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When dramas go crazy: Aurora Princess, a case study

We’ve been following the ever-evolving story of Aurora Princess with raised eyebrows for months, as it has become a fixture in the headlines for its parade of shenanigans. And while it’s not the type of drama we’d typically be devoting a lot of attention to, it’s worth looking at if only as the cautionary tale of what not to do when making a show. If ever there were a case of a drama having more drama behind the cameras than in front of them, this would be it.

Aurora Princess is a long-running daily series on MBC and therefore went under our radars at first, but the constant reports of its outrageous behind-the-scenes antics grew too crazy to ignore; it’s the kind of stuff girlfriday and I would send each other with comments like “Omg, can you believe this?” and “What the heck are they smoking over there?” Just when you thought they’d reached some kind of quota on how much lunacy to pile into one production, the drama one-upped itself with fresh insanity. Lesson learned: Never underestimate the extent to which a drama can go crazy. (Hint: Most of this can be traced to one person, writer Im Sung-han.)

The drama is heading into its final week, so now’s a good a time as any to give an overall summary of all of its twists and turns. Well, as long as there aren’t any more changes to befall us in the last week, which given the circumstances doesn’t seem entirely out of the question.

 
Firings and death sprees

Aurora Princess kicked off in May of 2013 as a 120-episode daily, and for the first month or two, it proceeded without too much fuss. The plot was pointed out as a bit makjang, but that’s farily standard for the format, so it wasn’t until the show unexpectedly wrote out two main characters that it started to attract attention. It wasn’t the firing itself that was problematic (of Sohn Chang-min and Oh Dae-kyu) but the manner in which it was done, which is to say with what many saw as a lack of professional courtesy.

This occured fairly early on, while the drama had only aired 30-something episodes. Viewers were surprised because the actors had been given romantic pairings and storylines that would not get finished, and the actors were surprised because they’d been given no warning. Sohn had a day’s notice when he was given a script that sent his character abruptly off to America.

“I can’t comprehend it at all,” Sohn said. “The night before the last day, I was shooting late until dawn, and the next day around noon I received a call from a broadcast executive telling me that I wouldn’t be appearing from this next episode onward. [He] gave no reason or excuse and just said he didn’t know why.” He added that there is usually a minimum level of courtesy and ethics involved in situations like this, which this case did not meet. The departures were also criticized by viewers, who complained that they made no sense in the story.

That was just the beginning, because writer Im began writing out more and more actors as the show went on (more than a dozen in total), killing some off so unceremoniously that people half-joked that Aurora Princess was turning into a survival drama. Some actors gave interviews expressing their dissatisfaction and viewers started calling the drama “Im Sung-han’s Death Note.” (I’m surprised at how vocal the actors have been in criticizing this show, but that indicates that the level of distress was pretty high.) Nobody was safe—the firing spree culminated with writer Im eventually killing off the hero. More on that in a moment.

 
Makjang plots and foul language

As we know, makjang dramas tend to get a lot of leeway into depicting extreme situations, but apparently Aurora Princess went far enough as to receive warnings from the Korea Communications Standards Commissions, which cited the drama’s multiple immoral storylines and crude language as violations of its standards. The drama, which airs in the early evenings (7:15 p.m.), was sanctioned for material unsuitable for the younger audiences watching at that time.

 
Writer nepotism

Dissatisfaction with writer Im Sung-han mounted when it became known that one of the cast members, Baek Ok-dam, is her niece. (She is the daughter of Im’s older brother.) This is not Baek’s first drama, but her debut role and follow-up were both in aunt Im’s dramas, Ahyundong Madam and New Gisaeng Story, so you can see where denying nepotism accusations might not be too convincing.

The writer’s reps defended the casting by saying that Baek’s use of a stage name wasn’t to hide their relationship, and personally I don’t think this kind of connection-using is very rare in showbiz anyway. However, I do believe the amount of criticism this news elicited was proof of how writer Im was losing favor with her audience, and the complaints were starting to pile up quickly, especially as Baek Ok-dam’s role was expanded just as other stars were being fired. In the first three months, eight cast members were cut without reason.

