So would you say the portrayals of "family duty" in these dramas is accurate?

I'm Chinese and we have our filial piety stuff as well, but watching k-dramas I see a vast difference in how much it's respected.

For example, we also give money to our parents (once we get of job :) ) but that whole daughter/son-in-law-duties and the total-respect-for-your-elders thing isn't really followed anymore.

Also, when the time comes for the child to take care of the parents, the parents start to listen to what the child says (rather than having some old person be the head-of-the-household).

I haven't seen many jdramas (and I don't know many Japanese people) so I wonder what their families are like.

Neat post :)

I'm an malaysia who has been living in europe for 5 years. I can see the difference between how asians n europeans express their family love. They're many but one thing that differs most is how asian sons/daughters being filial to their parents. We can see very well in those korean dramas, how family always number one.

I really love Nonstop 5 and was really excited that you mentioned it. It's the only drama where I love every single character. Nonstop 4's cast annoyed me [especially Han Ye Seul, I found her character more annoying than funny] and Nonstop 6's cast had a few good and too many bad as well. I remember watching the episode you mentioned, it was heart wrenching and a tear jerker for me. I cried the entire 20 minutes and had to pause a lot to clear my vision. I've yet to see Bad Family and Flowers for My Life but I surely will.. when i get time. Dal Ja's Spring is also a good drama for portraying family. I really love the daughter-mother relationship the drama portrays and how Dal Ja gets a lot of her strength from her mother.

Awww i Love NONSTOP 5! My favorite cast out of almost all of them.

I'm Mexican-American and I love watching Kdramas because of exactly that, the wonderful family dynamic. Latin culture is actually very similar to Asian culture in that we are taught to respect our elders and take care of the family. Family is very important to us as well! However, it is also true that some generations lose touch with this concept especially those that lose practice of their traditions. That is one of the reasons that I like my sister-in-law, who is from Taiwain, because she makes continue those traditions with her family and share them with us. (Love Chinese New years, the red envelops rock!)

On another note: Thank you so much for your blog, I just love it. I hope you continue to do this especially blogin Bad Couple which has become my favorite after Dal Ja's Spring.

I agree. I think family element is one of the most appealing qualities of KDrama. I guess Western is more into living independently, and their take on family is usually along the lines of 'drunk aunty' or 'butt pinching second uncle' and stuff. True, some go out of their way to actually focus on family (like Brothers and Sisters, which I absolutely love), but in general, family isn't really a big theme in Western entertainment, which doesn't imply something is wrong. It's just different, I guess.

I, myself, is an Asian through and through, so there are many family things portrayed in dramas and movies that I could relate to. And I was wondering about the same thing as Jessica above. Are the things portrayed in tv pretty accurate? I've seen a lot of dramas where sometimes elders could be very stubborn and insisting. Do elders really have a big power over the younger generations?

"deeta:Are the things portrayed in tv pretty accurate? I've seen a lot of dramas where sometimes elders could be very stubborn and insisting. Do elders really have a big power over the younger generations?"

I'm wondering about that too, especially after I finished watching Be Strong, Geum Soon! Geum Soon's in-laws had so much power in their hands and the children were all obedient and reluctant to do anything against them. sometimes I feel so frustated cuz the elders are super stubborn!

I have yet to watch Bad Family, but I will soon. I enjoyed reading your entries!

Thank you for posting such a profound post. i never watch Nonstop 5, but that shared episode was great :) thanks again!

How true!
What a great post, and collection of dramas~ The clips were lovely, and defintely so touching...thanks so much!
It's true that whether it's handled seriously or in a campy way, the family themes do pull together dramas and make you remember the characters~

Regarding the accuracy of family dynamics portrayed in kdramas... Just speaking for my own opinion and experience, I'll say that that basic themes and issues are generally true. As in, most of that stuff is familiar to me in concept, and many of them I see in my own (large, extended) family. But I wouldn't necessarily say that those are "typical" families -- not every family has overbearing elders, for instance. Many things are taken and exaggerated for dramatic effect -- just as you don't always have a poor girl meeting a rich handsome man in real life, for instance. A type of person can be very common in real life (the strict patriarch, for instance) and therefore familiar to most Koreans, but people can be familiar with a concept without experiencing it in their own family.

I think the "inability for elders to consider their children's feelings" is pretty exaggerated in kdramas -- because it's such an easy source of conflict, dramas tend to overuse it. Just like not all pretty, nice girls are self-sacrificing and smart and perfect. That said, there is a tremendous emphasis placed on children obeying their parents that can seem kind of foreign in concept to Westernized audiences... But it's not always the parents demanding things of their children, it cuts both ways -- the children also feel a need to make parents proud, and family loyalty is definitely a strong precept.

I will say that the one stereotype that is all too common in real life, which is sometimes not even exaggerated in kdramas, is the mean mother-in-law. Eek. Thank god for Korean women that many newlyweds are setting up their own nuclear family homes rather than living with the in-laws, because that can be one nasty setup for the daughter-in-law.

