Would Dear My Friends count?

That's the working definition of unemployed...
I think the average age of lead characters on Dear my friends were over 50 years.

Try dear my friends, a very good drama.

Dear IlllI, what a beautiful palindromic alias!.

I know Dramas with older people are pretty unusual, but let me recommend you "Dear My Friends". The writer girl in her late 30's is the only main character under 50, but she is (mostly) the narrator of the story.

Unemployed is a legit term used anywhere for the measurement of the workforce of a country.

No disrespect or anything but it's pretty funny that the majority of the above posters cited Dear My Friends as a drama in which the lead/cast were ages 50+. It's either that good or shows just how few (good ones) there are.

Memory?

Not exactly 50+ years old, but both leads in "Second To Last Love" are in their late 40's. Most characters are also around that age.

Second to Last Love
Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim
Dear My Friends
Father is strange the middle aged couples are leads too

(If we speak of slightly older dramas I could quote Misaeng, where one of the two main leads is in his 50s. )

Very acute point.

Can't agree more. Happy to read a comment from another venezuelan :)

Yep totally agree with this. Also the viewers (and well everyone really) likes the thought of being someone who is highly skilled at a particular subject (words aren't working for me right now)

Really it is just a really good marketing tactic that has been used for decades, that helps creators gain a larger audience. It is like a signal of hope for those who have it a little bit harder on themselves.

That sounded way more deep than I meant it to XD

Oh, that's been done all right. Of course, the slacker in the end becomes an honorable hero (or not, since it's dramaland).

There is a drama called "unemployed romance", but i havent watched it.
The thing is: to be unemployed is not worthy.... not anything to be proud of. So... i dont think they will portray that in their lead characters.
Unemployed people are still eating and expending certain amount of money....where does the money come from? Social wellfare? Relatives? It is a shameful situation. How would we as viewers relate to that? Or like it?
Even if we are ourselves on the social welfare, we wont talk about it because it makes us feel like losers.
Blue collars is another story but there is a similar feeling of shame because everybody wants something better.

I agree. There should be a study on how American TV showcase average citizens: all people are skinny and mostly white.

Pretty much, people want to watch shows that don't remind them of their current life.

I remember when Misaeng was airing there were comments online in Korea, where people said they couldn't watch the show at all because it reminded them of their current office job. It was too realistic for some people to stomach. At the end of the day everything is deemed entertainment, and if it can't entertain who would want to watch it?

I watched My Dear Friends with a box of tissue almost every episode. It was scary real.

um yes. so much yes to this.

On Friends their rent wasn't expensive because it was in Monica's aunt name or something. I remember they had a convo about it being rent controlled.

no *cries* he's probably job seeking as we speak

He IS there, waiting for you to come accidentally kiss him by falling on him on the way to walking to your part-time job at the convenience store.

Oh, your young, handsome husband has to work? How unfortunate. Mine is independently wealthy thanks to some un-named wise investments. ;)

Don't worry, despite being filthy rich I saw him eating at Subway. You just must go there everyday until 'accidentally' bump into each other.

beware of those. they are all secret psycho killers.

And i hope you look at least a little bit asian. I have never watched a drama where the girl is from another country speaking little korean ?

Well, Korea has one of the worst misogyny rates in the world, so... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/opinion/south-koreas-misogyny.html?_r=0

Yup like Reply '88. The only unrelatable character there is Choi Taek, but the rest I felt like I met them somewhere, sometime in the past.

In recent memory, Reply '88 and Misaeng would be the most grounded dramas I've ever watched. The only unrelatable character in Reply was Choi Taek, but the rest I felt like I met them somewhere, sometime in the past.

While a doctor is a great profession, from my perspective, it doesn't seem to be as glorified in Korea as it is outside of Korea by Korean-American immigrants.

In k-dramas, prosecutors seem to be the highest ranking glory status profession. It may be true in real life also. Doctors are for sure a very close second.

My understanding about One More Happy Ending is that the reason they made the doc such a jerk was because the local Korean audience was rooting for him too much. Why would a Korean lady watching this show want a cute young match maker trying to find a fella have her pick an employee of a Dispatch-like operation and a single dad to boot over a doctor? Thus the doc becomes a serious cold jerk and such is the live shoot system. I bailed on the drama but when I read this, things made sense about what went wrong in the drama for me.

You mean that not everyone in Korea survives on just Subway and Starbucks? (Aside from the thousands of trays of kimchi that some mother or MIL stuffs the leads' refrigerator with).

kimchi subway ftw!

I agree with you regarding how dramas influence what we perceive in life. In my case, it is about human interactions with each other. Not the kind 'you saved a chaebol grandfather and treated him and he wanted you to marry his arrogant grandson' kind of interaction, but normal interactions between two bestfriends, couples, siblings, etc. There is one case where I was so frustrated with my roommate for constantly blaming everything when things didnt go her ways and for constantly complaining about her fight with her boyfriend *lack of communication, misunderstanding, yadda yadda*, so I ended up telling her a story of ChanYoung and Han Gyeol (I am sorry if I have offended CY's fans, at that time I did felt mad about CY, now not anymore) and asked her to reflect her situation. I told her that if she keeps blaming her surrounding, than get ready to feel bitter for the rest of her life. I also told her the reason she kept arguing with her boyfriend was because they didnt listen to each other, just like CY and HG was. Luckily she understood and try to mend things or else I might have moved out.

