Years before, when I flew home to the Philippines from Korea during vacation from my work in Seoul, I found my mom watching Korean dramas every night on Philippine television. These dramas were dubbed in Pilipino, which made the dramas understandable for her.
I remember her watching Goblin a few years back (read blog here) when I was home in the Philippines, a drama I never attempted to watch when I was in Seoul but was a big hit everywhere else. I felt like I didn't need to be entertained by those dramas because, after all, those characters were just like my neighbors or my colleagues at work, or even my Korean friends.😊
And over the years, when my Filipino friends came to Seoul (read blog here), one of their reasons, aside from shopping, was to visit the shooting locations of their favorite Korean dramas.👭
For my mom, her daily dose of the Korean drama, 'My Golden Life', started when she saw an episode over a local Philippine channel. But when I learned that she had to wait for another day for the next episode, I searched whether it was available online. And it was! All 52 episodes!😄
(I told my mom that this scene shows the NSeoul Tower
that we visited when she toured Seoul a few years back)
Thanks to the Korean channel KBS World that uploaded it on their Youtube account, she parlayed through the episodes non-stop, enjoying the scenes and dialogue as it had English subtitles.
Of course, a few times, I sat down with her and reminded her on scenes where she had been at during her visit to Seoul a couple of years back (read blog here).
And while she was watching the drama, I asked her why she liked it. Her reasons: the actors were good-looking, the story was very interesting, and everyone dressed up nicely.
Those were the most obvious reasons why Korean dramas are popular. Their productions are well-financed that they don't scrimp on budget: they fly to other countries to shoot, they get tons of fashionable wardrobe for the cast, and leave no strand of hair uncoiffed. Of course, it also helps that their make-up are impeccable to make sure their faces and skin looked flawless on the high definition, wide-screen TVs they are watched on.
And when my mom got immersed after watching a few episodes, she wanted to continue watching even if it was late at night. I had to remind her that she could always watch the next episodes the next day. She reasoned that she couldn't wait to know what happened next.
What happens now to Do-Kyung after he got banished from home by his grandfather?😀
Would Ji-an end up with Do-Kyung?😃 Will her father get well from his sickness?
What kind of tasty bread they make at that bakery?😋
And since it's a drama, she enjoyed how Ji-an and Do-Kyung (the good guys) had a happy ending they deserved, and that the bad guys (the grandfather and kidnappers) and bad girls (Do-kyung's mother) finally met their fate, including the catfight with her mayordoma.
(I reminded my mom that the monument at the background is Sungnyemun,
in front of which she posed when we visited the Namdaemun Market.)
Things happen for a reason, they always say. And if this quarantined life caused by the pandemic didn't happen, my mom wouldn't have been able to religiously watch and enjoy the drama 'My Golden Life', learning more about the Korean life as each episode passed and grew fondly more as each character revealed themselves, played by actors who captivated audiences, other than my mom, through portrayal and stories that transcend nationalities, cultures and languages.😍
Now, what's the next Korean drama should she watch?😎
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