I'm asian-american, and the thing that strikes me the most about family in kdramas I've seen is the inability for elders to consider their children's feelings. It's incredibly frustrating to see all the parents or family elders do stubborn, hurtful things to their kids and I wonder if the dramas are exaggerating things or being realistic?

examples: Attic Cat, Hello Miss, My Name is Kim Sam Soon, Que Sera Sera ...

(Love your blog!)

So I really have wanted to start Non-stop but there are so many episodes. If I start will I have to start with the first? Which episode do you think it would be okay for me to start with? Thanks. I love your posts.

Turtlegirl, i know a lot of people started watching when Minwoo joined, around #195, and say the series is best in the last stretch. That's also around when i started watching and i didn't find it too hard to catch on. Nonstop 5 really does have a nice ending with good closure on all the characters, so i'd recommend you can watch the last fifty episodes or so (it ends at #257) and be fine.

Thanks for the great explanation! I'd figured with the melodramatic qualities of these dramas, some of it had to be for show. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating to watch!

Wonderful and worthwhile post javabeans (as always)! It was definitely an interesting read ^_^. I noticed that the family theme does run strong in most of the kdramas I've watched, espeically when it comes to children's obedience. At times, I find it really frustrating. Sometimes it can be touching; at other times, I just want to reach over and slap whoever's obeying their overbearing parents just because they're "elders," especially when the elders' demands are obviously selfish or in the wrong. Being an american, I wasn't used to it, and I didn't GET it. If you put in an overbearing kdrama parent in an american show, you'd get instant rebellion and move toward independence from the kids. So I often grew frustrated when I didn't see the same thing happen in kdramas; the characters' obedience made them appear weak. But I've slowly grown to understand a part of this is cultural, and its made it more tolerable. Also, its not always frustrating; there are a whole lot of dramas where I've felt the theme of family and family-bonds was admirable and inspiring. (Bad Family, Thank You, and, to a certain extent, Dal Ja's Spring comes to mind...)

Hi, Javabeans:

Your comment (#12) was very informative. Since you have first hand information, may I ask you a question? It bothers me quite a bit, but I didn't know how ( or dare to) ask a native Korean .

Is Lying a common practice in the real daily life? It seems to me all the dramas that I've seen, honesty causes more trouble than dishonesty. Everybody lies constantly. Can you give us some insight on this topic? Thanks.

I'm looking forward to in the near future that we watch a drama whose scriptwriter/ director is ”javabeans”

P.S. Do you know Gina Kim ? The director of the movie ”Never Forever”? She is also very talented.

thanks for the old drama recs, i just watched soulmate and it was great. the ost's on heavy rotation now. btw, it's not completely subbed, but the first episode of taereung national village with lee min ki was pretty promising. it didn't feel like a typical kdrama either.

The family video made me tear. It's a beautiful thing.

sarah, thanks for the insight. i also love the family aspect of kdramas. they are heart warming to me. one example for me in a recent one aside from flowers was that near end bit of hello miss when LJH showed that side of him that loved his grandpa so much. awww..

i can say i can admire the filial piety they show, that they want their parents to be proud of them, to repay the goodness of the parents that they receieved and lessen the burden. i watch some documentaries and stuff sometimes and its interesting and touching. not all families are like that now but i wish more families can be too and even if not that strict. also, as mentioned I just saw this talk show the May lee Show, its like an asian version of oprah. she's korean the host btw. she lives in singapore. hehhe she still keeps her korean values in tact which is nice to see. :)

i love nn5!! the cast is just one of the best for me. also the other nn's coz it had some of the budding stars, singers and what not. i feel the acting is real. i love nn5, coz of tablo, minwoo and lee jung. the girls han hyo joo and gu hye sun too.

pandapop, hm, i'm trying to think of what you mean by lying. do you find lying more common in kdramas than other types? i admit that thought hadn't really occurred to me... if you mean when a character lies to "protect" a loved one from a harmful truth, i'd say (and this is just my opinion) that's a pretty common korean thing, although of course in real life it's normally about a much smaller issue than, say, the life-threatening illness that usually occurs in dramas. koreans tend to be very social and love their gossip, and that ties into it sometimes -- if you want to keep a secret, sometimes the only way to do it is to lie about it. i don't know, i'm speculating to an extent as well. is that what you mean?

and i haven't seen gina kim's work, although i have heard of her. i'll have to look it up.

Javabeans:
Thanks for your response (#23..)….. My impression was that not just lying about big issues ( i.e. medical conditions) which I can understand, but also everyday conversations from “are you hungry?” to “do you love me?”…Most recent example was the K-drama “Pure in heart”. In it, lying is a daily occurrence in most of the episodes. Does anyone here feel this way too?

I'll try to be more specific next time. Thank you Javabeans.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but I also thought 1% of Anything was a very family centered drama. It wasn't some over the top love hate relationships. It was just a show depicting run of the mill family and the daily occurrences...work life, sitting down to dinner, chatting amongst each other, arguing etc.
Most telling was the eldest brother's statement about family not being made by blood (since that is just what we are made of) but being made how much family members care for each other and the concern they show for one another. This in response to someone questioning how another character could be his sister if they are not related by blood. I thought this was a wonderful statement.

