The terrible ghost babies story continues in South Korea. The Korea Times reported this week the government has confirmed 249 of the 2,123 babies without any record of registration have died since 2015 because of health problems or crimes committed by their guardians. The 249, or 11.7 percent, were confirmed to have died from sickness or other means. The police confirmed 27 but at least seven were confirmed to have died because of criminally punishable acts such as child abandonment, leading police to refer the cases to the prosecution. The ministry confirmed the survival of 1,025 babies, with many just abandoned at orphanages, while police are continuing their investigation into 814 more whose statuses have not yet been verified.

How did you choose your Beanie name?

For me:
I was intrigued by Korean pretty much as soon as I started watching kdramas. I started learning to read hangeul and trying to make the correct sounds that went with the letters. Aspiration isn’t something we generally use to distinguish sounds in English - we’re much more likely to use voicing. But Korean is the opposite, and aspiration is a big deal. I think what was most informative for me was reading transliterations of English words in hangeul, where they often have an extra vowel sound tagged on the end to make sure they aspirate the last consonant. (Example: juice -> 주스 [and if I was going to romanize that directly, it would be juseu]) Anyway, all this to say, I got really into trying to hear the differences between the different consonant sounds, so when I decided to stop lurking on here and comment for the first time, I named myself “Unaspirated” in honor of the sounds I try to get right as I’m learning Korean.

The Hollywood actor and writer strikes are likely to last through the end of the year. Studio heads will not even discuss the artist’s demands. This is the first time since 1960 that two unions struck at the same time (which resulted back then with artists getting residuals for their work which is still a sticking point this time with new distribution channels.) One key point for writers is that studios want to eliminate the writer’s room (multiple writers hired per project) to probably use artificial intelligence to write scripts. Actors got shocked to learn that several actors’ voices were used without permission for audio books. Then, with the rapid release of deep fake videos, actors cringed with the studio demand that background actors would be scanned and their virtual image could be used in perpetuity without any further compensation.

The age of the fake actor is here. In animation, motion capture has been used to cut costs and create 3D characters. Now, with technology running faster than people realize, real job losses are at stake. But it was coming. Dead actors have been digitally placed in advertisements more than a decade ago. The studio FX departments in the 1980s toyed with the idea of computer generated actors. Indiana Jones used anti-aging software on Harrison Ford. This is why the strike will be long: it is not just about the money, it is about technology transforming so rapidly that the human artist may be lost by the wayside.

In the movie industry, promotion and marketing are the ground work for a successful release. But two anomalies occurred this week. First, a short news story late last Friday announced the start of filming on this past Monday for the new Korean movie INTERVIEW starring Jo Yeo Jung (High Class) and Jung Sung Il (The Glory). It is a story about a journalist getting an interview with a clever serial killer (it reminds me of narrative in Jo’s previous work THE BABYSITTER). Jung said he took the role after reading the last page of the script (which is a signal of a good plot twist/ending.) This is the second live action film for the director who started his career in animation field. Usually, production studios build up casting news, first read meeting, etc. to start the hype but this one is very low key; it has the vibe (and budget) of an indie movie production.

On the other hand, without any trailers, interviews or advertising promotion, Studio Ghibli released Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, THE BOY AND THE HERON, and it broke the studio’s opening box office record in Japan. Immediately, social media and critics praised the film as another masterpiece. Word of mouth and director reputation will carry this film’s box office instead of advertising costs.

The low key approach appears to be grounded in cost cutting. In 2022, 160 k-drams were produced. In 2023, it is estimated only around 100 will be made. This year, there have been a lot of series cancelled during production because the major Korean networks have cut back and OTTs are bleeding large financial losses. Budgets are now severely restricted (which could mean cutting PR budgets, promotion, posters, etc.) One local director was quoted as saying “We’re in a situation that we can’t afford without the investment from streaming platforms. So when the platforms downsize the funding, the networks discard the projects with which they are not sure of recouping the expenses.” KBS just lost about half its annual income when its TV fee on utility bills was terminated.

It is not to say that foreign money has dried up yet. (It helps that US studios are shut down by actors and writers strikes). Disney’s $45M(US) production budget for the series MOVING is four times higher than the Korean local production average. But the foreign spending bubble will burst soon. Disney+ lost 4 million subscribers in the last quarter and suffered a loss of $659 million.

weather - oh ho - summer really is summer - +ve - hot - beautiful

rain - a lot - humidity high - temp up - clouds forming for one more action week. rain - hot fast rain brought temp down but increased mosquitoes..

fast rain to flood to land slides to damage of infra - even power lines become dangerous - floods brinh minerals of mountains n made the lands the plains - but floods aren't clean.

