An introduction featuring the global success of K-dramas

Since the start of the month, the internet has been raving with the news of how the sensational South Korean series, Squid Game, had rapidly amassed the support of viewers across the globe. With less than one month since its debut on the 17th of September this year, this series has garnered over 111 million fans and broken a record on Netflix as the most-watched show, previously held by Bridgerton (2020). According to Netflix, people have spent more than 1.4 billion hours watching the show! That is massive – even without the other billion views on illegal streaming sites.

A snip inside the new Netflix's K-drama series ' Squid Game'. Source: Netflix

Thus, this tremendous fame has once again directed the attention of many to the South Korean film industry, particularly after the 2019 Academy’s Best Picture film, Parasite made its global impact. And now, people are venturing into the unparalleled world of K-dramas (short for South Korean television series) to get their fix of Korean stories on the small screen

As someone who has watched more than 300 K-dramas over the past ten years, I am here to give you a comprehensive yet straightforward beginner guide that allows you to grasp a sense of its charm and structure before you venture into this world on your own.

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Your Very Very Quick Guide to K-dramas

New to K-dramas? Here are some posters that include brief and precise information about them . 😁 A Quick Anatomy Of K-Dramas: What to Expect Where Should You Go to Stream Them? Amongst all of these options, the two sites which I frequent most are Viki and Netflix. While Viki is free, some content is only accessible in some regions and sometimes only by their subscribers. There are also a lot of complaints about the number of advertisements inserted within each episode. It is the fact that it is free that some could ignore this negative side of the site. Nevertheless, I use this site very often because the platform is easy to navigate, and you have a variety of shows to watch. They also regularly add new shows so you would not run out of things to watch. Viki also has a function that Netflix does not have: the comment and discussion section. It is a part of the culture to read comments and discuss your opinions during and after each episode ends. Getting into K-dramas is like

Subtitle vs Dubbing

For many of us international fans who do not know Korean, the language barrier is one of our major obstacles. Not all K-dramas will be translated, but if they are, they usually take a long time to be released. Therefore, if you would like to continue on this journey as a K-drama lover, you should have the patience and the understanding that this process takes time. Nevertheless, the question is whether you should be opting for the subtitled version or the dubbed one. While the subtitled version is easy to find, dubbings are rare and mostly for older series due to the extra production. Therefore, I would always readily recommend you to choose the subtitled version over the dubbed one. Dubbings replace the original actors’ voices with the voice actors, and by doing so, this process removes the soul of the film. Conversely, the subtitled version allows you to hear the wealth of emotions that the actors had mindfully strived to express. The sentiment and tone, the phrasing, the

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