Jdramas vs Kdramas

[KouSeiya315]

K-dramas are usually really very melodramatic. They try to drag as much emotion from you as possible and try to keep you hooked They tend to get predictable over a while though. Some of the endings really suck and make you go "WTF WAS THAT??????". If you like tear jerker dramas that are dragged out, k-dramas are good for that. They tend to like to kill off the characters a lot or at least give them diseases. Leukemia and cancers are common in k-dramas, even when the character is young. I've seen a lot of "almost incest" too. Lots of stories with the main character(s) being an orphan too. Don't expect a happy or finished ending from them most of the time though. I've seen a few with the storyline of a humble poor-ish girl and a rich and HIGHLY obnoxious, rude, and selfish guy hate each other and fall in love, without admitting it and chase each other back and forth. Then a minor guy character (usually the nice guy) falls for the girl too and it goes unreturned.

That's many of them I've seen in a nutshell and though the description may sound bad, I really enjoy them......but I have a preference to Japanese dramas. I started watching Japanese dramas first so I'm used to them, plus with previous language and culture study and exposure, I have a preference. I like both, but j-dramas rank a bit higher with me.

[Doramafan113]

Both countries make great drama series but I prefer jdrama's because they have a lot more variety. I think no matter what your taste is comedy, romance, suspense etc. you can find a very good one in a Japanese drama series. With kdramas it is a little more difficult to find something for every taste. That has been my experience at least.

[KouSeiya315]

Doramafan113 wrote:

Both countries make great drama series but I prefer jdrama's because they have a lot more variety. I think no matter what your taste is comedy, romance, suspense etc. you can find a very good one in a Japanese drama series. With kdramas it is a little more difficult to find something for every taste. That has been my experience at least.

Yeah basically. I haven't heard of that many comedy dramas. I think Cool was a sorta comedy. However I find k-movies to be much better than j-movies.

[mizune]

KouSeiya315 wrote:

Yeah basically. I haven't heard of that many comedy dramas. I think Cool was a sorta comedy. However I find k-movies to be much better than j-movies.

I agree about kmovies. I used to really enjoy jmovies, but lately they seem to be a bit....overproduced. Not as much depth as they used to have, but with big budgets.

On the other hand, kmovies have *great* storylines. Lot's of variety too, unlike the kdramas.

[Akakage]

mizune wrote:

I agree about kmovies. I used to really enjoy jmovies, but lately they seem to be a bit....overproduced. Not as much depth as they used to have, but with big budgets. On the other hand, kmovies have *great* storylines. Lot's of variety too, unlike the kdramas.

I think K-movies are more or less a little bit like Hong Kong movies that's why it's far more entertaining. I think K-movies have adopted a lot of HK movie.

Mostly J-movies are tend to be like art-movie (not all of them but most of them) they don't really consider the commercial value of it. One thing for sure that I know abt J-movies, it usually has this minimal dialogue and quiteness surround the movie.

[KouSeiya315]

From what my friend in Japan was talking about, she thought most Japanese people don't pay much attention to Japanese movies, more to American than anything. She said most of the time j-movies are boring and people don't get excited about them. She said Mohouhan did well and got a lot of attention. That's just going by one Japanese person's opinion though....

[Bsalez]

Well grass in da neighbour house is alwas loook more fresh..ne

LIke most of ppl around da world they have set their mind of what they like..Local movie now in everwhere part of the world have been lost to Hollywood cause of Da money...Da budget is so big no local movie in any part of the world which have small budget can't compete with Da hollywood....even in Hongkong where one of the part that can be said one of the Film country can't compete with Hollywood...

I've seen some Kmovie and some of them actually have a variety and da acting of K actor is not bad...but for drama yep it is so time consuming..20-30 series man!!

Jdrama is great simple and direct...not to mention we have already have da idol in most of Jdrama so kind of hard replace it with Kdrama ne
Compare to J movie I prefer Jdrama...

[amran]

jdrama's absolutely da best 4everrrr!!!!!!!!!!

[niko2x]

I think it would be a little biased based on the forum in where this question is asked, i'm guessing most would prolly favor the J to the K.And besides, theres an older thread asking this same question about 6 months ago, with a poll. I just can't seem to find it right now...
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[BmwM3Rod]

I like both

Also...I think the style/format of the dramas need to be consistent when comparing the two.

Dramas like Summer Scent, Let's Go to School Sangdoo, and Rosemary are the ones that are more similar to that of the Japanese style dramas which consist of about 12 1 hour episodes.

