Sometimes all you need is an old school drama to keep the doctor away…

The Musthavesubs girls are all sick and unfortunately for us it isn’t pretty! We’ve abandoned school/ work and found ourselves wrapped in blankets sneezing and coughing our way through the last couple of days.

What is a girl to do when she is hurled up in bed unable or unwilling to do much?

Yep, you guessed it – watch a drama!

However when you’re this sick, it’s hard to focus on the subtitles, the plot or appreciate the cool/ breezy style the director is trying to portray, so times like this provides us with the perfect opportunity to raid the back catalogue and go all old school. Yay.

Sometimes all you need are your favourite drama tropes to make you feel better. It’s familiar and safe but still has the ability to make you turn into the worst type of fangirl around. Sickness be damned.

Here are our top five favourite old school drama tropes that remind us why we love dramas so much:

1. Poor girl meets super rich chaebol – Come on, it’s a classic!

Okay it’s been done to death over the years but who doesn’t love the idea of Lee Min Ho, Roy Qiu or some other hot actor stepping up and falling madly in love with some poor but brilliant girl that could be you!? Who doesn’t want to see them defy all odds – crazy parents, jealous ex girlfriends and their own stupidity to win the girl and get their happily ever after? Sign us up, we’re sold.

2. When hate turns to love – watch out for the fly kicks, death threats and other delightful pre-romantic interludes

We love when writers have the OTP hate each other at the start of a drama. Sometimes we love this more than the HEA. This is where you see all the magic. Their verbal sparring, their unspoken hot sexual tension and the anticipation of what is to come – the romance! The slow but obvious build up of friendship and romance is always a pleasure to witness. We love watching their insane and often hilarious interactions as they keep finding themselves at odds and somehow thrown together in ‘random’ situations. Of course they are, it’s a drama!

We really hope that this drama trope never becomes unpopular because we sure would miss all that fun, silly banter between the OTP.

3. The perfect love rival – the leading lady never had it so good!

Yes, yes, we have a ridiculous soft spot for love rivals and we need help but we can’t help ourselves. It’s only because we know that they get their hearts broken and lose the girl by the end of the drama. How can we not feel sorry for them?

 

What is a drama without that secondary character waiting in the wings to sweep in and take care of the leading lady when she needs it most? For us, a drama without a love rival isn’t a true drama. Yes, they can be annoying, frustrating and make you want to punch them in the face but they’re a necessity that you need to accept comes with the package. They are like Brussels spouts at Christmas, not to every ones liking but a must nevertheless.

4. She has twelve jobs, goes to school and doesn’t take your shit – Give us an old school, tough leading lady any day.

We adore old school leading ladies of yesteryear with their multiple jobs, unreliable parents, tough attitudes but kind personas. Yes, she’s dirt poor but has the latest mobile phone and  really cute clothes/ accessories but she’s earned it. Plus  the poor thing will suffer so much more before she gets her happily ever after, so leave her alone.

As much as damaged, silent leading ladies are interesting. Or ambitious, smart ones make us appreciate them. We would happily watch a good old fashion fighter that never gives up and uses her courage, sarky wit and lovable charm to seize the day and get her man.

5. If you looked that good as a boy, wouldn’t you try it? – Cross dressing your way to a HEA

You would think watching a girl dress up as a boy and lie to her OTP would get boring after a couple dramas but no, it hasn’t and we have a feeling it won’t.

It’s all about the delicious angst and the conflicting feelings running through the leading man’s head. This particular drama trope works so well for us because it’s one of the few genres where the writer really develops the friendship between the OTP before it moves onto the romance. The leading man falls first and foremost for his friend – a person, rather than a pretty girl and isn’t that lovely for us fangirls to witness? Sighs*

Classic dramas = the best form of medicine for drama junkies

We feel better already 🙂

Day 30: Your Favourite Drama Moments

It’s the small moments that make up a drama for us. They are the things that stay with us long after the drama is over and the reason why we are addicts in the first place. The small moments are the things that make us gush and fan girl our way through this blog. Without them there wouldn’t be an obsession and there certainly wouldn’t be a blog.