 
Writer demands extension

Despite the grumblings of the viewership, ratings were pretty good (hitting the low teens steadily throughout its first half) and the drama was given a 30-episode extension, bringing its final episode count to 150.

However, writer Im then demanded 50 additional episodes, in order to bring up the final count to 200. She stated that she needed the additional time to flesh out her storylines, and this is the point at which I roll my eyes—you were hired to write 120 episodes, you damn well knew how much time you had, lady.

That appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Because not only did viewers raise their voices in complaint of writer Im’s demands, they were actually incensed enough to organize a petition to protest the extension, which picked up a surprising amount of steam. MBC began reconsidering the extension length to 175 episodes, which some petition-signers called “half a victory,” which I would call half a correct statement.

 
Writer salary disclosed

Then it became known that writer Im was being paid nearly a whopping 5 billion won (just under $5 million) for Aurora Princess, and that exploded the already simmering anti-Aurora sentiment. At 30 million won per episode ($30,000), you can see why she’d enjoy having 50 more paychecks.

Now no longer content with opposing Aurora’s extension, the protesters pushed for an early end to the drama and added the demand that Im be fired from the show.

It’s worth noting that the petition began with the goal of collecting 1,000 signatures, but ultimately ended up with over 20,000 signatures. I’ll be honest, I usually find showbiz-related petitions to be useless, but I’m rather impressed at the relative success of this one.

Of course, through this all, Aurora Princess was logging higher and higher ratings (hitting upper teens), which… sort of negates the whole thing, doesn’t it?

In the end, MBC opted to not extend the drama beyond the initial extension, keeping it to 150 total episodes. Another half-victory?

 
More inexplicable deaths

More actors were written out of the show (accidents, cancer, America). MBC confused its fans at one point by opting to announce the latest character death on its homepage, before the show actually killed her off. It’s strange that MBC would steal the show’s big dramatic moment before it got there itself, but also hilarious given how carefully it had to explain the situation, as though asking fans not to be upset: “This was planned in advance in the story, actress Seo Woo-rim was given ample time to understand this, and we discussed this event with her ahead of time.”

The show killed off the dog, the twelfth target of Im’s Death Note.

Then it was announced that the show would be killing off its hero, Oh Chang-seok, whose role had been diminishing. (Fun fact: The lead character married him in an earlier episode, then divorced him and married a different character thirty episodes later.)

By this point I don’t think anybody was surprised at more deaths, although it’s pretty ballsy to do it to your headliner in what was supposed to be a light family romance drama where he was the love interest. You know, the guy in all the posters. Fan commentary ranged from “Another death, yawn” to “Are we going to kill Aurora next?”

Writer Im was apparently furious at the spoiler leak. MBC hastened to say that while Oh would die in a car crash, he wasn’t necessarily leaving the show… because he would come back as a ghost. Rumors circulated that another character would die along with Oh Chang-seok. One rep from the show said the last episode script had the actors in a state of “men-boong,” aka mind-meltdown-from-the-crazy.

A source said, “The atmostphere on set is the worst. The situation has deteriorated this far, and how could any actor be able to act with full composure? They’re holding it in, but it’s like a ticking time bomb.”

 
MBC steps in

You know it’s bad when it’s MBC, of all people, stepping in to tell you that your crazy has gone too crazy. But that’s what happened, and when the final script was turned in, MBC actually went and said, Nope, this is too terrible to air. We demand a rewrite.

The script is for the drama’s penultimate episode, and contained such “preposterous” events that MBC put writer Im to revisions. I wonder what could possibly top the last-minute death of your main character, but then again, it’s not like I doubt this writer can do that.

You may wonder why this writer continues to get work, if her projects are such a mess. I guess this is an unfortunate example of the ends justifying the means: Im’s dramas, for better or for worse, have been ratings succeses. And how much can MBC complain when she’s given them a hit (which topped the 20% mark earlier this month)?

Im Sung-han isn’t perhaps the star writer that Kim Eun-sook or Noh Hee-kyung or Kim Soo-hyun are, but her makjang-ridden plots have attracted audiences, and without star actors, to boot. She employs a rather crude storytelling algebra to accomplish this, but it has proven effective: One reviewer described her writing as “plots that destroy common sense while provoking viewer interest. Regardless of whether actors suddenly die while watching gag television, whether they have out-of-body experiences, whether they shoot lasers out of their eyes, those provocative events put viewers in front of their televisions.”

A few other examples: A leukemia patient recently had the epiphany, “Cancer cells are living things too. If I try to die, my cancer cells can feel that. Those cancer cells arose out of me living my life wrong, so I don’t think it’s right to try to kill those cancer cells so that I can live.”

That same character, who sat in a wheelchair, was then portrayed singing along to Clon’s hit song “Koong Tari Sha Bara”… and fyi, a member of Clon suffered an accident in 2000 that made him paraplegic; he is now wheelchair-bound. Ouch.

 
The Answer Me 1994 parody

As an example of what exactly we’re dealing with here, a recent parody cropped up online, titled “Answer Me 1994, If Im Sung-han Had Written It.”

In this version, Garbage and Binggeure realize their homosexual love for each other. This sends Na-jung into such a shock that she falls into a spiritual possession and becomes a Taoist fairy.

Yoon-jin gets her wish and marries Seo Taiji, leaving Samcheonpo to fall into homelessness.

Haitai quits the show when he’s stricken with a heart attack at home.

Chilbongie makes it to the major league in baseball, and decides to come back to Korea to meet Na-jung. On the way over, his plane crashes and he dies.

The end.

 
Writer Im posts apology online

After all the hullaballoo, Im Sung-han posted a message on the show’s homepage on December 11, in which she apologized, sort of. She thanked various staff and crew for their hard work and stated that she tried to keep their thoughts in mind in her writing, and apologized for her failings. She said that she tried to keep objectivity in her writing and did her best to incorporate their opinions, but will have inevitably fallen short of that goal.

She also thanked netizens and reporters for their constancy in pointing out her flaws, and “hoped” that they would once again note her failings in the upcoming final episodes.

It starts sounding a bit sarcastic, doesn’t it? Netizen response pretty much figured as much, saying that she wrote an apology without an apology. Par for the course, I’d say.

Aurora Princess will wrap up with Episode 150 this coming week, on December 20.

Via Segye, Newsen, News 1, Star News, TV Daily, Mt.co.kr, MBN, TV Report, TV Daily, Sports Donga, Media Today, Chosun

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Wow drama in a drama :o what would Anthony do?

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This is so crazy haha this writer is nuts!

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lol... Anthony was my first thought too. Season 2 of Drama King anyone?

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She was quite sane in New Tales of Gisaeng..... I have also watched one of her old dramas Assorted Gems....she was very sane then too. What happened to her in Princess Aurora ?

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She was pretty sane in Assorted Gems. But, she was going off the deep end in the later episodes of NTOG. Remember, the various ghostly possessions of Adamo's father? And, the exorcism?

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I didn't watch all the way through. I'm tempted now.

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OMG! That was her?

Anyhoo, Ah Damo's dad and his mom cracks me up. LMAO!

I got lured by NTOG because I was disguted by the writer's shenanigans in Passionate Love.

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Unfortunately Anthony may keep her since since she brings in viewers. lol

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Not "may", he WOULD keep her and not only that. He would continue to feed the fire! Go Anthony!

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I had to google this writer, just to see what might show up. Lo and behold, the makjang doesn't end with her shows. It continues into her personal life. Look her up on Wikipedia. It's a bit astounding.

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oh my. i looked her up. thats super sad. i can see where her sylvia plath roots arise from.

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I was laughing so hard while reading this article it is just to ridiculous. I imagine her sitting in a small room and just flipping a coin to decide on her script decisions.