Its the same thing we see in Bad Family isn't it? None of these people were related by blood but they all showed care and concern for one another...even if they denied it :)

More Beautiful Than a Flower is a wonderful family drama with top-notch acting. Criminally underrated. By the same writer of Goodbye Solo. Gosh, I'm tearing up just thinking about MBTAF, aigoo.

I enjoyed 1% of Anything but MBTAF is way better in terms of scripting and acting. At the center of the drama is a mother (Go Doo Shim) who seems dim-witted and too self-sacrificing for her own good. Her estranged husband (played brilliantly by Joo Hyun) is someone you want to clobber but as the drama unfolds, you realize things aren't so black and white. I love Korean dramas but only a few have touched/affected me deeply and MFTAF is one of them. It changed the way I viewed my parents and siblings. The sort of affecting, moving and heartfelt moments that Sarah mentioned in her first paragraph... MBTAF is filled with them.

I love Kim Myung-min in Bad Family but my most enduring images of him are still the ones in MBTAF, especially a scene where he wept with so much sorrow I felt my own heart was breaking.

Thanks for this entry, sarahbeans. I love it when you depart sometimes from your recaps and give us something to think about.

Your screen shot of Dal Ja's Spring above is perfect. I felt exactly the same when watching this scene in Dal Ja's Spring: that some of the most affecting moments in this drama are family-related. The mother-daughter bond seems genuine and affecting in this scene, as though the actresses are really mother and daughter.

i love nonstop series~ and korean sitcoms aint bad, like high kick and recently kimchi cheese smile is good ^^

yeah...i like "Bad Family"... So touching...and i think the story is not the same like the typical Korean dramas,hehe...

wow

heechul of super junior is back.............i was amazde because i saw him.............wow..............

what happen to me....what's wrong with me............................
heechul....heechul....hechul....heechul...heechul.....

i really love family based dramas. The one that hit me right at the heart was More Beautiful Than a Flower (or Beauty Beyond Expression) about a pure Mom who's first mindset is for her children (which most of them have already grown into adults). Incredible acting and just a wonderful, but heart-wrenching, plot. and i believe the main guy from Bad Family was one of the characters in this drama as well (was when i first started to love him~).

Haha just wanted to give my two cents here about this series ^^ cause it seems that it is so underrated. (wish i can find a site that have uploaded this series T__T).

that nonstop episode made me tear up so bad. bahh. i blame YOU for my ruined eye makeup. and i'm at work too. crap, crap crappity crap crap crap. oh well. it was full of a million and one total "aw" moments, so that more than makes up for how gross I look right now.

now i'm wondering...can i slip into the bathroom to fix my face & come back without anyone noticing? hm...

OMG!!! My TOP 2 DRAMAS are featured in this article!!! DAL JA's SPRING and BAD FAMILY!!! I love those dramas soooo much! Chae Rim, Lee Min Ki, Nam Sang Mi & Kim Myung Min are the BEST!!! <3

Dal Ja's Spring and Bad Family SOUNDTRACKS are AWESOME too!!! Loved it!

wow..the episode of NONSTOP 5 about family really captures my emotions..i couldn't believe tears would fall...nice EPISODE..

yeah, one of the only things that make me cry in a drama is the family moments.....even if a character dies, I sometimes don't bawl like I would at a cute family moment (like the kind where a dad and daughter get on better terms after years of fighting etc etc etc) ....whch might be why in american dramas, i NEVER cry. American dramas lack family moments (for the most part) and usually focus heavily on romantic stuff..so its like...yeah ok..? not going to cry at that lol.

Ah..and I'm stumbled back at dramabeans while searching & browsing about Korean Family :)... Not I hate to, but this is a delightful discovery among your old posts, this post, javabeans.

I think yes, that's what make you hooked in kdrama longer. I was initially jdorama fans, and previously I don't wanna give a damn about kdrama at all, 2 reasons: it is long (comparing with Jdrama) and it's lame (talking about the makjang!). But after stumbled upon Shining Inheritance, I felt some invisible magnet to make me watch it again and again, I still don't understand what, until I read your 1st sentence in this article, ye that is, the family.

Let me compare it to jdrama first, past jdrama has the same heart feeling parents but it is fading away nowadays, while kdrama maintain this element -though I've seen some deviation where ur parent now become the obstacle of . . . But yes, they still have the parent love & element, no matter how evil they are.

This is maybe why I'm so loving TK2H where the parent is serving their function as parents, lovely -and I'm still back into that- :p And the most heartwrenching scene is not when the lover dies but when ur parents/brother/sister passed away *cough TK2H/gaksital*

I love how the commenters here comparing it with american community. Not I despise American, but I just remember when I read review of 'Please Looking After Mother' in NPR site. I was like.. "Woa...seriously you don't touched at all?"-to the reviewer-, the reviewer is an american. And while I'm thinking the heartfelt connection and the act of the mother, the NPR reviewer called the novel: anti feminism, guilt-laden-morality for such a weak mother. This maybe just a picture about the wide cultural gap between Asian & America. And for thus, I'm really glad to be born as an Asian, because I can appreciate the love, and it touch my heart so good.

This film is very good. and staff of this film are excellent.