Korean Entertainment

I have become a fan of Korean entertainment over the years. Which is hardly a wonder, considering their popularity worldwide now. It all started off some 5 years ago when a friend recommended the K-drama series Boys Over Flowers. Though I found it a little kiddish, there was something like-able about it and it was, well, entertaining!

Some other K series I have watched are Uncontrollably Fond, The Heirs, City Hunter, and Playful Kiss. Even though these were a little kiddish for my taste too, it didn't put me off completely and I was able to watch it till the very end. My most favorite ones till date are the dramas Man from the Star and Legend of the Blue Sea (these two are not kiddish according to moi and I highly recommend them) and I hear these were huge hits across China and Japan as well.

One recurring theme I find in their entertainment, be it in TV series or movies is that in their romance the boy is always smart, rich, composed and sophisticated, as opposed to the girl who is almost always portrayed as noisy, clumsy, not so good looking (they often call a perfectly good looking girl as not good looking!) and usually not rich. In fact, in most cases the girl is poor and struggles to make ends meet.

I have also found myself listening to a lot of K-pop even though I don’t understand the language. The music videos are good and the tunes are catchy. Tara, Miss A, Sistah and Sunmi are some of the artists I have listened to. My favorite Korean stars are Bae Suzy and Jun Ji-hyun.

I haven't watched many Korean movies though. I have only watched My Sassy Girl, Seducing Mr. Perfect and Windstruck. Speaking of movies, my appetite comprises of popular Tamil films and Hollywood movies. I go to the cinemas now and then based on word of mouth reviews from those around me and sometimes read reviews online. The last movie I went to the cinemas and saw was the Tamil movie Mersal and I quite enjoyed it.

When it comes to TV series, I absolutely don't watch Tamil serials. I used to watch them some years ago because my mom used to watch them. Even if a series starts in such a promising way and the premise is so interesting, as the series progresses, the female protagonist was always scripted to do something so stupid and annoying that I lost interest for all Tamil TV series since then.

I also used to watch some US TV series like Revenge, The Vampire Diaries and its spin off The Originals, Homeland and Marvels Agents of SHIELD.  I am sure there are a lot more (and even K drama for that matter) that I have watched but these are the ones I can think of as I am writing this post. I am also a huge fan of the Masterchef Australia series, which I think has a good editing team. I am not following the current season though. Actually I am not watching any TV series now. In fact, except for Revenge which ran to completion, I am not up to date with any of the other series. I am seasons behind in most of these because I am into reading at the moment. I am sort of addicted to reading right now. Sigh!

I came across some awesome cover songs for some of the most popular, recent music videos in the US. The videos are by artists from all over the world and some are even by artists from China and I was quite impressed by them. I will write another post later containing some of my recommendations for these cover songs and mention some of the TV series and movies I liked as well. I think I will also include some Ice Skating videos I liked too (like Yuna Kim 'Imagine').

P.S. Needless to say, when I say Korean entertainment I only mean the work coming from Seoul, South Korea. As we all know, North Korea has a political climate which doesn't exactly seem to promote art.