I'd like to know if you've given serious thought to occasionally including interviews (of actors, writers, Pds, etc) on this blog. You play a really important role as a bridge to English speaking fans around the world and the blog has very impressive stats-- I'm sure you could score some interviews if you were so inclined. I think it would be awesome! It's been in the back of my mind ever since Changmin gave a shout-out to dramabeans a couple of years ago on DF.

Related question-- how many hits has this blog had? It has to be an insane number, considering what addicts we are and how so many of us abuse the refresh button when we're waiting for a recap. (Yes, I know I can be automatically alerted when there's a new post, but the element of surprise makes it more fun for me.)

I don't know if others asked this already but these are my questions:
1) Who is your favorite actor and actress (pick one haha)? As in who do you love the most ;D
2) Who is your favorite type of heroine and an example please.
3) Who are your favorite OTP?
4) What is your all time favorite drama (pick one)?
5) Don't want to ask this but will dramabeans ever shut down? (Please answer no!!)

I was baffled at the idea of a BOF American remake. Does that even make sense?

Hello! I enjoyed your recaps of School 2013 and am having a lot fun watching and reading recaps of Monstar. But the latest episode of Monstar (episode 9) left me a bit shaken and had me wondering how well do these dramas reflect classroom life in Korea today. Bullying is commonly featured in Kdramas though it's not always central to the plot, but I'm wondering if you girls could let me know if this is a prominent issue in Korea.

Thanks! (I know it's not a fun or light-hearted topic to talk about in a podcast.)

alias

Question: How do you know all the technical things about kdramas? i mean from the camera work to the script you seem pretty acknowledge about it, and it's amazing....

did you guys study something like that in college?
or it just mere experience from watching too many dramas?

and what is a good drama for you?

JB, GF and Company thank you for all that you do. I can't even keep track of how many times a day I check Dramabeans. Your time and dedication is greatly appreciated. Furthermore, thank you for giving us an opportunity to ask questions and be part of the discussion. I read all the questions posted above. I think they are very good.

I was just wondering of the upcoming dramas which ones are the ones that you are looking forward to watching and why?

Was there ever a time where you guys didn't watch any drama or read about one?

sheesh! All these serious questions!

Here's my "?"

JB & GF: You are stranded on a tropical island. You can choose 1.) your favorite kdrama hunk for LOTS of fun
2.) your favorite 2 kdramas - one serious, one not so
3.) your favorite food, and 4.) one object of your choosing.

Answers?
:)

Thank you for your amazing podcasts!!!
This might be similar to some questions already posted, but...

How do you think the gender politics of Korean dramas have changed over the last ten years (or have they changed at all?) Do you think there have been any significant overall changes or trends (whether positive or negative), or do we just have to look at each drama on a case by case basis?

Thank you ^^

Hi Javabeans & Girlfriday,

I just want to ask whether you have drama (korean or not) that you sort of grew up with and makes you nostalgic when you think of it. You mentioned neukkim or buffy several times, but only in passing...

This is a great idea!

I was wondering about your first impressions of Grandpas over Flowers. What you thought of it, and whether or not you would continue recapping.

Also, thoughts on running man? which has recently been on a downhill streak as well.

Thanks!!

Hi, after a couple of years of lurking I thought I would try posting. I want to thank all of you for all the insight and wonderful blog. I have learned so much yet feel as if I know so little. Which is why I have not posted...dramabeans has some awesome knowledgeable, insightful, witty people!

Most of the questions above are what I would ask. I guess I am most interested in how you decided to start this blog. How you go to this point? If girlfriday and javabeans know each other personally, or just meet out on the web? I don't know if you can continue with this blog and the intense amount of time needed but while you I can I know I will appreciate all the work and the wonderful recaps. Sometimes I get more nuances from the recaps then when I watch the drama...and sometimes I am surprised that I got the meaning even if I did not understand korean or the subs.

Thank you so much for all the efforts and this blog.

you ladies are awesome for opening a questions thread....

and there are a lot of really interesting ones already posted!! looking forward to see which ones you address...and wot you have to say!!

i just wanted to throw in...is there a handy guide n the interwebs somewhere to helpmwith...rank denotations via their costume for sageuks?
i started wondering more during gu family book. specifically with the admiral and how sometime he wore wot i figure is the military uniform for admiral, sometimes just dressed as a noble type person with the gat...and other times wore all white...is the white just a subset of his noble outfit, or does it carry a certain meaning?

thanks!!!!!

hello dramabeans

when you fantastic about k-dramas?

Eff yeah, questions!!! Thanks to my friend who forwarded me this here post! Woo-hoo!!!

