ATTENTION ACTORS IN KOREA

First, thanks for all the endless hours of pleasure I have derived from watching KDs.

Second, as someone who has spent endless hours watching KDs, I have some advice for you in the event a producer or director gives you a script that contains any of the following:

Under no circumstances should you participate in or fire off one more fire cracker from the banks of the Han River or the beach of any sandy strip surrounding your entire country.

No outdoor fires, please, to burn the pictures of someone you loved and feel it is now hopeless.

Do not agree to chase after anyone at any airport in Korea (or any other country), through any bus terminal or in any train station. Despite the fact that I suspect the airports/airlines are major sponsors of dramas, it has gotten out of hand now.

No scenes in Dunkin Donuts or TGI Fridays. It is embarrassing as an American to read the translation of a handsome guy who is ordering, “Give me the Jack Daniels steak medium rare, potato skins, etc.”

I beg you not to utter one sentence of English under any circumstances no matter how much the coach tells you that you are speaking it brilliantly. Individual words are usually ok. It is ok to say ok. We’ve had enough “bingo”.

No more carrying the skinny drunk girl you pine for on your back all the way to her house. No half-hearted attempts to withhold stroking her sleeping brow. No more bowls of water and wet wash cloths to cool the (never more than 12 hour) fever.

Don’t get into an argument on the street & each of you part in different ways only for the guy to rethink his position and go running through the street (usually in pouring rain and always at night) trying to find her. She is most often hiding, but sometimes she will let you find her. And if you do this once in the entire series, that is enough. Once each episode is absolutely unacceptable.

No more diving into the intersection to bring down to the pavement the one you love who is about to be the almost victim of a truck/pedestrian collision. Tell the director to have the actor to cross only with the light and not be staring off into space. Someone will likely bleed & your cell phone will almost always be broken or lost. You’ll need the blood and the cell phone later in the show.

Don’t agree to be a chipmunk girl/guy lite. Either be a real SOB or don’t do the role. And if there is already a chipmunk girl/guy lite in the series, DO NOT AGREE to play opposite him/her and be the other gender lite.

Please forget the inevitable bicycle ride…either on one bike or two. It will be reshown throughout the entire KD with the theme song just for phoney emotional value. It takes up space where you could actually be saying something and acting. Absolutely no one gets goose pimples watching those bike scenes anymore.

Don’t agree to one-on-one soccer or basketball games with anyone. They are often at night and always repeated with the theme song several times. Quit the project altogether if you see the script calls for you to play soccer 3 or 4 times with your love interest. It bores the audience and is an embarrassment.

If you have to go visit someone's elementary school, don't let them have you (or anyone else) play the harmonium and sing a childhood song off key. (Why is there always a harmonium scene anyway?)

For pity sake, tell the powers that be that the endless cell phone calls that are ignored do not enhance communication and just frustrate the characters and the audience. Oh, and be sure to tell the director that you should be carrying it on your person throughout the entire show. We’ve had way too many scenes of the vibrating cell phone on the desk while the actor is off somewhere missing the call.

Drop the scene where you go with the person you secretly love (or the one who loves you) to buy a cell phone. It is only going to get broken, left behind vibrating or ignored anyway. And remember, no one believes the “battery ran down” stuff when you are pretending not to have heard a call.

Now I have written all of this to illustrate the things that the actors in the 16 part (16 hour!) 2006 KD that I just finished watching (with one of my favorite actors) should have raised hell about. Yep, every single thing I have just mentioned (including 2 airport chase downs) happened in one KD. Why didn’t these folks step up? Fireworks on the Han River indeed!

(Bravo for not having a single person arriving in airport customs from the U.S. See, it is good to speak up! If any of you need a manager, just whistle! I promise not to utter a word of my pitiful Korean to make you cringe!)

Quote:

No more diving into the intersection to bring down to the pavement the one you love who is about to be the almost victim of a truck/pedestrian collision. Tell the director to have the actor to cross only with the light and not be staring off into space. Someone will likely bleed & your cell phone will almost always be broken or lost. You’ll need the blood and the cell phone later in the show.

10 karma just for that one.

debster wrote:

I beg you not to utter one sentence of English under any circumstances no matter how much the coach tells you that you are speaking it brilliantly. Individual words are usually ok. It is ok to say ok. We’ve had enough “bingo”. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don’t agree to be a chipmunk girl/guy lite. Either be a real SOB or don’t do the role. And if there is already a chipmunk girl/guy lite in the series, DO NOT AGREE to play opposite him/her and be the other gender lite.

Karma for that!

I can't believe they did it. Those freakin' nerds blew up the BuyMore.

~Big Mike




It's better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness.




Be sure to check out----> www.adrienneleslie.com

OMG - milk came out of nose!
One other thing to add, you don't have to take the battery out of the phone to make it stop ringing or send it to voicemail, just turn it off.

aww but stealing my students batteries was really fun! and you have to admit its a pretty good way of not answering and not having to wait for the phone to stop ringing (even if you do put it on silent).