One more thing that always amazes me is the ability of our lead characters to do so many things in one day. They get to go to gym early in the morning, eat breakfast in a fine restaurant, go to work, pick up relatives or friends at airport, then have lunch, go back to work, have coffee, have a date with his/her partner, have dinner, and even manage to stroll at the park at night, go to sleep, and feeling refreshed next day. How they do all of this? Hahaha.

Nearly all the 60+ or even 50+ are usually some kind of evil overlord or permanently in some kind of hospital dying.

I wonder what the numbers would've been like during the golden era of sageuks and period dramas where there were more roles for the 50+.
There are quite a few of them who are still getting prominent roles in dramas.
(2016-17)
Kim Hee-ae in "Second to last love" turned 50 last month. Same with Kim Sung-ryoung: Mrs Cop 2.
Kim Young-chul: Father is Weird/Jang Young Shil
Kim Kab-soo: Whisper
Kim Eui-sung: SFD and W
Cheon Ho-jin: Six Flying Dragons/Man to Man etc.
Jo Jae-Hyun: Master Noodles
Choi Min-soo and Jeon Kwang-leol: Jackpot
Kim Sang-joong and Ahn Nae-sang: Rebel
Jung Bo-suk: Monster
Kim Mi-sook: Flower in Prison
Son Hyun-joo: upcoming remake of "Criminal Minds"
Heo Jun-ho: Ruler Master
Cheon Ho-jin: 7 Day Queen (+5 dramas last year)
The success of Teacher Kim might keep Han Suk-kyu in dramaland and there is Kim Eung-soo, Kim Yong-geon, Choi Jung-woo, Lee Deok-hwa, Lee Mi-sook, Jeong Dong-hwan, Kim Myung-soo, Park Geun-hyung <333 etc etc who are probably going to be in 2 or more dramas every year.

I really enjoy the 50+ veteran actors in dramas. Most of them I discovered through watching many sageuks.

yeah, because they are all still 30.

There are some Japanese ones, but I cannot think of a single Korean one. A few 2nd tier characters. Though I guess you could count all the thousands of pretty lead girls that work in Subway as blue collar.

I was going to say the female leads sometimes have blue collar part time jobs. Are there any dramas with the males in that role? If so, I am guessing it would have to be a noona drama.

It's an older drama (well, you know) called What's Up Fox? The guy is a mechanic though I wouldn't call it the focus of the drama as it's a noona romance. I love the noona thing and liked it once I got into it.

Misaeng! The whole drama is set only in a office workplace and all the main characters worked in the office! I thought it was such a good slice of life drama

Would Awl count? Or Modern Farmer? (highly recommend this show)

I can't think of any in recent years but I think there were a couple older dramas that had somewhat blue-collar leads. Here are a couple that I can think of that I watched. Although some of them don't really fit the blue-collar/white-collar mold, they are not typical K-drama occupations.

Ruler of Your Own World (2002): male lead is a pickpocket in the beginning and eventually becomes a stuntman. Female lead is a keyboardist of a struggling indie rock band.

Friend, Our Legend (2009): Hyun Bin's character was a fisherman until he descends into a brutal gangster. Female lead was a bank teller if I recall correctly. Not sure if that counts.

Goodbye Solo (2006): male lead was a photographer who was a bartender to make ends meet. His family was rich though. Female lead was an artist, but I believe she was also doing some carpentry work as well to make ends meet if I recall.

None of these dramas are really conventional romances and are a bit forgotten due to their age and subject matter. I recommend them though just for its content. They're not for everyone though. I hope my response wasn't too long-winded.

I watched recently "three dads and one mom", and i really liked it. The three guys have average jobs and the girl is almost useless.... she doesnt even know how to cook! But the drama was sweet and it made me cry at least once. Made laugh many times as well... you can take a look.

Yoo-na's Street is an excellent drama; it depicts 'life in the trenches' for the lower criminal classes.......and 90's drama of 'Moon of Seoul'

MAN OF THE VINEYARD has lead Oh Man-seok as a university agronomy researcher with a master's degree who quits the lab to farm organically.

The male lead in SWEET STRANGER AND ME / MAN LIVING IN OUR HOUSE is a reformed thug who becomes a mandoo maker. He farms in greenhouses to supply the restaurant.

CAN YOU HEAR MY HEART? has a mentally-challenged individual working as a landscape gardener, and a family who runs a chicken restaurant. None of them are leads.

Another family runs a barbecue restaurant in FIVE CHILDREN. They aren't leads, either, but the parents are in their 50s or older.

Wouldn't Hogu's love count?? The male lead was a cartoonist if I recall correctly while the female lead was a former national swimmer. It's a nice drama, but as a warning it deals with some heavy themes. There is also an extremely adorable baby as well XD Nobody ever seems to remember this drama which makes me sad because it's a really nicely done drama. If anybody else here has watched it, please tell me what you thought of it

I will tell you that panic depicted over a spider is 100% my reality.

I don't watch dramas for reality. I want to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. I do that instead of going to Disneyland.