As i have continued from spring - monsoon is normal - but ocean heat gave much to monsoon to make a beautiful show.

June was hot - record making
July ever hottest in 1000s of years - much vapour in the air it has to go some place.
As said for weeks - july gonna decide monsoon play n economy n it has shown its beauty in Asia in last 2 weeks - more to come

I'm heartily welcome it.

Hi

so I haven´t had time to share the idioms I promised and I cannot type korean letters on this PC.
But I just discovered another great page explaining the context of some metaphors and idioms. look for organickorean and then go to context tab. '

yesterday we tried to translate the estonian versions of some sayings into korean. Like 꽃도 움직이지 않을거예요 for 손가락 하나 까딱하기 싫네요. Or 그림이 사라질 때까지 for drinking until you can wring your nose or 술이 떡이 되다
Now I am looking for more estonian idioms to translate, but since a lot of words in them come from old local dialects then it cannot be easily translated through english into korean. (Papago translator has no estonian :-()

Nice slang expressions here: https://matadornetwork.com/read/10-slang-phrases-need-know-korea/

I really like 뛰는 놈 위에 나는 놈 있다 - even if you run, someone will be flying aka someone will always be above you.
and 아랫돌 빼어 웃돌 괴기 - solving problems with short-lasting measures.
밤새도록 울다가 누구 초상이냐 묻는다 - following others without having a clue about the situation
oh yeah, and 호랑이 없는 곳에서 여우가 왕 노릇한다 - when the tiger is not home, the fox is the king.
im always the king tho

also been rewatching some very old stuff which also kinda makes me wistful and sorry and realise time flies. I sound like an old hag now.

oh, the teacher yesterday - yes, handsome. BUT... his sense of humor is 아재개그 aka old man jokes. he was a total weirdo! my brain got so foggy. it was confusing.

I've mentioned in the past that I taught English in Taiwan for a few year after college. This summer will be 50 years since I arrived there.

Any Beanies from Taiwan?

Did You Know? HTML Tags Allowed on Dramabeans Edition

Did you know that there are a limited number of HTML text formatting tags you can type into your Dramabeans comments and over on your Fan Wall?

When @reply1988 asks for an act of service, I jump. I thought long and hard about writing this information up on my own here, and I very may actually do so eventually over on my fanwall where I can use more tags and my own sense of style (such as it is). But in the meantime, I remembered the right words to use to google up this older post by a very well-respected Beanie, @hades:

https://www.dramabeans.com/members/hades/activity/519553/

For ease of reference in 2023, here are links to @hades’ final, edited tutorials out in the clear:

https://imgur.com/8Ri9Ndu

https://imgur.com/TzOWJgi

https://imgur.com/aogt1I8

This should help people get started doing what they want to do right away!

Hello, I'm looking for the title of the song that plays in background in episode 2 season 1 of "Tale of nine tailed fox" during the scene where Yeon meets with Shin in a cafe please, can someone help me ? Thank you !

Anyone read the webcomic Operation True Love? It updates in Korea on Friday mornings (well, where I live) and there's very nice person who posts the summary of the latest fast pass chapter on the Novel Updates forum shortly after it's released. I'm waiting anxiously to hear the latest update, especially since there wasn't one last week (the artist had to take the week off).

"I feel I want to protect her"
It seems to me that also in dramas with no clear and present danger, the male often expresses the will to protect the leading female. Sometimes it is in the process of discovering his own feelings ... "I feel this unrest here, in my chest ... and I fell I want to protect her".
Is there a special Korean context for protecting people?
I mean, to gentlemanly protect a woman is of course an old cliché, but to make is central in that way also when she is not exposed to any danger surprised me at least the first ten times I encountered it.
My best example I can recall right now is in "Clean with Passion for Now" where he says: "She is bright, and pretty. That's why I want to protect her". If he had said "She is bright, but fragile" or maybe "I can see it makes a lot of men angry that she is smarter than them and that they can't have her" the protection part would make more sense, but no. There is no apparent reason to protect her.
Does anyone have some background knowledge they can share with me on that?

I just realized this might be a good place to ask: does anyone know of any Kdramas that are based on or heavily inspired by Jane Austen novels? I've heard that Cunning Single Lady is similar to Persuasion, and obviously a lot of Kdrama MLs have Darcy vibes, but that's about all that I've seen.

