My Lovely Sam-soon : Absent Sex and the Unbearable Lightness of Sweet Korean Romance

Kim, Jeongmee

doi:10.5040/9781628928334.ch-008

Cited by 4 publications

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“…11 Although Korean dramas in the aggregate have become increasingly diverse in genre and format due to the proliferation of channels in Korea and growing investment from streaming platforms such as Netflix (Hyejung Ju, 2017;Song Sooho, 2020), my thesis concentrates on what one might term K-dramas, that is, those that have played the greatest roles in furthering the Korean Wave worldwide with a focus on romance (Hyunji Lee, 2018;Min Joo Lee, 2020;dos Santos, 2020). These popular dramas are sometimes also called "Korean Wave trendy dramas" or "Hallyu dramas" (Jeongmee Kim, 2012;Min Joo Lee, 2020), marking themselves from other non-romantic sub-genres of Korean dramas, such as horror, crime, or long-running family and period dramas. They are usually prime-time mini-series that broadcast two episodes a week and require higher production costs than other dramas (Hae Joo Kim, 2015).…”

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…run for years or even decades without offering a conclusion (Artz, 2015), however, primetime K-dramas tend to have only one season of 16 to 24 episodes, run for several months, and come to a closure (Shim, 2004;Russell, 2008;Hyunji Lee, 2018;Keller, 2019). 12 Third, K-dramas are regarded to be influenced by Japanese TV productions in content and format (Shim, 2006;Russell, 2008;Creighton, 2009), with one noticeable difference being the former's greater emphasis on family values (Jeongmee Kim, 2012;Creighton, 2009). Modern Korean and Japanese dramas popular among the youth are termed "trendy dramas" and "idol dramas" (Hu, 2008;Artz, 2015;Wan-shuan Lin, 2019), which appeal to fashion-conscious and aspiring young audiences.…”

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of content, K-dramas and Western TV series differ in the amount of sexuality and violence; the former programmes are more conservative with less explicit sex scenes and less violence (Jeongmee Kim, 2012;Hyunji Lee, 2018). Known for being formulaic and predictable, many K-dramas repeat the Cinderella theme, where a poor girl meets a rich guy, and emphasise women's sacrifice and virtue (Russell, 2008;Choi, 2012).…”

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most portray ideal love, the "one and only," "forever and ever," and "sacred" kind (Ma, 2007b;Espiritu, 2011;Jeongmee Lee, 2012). Many pursue a "pure love" theme (Lin & Tong, 2007;Jeongmee Kim, 2012), the story of a couple who fall in love for the first time, keep pure feelings for each other despite the passage of time and overcome obstacles to be together eventually. This theme, known as junai (pure love) in Japan, is also common in Japanese anime and films.…”

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Love in K-dramas, as Jeongmee Kim (2012) puts it, is "spiritual, transcendental and still childishly innocent" (p. 113). The lack of explicit sexuality in K-dramas runs counter to the dynamics of sexual practices among young couples in contemporary Korea (Jeongmee Kim, 2012).…”

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vietnamese Reception Of Soft Masculinities In Korean Television Dramas: Desires, Identifications, And Gender

Gammon¹

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This doctoral thesis explores Vietnamese audience reception of soft masculinities, defined by the aestheticisation and romantic idealisation of male characters, in South Korean television dramas (K-dramas). Based on interview data collected in 2019, the thesis focuses on patterns of gendered desire, identification, and negotiation in viewers in their 20s and 30s. It highlights the popularity of K-dramas in Vietnam, which have established an enduring presence there since the late 1990s, overlapping with ongoing changes in gender relations following the introduction of the 1986 Đổi Mới (reform) policy, marked by Vietnam’s transition to a market economy and gradual integration into global trade. The thesis demonstrates how the spread of this “Korean Wave” is correlated with a changing local mediascape, the rise of a consumer culture, and a growing interest in exploring the self. In this thesis, I adopt the Free Association Narrative Interview (FANI) method, which draws on the solicitation of free talk and storytelling and psychosocial attention to case studies in order to connect interview participants’ biographical details with their viewing experiences. The study is influenced by Judith Butler’s theoretical work on gender and performativity, as well as related material by scholars such as Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. I highlight how a nuanced understanding of the viewing experience treats it as a complex process linked to an individual’s biographical details and explore how this process intertwines with larger sociocultural contexts, including local norms, Confucian values, feminism, Western gender images, notions of modernity, and globalised aesthetic ideals. The study reveals that although gendered desires and identifications are shaped by norms, they can also subvert them, and thus provides empirical evidence for Butler’s theories from a Vietnamese context. It also shows that desires and identifications that result from engagement with fantasy on screen may follow viewers’ personalised logics and open up multiple avenues for interpretations. Prominent themes of viewing experiences in relation to soft masculinities analysed in this thesis include escapism, parasocial interactions with characters, romantic imaginations, melancholic identification with romantic relationships on screen, desires for upward mobility, queer pleasures, ambivalence, and disidentification. The thesis thus contributes to contemporary Vietnamese studies, gender studies, psychosocial studies, media audience studies, and research on the Korean Wave.

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Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Understanding K-dramamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vietnamese Reception Of Soft Masculinities In Korean Television Dramas: Desires, Identifications, And Gender

Gammon¹

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“I’d Have Divorced My Husband If Not for Korean Dramas” – Vietnamese Women’s Consumption of Television Romance and Melancholia

Gammon

2022

Studies in Gender and Sexuality

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Not just Netflix: Interventions of Korea's domestic streamers

Kang

2023

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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Korean video culture has changed from a broadcast-focused culture into a diversified experience that includes a variety of videos from both domestic and global streaming services. Contrary to the mainstream view that Netflix is at the centre of all changes, this study positions the domestic streamers’ original content as not necessarily a direct response to Netflix but indicative of the many changes that were already occurring in the local media landscape. Their content has adapted to fit viewers’ changing lifestyles and desire for stories not seen on television. Efficient everyday storytelling fits into viewers’ busy commuter lifestyles and features mundane topics that they can easily identify with. Also, the domestic streamers cater to small, underserved audiences with regard to specific topics avoided by traditional media. Thus, the original content of domestic streamers indicates that they offer different value propositions than formulaic romance stories by broadcasters and the high-end, large-scale original dramas of subscription video on demand (SVOD).

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My Lovely Sam-soon : Absent Sex and the Unbearable Lightness of Sweet Korean Romance

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Vietnamese Reception Of Soft Masculinities In Korean Television Dramas: Desires, Identifications, And Gender

Vietnamese Reception Of Soft Masculinities In Korean Television Dramas: Desires, Identifications, And Gender

“I’d Have Divorced My Husband If Not for Korean Dramas” – Vietnamese Women’s Consumption of Television Romance and Melancholia

Not just Netflix: Interventions of Korea's domestic streamers

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