Despite this 30 day challenge taking far longer than we anticipated, we have thoroughly enjoyed completing it. We’re so glad that we finally made it to the last post without throwing in the towel. Yay.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our challenge posts as much as we’ve enjoyed writing them and hopefully in the process you’ve found a couple dramas worth checking out…or avoiding.

 Here is a quick rundown of some of our favourite drama moments:

The moment our expectations of true love went up:

Coffee Prince’s Choi Han-Gyul played by the lovely Gong Yoo has ruined us for any guy in real life. His love confession in this drama is still a standout even after all these years.

He didn’t care what she was; all he knew was that he loved her. Sigh*

The moment we knew that Hana Yori Dango would be one of favourite dramas of all time:

There are so many awesome moments like; watching Makino fly kicking her OTP, their first date, their break up in the rain but the moment that sealed the deal for us will always be the phone scene.

You know what we’re talking about. We’ve gushed about it on a number of occasions so forgive us if we’re on repeat but we just love that scene!  The scene was just drowning in angst and longing and we adored it so much. It was the scene that made us realise how much we love this OTP and despite all the crap that came their way, we were more than happy to watch it all just to witness their HEA.

The moment where we knew that we would love Jang Geun Suk for life:

You’re beautiful – watching him dancing around a field while a wild animal is charging at him was the funniest moment in You’re Beautiful but it was also the moment that made us JGS fan girls for life. It’s an irrational feeling; we try not to think about it too much.

The moment we wished we had our very own stalker:

Who wouldn’t want Park Shi Woo as your very own stalker? Yes, yes, he had sinister, vengeful motives but still…look at him, he’s so cute.  

How funny was the fishing rod scene in Prosecutor Princess? We love that scene.

The moment a trailer made us want to tune in:

Que, Sera, Sera – OMFG was exactly what we thought after we watched that trailer. It was the first and only time where we watched a trailer and had to immediately watch the drama because it was just sooooo intense and…wrong. We loved it and are so glad that our bad Youtube habits led us to one of our favourite Kdramas.

The moment we realized that Kim Hyun Joong still hadn’t found a decent acting coach:

Like fools we didn’t learn our lesson and we once again gave Kim Hyun Joong a chance even though we knew it was a mistake. Who thought it was a good idea to give him a leading man role in Playful Kiss? Seriously, did they not watch Boys before Flowers?

A moment that broke our hearts:

Scent of a Woman nearly destroyed our tear ducts with the amount of crying we did while watching that drama. However it was one particular moment that nearly did us in completely. The moment we’re talking about is where; Chae Eun Suk aka Doctor Poopie pant’s patient died and he totally lost it and broke down in front of Yeon Jae. Our hearts ached for him soooooo much as we watched the weight of his responsibility finally hit home and he realized that the woman he’s always loved may die regardless of how hard he works to save her. His desperate begging for her to live was so intense and hard to watch that it feels like it’s engrained in our memory as one of those moments that will always stay with you. Uhm Ki Joon was so brilliant as the love rival in this drama, he totally stole the show.

A moment we laughed so hard we almost peed ourselves:

Pretty much the whole first episode of Wild Romance made us laugh from start to finish. If you’re ever feeling down, watch it, you will feel so much better.

There are far too many moments to ramble about, so we’ll stop while we’re ahead!

Day 11: Your Favourite Drama Ending

We fear drama endings the most. There have been many instances where we have loved a drama all the way through its run and then the last couple episodes absolutely killed the drama for us. We have indeed been burned and have become cautious in giving our final verdict of a drama until we watch the credits roll in the last episode.

Most of the time we’re not fans of wrapping dramas up in a nice pretty bow in its finale as it feels contrived and predictable. We really don’t need to see the OTP’s wedding, their children and a sequence where we watch two old people sitting in rocking chairs holding each other’s wrinkly hands, we get the picture!

For us sometimes an open ending is better. Dramas really make the OTP suffer and so it’s quite nice to end a drama with a hopeful ending where you know that the OTP will be happy but not necessarily immediately. In our opinion an open ending feels more natural and realistic and allows us to hope for the best rather than see it shoved in our face.

