Japanese Title Shot of the Drama: Kyo-wool-yon-ga aka Winter Sonata
Posted on 07/26/2004 8:38:00 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Japanese marriages falling victim to 'Yongfluenza'
This year is likely to be remembered for the boom set off by "Winter Sonata," the weepy South Korean melodrama broadcast by NHK. The "Fuyu-Sona" series not only achieved a high audience rating during its initial showing; it also generated spinoffs in the form of 330,000 DVDs and 1.22 million copies of the story in book form — generating an estimated 3.5 billion yen in revenues for the network.
"My wife spent over 30,000 yen on a set of DVDs," a 50-year-old trading firm employee grumbles. "To watch them, I had to buy a DVD player, which set us back another 50,000 yen or so. I'd say thanks to 'Yong-sama' (the nickname given to blonde-dyed leading actor Bae Yong Joong), 40% of my summer bonus has be eaten up by ?eFuyu-sona'-related outlays. If I were to just buy even a single golf club for myself, I'd never hear the end of it."
Some wives have been signing up for group package tours to Seoul, whose itineraries include visits to locations where the drama was shot. The higher priced tours run between 70,000 to 120,000 yen, and, according to one major tour organizer, more than 2,000 women — whose ages range from 30 to 60 — have already joined such groups.
"About 30 Japanese women a day come in her looking for him," a Korean patron of a barbecue restaurant in Seoul's Kangnam-gu, where "Yong-sama" (Bae) is known to make frequent visits. "They ask, in broken Korean, 'What are his favorite dishes?' And camera flashes are constantly going off, as they snap photos to show where they've been."
With visions of Yong-sama dancing in their heads, the women have also found other ways to worship their new idol. Japanese husbands returning home are surprised to find the dinner table laden with Korean dishes. One was even asked by his wife to change his eyeglass frames to the same type that Bae has popularized in the drama.
"Then she looked at me and pouted, saying 'It doesn't work on you,'" the man complains.
A younger husband, still in his 30s, was distraught when his wife returned from Seoul with a serious case of "Yongfluenza." His once happy home life may be over.
"I'll ask her to make love to me, but she'll reject me, saying, 'Look at that protruding belly; that's why Japanese men are no good,'" he whines. "And when I persisted she pulled away violently. We haven't had sex for over a month."
To take advantage of the growing number of "Fuyusona rikon" (Winter Sonata Divorces) that are threatening to crop up, a new international matchmaking service was organized two months ago. The service helps Japanese women tie up with dreamy new Korean mates.
"The interest seemed to surge from about three months ago," says a staff member. "About 100 women a month have been signing up, and the numbers are still rising. Nearly all of them describe Yong-sama as their idea mate."
But Shimako Iwai, who has been living together with a South Korean companion, is skeptical about the new boom in East Asian romance.
"Yong-sama is viewed by these women as some kind of Mr Perfect, who completely lacks a male body odor, and who doesn't even excrete semen," says Iwai. "He may seem to be appealing to these middle-aged Japanese women, but I think what the women really love are themselves."
Or in other words, he really signifies an escape from reality. Psychiatrist Shoji Kuwasaki tends to agree with Iwai's interpretation.
"The drama's fans, mainly middle-aged women, are not really treated like women by their husbands," Kuwasaki suggests. "They want to engage in affairs, but realistically speaking it's not practical. So while their husbands work and their children play video games, they let Yong-sama give them a kind of emotional therapy. The result of their search for a way to heal their existence is through the silent sublimation of their personality through a heroic figure."
The only cure for this strain of Yongfluenza is for husbands to make greater efforts to give pay attention to their wives.
Looks kinda girly man to me.
Considering what Japanese men did to Korean women during the Second World War, there's some gigantic irony here someplace...
Choir boy is popular in Japan.:)
Yes, I agree.
Now, wait a minute; I thought Western culture was supposed to be trendy and shallow.
I agree! If you look, girlie girl and girlie man are wearing the same lipstick!
Having grown up around thousands of Koreans, I can assure you that "Girlie Man" pictured here is not even close to the typical Korean. Most of 'em are very similar to the typical Japanese, with jet black hair. Mister Girlie Man here is definately sporting a phony doo, no doubt he bought a bottle of bleach and some light brown haircolor. Oh yeah, and a tube of purple-pink lipstick.
The real appeal of this drama, from what I'm told, is that the older ladys here in Japan long for the old Japanese drama style where romance is very subtle and deals with a lot of longing and sighing and stuff like that. Japanese drama now deals a lot more with comedy or quick romance.
Yong does look like a girlie man and a comedic tv show here did a great sketch where he and his buff gay lover profess their love for each other.
Mango!
Like the popular metro-sexual look here.
Hey--the Korean Elvis!
A few years ago, my son and I were hooked on a Japanese drama that had a young wife in an affair (unconsumated) with a pianist. Her husband didn't pay attention to her, the mother-in-law was a b!tch on wheels and here was this nice young guy who played the piano for her.
Well, many weeks, and many ups and downs later, the husband finally gets that he has to pay more attention and has this passionate speech to his wife about why he needs her and they stay together. My son and I were both in tears. It was great tv! Obviously we were being emotionally manipulated, but we loved it. (btw, my son's no girly man)
There were quite a few Japanese shows w/English subtitles at the time, but now all I get are the unsubtitled ones. Too bad. It's a great way to learn about another culture.
What's the real difference between different culture's soap operas? Aren't they all about fantasy sex and fantasy relationships and fantasy lifestyles, sort of allowing people to think they're peeping toms on some well-off type people? I would hope other people don't think they're learning American culture from our soap operas.
Ooops! Sorry, I thought this thread was about an asian std. Guess I have to see my urologist after all.
He's wearing fuschia colored lipstick :-(
Is this sort of like an "Elvis phenomenom"?
I am not sure that was the lipstick on his lips. I have to check.
I've learned all my Japanese culture from watching Iron Chef and the Shogun miniseries. Oh yeah, I also enjoy swilling sake. (/sarcasm)
For example, there was one show about medical examiners. Before examining the body, they would bow and express respect for the person they were about to examine.
On another show, I found it interesting that the new employees would introduce themselves by name, and then say, 'Please don't mistreat me.' Perhaps that was a bad translation, perhaps not, but it certainly isn't something that we would say over here.
On the Korean shows, it's interesting to see all the technology they have, pretty much the same as here, but when you go in the bedroom, usually they still have the traditional bed on the floor.
Culture can be painted with a pretty broad brush. I'm not looking at the fantasy involved in the text of the soap opera, but the reality of the context in which it is placed.
Apologies to Aerosmith.
*sigh* When our family (military, I was 10) lived in HA in mid-60s, We had Japanese "Samurai Sword" Operas on Sunday mornings, that's what we called them...they were fun to watch...and to ponder, seriously. Now Asia/Pacific Rim too, have gone "HollyWeird". :/
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