One Million Roses and Yellow Handkerchief and Little Mermaid were long weekly dramas that should maybe be compared to the Japanese morning drama series such as Honmamom or Sakura.

I prefer the 1 hour 12 episode type format.

It does seem like though that somebody has cancer in the korean tv drama But IMO they are addressed and handled in different ways.

[ahochaude]

BmwM3Rod wrote:

It does seem like though that somebody has cancer in the korean tv drama

Indeed.

I wonder why though?!

[KouSeiya315]

BmwM3Rod wrote:

I like both Also...I think the style/format of the dramas need to be consistent when comparing the two. Dramas like Summer Scent, Let's Go to School Sangdoo, and Rosemary are the ones that are more similar to that of the Japanese style dramas which consist of about 12 1 hour episodes. One Million Roses and Yellow Handkerchief and Little Mermaid were long weekly dramas that should maybe be compared to the Japanese morning drama series such as Honmamom or Sakura. I prefer the 1 hour 12 episode type format. It does seem like though that somebody has cancer in the korean tv drama But IMO they are addressed and handled in different ways.

I like the shorter Korean dramas. Yellow Hankie was an exception. It turned out to be REALLY good, IMO. Yep, that's exactly what I said in my post about cancer in k-dramas. I think leukemia seems prevalent, LOL.

[The Man]

A working list in progress (even though I only have one at this juncture):

In J-dramas, it takes the entire series until the groom to gets married (i.e., Kintaro).

In K-dramas, the groom, on his way to his wedding (and, smack dab in the middle of the series), can get shot and end up in a coma, and consequently become missing for months or years. (i.e., All In)

OH, wait . . . maybe two or three more . . . something I posted earlier:

-- Whereas it takes new years specials for Japanese drama to talk about WWII (and, yes, I realize this is a recent development, 'specially with shows like Song of the Canefields and Princess Hiro), chillingly enough, K-drama characters seem to refer to "the unification" of S. and N. Korea just a BIT too often, if you ask me.

-- Affluent characters in K-drama seem to have white picket fences surrounding their house. I am not making this up, and I wonder if it's true in real life.

-- K-dramas (and not just their equivalent of Taiga dramas) run about 20-30 (sometimes more) episodes.


Go see 2009 Lost Memories, a sci-fi/historical revisionist/time-traveling move that stars the Robert DeNiro of Korea, Dong Gun Jang and, from Japan, as you know, Nakamura Toru.

[zola]

err, first, I'd have to agree with the person who mentioned bias in this forum (after all, it's jdorama.com) because a similar questioned was raised last year in the soompi.com forums which is a kdrama forum and the jdrama flaming was pretty intense ^^;

so anyhoo, i think that for the most part, the difference is in pacing - which one you like is a matter of preference. jdramas (at least the one's i've watched - pride, SOS, GTO, forbidden love, to heart, wedding planners, hakoiri musume, hero) tend to move a lot faster. it's not uncommon for the main guy to meet the main girl (or one of the main guys/girls if there's several) and in the same episode, begin to like them. given 2 to 4 episodes, the two could also have slept together and now be seeing each othe regularly. This almost NEVER happens in a kdrama. the first encounter alone is broken down into several and often times, there's no definite attraction between the main characters for a couple episodes. then the 'dating' period where they're not even officially a couple usually lasts for several more eps. and another key thing is that korean culture is more conservative in that premarital sex is far more taboo than in japan (or at least drama wise that seems to be the case). only in recent kdramas have the main characters slept together - before All In, only VERY daring series had something happening like that or if something did, it was justified (i.e. girl was raped or was a prostitute and was unable to "control" it).

there are many more things but because of this, the predominant focus in kdramas is characterization. There is MUCH more build up of the relationship. Rather than just a couple events, there are many many many events that happen that to make the audience sympathize with the characters. One of the most common criticisms of jdramas is their lack of characterization. a lot of times they go too fast and though you can see that the main couple is/should be together, you don't empathize with them. a lot of the empathy is left to the viewer's imagination/romantic tastes. a lot of times, the viewer is just expected to accept the plot (girl meets guy, two fall in love, conflict with other interests, etc). kdrama directors are a lot more geared towards showing audiences why the 2 should be together. often times this involves some type of childhood scenes and many many scenes of them being together so by the time it's over, you don't need to imagine. a lot of times with jdramas, like SOS (which may be a bad example), you're just expected to see that Manato likes Yui (or whatever fukada kyoko was named) and you don't really see why. I mean, you can say 'yeah, he likes her cuz she's cute and there's this one scene... blah blah blah...' But for a kdrama, it's more like... 'jesus christ, the 2 ppl grew up together, survived a war together, somehow made it through a plague, etc...' - that tends to account for the length of the dramas.

