There are K-Drama fans across the globe who share the same passion. But on online platforms, it is hard to know about each other’ stories and tastes. When it is so interesting to know more about how others are living their drama passion. So, at Kpopmap, we started the Kpopmap Fan Interview Project to get to know more about K-Drama fans from different countries. Just like the Kpopmap Fan Interview for actors, the Kpopmap Fan Interview for K-Dramas aims to open the opportunity for fans to talk about K-Dramas, recommend their favorite shows, and share their insights and their love for K-Dramas with our readers. One fan from Europe answered our questions about their favorite K-Dramas and actors! Check out how they became a K-Drama fan, the reasons why, the dramas they recommend, and many more insights. Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from? Hello, I am a long-time K-Drama addict. I like to think that I am just one habitant of this planet. I have lived in different countries and don’t have a country I call “home”. But to answer the question, I was born in the West of Europe. What is the 1st K-Drama you’ve watched, and when? How did you happen to come across it? My very first K-Drama was “Full House” (2004), and that was around 2009-2010. I can’t remember exactly when. This drama and “Boys Over Flowers” (2009) introduced me to K-Drama but it was not the ones that got me into it, that would be more “You’re Beautiful” (2009) or “City Hunter” (2011). Back then, I was watching Taiwanese dramas and was looking for more dramas to watch on an Asian drama platform. Korean dramas were trending there, so I just tried to watch the most popular drama on the top of that time. It was “Full House”. Before that, I had never heard of Korean dramas or anything about its entertainment world. It was purely out of curiosity. Are you mostly watching K-Dramas or not? If you are watching series from other countries, let us know. I would say I am watching over 80 % of K-Dramas. They are my main interest. But I also watch Thai, Taiwanese, and Chinese dramas, and very occasionally Japanese dramas. I feel that I need a bit of change from time to time especially when there is no K-Drama that suits my tastes. I am particularly enjoying watching Thai dramas these days too. What genre of K-Dramas are you mostly watching? Romance! I would say my favorite types are: 1st-campus romance 2nd-fantasy romance 3rd-historical romance. I also like romantic comedy and thriller romance of course. I do watch other genres of K-Dramas sometimes but it depends very much on my current drama schedule and the actors. Would you say you are a K-Drama addict? How many do you watch a week? Do you prefer ongoing dramas or binge-watching? I am definitely addicted, I don’t think I can stay more than 1-2 weeks without watching one K-Drama. I am really passionate about it. I used to finish one full K-Drama in 1-2 weeks. But I switched to watching the ongoing dramas (or the pain of waiting every week!). I was tired of being spoiled about them beforehand that is why I changed from binge-watching to watching ongoing dramas. As for how many I watch … It depends but I am watching min 2 - max 8 ongoing dramas a week. I would say 6 ongoing dramas a week would be the average. There is the drama for when I clean and cook (I don’t need subtitles to understand thankfully), one for when I eat, and one that needs my full focus. I live alone and have all the time to watch. If a drama is passionating, I can’t do anything at the time of course. I would be too busy pausing every shocking line or scene! For Kpopmap readers who are not familiar with Korean dramas/movies yet, please tell us what makes Korean actors and Korean dramas/movies attractive to you. It is very hard to explain but K-Dramas are simply perfect for me. It has everything. When it comes to romance, it is very pure, heart-fluttering, and with painting-like scenes (of course, there are exceptions).
Also, I find them comfortable to watch, as there is nothing too shocking shown. Of course, if you watch tvN, OCN, and Netflix Original dramas there are more violence and blood. So I tend to be more careful in my choices with them. In historical dramas, I am the type that enjoys the series that make viewers understand that the person was beheaded and not showing it on full screen with a zoom of the bloody head. Out of curiosity, I tried to watch “Extracurricular” on Netflix and ended up shocked by some scenes. Watching a documentary about teen prostitution and the actual drama is a whole different world. Aside from some more recent dramas on some platforms, K-Dramas are easy to watch. This is a very important point to me. Do you feel there has been more interest in K-Dramas in your surroundings? Or were people surrounding you already interested? I feel there are more interests but an interest different from mine. “Squid Game”, “Stranger”, and “Kingdom” are the type of K-Dramas I don’t watch but I started to hear some people who never watched K-Dramas talking about it. Also, my close friend’s mother got hooked on “Crash Landing On You” and asked me for a list of romance K-Dramas through my friend, I was very happy to hear about it. There is no age limit or borders in liking romance K-Dramas! What makes you watch a drama? The cast, director, writer, summary, poster, etc. The cast first! I have an extensive list of actors I am looking to see on screen. If they are doing a new drama, I will watch it for sure. So all the rest is not important. If their new project does not include romance, I checked the summary and the first episode if necessary to decide if I should watch it or not. Second, come the genre and summary. If they are new actors or actors that I am still unfamiliar with, I look at the summary. If it is romance and the story seems interesting, I will watch for sure. If there is a campus romance, it will be on my watchlist, no matter what! Third, the posters and official pictures. It sounds silly but I pay special attention to the posters. Since I am looking for romance, if the posters are eye-catchy or beautiful, the drama will also be in my watchlist. The director or writer has very little influence on my decision. Hopefully, that was clear ^^. I watch a lot of romance but not just any romance if that makes sense. Can you give us your top 3 K-Dramas and why you love them? My top 3?! That is hard since I really watched a looot of dramas for over 11 years. My first one will be “Weighlifting Fairy Kim BokJoo” (2016), it is unforgettable. The lead couple’s chemistry and the love story is just incredibly good. “Do you like Messi?” and “SWAG”, who can forget these iconic lines?! I re-watched it a lot of times and I can tell you every time it is as hilarious and heart-fluttering as the first time. BokJoo (Lee SungKyoung) and JoonHyung (Nam JooHyuk) are just the perfect matches!! The second one will be “My Love From The Star” (2013). I mean this drama is legendary. I am not even sure I need to mention why it is a must-watch. The perfect script full of fun, romance, mystery, action, and fantasy. One of the best dramas in K-Drama history. This is undeniable! The third one will be “Warrior Baek DongSoo” (2011). I am a big fan of historical drama and that was my first ever historical drama. The brotherhood and the sword fighting scenes were the best. One of the reasons why it is unforgettable to me is that it was the first time I cried that long because of a series. I was immersed in the 29 episodes at 100%. It took me a whole week to get over it or maybe I am still not over it after all these years. No spoiler on what if you still did not watch it! “City Hunter”, “Empress Ki”, “I Hear Your Voice”, “Pinocchio”, “Remember: War of the Son”, “W”, and more are also my favorites. But you’re going to say that these are all old dramas. Most recently “True Beauty” (2020-2021) and “Semantic Error” (2022) were the dramas that got me addicted and smiling for days. 100000% recommended. Who are some of your favorite K-Drama actors/actresses and why? I do have a long list of actors I love but no one can beat Yoo SeungHo when it comes to making me feel the characters’ feelings. The moment he starts to tears, I am doing the same. When he smiles, I also smile. He is such a talented actor!! He is the only one with such an impact on my feelings. Yoo SeungHo is also suuuper good in historical dramas.
