Why K-Drama?

The Eternal Monarch

Think like, you are reading a comic book where you see your story there as a main character and then you discover another parallel world of comic book characters? This can’t happen in real life but it happened in K-drama life and that’s the real fun. That’s a short story of a K-drama named ‘W- two worlds apart’. Beside fantasy, K-dramas also reflect the actual social problems in our real life. Like ‘School 2015’ (bullying), ‘Sky castle’ (tough education system), etc. Parasite director Bong Joon-ho said, "Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing things,"

Most of the people know about South Korean dramas known as k-drama. I am also a huge k-drama fan. I have watched 102 Korean dramas since 2018. Do you know that television broadcasting of K-dramas actually began in 1956 with the launch of an experimental station, HLKZ-TV, which was shut down due to a fire? Then South Korea started to broadcast k-dramas in the 1960s. The Korean dramas became popular worldwide in a really short time because they are very well promoted, and they offer multiple language subtitles. The first TV drama series, “Backstreet of Seoul“ was aired in 1962, which was more like a lecture on the problems of urban life than family entertainment. Another drama, “Real Theater”, aired for two decades between 1964 and 1985, was in fact a tool of the government’s anti-communist drive.

If you are a k-drama fan already then I am definitely sure that you have already heard “ora shobai to ek e rokom dekhte”, “eta ki chele naki meye”, “kishob dekho egula”. Just ignore all that and reply with a cute voice, saying ‘sarangheyo’ (love you).

In the 1970s most of the k-dramas were historical. The very first historical TV series aired has been “The great land.” From 2011 Korean drama has spread worldwide. Now there are thousands of k-dramas to watch all over the net. The most popular k-drama networks are, Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and on the cable channels, including Joongang Tong-yang Broadcasting Company (jTBC), Channel A, tvN, and Orion Cinema Network (OCN). This ends our real quick review of the history of K-dramas. There is no doubt that dramas will become more internationalised with the benefit of social media, and the help of the internet.

Now most of the famous k-dramas are, “Descendants of the sun”, “Goblin”, “Crash landing on you”, “Sky Castle”, “Itaewon class”, “Memories of the Alhambra”, “The king: eternal monarch”, “Vagabond”, “Hospital playlist”, "Kill me heal me", “Extraordinary you”, “My Love from the star”, “Signal”, “kingdom” and many more. Many of them are now also available on Netflix. “Laugh, cry, sigh, scream, shout, or whatever you feel like with these funny, intense, romantic, and suspenseful Korean dramas”, said Netflix.

I have been watching K-dramas for a long time but am not even a little bored with it. If you finish your first k-drama that means you can never leave them behind but if you are a k-drama fan already then I am definitely sure that you have already heard “ora shobai to ek e rokom dekhte”, “eta ki chele naki meye”, “kishob dekho egula”. Just ignore all that and reply with a cute voice, saying ‘sarangheyo’ (love you).

I hope you will enjoy watching k-dramas. Watch k-dramas, relieve your stress and boredom. Let’s grow the k-drama world by staying together. Fighting.

Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 9th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka