off the hero? I've watched possibly over a hundred Korean TV dramas over the last few years. Overall they are far better than anything offered by Hollywood. But I can't help be disappointed by the tendency to kill off the hero of the story, or to give it an otherwise unhappy resolution.
It seems at times as though the scriptwriters have almost a perverse fascination with the morbid, gloomy and pessimistic.
Korean TV dramas like Iris, East of Eden, Tazza, Sweet Spy, Swallow the Sun, and Winter Sonata, as just a few examples of what I mean.
Even with historical dramas Korean scriptwriters seem bent on depriving the hero of whatever happy moments may have actually occurred in recorded history. In Emperor of the Sea, based on the life of Jang Bogo, in actual life, although he was eventually assassinated, it wasn't till he was in his late 50's or early 60's, after having lived a life more full than most folks live in three lifetimes. And the reason for his assassination was conjectured to do with him trying to marry off his full-grown adult daughter to royalty.
But in the Korean TV version they had him assassinated when he was still a relatively young man and his daughter was just a newborn baby. So why did scriptwriters deprive the TV version Jang Bogo of the approximately 25 to 30 more years that he actually lived? Don't get me wrong, I loved that TV series. It had unbelievable action scenes, great acting and very impressive overall. But when it ends you get the feeling like someone pulled a rug from out under you ... as also many other Korean TV dramas with similar depressing conclusions.
So why do you think Korean TV drama scriptwriters so often seem obsessed with leaving viewers unhappy? Personally, I think they'd be wiser to shoot for a more satisfactory ending to their stories. Often I was really enjoying a drama, but the ending wrecked it in my opinion. What's your opinion?
It seems at times as though the scriptwriters have almost a perverse fascination with the morbid, gloomy and pessimistic.
Korean TV dramas like Iris, East of Eden, Tazza, Sweet Spy, Swallow the Sun, and Winter Sonata, as just a few examples of what I mean.
Even with historical dramas Korean scriptwriters seem bent on depriving the hero of whatever happy moments may have actually occurred in recorded history. In Emperor of the Sea, based on the life of Jang Bogo, in actual life, although he was eventually assassinated, it wasn't till he was in his late 50's or early 60's, after having lived a life more full than most folks live in three lifetimes. And the reason for his assassination was conjectured to do with him trying to marry off his full-grown adult daughter to royalty.
But in the Korean TV version they had him assassinated when he was still a relatively young man and his daughter was just a newborn baby. So why did scriptwriters deprive the TV version Jang Bogo of the approximately 25 to 30 more years that he actually lived? Don't get me wrong, I loved that TV series. It had unbelievable action scenes, great acting and very impressive overall. But when it ends you get the feeling like someone pulled a rug from out under you ... as also many other Korean TV dramas with similar depressing conclusions.
So why do you think Korean TV drama scriptwriters so often seem obsessed with leaving viewers unhappy? Personally, I think they'd be wiser to shoot for a more satisfactory ending to their stories. Often I was really enjoying a drama, but the ending wrecked it in my opinion. What's your opinion?