back in the hay day the video quality of raws and that with subs was usually very low and pixelated. It made it hard to appreciate the visual aspects. Korean dramas have come a long way and are very high quality now a days, if not in plot in visual displays.

I think my favorite drama from my first few months of exposure had to have been My lovely Kim Sam Soon. It's one I continually recommend to people looking for a Korean drama. It holds up to my standard of a good and original story, especially if its someone's first exposure. It doesn't hurt that it's got Hyunbin, Kim Sun Ah, and Daniel Henney. Yes as with all Korean dramas of the time it does have it pitfalls in story telling. But the relationship between the leads is real enough chemistry that it stays compelling.

I don't know that I would've stayed with Korean dramas if it hadn't been for the compelling story lines that started developing in the drama series that followed in 2008, as well as my exposure to Korean pop music. I have been a dramabeans fan from 2008 forward. I may not be a frequent comment poster but that is more due to the fact I take things said to or against me very personally when stating my own opinion.

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My first drama love was Goong which I had stumbled upon on youtube because I was frustrated with a suggestion my friend gave me for a drama to watch (Only You) and got so addicted I caught up with the live drama until I got antsy waiting for subs. This eventually lead me to With S2, javabeans, and eventually dramabeans! It was just so addicting to follow and I couldn't help but hate Shin Goon then eventually fall for him and/or Joo Ji Hoon. This feeling's made me stick with following kdramas because I just can't help but give in to the dark side ;]

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I think mine was "Goong." I was 13 years at the time and I thought "Perhaps Love" was the best song ever but always failed to reason with the hairstyle and the outfits even back then. That drama introduced me to the world of K-Pop through Prince Yul. 5 years later, now, as a junior in college, I have a radio show on East Asian music (which has been running for almost 2 years) though it has no space for your usual K-Pop. "Goong" has been such a guilty pleasure that I've been watching it online every year since then. Oh, and did I already mention how much I loved the teddy bears? Haha, time to stop. I'm getting carried away.

And, congratulations for your 5th anniversary and thank you so much for presenting the treasure trove of Korean culture! I love your musical taste quite a lot (helped me find some really good indie groups). Good luck :)

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It's funny, because You're Beautiful was actually my first drama and so the one that got me hooked. It was my first introduction to anything Korean, and I finished it in less than a week. Since then I've watched... maybe 15 dramas? In almost exactly a year. I've loved a lot of them, but You're Beautiful remains my favourite, possibly in large part due to the fact that it was my first.

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FULL HOUSE! (:

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Coffee Prince brought be over to the edge and just made me fall completely in love with dramas!! My life has not been the same since :)

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One Litre of Tears!

It was a Jdrama that had me weeping one episode after another until my eyes were swollen!! It was just so moving, inspiring, and uplifting all jumbled into one. After watching this drama, I had got hooked on more Jdramas, then Kdramas, and Tdramas >_< I was practically glued to my laptop haha

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