a short guide to korean dramas

[kaigou]

hollywood happy ending: everything ends happily, the lovers are reunited, and any damage during the course of the show/movie is miraculously repaired, restored, or otherwise rendered null.

hollywood unhappy ending: main character dies, but everyone else gets a t-shirt and learns to love again.

bollywood-musical happy ending: same as for hollywood, but with spontaneous mass musical sequences. possibly also involving helicopters. and extra dance maneuvers performed while riding camels.

bollywood-musical unhappy ending: unhappiness and bollywood musicals are like matter and anti-matter. it's theoretically possible but would likely cause significant tears in the time-space continuum.

korean happy ending: at least two characters die*. the lovers survive. mostly. except for the dead ones.

korean unhappy ending: everyone dies*.

* alternate option: utter insanity and/or hot pokers stabbed through delicate body parts.

...by k-drama standards, Hamlet isn't a tragedy, it's just a rom-com with a higher body count than average.

Comments

(frozen)

[kaigou]

I should've clarified, since I associate "bollywood" with musicals. (I'm well aware that Indian cinema has a much greater range, and can actually go an entire production without sudden dance numbers.)

(frozen)

[colorblue]

I'm also referring to Indian productions with, as you put it, sudden dance numbers.

(frozen)

[kaigou]

Gee, and here I figured if anyone missed the implication in the tags, that the last line would've made it perfectly clear this post is intended for entertainment purposes only.

If you really want to argue over perceptions and stereotypes of international cinematic cultures, I suggest you do it on a post that has more substance. I've got and write plenty, but this isn't one of 'em.

(frozen) whatthehell?

[colorblue]

Now it's my turn to clarify!

To be honest, I am quite confused as to how my previous one-line comments could be read as me wanting to argue over perceptions and stereotypes of international cinematic cultures. Trying to engage in that convo with you would be like, I dunno, trying to discuss theoretical maths with someone who thinks it is really funny that two plus two equals five (and then gets indignant when told that's not really the way it goes).

If you're so sensitive about this, perhaps you should stick to writing entertaining posts on things you have some clue about? Right now that seems to be limited to Hollywood.

(frozen)

[kaigou]

That's how it came across, that you wanted me to take what had been just a flippant set of remarks (about every example, I might add) and badger me into retracting the humor in favor of a full-on treatise. I don't mind doing full-on treatises -- and I daresay I know quite a bit more than you're giving me credit for -- but this is hyperbole, and as such, it would always fall short of whatever it is you're wanting me to post, instead. It's exaggeration for the purposes of humor. That's kinda a big part of how humor works. Your analogy works better if it's rephrased as this: telling a joke in which one adds two plus two and gets five works because we're all aware this is at most only four-fifths truth and the remaining fifth is sheer exaggeration.

Clearly, you don't welcome humorous comments about a specific topic -- and I say "specific" because clearly you didn't rankle at the hyperbolic treatments of the rest of the examples. That's a signal to me that you've got a bone to pick. I don't mind bone-picking and would normally welcome it, but when a post is just meant to be amusement and nothing more, the testy note in your response indicates you've got a hot button -- and your second response confirms it. But it doesn't make it my problem, and I was simply trying to suggest that if you do prefer to debate, that perhaps some other post with more substance would be more appropriate.