Dal Ja's Spring and what I look for in dramas
It’s official: kdramas about thirty-something office ladies are very much not for me.
I have watched three episodes of Dal Ja’s Spring, turned it off, and started instead Marry a Millionaire, a much less acclaimed but much more entertaining to me kdrama based on (yes, indeed) the reality show. Half an ep in, and I am enjoying it hugely. Is it objectively as good as DJS? No way. But it has angsty hot boys, plucky poor gals, true love, oodles of angst and a ton and a half of cheese. I do plan to continue with DJS - it’s rather cute and the heroine is adorable, but I don’t think I will fall into mad love. It would be a fabulous show to watch with a bunch of girlfriends, though. (For those who are wondering, DJS follows a bunch of people but centers around a thirty-something office worker named Dal Ja. The story takes off when, on impulse, she hires a 26-yr old guy to be her fake boyfriend. It’s rather jdramaish).
DJS MV:
I have watched (all or in part) three of the most famous kdramas of the 30+ladies subgenre: Kim Sam Soon, DJS and 9 In 2 Out. While I don’t dislike DJS the way I ended up disliking KSS (in fact, it’s rather cute), it does not grab me the way my favorites do. 9I2O was also very good but I still can’t get past ep 6 or so, even with the fast-forwarding.
That’s the thing: people watch kdramas for all sorts of different reasons. My viewing needs are simple: step-sibling forbidden love, revenge, ninjas with tragic past. And angst angst angst. I don’t watch for real life: I have that at home. And I am not big on fluffy romcoms, either. But then if you look at my Top Kdramas list, there are very few comedies on it, and even those that are there, like Capital Scandal and My Girl, have serious issue underpinnings or major angst. Goong is probably the fluffiest of the list but I cried during it and the whole premise is delicious crack, another thing I love about dramas.
Part of the reason in my lack of interest, I think, is that I can’t identify with Dal Ja or Sam Soon or whoever at all - Mr. Mousie and I met in undergrad. I am only a couple of years younger than Dal Ja, but I have been with my husband for almost a decade and I have a baby. True, I have just as little in common with a 19-yr-old in an arranged marriage to an emo icy prince, a medieval female warrior. or a Mob Princess but they are more entertaining to watch (or perhaps that’s not it - perhaps I can imagine myself as Dal Ja in some alternate universe as well as I can imagine myself as all other kdrama heroines, however far-fetched, but I just don’t want to because she is all too human and failure-prone).
*This is not to say all older ladies’ dramas are not for me - I adore Hello Teacher and like Romance. But they are a LOT more ‘drama-like’ in their set-up and angstier. And I like pure fluffy comedies once in a great while (Sweet 18) but the set-up has to be cracktastic.
I have watched three episodes of Dal Ja’s Spring, turned it off, and started instead Marry a Millionaire, a much less acclaimed but much more entertaining to me kdrama based on (yes, indeed) the reality show. Half an ep in, and I am enjoying it hugely. Is it objectively as good as DJS? No way. But it has angsty hot boys, plucky poor gals, true love, oodles of angst and a ton and a half of cheese. I do plan to continue with DJS - it’s rather cute and the heroine is adorable, but I don’t think I will fall into mad love. It would be a fabulous show to watch with a bunch of girlfriends, though. (For those who are wondering, DJS follows a bunch of people but centers around a thirty-something office worker named Dal Ja. The story takes off when, on impulse, she hires a 26-yr old guy to be her fake boyfriend. It’s rather jdramaish).
DJS MV:
Click to viewI have watched (all or in part) three of the most famous kdramas of the 30+ladies subgenre: Kim Sam Soon, DJS and 9 In 2 Out. While I don’t dislike DJS the way I ended up disliking KSS (in fact, it’s rather cute), it does not grab me the way my favorites do. 9I2O was also very good but I still can’t get past ep 6 or so, even with the fast-forwarding.
That’s the thing: people watch kdramas for all sorts of different reasons. My viewing needs are simple: step-sibling forbidden love, revenge, ninjas with tragic past. And angst angst angst. I don’t watch for real life: I have that at home. And I am not big on fluffy romcoms, either. But then if you look at my Top Kdramas list, there are very few comedies on it, and even those that are there, like Capital Scandal and My Girl, have serious issue underpinnings or major angst. Goong is probably the fluffiest of the list but I cried during it and the whole premise is delicious crack, another thing I love about dramas.
Part of the reason in my lack of interest, I think, is that I can’t identify with Dal Ja or Sam Soon or whoever at all - Mr. Mousie and I met in undergrad. I am only a couple of years younger than Dal Ja, but I have been with my husband for almost a decade and I have a baby. True, I have just as little in common with a 19-yr-old in an arranged marriage to an emo icy prince, a medieval female warrior. or a Mob Princess but they are more entertaining to watch (or perhaps that’s not it - perhaps I can imagine myself as Dal Ja in some alternate universe as well as I can imagine myself as all other kdrama heroines, however far-fetched, but I just don’t want to because she is all too human and failure-prone).
*This is not to say all older ladies’ dramas are not for me - I adore Hello Teacher and like Romance. But they are a LOT more ‘drama-like’ in their set-up and angstier. And I like pure fluffy comedies once in a great while (Sweet 18) but the set-up has to be cracktastic.