I am the opposite! I am that practical college senior right now... the "intellectual", the one who doesn't believe in all that starry eyed looks, the one who scoffs at the couples on the escalators and trains who can't keep their hands off each other. But somewhere deep, deep inside my heart, is a little part that is inexplicably addicted to romance stories in K-dramas. The dramas I watch and love all have a strong romance plot.

I like to think that it's because realistically, I can't afford to let myself fall too hard because broken hearts are hard to heal. But in a drama? Oh, I can live vicariously through all the characters. Bring on the love!

Thank you! It's a lovely piece!

guess that's quite a worthwhile journey there! i suppose i'm with the majority who started dramas in pre-teens, so i was obviously in love with the romcoms, fantasy & melodramas! & slowly got into the mystery, crimes & thrillers as i grew older.. though i still don't know how to appreciate politics (except Punch, thanks to Kim Raewon's awesome acting ??), especially sageuk ones. ?

What a lovely story. Thank you for sharing!

Hello, Convert. I totally feel you. <3

My love for love is irrational. I have unexpectedly high expectations now, but who cares? If they can melt me into a puddle of goo with their swoony behavior than I'm just going to gobble it up and ask for more! <3

Maybe the point is that humanity is in love with love, and maybe, just maybe, that is one of our best and most redeeming qualities.

❤❤❤

I'm a born hopeless romantic so that's not the case with me but I like the journey you had to finally be in love with love. It was a good read, thank you! Cheers!!!

Oh, I'm the exact same way! When I started watching Taiwanese dramas I was in middle school, and back then I watched the rom-coms without really understanding the romantic aspects but I still enjoyed myself (mostly because of the comedy). In high school I watched a Kdrama or two but mostly focused on Jdramas, which have fewer lovelines. In my high school days I had zero interest in romance and thought that all rom-coms were eyeroll-worthy pieces of crap filled with terrible cliches. Like you, when I began watching more Kdramas I gravitated towards the City Hunters of the Kdrama world. In college I really started to watch tons of Kdramas and noticed the same progression... I began to actually LIKE the romance. High school me would probably scoff at many of my favorite dramas now. I think that Kdramas have allowed me to enjoy the more emotional part of my personality. Before, I used to bottle up any and all "unnecessary" feelings and I stayed far, far away from romance if I could help it. Nowadays, like you said, I am completely in love with love--not just romantic love, but all types of love. I honestly think that my Kdrama-watching experience has made me a better, more empathetic person.

That was such funny journey ^^! Thank you for sharing.

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love."

I'm not that into love stories anymore, but sometimes I just need that small amount of romance and love story to sweeten my life, just like how we need sugar.

I'm all in for romance & stuff, I actually avoid the *tough* themed shows & just wait for a gooey romantic setting, but I have to say this, WHITE CHRISTMAS WAS LIT. Seriously, its one of the few exceptions I've made from my continuous viewing of *love only* shows.

That last sentence gave me goosebumps, @sleepypie1212! Great article and now you got me queueing Queen In-hyun's Man. Hahaha!

I'm sort of the opposite. When I started watching dramas I was an immature 12 yr old and I went from shoujo to j-dramas to k-dramas, so I only cared about dramas that focused on romance. I avoided anything that didn't have romance as the main focus. But eventually there were dramas that I started watching for romance, but ended up caring more about other factors. Now although I still like cute, fluffy romcoms and what not, I get excited for dramas that promise little to no romance and end up getting disappointed when romance is added to dramas where I don't think it was really necessary (like The Best Hit).

I still love rom-coms but I still hate Romeo and Juliet. I'm what you call a cynical romantic (I'm sure this is a thing), I love love and I love watching other people in love even if I don't quite believe in romantic love myself. My biggest thing on being sold on a love story is my ability to feel a deep chemistry from the leads and/or an ability to see myself falling in love with at least one half of the OTP. And I'm not talking about the person portraying them but the character itself. If I'm unable to feel one of these two things, I'm most likely not going to like the show and/or the OTP. A lot of drama leads aren't people I could consider falling in love with in real life but I have falling in love with a lot of heroines and they have been the ones to sell me on the love the writer insists the couple has for each other. Recent examples off-the-top of my head include Hae Soo from Scarlet Heart and So-rim from The Liar and His Lover. I have to be able to feel like I could love these women myself if I was a man for me to believe the love.

