Annyeonghaseyo! Hello!
My name is Amanda and I am an American K-Drama lover! I have been hooked on this amazing genre of television for over 10 years. In my circle of friends and family, I have very few people to whom I can share this love. One of the few people I have is my hairdresser, which is one of the reasons I have been going to her for so many years – that and she’s a brilliant colorist (I’ve been rocking a signature pink and blonde hairdo for several years now because of her awesome skills).
Life recently handed me a lemon in the form of a layoff from my job of over 15 years. So, I thought, there’s no time like the present to start sharing my favorite escape from reality with others.
The First K-Drama I Ever Watched
The very first drama that I ever watched was My Lovely Sam-Soon (aka My Name is Kim Sam-Soon) starring Kim Sun-a as Kim Sam-soon and Hyun Bin as Hyun Jin-heon.
Kim Sam-soon is a talented pastry chef who has lost her job and lost her love all on Christmas Eve. While navigating finding a new job and searching for love, she runs into restaurant owner, Hyun Jin-heon. who is looking for a pastry chef and an excuse to stop going on the blind dates his mother keeps setting up.
Add a dash of a love triangle and one of the best performances by an English-speaking actor in a Korean drama, Daniel Henney (truly this was the standard I was introduced to, so when I saw how most other English-speaking acting was in K-dramas, it was cringey and I knew I started at the top) and you have a fantastic show.
How this Show Found Me
So one day I’m watching some anime (I’ve been known to do that from time to time) on Hulu and since I was broke at the time, there were ads. One of the ads was from this little ol’ show from South Korea, My Lovely Sam-Soon (ok, not really little, this was a huge hit). The advertisers did their job well because the 30-second ad instantly intrigued me and I was off to watch a new show. From there, the rest was history as my love of brilliant storytelling was born.
So what is it about K-Drama that hooked me?
So many things – the story, the tropes, the feels, the acting, the soundtracks, the nice little one season that wraps up with a neat little bow. Actually it was this last reason that drew me in initially. I enjoyed that I had a self-contained story that wasn’t in danger of being cancelled without a conclusion. It was a nice departure from all of the American TV shows that had left me hanging off the cliff by one hand.
In the end these shows mostly leave me with a happy feeling, all those endorphins caused by an amazing story resolving itself in a beautiful and satisfying manner. That’s not to say there aren’t some K-dramas out there that have left me wholly disappointed, but they are few and far between.
So, that’s my story, that’s how my passion for Korean dramas started. How about you? How did you find K-drama? What was the first drama you watched?