Are choco abs a thing of the past? Probably not, but there does seem to be a new wave of heroes making a comeback, and sweeping the ‘Beast Men’ under the rug.

For a while now, the so-called Beast Men have cropped up and taken center stage, as a reaction against the ‘Flower Pretty Boy’ trend that piqued with dramas like Coffee Prince and made metrosexual pretty boys a pan-Asian phenomenon.

But it looks like the pretty boys are making a comeback, this time in the guise of ‘Candy Men,’ as in the cartoon, Candy. To be more specific, they’re being described as ‘Terius Men,’ named for Candy‘s leading male character, the ever-so-pretty boy of flowing locks and perfect complexion.

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Read the rest of Goodbye beast men, hello candy men? (269 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 215 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Kim Hyun-joong, Micky Yoochun, Playful Kiss, Song Joong-ki, Sungkyunkwan Scandal

While Eun-jo never called Ki-hoon “oppa,” she certainly used her share of banmal with him

One of the things I find endlessly fascinating about the Korean language is the magnitude of what people call each other, and how they address one another as relationships evolve. As javabeans noted, in romantic comedies, we often squee equally over kisses as we do over the first time characters use banmal with each other. So what is banmal, and what are the rules? How can banmal be rude in one moment, and romantic in the next? Who gets to use banmal, and why is it meaningful when characters switch from jondae to banmal?

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Read the rest of Glossary: Banmal (1,448 words)

© girlfriday for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 102 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella's Sister, Coffee Prince, Pasta

Here it is, Dramabeans Podcast #2!

Wherein javabeans and girlfriday discuss:

Recapping;
our favorite rainy-day dramas;
our thoughts on oppa and noona;
Coffee House;
shipper wars;
love triangles, as used in Boys Before Flowers;
and also as used in Dawson’s Creek;
Bad Guy;
and a comparison of Road No. 1 and Comrades.

Among other rambly things.

[ Download podcast ]

Also: If you have questions for us, leave them in the comments below and we’ll keep ‘em in mind for the future.

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Read the rest of Dramabeans Podcast #2 (235 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 82 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bad Family, Bad Guy, Boys Before Flowers, Coffee House, Comrades, My Name Is Kim Samsoon, Road No. 1, Soulmate

New toy! I’ve been wanting to try a podcast for ages, but lacked the technical wherewithal (and time) to fiddle around with it till now. But I’ve brushed up my techie skills and persuaded girlfriday to join me in this venture, and together we took a stab at our very first Dramabeans podcast.

I apologize in advance for moments when I get too close to the mic — I don’t think it’s TOO bad, or at least I hope it’s not, but I will definitely keep this in mind if/when we try the next one. Also, if you’ve got questions or suggestions for future editions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

You can listen through the player below, or if you’d like to put it on your mp3 players or take it elsewhere, you can download the sucker: [ Part 1 ] and [ Part 2 ]

We hope you enjoy what we have to say!

 
Part 1: Wherein javabeans and girlfriday discuss old-school dramas, Feelings, Lee Jung-jae, recapping, cliches and tropes, the dreaded wrist-grab, women and repressed sexuality, Pasta, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry, Kim Bum, Boys Before Flowers, relationships, and Personal Taste:

(Note: It may take a moment to load. You can adjust volume up and down with the bars on the left of the audio player.)

Part 2: Wherein javabeans and girlfriday discuss Personal Taste and Cinderella’s Sister (through Episode 12, although with very few if any spoilers for later episodes), and Sandglass very briefly:

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Read the rest of Dramabeans Podcast #1 (475 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2010. | Permalink | 222 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella's Sister, Feelings, Jealousy, Kim Bum, Pasta, Personal Taste, Sandglass, Taecyeon, The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry

Here we are! The last of the year-end review series.

This post is something new, but I thought it would be an interesting experiment. Although each of us reviewers has our personal favorites, which we outlined in our personal reviews, it’s a different thing to move past preference and try to be objective in a sort of Dramabeans Awards — hence, these Editors’ Picks.

We voted in rounds, first nominating all potential candidates, then narrowing them down to a small pool of finalists, then culling that to one or two picks. As a result, not all of us got picks that we may have personally felt were most fitting, but we all respected the process and the opinions that led us to these selections.

SONG OF THE DAY

Queen Seon-deok OST – “아라로” (Araro) by I.U. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of 2009 Editors’ Picks [Year In Review, Part 6] (4,806 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 112 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Again My Love, Assorted Gems, awards, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, City Hall, Friend Our Legend, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Story of a Man, year in review, You're Beautiful

After a pretty meh 2008, I was ready for the drama landscape to fire back up with 2009. And while there were a number of misses and disappointments — isn’t there always? — I was pretty satisfied with the dramas I watched in 2009. I still don’t think there were as many top offerings as, say, 2007, but I found a number of series to entertain me and satisfy my drama craving. There were a few selections early on that got me pumped for the year and things lagged during and after the summer months, but all told, I had an entertaining year.

(Okay, this is LONG. I tried to contain myself, really.)

SONG OF THE DAY

IRIS – “Empty” by Juni [ Download ]

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Read the rest of All Told, A Pretty Fun Year [Year In Review, Part 4] (7,596 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 141 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Cinderella Man, Dream, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Style, Swallow the Sun, Tamra the Island, Triple, Will It Snow For Christmas, year in review, You're Beautiful

And to think that I headed into 2009 feeling so hopeful, too.

2008 was an awful year for K-dramas. That year ended with me feeling like I’d just swum through an ocean of excrement, and I figured that I’d need to soak myself in some good dramas for at least another year before I’d manage to wash the stink off of me.