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Oh my God, me too. This writer sounds hilarious. I want to be her new BFF.

And New Gisaeng Story was pretty good.

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Thank you Anais for mentioning that. I did read up on her on Wikipedia, and yeah, "WOW!" was my reaction.

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Holy cow, her personal life is as crazy as her drama. Hiding your husband's death from his family and held a secret funeral for 3 weeks before telling his family?!

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She doesn't just write makjang. She LIVES makjang.

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I just looked her up on Google too. Wow, talk about living through your art!!
Ha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately wonders what Anthony would do if this were his drama.

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Oh wow. That is insane! Hahahaha.

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Ah, I remember reading about that strange incident. So, that's her.

I wonder if she actually has a "distorted" reality. (I dunno how to properly put it)

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Yes Her personal life is more makjang than her dramas.

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My family watch this show every night because we find it so hilarious and entertaining to guess which character will die next, hahaha. This writer is so crazy! If you watch the show, the characters die literally without any warning that you can't help but keep watching to find out what happened. Although, I have to admit, I was the most upset when the dog died... lol

Before all this chaos started, I didn't even bother watching the show because naturally, I thought that the main girl would end up with the main guy shown in ALL the promotional posters. Because that's the case with almost ALL kdramas, right? So I thought, meh, it's going to be like every daily show so I'll pass. But when I saw all the craziness starting, I decided to join my parents while they watched and my jaw dropped when the writer decided to divorce the two main characters. Like, NO WAY does that ever happen in dramaland. o.o And then she goes off to marry her other love interest who gets stricken with cancer, but then her ex-husband helps him in rehab by living with them?? Does that make any sense? It doesn't, which is why it's so funny. Like javabeans said, i think that's the writer's tactic in attracting the viewers... haha

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Oh wow! Her real life story can be amother story in itself. (Shaking head)

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Thanks for that. I just read about her and find it so weird. Her personal life is as makjang as her stories. I guess this is where she gets her "inspiration'??

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I feel left out every time I read an Anthony comment. Time for me to go watch that drama.

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Also, if I may suggest, reading some of the comments might enlighten you even more about what goes on in dramaland, when it comes to making dramas.

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EPIK !!!

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How are the actors' paychecks affected by their characters' early deaths?

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This world can get so funny

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LOL the Answer me 1994 parody was awesome!

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Hahahahahahaha ikr lol now I want to watch this OMG I'm laughin so hard it ridiculous

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That... is utterly insane.

It kind of sounds like the writer is trolling everyone: pushing as hard as she can to see what she can get away with and then delighting in the outrage she's caused.

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And getting paid tons of money while doing so.

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Nice work if you can get it.
I like her now.

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haha.. I die laughing at Reply 1994 parody, that is a good one!!

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How is thay good when CHILBONGIE DIES
D: hahah but it is pretty funny

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Exactly!! Especially when Najung become Taoist fairy and chilbongie die. The end...
Makjang to the max!

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A few other examples: A leukemia patient recently had the epiphany, “Cancer cells are living things too. If I try to die, my cancer cells can feel that. Those cancer cells arose out of me living my life wrong, so I don’t think it’s right to try to kill those cancer cells so that I can live.”

I SEE this in gag in kbs
d:

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I was just gonna say, last week's King of Ratings on GAG Concert makes much more sense.

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I was just thinking 'where did I hear that line before'? and thanks to your comment, I realized it was at gag concert! gotta watch that ep again. Gag concert, I mean.

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wow. just wow. what a train wreck of a show. why did MBC not can the show when the problems started growing out of proportion?

i wonder if writer Im will find it difficult to get another project after this...

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because it had ratings... sadly this is what it comes down to in broadcasting now a days, even if they know people are just watching to beat down the show, the more people who view the show the more sponsors they get.