I had about twenty questions I wanted to ask you, but so many people on this post have already asked most of them (thank God), so now I'll just ask you some of my more navel-gazing ones.

1) How has being Korean-American informed your and Girlfriday’s opinions and thoughts on several K-drama (and Korean) tropes? I am particularly interested in your thoughts on gender politics and female agency, and the social caste system, especially since the latter is hard-coded into the language. Do you find it harder to blithely accept K-drama norms, or are you more likely to analyze and challenge certain tropes? Which K-drama tropes, if any, do you find most discomfiting?

2) Dramabeans is the world's premier English-language K-drama site, with lots of hits and acclaim. Why do you never do interviews with actors and directors when they’re Stateside? I know they know who you are and also that South Korean culture officials are very eager to export Hallyu to the United States. Are you not interested in branching out into more direct contact with the supply-side of K-pop culture output?

3) I feel like most popular K-dramas that I’ve seen depict narrow experiences lived by less than 1% of Koreans. There’s always a chaebol somewhere. Even if the themes are about spiritual and moral virtue, someone somewhere is very, very rich or American-born. And preternaturally beautiful and White-skinned. It gets old. Is there a sub-category of dramatic entertainment that is more centered on the lives of the 99%, like a woman who owns a food stall, or tanned children living in the countryside who just, you know, live?

4) You often talk about dramas where either acting, writing or directing is lacking. Can you take a few scenes from some recapped K-dramas and provide examples of where one or more of these three factors fail to coalesce, and contrast it with a drama in which all three were excellent? I find it hard to distinguish between bad writing and bad directing.

5) How do you maintain your enthusiasm for your subject matter? I like K-dramas, but every so often I need a change of scene. I just finished bingeing on African cinema for about half a year, and now I’m into Scandinavian television programming. How do you keep from burning out since you cover one very specific genre?

6) Someone else here was wondering about whether there are any K-dramas that feature non-Koreans who are not white or mixed with white in side roles. Do they exist?

7) What’s Girlfriday’s real first name? I already know JB’s name.

8) JB, I adore you and Girlfriday! Mr. Lahlita says "Hey, grrlz, heeeeeeeeey!" Lulz.

Is that picture javabeans for real or a celebrity?! You're so beautiful! XD

My other question is: What is your profession? And any tips on how you're managing this website with your job, life, and family?

Hi JB and GF..... there was this Drama Special episode news you had featured a few weeks back. It is called My Friend Still Lives. I watched it on KBS World finally. It stars a few of the actors from School 2013 and Lee Kikwang of idol group Beast.
My questions are, though the story was cute and heart warming, the general teenagers of South Korea do most of them behave like the characters they played - a junior student (male) dating a senior (girl) and though they are in different schools would they frequently get out to see each other and that too during school hours???? Secondly though it is that immature age of puppy love, is it very common for the teens to fall in and out of love easily??? Seeing the actors play out those characters flawlessly made me wonder by the time a freshman starts college in South Korea how many boyfriends or girlfriends they would have had in high school??

Thanks for all your wonderful work here! And I love your podcasts--the longer, the better.

I've been watching Kdrama for several years now, and especially after watching a few Taiwanese and Japanese shows, I have felt that Korea pretty much has the best shows. This is very broad, but would many in Asia agree with this? I've also come across a lot of Kdrama stuff subbed in Spanish, which surprised me. So I guess my question is, how widespread is Kdrama love? And do you see it spreading?

talk about grandpas over flowers! :)

I was just listening to your latest podcast ( yes, im late, but I didnt even know a podcast came out until I saw this post and I was like latest podcast? What latest podcast?!?!
Anyways this isnt a question but I was thinking, maaaybe if you could have the words (script) of your podcast so we could read and listen to them together? Hehe
Also I know you have recaped gramps over flowers but coukd you comment more about it? (And also dad! Where are you going)..
Alsooo id like to know if you have watched a show called 진짜 사나이 sorry im not 100% sure of the English title and I dont want to mislead anyone. Any other korean readers out here?

I always wonder who's your fav actor ? Could you tell us your top five favorite actors ?
I do curious. Thanks in advance guys.

1) I was fed on a whole bunch of Hong Kong dramas growing up and as a drama addict, you tend to get a very good feel for plot twists and how certain points/details can unfold over time - especially on very subtle moments that most viewers can miss out on. That being said, my mum has watched far more than I have, but her intuition isn’t as strong and she’d tend to question me (i.e. “How did you know? Have you seen it before?”). I do watch a great deal more movies than her though and I feel that TV does tend to be a little more dramatic in terms of acting and directing - no matter how subtle they try to be. Anyway, I’m rambling…

My question is: are there any memorable moments where you’ve been, “Aha! Just as I expected!” or pleasantly surprised by how much it deviated from what you first predicted?