Take Soulmate, so many people hated the drama’s ending and hoped for a second season for so long but for us it was perfect. The whole drama was about meeting your soul mate who is your destiny regardless of when and where. They went through so much and it would have been wrong if they got together immediately. However, ending the drama with the knowledge that the OTP were in the same city at the same time gave us the hope that maybe they will meet again and live happily ever after.

We watched an alternative ending of this drama where they meet again on a bus and we thought it was so cheesy. We really don’t need the details of how they meet up again, just knowing that there is that possibility was enough. After all the whole point of the drama was the idea that everyone has their own soul mate, who you will eventually be with you one way or another.

We are so glad that this didn’t happen!

As long as the drama doesn’t make us want to reach for a sick bucket with a cute HEA or make the main characters do anything stupid, we’re easily pleased.

That said there are a couple drama endings we really didn’t like and felt ruined the drama experience for us.

For example: the drama ending where the leading lady/ man leave to study abroad. UGH!

We really enjoyed Shining Inheritance but the ending killed the drama for us. Why would she want to study abroad after all she went through? We would never leave our father’s side after believing he had passed away. Then there was her surrogate grandmother that was sick with Alzhiemers – where are her priorities? Aren’t there any good universities in Korea, why leave everyone dearest to you to study in America? We just thought it was really strange and unlike her character to decide to pack up and study abroad. The point of the drama was to show us how important family was to her and there she was leaving after everything was resolved, it’s like she didn’t learn a thing in the drama.

The same thing was done in Coffee Prince to a lesser degree. It felt like they added that last minute desire to study abroad as a way to extend the drama a little longer. The end episode really did feel completely unnecessary and in our opinion took away some of the awesomeness from the overall quality of the drama.

Pulling the rug from under your feet finale:

We can’t believe 49 Days killed off the leading lady! How dare they have us root for her throughout the drama and then kill her off under the idea that it was always meant to be her time. Seeing someone struggle for 19 episodes was cruel and pointless.

Let’s not even get started on the last minute long lost sister storyline. Groan*

Day 7: Your Favourite Story

Isn’t it obvious? We like them all!

We joke but it’s true, we can’t resist a good drama trope – whether it is a marriage contract, birth secrets, rich guy/ poor girl romance… you name we’ll watch it.

If we really had to pick one type of drama story we can’t resist it would have to be the cross dressing storyline.

We love cross dressing dramas! Okay, that is a sentence we didn’t imagine we’d write down…ever. Heheh

Coffee Prince, You’re Beautiful, Hana Kimi and Sungkyunkwan Scandal are a few that come to mind and yes, we adored them all.

What is there not to like about a guy falling for a girl simply for who she is? Gender barriers be gone – he loves her as a person!

We also love that sticky angst portion that comes with this type of story as we watch the leading man or love rival wrestle with their feelings as they come to terms with the fact that they love a dude.

The leading ladies are always strong and likable.  In every drama we’ve watched under this topic, they always dress up for a greater purpose like saving their brother from trouble, getting money or in Hana Kimi’s case because it was a single sex school and it was the only way in.

This drama story always has two types of male characters both of whom we adore:

The guy that knows the secret and spends the majority of the drama protecting her and keeping her out of trouble

Tae Kyung from You’re beautiful was so lovable and remains one of our favourite leading men. Then there is Crazy Horse from SS. He was her silent protector that hiccupped his way through the drama until he got himself an awesome bromance.

The guy that falls for the leading lady despite thinking they are a man

Nakatsu from Hana Kimi still holds our hearts as the sweetest love rival from a Jdrama.

Also, how can anyone forget Han Kyul from Coffee Prince? He played tormented angst beautifully in that drama.

For us this type of drama storyline often develops the OTP’s romance better because let’s face it – they need to, the leading man thinks she’s a man! The writer has to go deeper than superficial factors and really give the OTP connections and build a relationship on a better foundation than just the usual misunderstandings, accidental kisses ect.

When one story gives us; great angst, real romance, friendship and plenty of laughs, what’s not to love?

We just love this drama story and we’re hoping for our 2012 fix real soon!!!

Day 3: Your Favourite ‘I Love You’

It’s usually the scene you most anticipate in any drama. The moment where the OTP finally stops fighting, misunderstanding each other and puts aside everything else in their screwed up lives to stop and confess their feelings for each other. As hopeless romantics this is the moment we most look forward to. It’s also one of the moments that stay with us long after we’ve finished the drama.

