K-drama series – Live-shoot system

In the last post, we discussed a well-known (or notorious?) feature of K-dramas – product placement (“PPL”), a form of indirect advertising, which has become so excessive that K-drama fans are being frustrated by it.  In this post, we will talk about another feature of K-dramas, the live-shoot system, which is also a feature receiving a lot of criticisms. Continue reading

K-drama series – Product placement (“PPL”) in K-dramas

If you watch a K-drama, apart from the characters, what do you most often see?  I’m sure most of you will answer: brand names and corporate logos.  Some of the most often seen scenes are the characters chatting in the coffee shops with the names of the coffee shops clearly displayed on the walls or doors or cups; or the characters are using trendy mobile phones with the relevant brand names or logos or the mobile apps that are being used receiving close-up shots.  This is product placement (“PPL”), a form of indirect advertising used in K-dramas.  Let’s continue the K-drama series by talking about this well-known (or notorious?) feature of K-dramas.

Continue reading

K-drama series – An overview of the key features and popularity of Korean dramas

Korean dramas (“K-dramas”) are typically mini-series TV dramas of 16-24 episodes each.  While there are a variety of genres of K-dramas, the key ones are romantic melodrama, romantic comedy and historical drama. K-dramas are definitely a key driving force of the Korean Wave (a term referring the popularity of Korean pop culture) which has swept the world.  There are a lot of Korean culture lovers who are attracted to the Korean culture by the K-dramas, and I’m one of them. Continue reading