so about that bowing

[kaigou]

It's a comedy series, so there's exaggeration for the purposes of humor, mostly playing on how (from a Korean perspective) the Japanese will bow, then you bow, then they bow, and you have to bow again, and it's never-ending.

Watch the way each woman bows, the speed, and how many times. Park Si Yeon (Korean actress, on left) isn't waiting for a replying bow, and there's no lag between the guest's bow and Park's bow. She's also doing the Korean repeat-bobbing-bows, instead of an equally deliberate bow, though she is bowing a little lower as befits her apparent position, I presume as supplicant to the successful author, since Park's role is that of publisher. Watch the angles of head, shoulder, and torso through the course of each bow, and the difference is pretty dramatic: Park is leading with her head, almost into a sine-wave kind of bow, versus the Japanese actress' very stiff-necked bow. (And yes, each does reflect the bows -- Korean and Japanese -- that I see in other dramas from each country.)

That, and I think it's hysterical that her face hurts for keeping that wide smile pasted on for so long.

Comments

[leorising]

What this reminds me of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0mcGDAs3f8 , 30 secs. & 50 secs. LOL

[kaigou]

bwahahahha. YEAH.

[love_archived]

*giggling* This is about the same as every other Asian farewell I've seen, honsetly. I'm very ill-bred in that sense--I don't bow, or at least I don't remember to--but even _I_ catch myself doing multiple-head-bob when saying goodbye to elders.

[kaigou]

In person (and in J-dramas), I've seen bowing... but never to this extreme! I mean, it's like they can't get more than two words out, and they're bowing again. In kdramas, the bowing is considerably less, just on average -- so it seemed pretty clear to me that this was a kdrama tweak at what might seem excessive from kdrama POV.

(The real irony, of course, is that there's so very little bowing in the average Taiwanese drama, unless it's a significant social difference, or someone's a doctor or teacher. I imagine that if a Tw-drama were to spoof Korean bowing patterns, it would do it with the same scenario as in the clip, but the writer being seen off would be the Korean, and the publisher with the aching back at the end of the scene would be the Taiwanese!)

Once again demonstrating, I suppose, that exaggeration is a universal aspect of comedy.

[love_archived]

Really? That's actually not that extreme. ^_^;;;;;;;; It's the specific situation. Is the old woman some sort of benefactor doing them an amazing favor? Has she just come to give them incredibly good news? Is she a politician or a celebrity? All these would warrant all the head-dipping going on there.

Taiwan's a lot less formal, from what I can tell. China in general (outside of the business/political scene) is bowing less and less, and Taiwan seems to be no exception. Even in the business scene, Taiwan is moving away from bowing and towards hand-shaking. But in Korea and in Japan they're sticklers for this sort of thing.