4 days late, but I want to participate!

30 Day Drama Challenge

Day 1 – Favourite K-Drama – #DalJasSpring

I have a lot of favourite shows, but if I were to ask what drama takes the gold for me, I would say it’s Dal Ja`s Spring. I saw this drama in 2007 and I still visit this show from time to time especially when I am in drama deep slump.

What set Dal Ja`s Spring apart from the rest of the dramas at the time it aired was the fact that it dealt with women empowerment. In 2007, this plot was a fresh concept. A drama that focused on working women who worked their way up the ladder and were actually great at their jobs. Dal Ja was respected in her profession. Her colleagues relied on her capabilities. She was this ideal career woman who had her own apartment, could provide food on the table, always dressed for success.

Amidst her successful career, she was, however, clueless about relationships; she had a habit of overthinking and overacting when love and feelings were involved. She tried. She made mistakes. She tried again. She took her time figuring out what she was as a woman and as a person. I also liked that the male lead ended up falling for her first before she did with him.

I enjoyed watching the second OTP as well – they were not eye candy, but I liked that the perfectionist stubborn female host fell for the immature production director who slept his way through and that they had matured together over the course of the show.

I am the same age now as Dal Ja and I still love her and her moments to this day. I don’t get tired watching this show. She was also the reason why I don’t change the colour of my nails. I always sport black nails because of her. Her nails were pretty!

Sharing you my favourite fanmade music video.

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    Love love love! I’m currently rewatching this with my best friend (it’s her first time watching)! It’s not a perfect show but I love how focused it was on female characters, and they were all flawed but (mostly) ultimately likable. So three-dimensional. Dal-ja and Tae-bong are one of my favorite OTPs as well as among my individual favorite female and male leads.

    There are so few classic 00s dramas that have both a complex female lead AND a male lead who is sweet and not a jerk! It was like a unicorn back then!

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      Oh! It’s also one of those shows that never strays from its focus on the female lead. Many rom-coms end up turning into the male lead’s shows in the second half, but Dal-ja’s Spring was always about Dal-ja. Tae-bong got his focus at the end as well, but the drama always focused on Dal-ja’s reactions and feelings before anyone else’s. I loved it! She goes through some great character development. Despite how many bad choices she makes, you always root for her.

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        Yes to all what you’ve said Mindy. And this is why this show continued for resonate with me. There is a rise now of strong female leads in recent dramas, but I still remember Dal Ja’s Spring as that drama was female-centric. The drama that respected women and their chosen profession. That drama that talked about women’s success and their insecurities. The drama was more than just about finding men to fall in love with. Also Dal Ja’s OOTD was always on point.

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    May be I should rewatch this!! Why is Lee Min Ki so swoony in this video.
    I didn’t like it much when I saw it and I was mostly put off by the wig (yeah yeah, am shallow like that). I am not sure if I finished the drama. Will give it another try sometime.

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      It’s not a wig, is it?! It’s her real hair! The ep I just watched with my friend has Dal-ja and Tae-bong snowed in and her hair kinda deflated from the snow, lol!

      I’m totally biased but I love her hair. I liked the drama from the beginning but I recognize that it doesn’t really get good until episode 7 or so. Episodes 7-16ish were great, in my opinion.

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        And yeah, Min-ki is just pure charm in this. I don’t know how he does it. I love how varied his roles are but I would kill for him to play this type of character again.

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        It def picked up when Dal Ja decided to move on from getting involved with her second man. When her contract relationship with Tae Bong ended and he went see her and lived with her because he had already liked her, that was when the squeeeeling began for sure!

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      I like her hair (it’s not a wig!). It’s a little crazy and out of control but still soft. Just like Dal-ja.

      Visually, Dal-ja is completely dated, but plot and character-wise, way ahead of its time and 2020 drama writers should study it for how to write a female character.

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        Def egads. Dal Ja’s Spring was ahead of its time and that’s why it was so refreshing to watch it at that time. Still a memorable show to this day. Even though Dal Ja longed for that kind of relationship she couldn’t have, she was happy with her life. She was a capable woman who can feed herself just fine under a nice roof. She didn’t need a man! But of course who can resist a cutie Tae Bong 😉

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      It could also be that the drama is now dated that it’s kinda hard to connect with the characters. I checked MDL and was extremely shocked that this awesome drama is rated 7.7! 😱 I could not for the life of me figured out why! Then I read comments that aside from women-centric drama, it was full of tropes yada yada yada. While I do agree that it did have its tropey parts, would never see this drama that way. It’s perfect in my eyes lol.

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        See, what I liked was that it seemed like the drama was poking fun at a lot of tropes! I will forever laugh at their parents’ flashback where the 50-60 year old actors played themselves, and when Dal-ja was like “what if we’re… Half-siblings?!” and Tae-bong said “…You’ve been watching too many dramas” LOL

        Also, people on MDL have no taste anyway

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