Tooo funny Deb!

Chris wrote:

Tooo funny Deb!

I tried

OMG there's nothing left but the titles.

If I knew how to give karma you would have it! Too funny Debby!!!

lettle wrote:

If I knew how to give karma you would have it! Too funny Debby!!!

 

 

lettle wrote:

If I knew how to give karma you would have it! Too funny Debby!!!

I gave her some for both of us!

that was priceless! good advice there deb!!
tho' i have to say watching some of the male actors (say KSW or Rain) running in the wet rain isn't too horrible to watch!!

that was sheer brilliance, karma for you.

Well thanks! Believe it or not, there were more cliches in that one KD, but I thought I'd just hit the highlights.

debster wrote:

Well thanks! Believe it or not, there were more cliches in that one KD, but I thought I'd just hit the highlights.

That was inspired by one K-Drama? which one?
That was so damn funny, I had to read it again.

Nancy wrote:

I gave her some for both of us!

Thanks Nancy! I'll give you karma for that! (or at least I'll try to!)

Nancy wrote:

OMG there's nothing left but the titles.

Yeah it wouldn't be drama with out drama! Fire is always fun when it's least dangerous. Burning pictures does happen in reality. hehe But I have yet to see smashed punch bowls in the middle of the kitchen floor. Yes that would be cool. i have done that bit in my silly over emotional life when I WAS YOUNG AND DUMB AND FULL OF...MYSELF.
Now I beg the universe for less.
But K-drama can keep it coming. One more slap in the face for me please.

Made this a sticky so Deb's brilliance doesn't get lost in the shuffle...

I can't believe they did it. Those freakin' nerds blew up the BuyMore.

~Big Mike




It's better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness.




Be sure to check out----> www.adrienneleslie.com

Debbie, that was great!
If you don't mind, I will quote your post in my Yahoo Korea Blog!

megativity13 wrote:

debster wrote: Well thanks! Believe it or not, there were more cliches in that one KD, but I thought I'd just hit the highlights. That was inspired by one K-Drama? which one? That was so damn funny, I had to read it again.

I promised I wouldn't tell which one.

 

chinohills wrote:

Debbie, that was great! If you don't mind, I will quote your post in my Yahoo Korea Blog!

Sure Jason! Maybe some of these actors will take the advice and won't be agreeing to do some of those way overly done things! There were a few actions I actually left off from that drama...letting yourself get slapped more than once by the same character. Enough slapping! AND actors should just not be throwing a glass of water on their "opponents" face in a restaurant or letting the water be thrown on them. It is so childish! Throw a chair or something!

Debby

Thanks, Debbie.

Thank you for forwarding this Deb or I would have missed it. You really nailed it!



K-drama cliches: Priceless.

sosushi2 wrote:

Thank you for forwarding this Deb or I would have missed it. You really nailed it! K-drama cliches: Priceless.

My plan was to warn you before you devoted 16 hours to a cliche-riddled mess; however, you might be better than I am at overlooking those things.

Min Joo wrote:

Quote: No more diving into the intersection to bring down to the pavement the one you love who is about to be the almost victim of a truck/pedestrian collision. Tell the director to have the actor to cross only with the light and not be staring off into space. Someone will likely bleed & your cell phone will almost always be broken or lost. You’ll need the blood and the cell phone later in the show. 10 karma just for that one.

_______________________________________________________

Oh Debster! you have hit the nail on its head. Who writes these drama old, old men! Like you I have enjoyed KD's but enough is enough, you get dosed with the same scenario all the time different version. What happen to the young progressive writers, its like they are stuck in the 60's 70's lets go forward and start introducing more upward mobile writers with todays problems not the here after dramas. Please do not get me wrong some of them are great it's just too much of the same. Let get radical! There is way more going on in Korea than trying to go back to it's archaic period, leave that to the dramas that represent those periods. Lifestyle has change drastically, it like you are trying to fool people in believing what they see.

Well, my thoughts were really directed at someone using a cookbook to write a drama so that every single possible KD cliche element was included. It probably reflects the fact that I watched way too many KDs in the past year...I need a 21 step plan or something to wean myself off for awhile. I don't mean to be too critical. I admire what they are doing and am so grateful for all the entertainment. Just spare me the bicycles and endless flashbacks with the theme song once each episode.

BTW--for any actors struggling over their English pronounciation--feel free to watch our group's performance on this Chuseok's showing of Korea Sings....




It's vindication time!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe they did it. Those freakin' nerds blew up the BuyMore.

~Big Mike




It's better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness.




Be sure to check out----> www.adrienneleslie.com

Can I add one more?

Try to successfully wipe out your entire family,
(poisoned kimchi or rice cakes ought to do it)
and hide the bodies so that the cops don't find them.

THEN.......you can begin dating someone.
Otherwise, there will always be somebody in your family
who will refuse their permission for you to marry.

They're too poor / they're too rich / blah blah.
The list is endless.


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