And speaking of length, the most common length actually used to be 16 episodes. Dramas are divided into 3 types - twice a week/weekend, daily, and 'long period' dramas. The twice a week dramas are the ones that tend to be 14 to 24 (quite rare that it's this high - usually stops at 20) eps long. The daily ones run up into the hundreds. And the 'long period' dramas tend to be about some historical event and tend to be 50 eps or so long.

Suffice to say, the most popular ones are the 14-20 ep drama series. Another interesting thing to point out is that the kdrama Winter Sonata was extremely popular in Japan and actually had it's dvd release there before it was released in Korea (though not much before). Furthermore, kdramas are by far the most successful out of all asian dramas in terms of asian market and overseas sales (i guess these are just statistics but they reflect viewer popularity).

Finally, koreans have this thing for tragedies. The most 'remembered' dramas tend to be the ones in which like 14 eps are spend bringing 2 ppl together only to have one of them die in the last 4. i guess this is more of a cultural thing. This is also why there's the stereotype of someone always dying from cancer. The first extremely successful kdrama outside of korea was autumn fairy tale (endless love in taiwan) which had the main actress dying of leukemia. Another very popular drama was beautiful days which had a similar premise - and even now, Stairway to Heaven has the main character girl dying because of cancer. I think Glass Shoes had a similar premise.

It is because of these series that the stereotype exists. The majority of kdramas do NOT have death such as this and anyone who says so, has very likely not seen many kdramas. Most of the people here have seen enough Jdramas to know that not all series have the charm of GTO or the lack of characterization of SOS. And yet, those same people prolly haven't seen All In, Delicious Proposal, Winter Sonata, Summer Scent, Law Firm, A Good Person, Da Mo, etc. None of those series have anyone dying of cancer. Albeit in some, ppl do die by being shot or murdered even. But the vast majority of kdramas does not have such an occurrence.

A last thing to point out is that only autumn fairy tale and Stairway to Heaven had huge fanbases in Korea. The other series were relatively popular but not big hits - they were much bigger hits overseas than in Korea itself which means that the audience preferred the tragic dramas - again extenuating the stereotype ^_^

Take care y'all
~zola

[KouSeiya315]

The Man wrote:

A working list in progress (even though I only have one at this juncture): In J-dramas, it takes the entire series until the groom to gets married (i.e., Kintaro). In K-dramas, the groom, on his way to his wedding (and, smack dab in the middle of the series), can get shot and end up in a coma, and consequently become missing for months or years. (i.e., All In) OH, wait . . . maybe two or three more . . . something I posted earlier: -- Whereas it takes new years specials for Japanese drama to talk about WWII (and, yes, I realize this is a recent development, 'specially with shows like Song of the Canefields and Princess Hiro), chillingly enough, K-drama characters seem to refer to "the unification" of S. and N. Korea just a BIT too often, if you ask me. -- Affluent characters in K-drama seem to have white picket fences surrounding their house. I am not making this up, and I wonder if it's true in real life. -- K-dramas (and not just their equivalent of Taiga dramas) run about 20-30 (sometimes more) episodes. Go see 2009 Lost Memories, a sci-fi/historical revisionist/time-traveling move that stars the Robert DeNiro of Korea, Dong Gun Jang and, from Japan, as you know, Nakamura Toru.

GYAHHHHHHH!!!!! Watch the spoilers PLEASE Just got All In and didn't watch it yet!

[groink]

This thread is quite damn interesting!!!! While reading through it, I could only imagine what the writers' room sounded like when both Korean and Japanese writers created Friends. Being two parts*, it must've been the Japanese writers' idea. LOL!

*Technically it's two parts. However, we capturers chopped it into four parts so you can actually fit it on CD-Rs. Just wanted to clarify that.

--- groink

[ruroshin]

Yes I was there when that kdrama/jdrama thread on soompi started. It such a contrast to this one, people were praising the kdramas while flaming the jdramas like no tomorrow

I watch both and like both however I will say jdrama has an edge because the jdrama industry has been around a lot longer and thus have produced a large quantity of quality dramas compared to the Koreans. I do agree with the variety in jdrama whereas around 80-90% of kdramas follow the same formulae.

In nearly every single kdrama you will find at least one of these elements, most of the time many of them:

1. A prince like character who is rich and power and is interested in the girl. This usually has another guy character who is poor and is also competiting for the girl's heart. Rich guy always loses.