What a *censored* crappy week. I've barely slept, all of it during very wrong for my skin hours, had to deal with recurring headache which is super rare in my case, had no appetite and overall STILL feel rather stressed. And no, I cannot stop typing this and go have some rest, sadly, there are certain annoying reasons that keep me awake. Usually I'm strong enough to pull an all-nighter or two easily, but it's been DAYS now! Ofc, thanks to all that I was not in the mood for reading nor dramas, so expect my next entry in WWWW thread be like "dropped this, paused that, everything sucks" lol. Sorry for that in advance))) Now if only I was lucky enough to have ONE calm night to recover... If there any zombie projects around needing an extra, contact me pls! Before I start biting people without being paid to do so...

Really upsetting (sorry if this upsets anyone else too) to read about students assaulting teachers in SK. Teaching is hard and often thankless work. It becomes even harder and sometimes dangerous when children have behavioural issues which are not easily rectifiable. It appears that obnoxious parenting also is a noxious gift that keeps giving: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230720000624

Ah the joy of a Friday. I am excited to see if ANYTHING happens with the second couple in 19th life.

And super excited about DP2 and Uncanny Counter dropping next week.

Such a tiring day, I just want to stretch out on my kdrama couch and watch anything and stare into space.

Was gonna write this on my fanwall but character limit haha
Maybe it was for the better.

When I first read the premise of this webtoon Marry My Husband, I didn’t get it. I thought if people were terrible to you, why not just avoid them? But the way this story played out was SO SATISFYING! Truly felt karmic.

I think it's being adapted into a kdrama and I'm wondering if the live action version will be able to do the webtoon justice.

I have a question about a feature of Korean speech in some KDs. Do any of you know if there is a syntactical name for this particular emphasis on certain syllables/words that elongates the initial sound somewhat gutturally? One example is at 21.19/20 in School 2017 where the principal dismisses an idea. It sounds very imprecisely like “khweee”!😊🥰. Thank you kindly!

I'm watching a video on youtube about how women's fashion (and bodies) is policed and commented on and it made me think about a couple of things. Personally, I tend to swing like a pendulum between being comfortable with myself & body and feeling super self conscious. Just recently, I bought a dress and it was more form fitting than I thought. When I tried it on, all I could see was my love handles (for lack of a better term) but my mother was like you look totally fine, it's a nice fit, etc. It's when I have those self conscious thoughts that I wonder just how much is due to societal opinions impacting my own perspective about myself.

In the video I'm watching, they discussed how women are often judged no matter how they dress. If they wear pantsuits, they're too masculine. If they show skin, they're too sexy. Heaven forbid they show nipples. It's always this weird balancing act women have to do with every aspect of their lives including their fashion.

I also thought of how I've seen Korean actresses dress at the award shows. Obviously, SK is a pretty conservative country but good grief, people tend to look the same. There has been times when every woman on the stage was wearing white and I wondered if that was a requirement. I don't pay much attention to things like that but I think often times, the look they're going for are like angelic dolls or something.

I had a Wtf moment yesterday that I want to share. Some background: I have a friend who was in a terrible domestic violence situation and still suffers from its trauma. She grew up in an appallingly restrictive and conservative environment (walking on the roads with her eyes down was expected behaviour, and talking to unrelated men earned severe discipline), was married off at a very young age and finally found herself abused and abandoned after a decade of a relationship that involved all sorts of abuse.

Now, I have been helping her stand on her feet after her separation, and she is a remarkable young lady. In my quest to share my love of my K-drama, we decided to binge-watch my current favourite - Our Blooming Youth.

In the second episode, when the Prince slammed Min Jay Yi to the door and covered her mouth to stop her from shouting, my friend looked dismayed and asked, 'Is he going to hit her?' The episode ended there, and I was absolutely unnerved and dumbfounded.

It never occurred to me that Hwan would hit Jay Yi, no matter how angry he was. Not ever. On the contrary, I remember reading comments on how some even found it hot (and forever lamented that we never got to revisit that macho side of him again and I agreed with them).

My friend started watching it, knowing that these two were the pair in the series. A man who hits a woman can never be her romantic half. Yet, my friend thought it was completely normal. I realized she had seen abuse to such an extent that she had internalized and normalized it!

It made me pause and think - what we believe as macho and even 'hot' can be interpreted entirely differently by someone who has experienced abuse.