Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Tree of Heaven

There’s a new drama series on TV today. The instant I turned on the TV and heard the familiar Mandarin dubbed voices, I knew it was a Korean drama. Because I missed the first 15 minutes, I didn’t know what was going on.

There was this girl who was making hand signals to this guy telling him not to enter the rooms he wanted to go in. I thought the girl was mute but I later realized it was because he couldn’t understand her language, hence the gestures. Since this is a Korean drama I thought the guy was from Japan and couldn’t understand Korean. But when he went to school he was told to introduce himself in Japanese. Huh?? Japanese school? Is this Japan? This is not a Japanese drama, is it? No!!! A Japanese drama dubbed with the typical Mandarin voices of Korean dramas!? I’m gonna puke!

It appears that I’ve got it the wrong way around. The guy is actually from Korea and everyone else is Japanese. Hmm. They all look Korean except for one bitchy girl. Wow. Confused! This is what you get when you dub a movie especially when they’re doing this mixed language thing. You don’t know who is speaking what. As I watched, I was getting more and more convinced that this is actually a Korean production because:

  1. They all look Korean.
  2. Her father’s dead, her mother remarried, and she suddenly has a step brother. Keyword: stepbrother.
  3. Her father’s sister is a bitch and ill-treats her when her mother is on her honeymoon. Clue: abusive old bitch
  4. The old bitch plans to sell away her family inn when her mother isn’t around. No brainer: This only happens in Korean dramas. You can sell away other’s properties.

Need I say anymore?

The Korean looking Japanese girl (she’s Korean, any idiot can see that) spoke quite a lot throughout the episode – compared to her stepbrother who’s completely mute – which makes me wonder, can she speak fluent Japanese? Maybe she can but I wouldn’t know because of the god damned dubbed voices. So I got curious and did a search in Youtube. Well it turns out she can but the actor playing her stepbrother probably can’t because apparently his role is autistic. Nice going, scriptwriter. Easy role. I can play that too. Put me in Bollywood and I’ll do just fine doing the Charlie Chaplin. Next thing you know, I’m standing alongside Aishwarya Rai. Yay!

I’m not going to continue watching this show because I know how it’ll go already. They’ll move to Korea somewhere in episode 3 or 4 because then they can all speak their native language. She’ll fall in love with her stepbrother and he’ll start talking because of her and love her too but they can’t be together because they’re somehow in a sibling relationship yada yada yada. The typical storyline. I really don’t understand how this thing can sell. I mean, one or two is okay but almost all? Really, nine out of 10 Korean dramas they show on TV revolves around brother-sister love and ill-treatments. Come on, don’t you have anything new? I can close my eyes, randomly type and yet come up with a better story. Here goes…

Fgnkrit ilkg ioeriefl awielsf il!

That was a line in my story writing attempt. It says “Kneel down and bow to me for I am here to conquer your world!” It’s about this weird looking man who claims to be from planet Dobadoo but he’s actually just schizophrenic or is he? You can’t read it because he speaks Dobadoo language, duh.

I wonder how their fairy tales are like. Bitchy stepmother tries to kill Snow White but she is saved by 7 midgets and soon finds out she has a stepbrother from her father’s Xth marriage, they fall in love and lives happily ever after. Or in another story, Cinderella gets ill-treated by her steps and a prince comes to her rescue but he turns out to be her brother therefore they can’t be together and her stepsister tries to seduce him and Cinderella looks on while the prince obeys stepsister yada yada yada. *shudders* Why do I have a feeling it’s all going to be the same?

Now, Korean drama fans, if you happen to do a search on the drama and read this, you can counterattack all you want. I have my bazookas ready.

12 comments:

joyfulchicken said...

Hahaha! Are all Korean dramas that bad? Then why are they so popular? Maybe TV really does make people stupid.

Anonymous said...

typical Korean dramas. never liked them! haha.. they can never match Japanese dramas - no absolute way!! =p

Anonymous said...

Everyone has something that makes them tick. I bet korean drama addicts would call anime fans retarded for obsessing over bizzare animated characters, and Japanese dramas are on par with Korean dramas on retardom. English language serials like Desperate Housewives appear extremely bimbotic, whilst shows like Grey's Anatomy are emo as hell. Conclusion? Don't watch TV if you're going to have such narrow-minded stereotypes.
If everyone thought like you (ie. this entire type of drama sucks, only this type of show is good), then where would the diversity be? We'd all be shown one single type of show on TV. Whoop-dee-doo. Keep an open mind, unless you haven't noticed, there isn't much originality left in this world anymore. Instead of picking bones with the storyline, why don't you criticize the skills of the actors. I've yet to seen a Hollywood actor cry so convincingly as a Korean actor, for what it's worth.
Also, if these shows weren't successful, they wouldn't even see the light of day in Malaysia. Same plot? Don't you think that all anime pretty much share the same basic plotline as well? Save the world from some bizzare wicked mastermind, save the damsel in distress or save something or other, with a twist along the way. Same thing lah.
Now, TVB serials on the other hand should really look for better looking actors ... at least those Koreans are hawt.

runawaycat said...

JC - Yea you should try. But I wouldn't say all because I've never watched all of them.

mann - Why don't they show Jap dramas anymore? But if they do and it's going to be dubbed, I'd rather they not show it.

runawaycat said...

dramad3f3nd3r - I bet you're a Korean drama addict who calls anime fans retarded. I've only watched a little of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy and if they're bimbotic or as emo as hell, they're there to make you laugh. As for your conclusion, yes, I'm not going to watch it. I think I said that somewhere in my post.

Not everyone thinks like me, which is why you still see people glued to the TV when they show Korean dramas. But even if they do think like me, the TV will still show it. Okay why am I replying to this? It's not even relevant.

Whoever said there isn't much originality left in this world anymore? You may be right, but producing dramas that all run along the lines of brother-sister love is definitely not even trying to attempt to be original.

And I cannot think of animes which share the basic plotline of saving the damsel in distress or saving this or saving that. Are you referring to fairy tales? If you ask me, anime is what I resort to if I ever need to find ideas and originality in story writing.

joyfulchicken said...

Sounds like someone doesn't like people talking trash about Korean dramas, hehe.

Run, dramad3f3nd3r. Run into your sister's loving arms :-P

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
runawaycat said...

dramad3f3nd3r - It seems that you're offended. Well, I didn't anyone would take it personally. I know who you are so I'm not going continue saying this anymore. You could have just used your name you know. Well, that's just joyfulchicken's style of language. Sorry I had to delete your comment. No use of names allowed unless approved by the the one carrying it.

Anonymous said...

haha. im laughing my ass out...

ive never watched any oriental series except for that thing with f4- meteor garden somthing... i watched the original without the dubbing and you need to read the funny english translations... i thought it was hilarious!

seriously, korean series are based on brother sister love? i feel weird about it... its like incest... everyone's raving about them in manila... maybe i should watch atleast one and form my own opinion... ill probably have bazookas by then to counter attack with you or to attak you... lol

runawaycat said...

You can try Stairway to Heaven or Autumn in My Heart. Hmm what else? I didn't really watch the first one because I didn't want high blood pressure. Then there's Winter Sonata (the 1st to make it in Msia) which will also get your blood pressure high because of how helpless some people are in the movie. I found a site with reviews of some Korean dramas, some of which I might try watching but I'll have to read the l-o-n-g review thoroughly first before I jump in.

Euri said...

[random] I saw Gackt's name there! *points at the sidebar* XP [/random]

Anyway, I still think that it's better that they use the orginal language in tv dramas and then just put a subtitle for the foreign languages instead of dubbing them. Dubbing them like that are horrible.

*reminds herself of Gackt speaking Mandarin <3*

runawaycat said...

Owhh...Him speaking Mandarin is cute :P