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it was unusual, unexpected and funny. the viewers enjoyed it and clearly remained hooked despite (or maybe because of) the shenanigans. In which case the script would be considered a success. Why then should they have cancelled the show? Shouldn't the viewers alone decide by watching or shunning a show?

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I.... have no words. SMH

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"..plots that destroy common sense.."

If you had words, what would they be? :D

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Dr.Jin

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Of course it's an MBC drama.

Half of me wants to watch this because it sounds like the greatest train wreck ever , so I understand the high ratings, and the other half of me is horrified, wondering why no one has the balls to fire this writer. Ratings are one thing, but when you're in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, it's time to take action. This sounds a lot like an American soap opera with all the crazy deaths.

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I was going to watch an episode or two just for grins, but it looks like even drama.net stopped subbing it at around ep85 or so, and the more recent ones seem to be poorly subbed, just going by the comments.

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That's probably for the best, I think I'd go crazy watching this. I do want to know how it ends though

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I totally want to watch this. I don't think I'd get past ep 85 anyway.

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What it needs is an hour and a half of clips with Mystery Science Theater style comments that condenses the whole plot of 150 episodes.

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Its the train wreck you can't look away from. I fully expect the actual events behind the scenes of this drama to become a drama and so on and so forth.

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*Headdesks at the cancer patient* But the AM1994 parody is gold.

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Even the dog bit the dust? Was he killed by a cat?

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Given the description of the show, I suspect that a rabid Moldavian badger escaped from a secret animal experimentation lab and killed the dog.

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No. The dog was having an out-of-body experience. :D

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Staahp! You guys are killing me.

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Poor dog!! ☹

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maybe the dog had too much shame to appear in a drama like this ... a drama not good enough even for a dog

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Suicide?

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LOL!

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I totally went nuts when they killed aurora's dog. The dog is beyond cute, incredibly charming, has better acting ablity than most idol-actors out there, his death scene is awesome LOL .

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Look, he apparently stayed still when hugged and cried over. I don't know any dog that would do that.

Maybe he was bugging the writer for more lines...

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I was just thinking, what actor in his or her right mind would work in her next project? Besides her niece, of course. They would have to be almost homeless or starving.

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This sounds like one of those dramas where a drama should be written about the drama behind the drama.

Yeah, that made sense. :D

But apparently as much sense as the drama...

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I was just think along the same line. Wouldn't it be great if this writer was really doing a behind the scene documentary, and the only other person who knew what she was really up to was the president of MBC. So every episode write Im would just write the craziest things she could think of just to see how everyone would react, while she secretly records them. And then on the day after the final episode, MBC would show a preview of its upcoming show title "Punk you South Korea".

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That's the one crazy idea, haha :) It really sounds great.

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LMAO omigosh now i'm curious to watch this. hahahah

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Omg. This is really unbelievable.

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The drama has been extended for another 5 episodes so now the end date is December 27. It won't surprise me if they keep adding 5 episodes each week. Broadcasters only care about money.

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Since her dramas earns good ratings, it seems she doesn't care anymore ''The fuck, I'll do what I want and still get good ratings hahahahah, kill the hero!''

LOL it seems she earns ratings thanks to media play and viewers curiousity about what is next, so she has to continue her crazy plots or else people will stop watching it since it seems she isn't that good of writer to keep viewers for other things.

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Hahahaa. This comment so much

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you forgot to say "The fuck, I’ll do what I want and still get good ratings and I'll still get paid! Screw it, hahahahah, kill the hero!”

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The fuck...now how do I kill the heroin for the fun of it....I need to do this for the sake of the ratings and the cancer cells!

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In hell, this writer will have to live her plots ...

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Ooh, I bet if we got a show out of the drama behind the drama, that'd make for a juicy train wreck.
I'm surprised this is my first time ever hearing about this show even existing, which is interesting considering how crazy all of this sounds.. When you kill off the main early on that's definitely some balls you've got there.
30k an episode is quite alot for a daily. I wonder how much experienced writers make (for 16-24 episodes). More or less?

lol, like a few others I feel compelled to check this show out simply as a case study.

