Kisses. One person is allowed to have their arms around the other. The other is required to keep both arms straight by their sides. Either of them is allowed to be the person who keeps their eyes open, but the other must then close theirs. Kisses aren’t centered. I thought at first that they kept missing, but they seem to be carefully aiming at either the top or bottom lip. Tongues don’t seem to be involved. All looks very clean and sanitary and not drooly and they must not need their brightly colored hankies much. RARELY, is there a sexy kiss.
Yes, the black outfit is useful for all bad guys, but is also useful for disguised idols.
Fashion! I HAVE to make a video showing off the incredible Chinese fashion sense. It’s Paris meets Beijing. Korean not so much. The balloon-like historical costumes end up affecting the modern fashions, but not in a good way. Men’s fashions range from incredibly wonderful to copies of 1890’s suits.
Didn’t notice the knife issue. I’ll look for it. There were quite a few knife scenes in Glamor and in Descendants of the Sun. Very business-like military dramas and the universal military college training and 2 year enlistment is fascinating.
They do say brat and jerk a lot. I don’t swear, so it never occurred to me that they might be translated more gently.
Diseases are fascinating. I called my girlfriend with HD to tell her about the drama that had all the symptoms wrong. And I can’t recognize faces either, so I was thrilled with the drama that was built around that one. (We will not discuss the year and a half I couldn’t tell the difference between my 2 year fiancee and some strange man. I only told when I would start shaking and grab the stair railings or I would be fine and think I was finally over him. Apparently I could subconsciously tell them apart but it was years before I figured that out.) My favorite at the moment is human allergy.
I’ve never drunk alcohol, but it seems to be the national pastime. Is there an Asian movie where the heroine DOESN’T get drunk? And the practice of drinking for someone else? Absolutely fascinating. Besides drinking, the girls all cry like 5 year old children crying aloud. I’d THINK that would be a major turnoff, but it seems not to be. I LOVE that the men cry, but with more dignity than the girls.
I’ll have to look for produce placement. I started with Chinese dramas and moved into Korean. Sleuth is one of the best dramas EVER! I WILL make music videos in that one eventually.
There are huge rules about drinking in Korea, many based on status. First, the lower ranked person always pours for the higher ranked. The bottle must be held a certain way and at a certain angle when pouring to indicate respect. When toasting, the lower ranked person(s) always hold their glass at a lower height than the highest ranked person (usually the boss from work). The biggest one is that the lower-ranked person can never look directly at the higher ranked one when actually taking a drink. You will see that one person always looks to the side as they are drinking. Also, you sometimes see the lower ranked person covering their mouth with their hand when they are drinking, especially women. (You also see this in historical Chinese dramas where they cover their mouth with their hand or their sleeve when drinking, it shows they have manners).
I’ve been told that Koreans are so into drinking because it is the only way they can socialize and drop their guards down. The Korean workplace is so type-A that it is higly restricted what you can say or do, especially when your boss or a higher ranked person is around. But if you all go drinking together, there is a sort of understanding that you can say and do things you normally wouldn’t do and then blame it on the alcohol. Oh, by the way, if the boss says he’s taking everyone out for a drink, he’s the one who pays for it, so it’s not all one way in this situation. On the other hand, you have to be careful about refusing a drink because that could be taken as being rude or impolite. If you’re not going to drink you have to be firm up front and give an acceptable reason, like you say you have a medical issue where you can’t drink, or you’re taking a medication where you can’t drink alcohol, etc. That may be acceptable. If people realize you really can’t or won’t drink eventually they will accept that, although sometimes it may make your own drinking of a soft drink instead complicated since you have to get your own drink.
Another rule in polite Korean society is that men are not supposed to touch women publicly unless they are their wives or significant others. So a mark of “gentility” or “breeding” is when you see a man, particularly a K-Drama type star, who is scrupulous about not touching a woman, co-star or others. This may be even when they look like they are holding them or guiding them, you will see that their hands actually never touch the woman. This is known as “manner hands.” This is also the rule in China, when they want to compliment a male star’s behavior they will sometimes say he has good manner hands.