And more importantly, you know that there is an ending. It’s the quality that sets them apart from other television series, because they delve into their own mythology and attempt to craft a rather unpredictable story. The Hallyu fans pick up details about Korean lore as they go along. The unconditional love and romance is still there, but there is more action sequences and magic, than we would expect. With tight storytelling, occasionally packaged as a romantic comedy with more than fair share of tensions and action sequences - these fantastical dramas stand out, more perhaps than the usual blend of romance and mush that K-dramas are well-known for. In fact, in The Tale Of The Nine Tails, it’s Lee Dong Wook’s friendship with Kim Bum that’s actually more memorable than the romance. Steering away from constant romantic entanglements with other random people that other shows fall prey to, the storyline have a fixed aim in mind. There have been several shows on gumihos, such as the Tale Of The Nine Tails, starring Lee Dong Wook, My Roommate is Gumiho, and a completely different show called My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho. K-dramas seem to relish their magical beings, bringing forth a host of new terms into a non-Korean’s vocabulary, such as the Gumiho - a nine-tailed fox, who isn’t a fox but a spiritual entity, who is known to love only one person in their lifetime.
Guardian is a bittersweet show that espouses ideas of destiny, fate and death, without beating its audience on the head with the message. They’re not evil, and they do not wish to cause any pain to those have died, either. The Grim Reaper’s morbid business is actually like a corporate machine, with people dressed in suits and hats arriving for work. The Grim Reaper and Goblin become sparring flatmates, and then close friends, making delicious food for each other every morning. Filled with deities dictating the ‘written futures’, a surly Grim Reaper who has a haunting past of his own, Guardian draws the audience into the heart of Korean folklore, juxtaposed with modern times, with a touch of magic. For almost a millennium, he walks around with an invisible sword in his chest, something only his‘ destined’ bride can pull, played by Go Eun.
The Goblin, played by Gong Yoo was once a strong warrior, who was betrayed by his king. This brand of magic, so unusual from the norms of witchery and wizardry of other shows, is what made the Korean show, Guardian: The Great And Lonely God one of the highest-rated shows in South Korea. For the unversed– goblins or dokkaebe as the Koreans call them, are magical and spiritual entities, expected to be dressed in traditional Hanbok.
For the non K-drama lovers, it sounds like a peculiar combination-grim reaper teaming up with a goblin? What’s even more baffling is that a Korean goblin is not the same as the English one. It was in 2016 when Gong Yoo’s Goblin and Lee Dong Wook’s Grim Reaper emerged from the shadows to save a young girl, Eun Tak, played by Kim Go Eun. Shudder.īut what makes the Korean scene any different? How did they stand out with their fantasy shows? For starters, the relief about K-dramas is that most of them end with one season, which is usually 16 tight episodes. There were even attempts at a werewolf story, with Karan Kundrra developing fur and fangs in one show. The unthinkable happened when your typical saas-bahu drama, Sasural Simar Ka suddenly became filled with demons yowling at each other from a VFX-ridden hell, and then the daughter-in-law became a fly. Us back in India, don’t have much to boast about - the numerous seasons of Naagin are meme-fodder at best. You saw it from miles away, probably the first time they even said hello. After the fourth season, you just sigh when the new school-kid turns out to be a demon. It’s exciting in the beginning, and then it becomes like a dish that you just eat, because you’re used to it. It’s nothing new to be honest, the only thing that’s novel is the new fan-bases that are born owing to the romantic interests. In most of these shows, witches, ghosts, demons came, enticed men and women, killed them and brought them back in the same season itself. Also Read | BTS: When V pretended a water bottle was a mic while jamming to Blackpink’s Boombayah at award show
0 kommentar(er)