This is sweet. For me, I like (and always have liked) KDrama (and to a lesser extent JDrama) romance much more than romcoms or romantic dramas from here in the US. Here it often feels like same-old same-old, but I love watching the way very different cultures portray the "ideal" love and the obstacles to get there.

For instance, KDrama characters in their 30s and beyond still contend with family disapproval and complications to a level almost unheard of here. Contract and arranged relationships crop up a lot as both OTPs and NOTPs, which aren't even a thing here. Older characters are allowed to be more innocent in dramas (as opposed to US shows, where we pretend that basically everyone has sexual experience by the time they leave high school). Gender lines sometimes blur--men are allowed to be romantic to a level almost unseen in our shows, and gender-bent situations like Coffee Prince have a type of conflicted attraction that doesn't really even exist as a trope here.

In the end, I still love the universal feel-good experience of a happy ending, but I'm a lot more interested when I get there through a cultural route other than my own.

What I didn’t realize was that I was falling in love for the first time in the real world, just as my fictional characters were in theirs.

So simple and yet so powerful. Had goosebumps when I read this and the last line.
Beautifully written!
I won't call myself the complete opposite but I did start kdramas for romance.

I'm kind of the opposite now that in some cases I'm more interested in other aspects than romance. For example recently in suspicious partner I found myself much more interested in the mystery and office hijinks than the romance. I also appreciate dramas that have little to none romance like chief Kim and signal, as life isn't just romance.

What a beautiful transformation you describe. I can SOOOOOO relate! I'm not typically romantically minded - "chick flicks" being at the bottom of my watch lists, favoring more thriller, crime, drama, fantasy/historical adventure. But after getting caught up in "Goblin: The Lonely and Great God", I'm exploring more Asian dramas. Quite a few have landed on the reject pile after one or two episodes, but there are some treasures. And the more I understand about Korean culture (in particular), the more I can relate to the idiosyncrasies being portrayed. And now, adding to this new pleasure, I've found Dramabeans XD

Lovely article. ? as for me, I have always been a sucker for romance. Romcoms are just my thing. Its only later on that I learned to appreciate the police procedurals, whodunnits, suspense thrillers, fantasy and sageuks etc.

Coffee Prince is everything! I used to look down on people who watch kdramas and love kpop culture in general. I thought they were corny and generic. But once I laughed and cried with my Chan, I never look back. Now, I only watch Kdramas and mostly listening to their soundtracks. Just few years ago, it's impossible.

Coffee Prince, The Princess' Man, The King 2 Hearts, It's Okay It's Love, Kill Me Heal Me... Here's a Drama Stamp of Approval for you!
It's not that you were a snob, it's just that you've always had an eye of the good stuff :D

Wow! I love how you put your thoughts into words. I especially love your ending sentence :)

I think you'd be a great recapper for dramabeans. ???

Kindred spirits you and i. This is in a word my story and relationship with kdrama.

When I first started Kdrama, all I had were love-centered plots. I loved them...they were cute, no matter how realistic. Maybe it's because I got older and such that I stared looking at a lot of the love-centered plots as "meh." It might've started around "Marry Him if You Dare," whose ending was the disappointment of disappointments. Also, looking at all those lovey-dovey plots, no matter how unrealistic they are, are like the reality of what I can't have. Lee Jong Suk's performance in W, was like a nail to a melting heart.

Since then, I've exchanged a lot of romance plots for Crime! Action! Justice! and Surgeries! I still enjoy a romance plot every now and then, if the storyline is good.

Y'all... this post made me want to fall in love so badly. T,,T

aww that last paragraph warmed my heart...I've actually never been in love yet I adore the rom-com stories that kdramas portray so well. I too sometimes need a pillow to clutch when the emotions are too intense :)

This post is love.

awwwww!!!