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It does not seem like any of the usual sites are subbing it, which is probably one reason for it flying under the radar outside of Korea. Usually Hulu gets all the MBC shows, but apparently not this one.

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Kdrama writers give us all a very good lesson:

Drugs are bad for you.

Dear Dramaland people, stop using them.

Also, this goes to show how ratings being the true King of Dramas is only harmful. A show as bad as this would have never kept going. They cancel or cut good stuff and keep such crap running. It just proves channels and production companies couldn't care less about even a basic let's-pretend-for-the-viewers level of quality when the money is good enough. A sad thing, when Koreans are so talented and drama could be so much more.

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The show is supposedly no. 2 on the most popular shows list in Korea right now. I can see how MBC may want to milk this. American stars are known to use bad press to garner attention. I hope other writers don't do a copycat of this.

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Lol. My GOSH, lady. The 1994 parody... hahaha. Writer is a quack.

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After reading this article I laughed hard and long enough that I do not think I need to laugh for the rest of the week. This is gold! Really someone should have created a reality show of the making of this drama, it would have been a better hit than the show. I especially love how so many people signed a petition, but then did not stop watching the show making said petition mute. Thank you Javabeans for this article, it was a fun read :)

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I was warned away from this train wreck. So glad I opted to watch Ugly Alert instead! Kill off the hero? DAMN!!

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Oh. My. God.

This is so hilariously outrageous and Javabeans, I'm totally cracking up in such a hysterical fashion. Love, love, love this blog post. You have such a brilliant way with words....excellent wit! Thanks for writing this up and not just keeping it between you and Girlfriday, hehe.

So much drama because of one writer.....but at least she won't be kicked out of the industry considering how ratings are in her favor. Netizens should've considered their contradicting actions: petitioning yet watching her show and boosting ratings. Maybe they just wanted to see how much worse it could possibly get. I do love the Answer Me parody though, especially the part where Na-jung becomes a Taoist fairy, lmao.

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Ummmmmmmmmm...well...wow.

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omg I was only reading this blog post and my head was spinning. That drama was crazy. I've watched writer Im's drama: New Tales of Gisaeng and I thought that story was a little strange but man was I wrong. Now it kinda makes me wary of writer Im's future works

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All of her dramas tend to veer of the path of sanity a bit and that's putting it lightly. I think the only drama she has done that I liked was "Dear Heaven" and that had its dose of crazy makjang as well.

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Her drama assorted gems was good. The ending was meh but I have seen worse.

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So what you're saying is that the Crayon Pop version of this drama is better and reasonable than the original?? I've been looking for eng subs for this show...good ones, that is

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The Crayon Pop version of anything is better than anything :D

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what was she thinking??? was she trying to recreate the epic Game of thrones, korean style???

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Reminds me of the Simpsons

Homer: Fame was like a drug, but what was even more like a drug were the drugs

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Drugs are a hell of a drug

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I didn't even know this drama existed. When I read the title, I assumed this was a new drama w/ a crazy plot that shouldn't be follow. She got paid nearly $5 million for her own 'death note' is pretty amazing. MBC can pay me half of that and I can write a decent, tear-jerk drama. I have lots of ideas.

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HAHAHA... I can't even... So this is why Princess Aurora is the second highest searched drama of the year in Daum! No freakin wonder! Can't believe a no-drama-behind-the-scenes GFB beat it, because that is some level of crazy. But I get why MBC wouldn't fire her - when have they cared about negative publicity anyway? If they get their ratings, they're happy.

The sad thing is that most likely, this writer will have a lot more opportunities to write crazy dramas like this because whether we like it or not, everyone's going to be tuning in to see her next trainwreck. Thats just showbiz. Its so unfortunate.

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Seo Ha Joon is only thing that kept that drama.