Alas, that was not to be the case.

Thinking back on which dramas I saw in 2009, it occurred to me that, goddammit, I’m a lot more resilient than I’d thought. It awed me that I’d managed to watch crap like Cain and Abel and Everybody Cha Cha Cha all the way through, without even any fastforwarding! A year ago, this would not have been possible. A year ago, my stomach would have protested three seconds in, and I’d have had to be rushed to the doctor’s, only to be told (again) by dear old Dr. C that my condition is a complete mystery to him.

But this year, I discovered the secret to watching bad dramas without ending up gagging over a toilet. That secret has been spread so thick over my digestive organs that no amount of stress or disgust can penetrate it. We’ll get to what that secret is later, but the point of all this rambling is, I’ve discovered other reasons for watching dramas besides their innate quality. Call it a survival instinct. Reasons for drama-watching are a lot more complicated than I’d once thought.

So for this year’s write-up, I’m dividing the categories into the various reasons I watched the dramas in the first place. It’s going to be kinda embarrassing, but honest. I’ve found that honesty is always best in the end, whether people like it or not. As my mom likes to say: “If I find out you’re lying to me, I’ll turn your legs black and blue.”

SONG OF THE DAY

Broccoli, You Too? – “2009년의 우리들” (Us in 2009) [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Duds and Delights of 2009 [Year In Review, Part 1] (6,376 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 240 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Accidental Couple, Boys Before Flowers, Cain and Abel, Everybody Cha Cha Cha, Friend Our Legend, Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father, Queen Seon-deok, Smile, Style, The Man Who Can't Get Married, Will It Snow For Christmas, year in review, You're Beautiful

With the year coming to an end, that means it’s time to take stock of the past twelve months (well, eleven really) in kdramas. The broadcast stations will be holding their awards ceremonies at the end of the month, and I’m working on my wrap-up of 2009′s offerings — as are some very talented (and prolific!) drama-watching fans — which I’ll post up closer to the end of the year.

But this is your turn to weigh in on what you liked or didn’t. I didn’t do a year-end poll last year (after putting one up in 2007) and people seemed to really want one, so it’s back.

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Read the rest of How was 2009 for you? (1,304 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 410 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A Star's Lover, Accidental Couple, Angel's Temptation, Boys Before Flowers, Brilliant Legacy, Cain and Abel, Cinderella Man, City Hall, Dream, Friend, Heading to the Ground, Hero, Hon, IRIS, Ja Myung Go, Job Well Done, Loving You a Thousand Times, My Fair Lady, Partner, Queen of Housewives, Queen Seon-deok, Return of Iljimae, Smile, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House, Story of a Man, Strike Love, Style, Tamra the Island, Triple, year in review

(These are short mp3 clips that you can download onto your phone IF your phone is capable of mp3 ringtones. I know some phones have size limits for mp3s — mine is 500kb — and most of these clips are under 30 seconds and in the 200kb-400kb range. Download link at bottom.)

For example:

YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL

I’m sure most of you are familiar with this soundtrack so I don’t need to post clips, but I’ll put them up just in case:

Jang Geun-seok – “말도 없이” (Without Words)

Jang Geun-seok – “Good Bye”

A.N.JELL – “Promise” verse

A.N.JELL – “Promise” chorus

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Read the rest of Drama theme-song ringtones (721 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 159 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers, Coffee Prince, Goong, Goong S, My Fair Lady, My Name Is Kim Samsoon, Return of Iljimae, Story of a Man, Strongest Chil Woo, The World They Live In, You're Beautiful

I received an email from someone at YA Entertainment, which, as you may know, is the company that licenses Korean dramas for sale with English subtitles. I’m passing it along for all of you with accounts at Netflix to help get more Korean dramas available at the online rental service:

Hi,

I need your help. In an effort to continue to reach out to the mainstream with our K-dramas on DVD with English subtitles we have signed on with Netflix. According to their reports there are not enough people adding our titles into their queues and we are at risk of not being able to share this very important and popular genre with the millions of people that Netflix has access too.

If you didn’t already know, K-dramas are enjoyed throughout the world by millions of people already either dubbed or subtitled in several other languages. For some reason it has yet to catch on in the US and Canada outside of mostly other Asians and other ethnic groups.

We will be releasing the wildly popular K-drama Boys Over Flowers this November 17 and Netflix currently has it available on their site but I just got an email this morning saying they will hold the order until they see the numbers prove that there is a demand for this title and our other titles.

Clearly there is a demand for it but, unfortunately, the majority of people who currently watch our DVD’s are collectors and tend to purchase rather than rent. Although we have reached the tip of the mainstream by having our DVD’s available at Barnes and Noble, Costco, Borders, FYE’s and several independent retailers, we are still stunted due to the fact that even they don’t believe that there is a demand yet, so we are given very limited shelf access and a very small number of stores carry our products. Over 90% of our end consumers are not Korean, which means that we KNOW that this is entertainment for ALL and that if given a chance then most people will enjoy the dramas.

Please help me and the K-drama industry a chance to share what we have to offer by asking all your friends and family who have Netflix accounts to add one of our titles into their queues and give it a chance.

The following titles are available at Netflix to rent and there are still so many more to add but we will not be able to unless they start seeing that it’s in demand!

You can start by adding Boys Over Flowers V. 1.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Boys_Over_Flowers_Vol._1/70127182?lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=2014803991_1_0&strackid=1426dfc813c6962_1_srl

Please send this out to everyone you know!

Thank you very much for your time!

-Alyx

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Read the rest of Help out Boys Over Flowers on Netflix (1,284 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2009. | Permalink | 76 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Boys Before Flowers