Lee JongSuk will come next. I watched all his dramas and they all ended up being the best dramas I’ve ever seen. His acting is on the point and he has good eyes when choosing his projects.
I also never miss a drama with Lee MinHo, Nam JooHyuk, Lee JoonGi (especially his historical dramas), Ji ChangWook, Suzy, and Park ShinHye. RoWoon (SF9), Woo DoHwan, Lee SooHyuk, Park HyungSik, Kim SooHyun, Byeon WooSeok, Kim JaeYoung, Lee SungKyoung, Moon ChaeWon, and more are also on my list of favorite actors too. “New” (in recent years) actors such as Lee JaeWook, Song Kang, Hwang InYoup, BoMin (Golden Child), and JaeChan gained my attention too. It is not only their good look but they are good at acting or have a good potential. Lee JaeWook is particularly good!! He will become a top Hallyu star in no time, I hope.
What do you think is the most underrated drama in history and why? It all depends on what you call “underrated”. I think “Born Again” (2020) was a very good drama but did not get enough interest. It was intriguing, mysterious, touching, and romantic. More recently “Soundtrack #1” was very good but lacked of recognition. I liked how the production focused on the actors’ expressions. I felt it was a very romantic drama without much budget or super complex plot. Just a healing romance drama. Do you have an all-time favorite scene? Can you describe it or share a video? In “Weightlifting Fairy Kim BokJoo” there is this scene where JoonHyung (Nam JooHyuk) protects himself from the car splashing water by using BokJoo (Lee SungKyoung) as a human shield. If you’ve watched many dramas, you would know that, usually, the male lead gets the splash on his back to protect the girl from the water. He did not even turn her to have her back face the road but the front! But this was the complete opposite so it was so memorable.
Also in “Weightlifting Fairy Kim BokJoo”, there is a sweet scene where JoonHyung tries to “catch” sad BokJoo by fishing her with her favorite sausage. You can tell he knows everything about her and is never out of ideas to care for her.
This scene from “You’re Beautiful” is when Jang KeunSuk is listing to music in the countryside. Healing at the sound of the music, the sun, and nature. He did not hear and misunderstood what the local farmer what screaming to him … that there was a charging pig coming after him. Trust me with the music and acting, it is just super funny.
Lee MinHo’s iconic “disgusting shit” from “Legend of the Blue Sea” need to be in here too. I don’t know why my first thought goes to the most hilarious scenes I have ever seen more than sad, shocking, or romantic scenes. But they are my all-time favorites. They still make me laugh and are saved on my phone. Since I have the opportunity, let me just change one cool GIF of Yoo SeungHo. He has so many awesome sword fighting scenes in his filmography.
Do you feel there are any misunderstandings, things that are not well known, or any prejudices about your K-Drama? There is a lot of prejudice about K-Drama from people who don’t watch. But if I were to talk about it this interview will end up being more of a Master’s Thesis. What makes me sad are people with prejudice inside of the K-Drama community. I feel sometimes judged for “only” watching romance “at my age” (yes, the quotation are on purpose). To be honest, I feel it is wrong to judge others’ hobbies. It is not because I only watch romance dramas, that it makes me childish and not knowledgeable. I don’t know why watching drama without romance and without a “handsome actor not good at acting” would make someone’s taste superior to us watching romance dramas. Do you have predictions about the future of K-Dramas? Do you think K-Dramas can be mainstream all over the world? I am also curious about this. I think it is good that the entertainment consumed globally gets more diverse. Looking at my parents, they mainly consumed American shows but now they watch content from diverse countries and I think that it is for the best. I wish people get to know about K-Drama in all its genres and those of us watching don’t have to hide or explain what it is anymore. Thank you for answering our questions. Note: Kpopmap Fan Interview includes some of the interviewed fan’s favorite pictures and videos, and that includes old pictures. If you are interested in joining Kpopmap Fan Interview Project, please get in touch with us at [email protected] with the topic line “Kpopmap Fan Interview - Drama”. Everyone is welcome to participate.
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