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Gosh, this is so frustrating. I don't, and probably would never, understand what's the appeal of this kind of trainweck that it keeps scoring high viewership. But then again, I live in a country where this kind of situation is not an uncommon practice in dramaland. Dramas often run for 700++ episodes, whereby the characters and plots are getting more and more psychotic by the minute, and casts are such a flexible thing that could be written out, replaced, or brought back as you please. I guess the only upside is that there are people who actually protest and create petition in Korea; though well, it also kinda contradicts the likes of people who keep watching. Ouch, my head. Mind does not compute.

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"I don’t, and probably would never, understand what’s the appeal of this kind of trainweck that it keeps scoring high viewership."

Curiosity, lol.

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there's one drama in my country too that end around that, and it went to records as the most eps in drama ever in local book of records it's crazy.
that drama extended its roots main couple's romance down to their grandchildren gyahahaha...
really, it's 3 generation love story,

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Those poor actors...

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Omg, the Reply 1994 rewrite had me laughing so hard. There were literal tears in my eyes.

But this drama is honestly the strangest thing I've ever seen. I see it from time to time because my mom likes to watch it (why, I don't know), but I had no idea that there was so much going on outside of the actual drama, as in people protesting and stuff. It's understandable though, this drama had my jaw dropping at the ridiculousness of it.And I feel bad for the actors that have to deal with this...

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Can this deranged version of Reply 1994 exist? Please? It's so bad that it's good.

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I watch this every nite on MBC America. We haven't got to the part where the the dog dies. I am ready to cry because Hunk is such a cute and smart dog.

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C.R.A.Z.Y

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I don't find the writing that offensive actually. Okay it is, but it sounds no worse than your typical American soap opera, only thing missing is bringing more back from the dead and recasting other actors to play the same character. Now how the actors are treated with no respect at all is the main issue. She should not be allowed to continue writing even if the ratings are good because of that.

I can't lie though, I'd watch the parody version of Reply 1994, so I guess I'm part of the problem.

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See, I felt the same way...until I read the wikipedia page fro Im Sung-han.

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Yep. There is definitely something not right about her.

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OMG - One of her scenes from another show: "..and that washing each strawberry with a toothbrush is described as normal..."

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Wow... that is A LOT of drama!

I'd completely forgotten about this drama, but I thought it would be pretty sweet and low-key. Little did I know.

Meanwhile, Kim Soo Hyun's "The Woman who Married Three Times" has been scoring low ratings... and honestly the drama itself is pretty boring. I don't know why it took so long to pick a cast.

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Killing off people is one thing, but also the dog? That's just too cruel to comprehend.

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are people all lobotomized?

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Wow. Glad I am not watching this one. Did the dog really die while having an out of body experience? Hilarious.

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haha I like the parody of Reply 1994 (*shakes head*)

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I guess Korea is at least decades behind American TV. American soaps have been pulling killing and bringing back the dead and possessions for decades. Anyone remember the ridiculousness of Passion on NBC? Or when Marlena got possessed on Days. This writer may be ridiculous but it a leap in story telling for Korean TV. A bad leap but a leap that will take Korean TV forward. I am sure the writer was tired of writing the same tired story lines. There is only so much bad mother in law, love triangles, choebels, poor girl dying to meet rich guy viewers can take. Killing a main character is a way to get thing spiced up. Game of thrones anyone.?
I want to see more shows like Heartless City. If this writer moving Korean TV stupidly forward is the way to get her, I hope she gets her extention by 50 episodes and give aurora super powers and fights crime in her spare time.

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"give aurora super powers and fights crime in her spare time."

LOL

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What in the what.

On the plus side, if the main character is dead does that awful hairstyle on the posters die with him?

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After finding out that she made almost 5million with her crazy writing, I'm sure kdramaland is going to gain loads of new writer wannabes. Heck, even I want to write now.

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Sounds like the kind of thing that might be fun to watch if you have a checklist of all the craziness onscreen and off to go with it.

Wasn't she accused of killing characters off because her husbands death/suicide or something as well? Or was I dreaming that article, I can't remember where I read it. Or maybe a different writer?

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