About Korean Drama

Korean drama (Korean: 한국드라마) refers to televised dramas, in a miniseries format, produced in the Korean language. Many of these dramas have become popular throughout Asia and have contributed to the general phenomenon of the Korean wave, known as "Hallyu", and also "Drama Fever" in some countries.

Most popular Korean dramas have also become popular in other parts of the world such as Latin America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Some of the most internationally popular Korean dramas are Winter Sonata, Dae Jang Geum, Full House, Stairway to Heaven, My Girl, Love Story in Harvard, Autumn in My Heart, My Lovely Sam Soon, Delightful Girl Choon-hyang, Yi San, Boys Over Flowers, You're Beautiful, Brilliant Legacy, Queen Seondeok, The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince,King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo, IRIS and Secret Garden, especially King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo which had hit an outstanding 50.8 with its last episode on KBS.

The genres that most internationally popular Korean dramas belong to are often romance, romantic comedy and historical dramas. An exception includes IRIS, a spy action thriller. Most other Korean dramas popular throughout Asia or beyond are either romances, romantic comedies or historical. Popular Korean historical dramas almost all hold a serious tone, while Korean dramas with a modern setting have a balanced share of both serious and more lighthearted themes.

Plot Korean Drama

There are two main genres of Korean dramas, generally speaking. The first genre is similar to soap operas but without the never ending plot and frank sexual content. These dramas typically involve conflicts such as single and marital relationships, money bargaining, relationships between in-laws (usually between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law), and often complicated love triangles while the female hero usually falls in love with the main character who may treat her badly since the beginning, instead of the one who always cares for her. These dramas last anywhere from 16 episodes to over 100 (most often not exceeding 200). Most plots of Korean soap operas are similar where a love triangle is always present.

The other main genre is Korean historical dramas (also known as sa geuk), which are fictionalized dramatizations of Korean history. Korean historical dramas typically involve very complex story lines with elaborate costumes, sets and special effects. Martial arts, sword fighting and horsemanship are frequently a big component of Korean historical dramas as well. Korean dramas, whether the historical dramas or modern dramas, typically are characterized by excellent production quality, characters with depth, intelligent scriptwriting but largely relies on the use of archetypal characters.

As they are designed as family entertainment to satisfy a broad audience, there are typically a combination of human interest story elements across most of the historical dramas - interwoven themes of family, romance, friendship, martial arts, political strategy, wars, trade, etc. These stories are, therefore, usually of interest to all - women and men, young and old.