2) How have K-dramas (and the industry) evolved over time (from when you first started watching until now)?

As I’ve mentioned above, I started watching HK dramas when I was a kid - especially ones from TVB, who have churned out some of the biggest stars in Chinese entertainment these days, such as Tony Leung, Chow Yun Fat, Maggie Cheung, Stephen Chow, etc. A lot of production values were shoddy back then, but they managed to deliver classic dramas with great acting and writing. Fast forward to 10, 20 years later and you’d be hard pressed to find good reviews on any of the current dramas. Viewers are open to so much more options these days and a lot of us have strayed towards J/K-dramas instead. As an “outsider” (as in someone who didn’t grow up with this kind of entertainment/culture), I do find K-dramas more refreshing and the acting is generally better. (Granted, HK is a very small market and there seems to be only one active TV station - TVB - these days, so there isn’t much competition or motivation for them to be better…) My view on K-dramas is very limited though and may even be skewed (I started watching around 2004/2005), and I’m just curious as to how someone who has seen a far bigger picture and has more experience views the industry as a whole. Is it really as good as new/current fans are making it out to be? Are we missing out on any real gems from the past?

3) Most overrated drama of all time? Just one. (I'm trying so hard to narrow my list as well...)

4) If there is a High Kick style drama where all the "questionable" actors of today (e.g. Kim Tae Hee, Song Seung Hun, Kim Hyun Joong) converge and play more likable versions of themselves (instead of trying so damn hard to be "serious" actors), would you watch?

What is your current favourite airing drama? Also, which drama is the one that you are looking forward to the most (yet to air)? and are you planning to recap it?

Who are you?

What would you say to readers who use your recaps as a main factor when deciding whether to watch or not watch a show? Would you recommend people doing that? :)

So many great questions so far! Looking forward to hearing your responses to pretty much any of them. I'd also vote for more MST3K-style episode commentaries like the one you and gf did for BoF - that was really entertaining. :P

I'm wondering if you two might consider talking more about less recent dramas in your podcasts. I know you've talked about some 90's dramas before, but I think it would be cool for you to revisit the early-to-mid 2000's dramas. You've mentioned a few of them in your podcasts, but if there were any in particular you hadn't gotten to yet that you had much to say on, I would be curious to hear it!

First Korean Drama crush and why? Versus first Korean drama?

Also, would you consider or do you ever watch other Asian Dramas?

Like others, I am very curious about you girls. You rock and just have the right feel and touch of things to stay on the very top of this k-drama blogging biz. Amazing!
So tell us more about you, please

I love this idea! So, I've been wondering this for a while, and just waiting for an article, but nothings come up. How do you guys feel about the American Boys Before Flowers Kickstarter project coming up? Do you think it will be a success? Since most American TV shows have a tendency to go on forever and a day (or never see air time at all), do you think that will drag the story out too long or give the story potential depth? And even though the people in charge of the project want "rookie" actors, who would your dream cast be?

Hi! My question is rather lame: I live in New England (USA) and I love how many of the guys in 1N2D's wear hats with a Boston Red Sox "B" on them. I have seen them wear other team hats but Boston seems to be the most popular. Whadup with that? Is it just a random fashion statement or trend? Or is there a connection there? Is baseball (Korean or American) big in Korea?
Thanks so much - I love love your site!

I've always wondered what you guys did for a living. You manage to maintain the Dramabeans website but how does that play out with your day job? You guys seem so mysterious!

And would you guys ever write your own kdrama scripts if the opportunity came up? If so, what would the premise be, actors you would cast, etc.?

How did you and girlfriday become friends?

A little late to the party....but do you rewrite the endings to drama you find unsatisfying? If so, could you give examples? For instance, I firmly believe that Park-ha was able to go back in time and join the Crown Prince at the end of Rooftop Prince. The last flit of the butterfly was to indicate that she was now in his time and they could happily enjoy omurice (sp?) ever after.

Girlfriday, you are watching the Global WGM, right ? Just curious which one of the couple do you like and why ?

Question: Is there a drama trope that you never get tired of no matter how many times you have seen it?

Question: If you could live your life for a week as one of the k-drama characters, which one would it be?

I've been hoping for a good opportunity to ask this question--maybe this is it!

While watching a drama (or movie, for that matter), how can you tell how a director vs. producer affects what you see? The writing, music,costumes, and lighting all seem more obvious, but you allude to liking or disliking directors and producers often but I can never tell which is the cause for blame (or kudos).

Thanks!!