I’m a bit ashamed to say it, but recently I have discovered Korean pop culture; specifically the dramas and pop music. Basically Korean dramas are Asian soap operas of 20ish (usually less) hour long episodes and the pop music mostly consists of single singers who are either constantly foolishly cheerful or moodily depressed or boy bands. The boy bands are usually a patchwork of baby faces and wild hairstyles doing synchronized dance moves that would be ridiculed to scorn anywhere else. There are several reasons for my fascination with them, and I will list them one at a time in excruciating detail.
Firstly, I love hearing the Korean. The language is beautiful and complex—like a math puzzle that you have to concentrate on and piece together carefully before it makes any sense. Learning it was one of the most confusing and frustrating things I have ever tried to do. Even now I can’t honestly say I understand all of the words they say, but I do catch many of them and that makes me happy, and there are English subtitles for the rest. Just hearing them speak my beloved language brings back many happy memories. I am happy happy happy to be here in the beautiful United States, but sometimes I miss Korea so much I can almost smell it. Hearing the language is a happy kind of ache that reminds me it wasn't a dream--that I really was there during some of the happiest and most miserable days of my life. Until I found this corner of the entertainment world I had almost forgotten how much I love hearing the language’s swells, rhythm, and cadence. It’s not quite like being back in 안양시 or 잠실역 but it is pretty close.
Next, the plots, music videos, drama characters, song lyrics, and soundtracks are all deliciously cheesy—we are talking cheddar cheesecake with Velveeta sauce level here. The music is epic — whole orchestras that swell with each little and each dramatic event (and there are plenty of those). The facial expressions of the boys as they watch the girls hugging other guys from a distance contain almost the same expressions as they do when they are adamantly expressing their love to these same girls. The way tears course down the porcelain cheeks of the girls at least once per episode reminds me a little of water streaming from a faucet. All in all, I find myself giggling in delight at the varied and wild reactions to a lost hairpin, broken glasses, an accidental wrist bump, a shared dish of ramen noodles, and an angry response. If people in real life reacted that way we would lock them up, but instead people spend time and money to watch people do it on television. It makes me laugh a lot. The lyrics to the songs are almost as good. Singing about how his one-sided love for a girl ripped his world apart, or how her boyfriend proposed with high heels, or how breaking up was the worst decision made in his family for five and half generations, and the list goes on. This stuff is too good to miss. Like regular cheese, the more you eat the more you want, but the deeper in you get, the more weird curd you find.
Thirdly the romances (both the ones shown on the dramas and the ones portrayed in the songs) are absolutely unbelievable. Guys never fall for normal girls that hard; at least not ordinary girls without lots of money or without really good looks. I’m pretty glad that is not the case as it would make idiots pathetic idiots of a whole slew of otherwise really attractive men but all the same it is very true. The same, of course goes for girls. Dramatic endings of relationships is the same. Breaking up with someone is not the same as getting a deadly disease or losing a friend to death. Granted, I lack experience, but all the same, I refuse to believe that emotions even go that deep—especially when they are dealing with relationships that are fleeting at best. That is part of the magic though. Watching the enfolding of situations and relationships that could never exist in the real world is delightful in an almost tangy way. It makes my petty problems seem so much smaller when I compare them to a gorgeous girl who happened to grow up running from the law and camping in tents wherever she could and now is rejected by the family of her beloved because of a mole on her left shoulder that means she might have been a beaver in her past life. After all, entertainment is best found in impossibilities.
Lastly, everything is unbelievably clean. Perhaps I shouldn't say everything, as I am sure there are dark sides to their entertainment as well, but the little bit I have seen has all been colored with the extremely conservative Asian values. The kissing is what my sweet sisters would call downright unsatisfying as the girl stands like a board and the guy almost accidentally face bumps her. The one or two bad scenes I did see ended and picked up when the characters were fully clothed (with the exception of maybe a topless man with beautiful abdominal). Perhaps they swear, I couldn't say there--I never really learned those words as a missionary. The songs too whether telling of love, being happy, being in love, or just playing with words are all innocent as far as I can tell. It is a refreshing change from American media which often resorts to skin to manufacture emotion.
In the end though, I think it is the combination that makes it work. Just like carrots, tomatoes, and cumin are all disgusting by themselves but make a delicious soup, epically cheesy music, clean but unbelievable plots, and dramatic characters all portrayed in one of the planet's most beautiful language combined make for happy endings worth watching. So to my enduring shame but unbridled happiness, I will continue watching and listening to them. In the words of one of my new favorite 슈퍼 주느열 songs, Life couldn’t get better! I am both embarrassed and delighted by my new hobby.