When its good- we confess to being those giggling, giddy girls totally loving the moment. Sighing with the hopes that one day (without the evil mother in law) a guy will confess his love with as much heart and sincerity as they do in the dramas. One day…soon, we hope! Hehehe.

Our most favourite ‘I love You’ was an easy choice. It was a moment that made this drama for us and a moment that set the bar in regards to the standard we hope for in terms of love confessions.

Coffee Prince: Han Kyul to Eun Chan

“I’ll say this just once, so listen to me. I like you. Whether you’re a man, or an alien… I don’t care anymore. I tried getting rid of my feelings, but I couldn’t… So let’s go, as far as we can go.”

The most romantic, intense confession we’ve seen so far. This OTP were utterly brilliant together. They shared so much chemistry and charm, that we were smitten right from the start. We believed these characters as a couple. We loved watching them grow to love each other despite factors such as gender and sexuality. There love had no boundaries. He loved her as a person, now that’s the type of man we want.

Other noteworthy love confessions that stayed with us over the years:

Secret Garden: Jon Woo to Gil Rim- Quoted from his goodbye letter aka the scene with the most beautiful man pain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘This may be the most selfish decision of my life, but since it’s the decision of a leader in society, respect it. You were always really cool — be cool in the future, too. / I’m going to miss you a lot. I love you.’

He was willing to die for her. Ready to give up his whole existence and most importantly the chance to have his OTP, just so she could live. Sigh*

Prosecutor Princess: Hye Ri to In Woo

‘I Love you. You Bastard.’

He betrayed her in possibly the worst way imaginable but despite his deception, she still couldn’t help but confess her feelings to him. This was a love confession that made us squeal outrageously in a very fan girly way.

Pasta: Chep to Yoo Kyung

‘Yes its true Seo Yoo Kyung likes me, as for me….. I love Seo Yoo Kyung’

Come on, we couldn’t resist putting this quote on our list. We love Pasta despite its fluffy ways and the fact that nothing much ever happened. This scene was great and yes, a moment that we waited impatiently for from episode 1 and you know what – it totally delivered.

We’ve probably missed a million other love confessions, we would love to hear your favourites that we undoubtedly missed and we will probably regret not having on our list.

Day 2: Your Favourite Song from a Drama OST

Picking one song from all the dramas we’ve watched is far too hard of a challenge and well it’s our challenge and that means we choose the rules! As a result we decided to compile a list of songs from dramas that stood out for us over the years even if the dramas wasn’t particular great or one we even remember much.

Stand alone songs that stayed with us long after the drama faded from our memories include:

Heartstrings – Yong Hwa’s – ‘ Because I miss you’

The song is just so beautiful. Yes, we tease poor Yong Hwa about his wooden acting and the fact that Heartstrings was rubbish but seriously, no one can dispute the fact that this guy has some major musical chops. This song is just so heartfelt and intensely sad.

We just love it.

Dream High – IU – ‘Waiting’

Another lovely song that made our jaded hearts soften.

When we think about the Dream High soundtrack, we have to admit that there are quite a few songs that we really liked. The drama was a surprise all round. We never thought we’d enjoy it as much as we did, what with all those Idol actors and the cheesy premise. However, it was put together so well. We really liked how the musical proportion of the drama allowed us to see their progress as characters and really played a major part in the drama.

Standout dramas that all round rocked in the OST department include:

Soulmate

It’s just the perfect collection of music put together in such a classy way. Soulmate is a good example of highlighting how music can add to the overall quality and delivery of a drama.

Also the music played a major factor in delivering one of our favourite drama scenes of all time. It was a scene that is still totally unique and so sweet and a OTP moment that made Soulmate one of our favourite Kdramas of all time.

Coffee Prince

This drama had so many great tracks on its OST. The music was a major factor for why this drama was so cool and trendy. Okay, there is also the fact that Gong Yoo and Go Eun Chan were smoking hot together but still the music helped.

Other drama OSTs/ songs we could ramble endless about include; You’re Beautiful, Autumn’s Concerto, Mars, Nodame Cantabile…