2. A bitchy girl character who does just everything possible to make the life of the main girl miserable right up until the end. It seems almost mandatory to have this character in every single kdrama.

3. Characters always die in 1 of 2 ways.
a. Fatal diease, good bet it'll be cancer.
b. Hit by a car.

4. Its not kdrama if people don't cry and cry lots, even in comedy!

5. Parents are always disapproval of their child's marriages. It so hard to marry the one you love in kdrama. Gotta go through hell first.


I have to say out of all the kdramas I've seen only Ruler of Your Own World was brave enough to not follow any of the typical kdrama plot. Even the fatal diease cliche was done in a more positive manner and not used for cheap emotional tricks. Instead of OMG our main character just discovered he/she has a fatal disease near the end, it so sad what to do *snif snif* ROYOW revealed it in the first couple of episode and the character decides he will make the most of what he has left in his life.

[atheon]

ruroshin wrote:

2. A bitchy girl character who does just everything possible to make the life of the main girl miserable right up until the end. It seems almost mandatory to have this character in every single kdrama.

one of the reason i don't like kdrama.....
is k-girl soo evil???
i'm watching loving you right now....the bitchy girl is the lead actress best friend.....
but kmovie is better than jmovie....jmovie is boringgg. ( except messengers )
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[Akakage]

Quote:

1. A prince like character who is rich and power and is interested in the girl. This usually has another guy character who is poor and is also competiting for the girl's heart. Rich guy always loses.

I go for the rich guy

Quote:

. Parents are always disapproval of their child's marriages. It so hard to marry the one you love in kdrama. Gotta go through hell first.

Yes, that's so true and it's been so stereotypical story nowadays..disapproval of marriage BORING!! (usually I oversleep while watching K-dramas)

Quote:

. Characters always die in 1 of 2 ways. a. Fatal diease, good bet it'll be cancer. b. Hit by a car.

I'd like to send K-drama another idea of dying..."Committing Suicide" So, far I've not seen one like that in K-drama.

Quote:

there are many more things but because of this, the predominant focus in kdramas is characterization. There is MUCH more build up of the relationship. Rather than just a couple events, there are many many many events that happen that to make the audience sympathize with the characters. One of the most common criticisms of jdramas is their lack of characterization

Yah..but Kdrama has no character. They even borrow ideas from Jdrama now..they make a remake of 101st proposal... Has it ever happened the other way around? The remake of winter sonata (that is one of the most pathetique drama I've watched..didn't make it through the end...too slow)

Quote:

Go see 2009 Lost Memories, a sci-fi/historical revisionist/time-traveling move that stars the Robert DeNiro of Korea, Dong Gun Jang and, from Japan, as you know, Nakamura Toru

Shiri is much better. Last Witness is good and Yesterday is too long. JSA is quite Ok. My wife is a gangster is cool.
I love Guns and Talks, Bichunmoo, Hi Dharma!

[boltar]

Akakage wrote:

Yah..but Kdrama has no character. They even borrow ideas from Jdrama now..they make a remake of 101st proposal... Has it ever happened the other way around? The remake of winter sonata (that is one of the most pathetique drama I've watched..didn't make it through the end...too slow)

Whoa. Not to start a flame war or anything... but can you please back up what you mean by 'Kdrama has no character."? I've never seen 101st proposal or its Korean remake that you speak of, but how does borrowing ideas from a series make the entire genre of Kdrama have 'no character'?

Dramas are created mainly to entertain people. There was a quote that said something like "Every movie and book that comes out nowadays is a rehash of some work by Shakespeare." Of course you're going to get similarities in any drama, J or K, if you look hard enough.

My two cents:

I think we should compare the typical 12 episode Jdramas with the typical 16-24 episode Kdramas that Zola had mentioned (the twice a week series). I have to agree that I'm not a big fan of watching 100+ episodes, but the argument of Kdramas being long and drawn out based on these kinds of dramas would be unfair, since we're comparing two different sub-genres within the Drama genre. Now if you want to argue that the shorter series are drawn out, then you may have an argument.

Second, I'd like to say that there are a lot of crappy Kdrama series that I didn't really care for. However, there are also a few series that can be very touching and far exceed the qualities of Jdramas that I've seen (though few they may be). The two that comes to mind are "Bright Girl's Success Story" and "Over those Green Fields" (a series that hardly anyone talks about). Basically, I think Kdrama has a lot of swing as far as quality goes: the really good ones are REALLY good and the really bad ones are REALLY bad.