In this episode, we talk about how K-dramas became a highly profitable export long before the entry of streaming platforms in the mid 2010s. This is a story of a nation's economic crisis, the creation of a unique opportunity, and a two decade long struggle for air wave supremacy in East Asia. Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIMELINE OF DRAMAS MENTIONED: 1997 IMF crisis 1997 What is love all about (NBC) 2000 Autumn In My Heart (KBS) 2002 Winter Sonata (KBS) 2007 The Legend...

We are back with a long yak on three dramas we started 2024 with: Doctor Slump, Marry My Husband, and Like Flowers In Sand. This episode was recorded on 11th February. Our feelings on these dramas have stayed the same (with Doctor Slump getting special love for staying so reliably warm till the end). Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Paroma's Doctor Slump post. Support Gaza through the Palestine Children's Relief Fund here. TIMESTAMP: 00:01:50 - Doctor...

Awards season is the perfect time for us to share our review of Past Lives, our favorite film of last year. Saya, Anisa and our friend Yunah talk about why this movie's meditations on grief, love, diaspora and selfhood spoke to us so deeply. (We recorded this at the end of last year.) Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Overall thoughts 20:39 Spoilers LEAVE US A REVIEW: Apple podcasts | Spotify | Audible! MORE EPISODES YOU'LL LIKE: Episode 89: Our review of Minari,...

The 5th Annual Goguma Awards have landed! Your votes have been tallied and the results range from unexpected to unsurprising, all of which we dissect with glee. Get your tea and biscuits, it's long! Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Actor Jin: The Handsome Hotelier TIMESTAMP: 00:00:00 - Introducing the Goguma Awards 00:02:46 - The Classic Gogumas 00:17:47 - Your Top 3 Dramas of 2023 00:25:27 - The Wild Gogumas 01:11:15 - Create Your Own: Listener Awards! 01:49:36...

The Year-End Yak is here! Or Part 1 anyway, where we talk about what K-dramas did this year, and how we felt about them. Goguma Awards coming in Part 2! Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Paroma's excellent 2023 Wrap for Film Companion Paroma's My Demon Halfway Review (Spoilers) K-drama Research Institute's video essay We Need to Talk About Netflix K-dramas Saya and Paroma's new BTS YouTube Channel Jae-Ha Kim's article Rest in Peace, Lee...

If you missed our callout for votes for the 5th Annual Goguma Awards, or if you simply haven't had a chance to vote yet, we've extended the deadline! Vote here for the dramas you loved and hated, the OTPs that made you swoon, the actors who blew you away with their talent in 2023. See you in the Year-End Yak! ❤

Just Saya popping in to share her thoughts on an assortment of dramas: a mixture of bright and dark, exquisite and questionable, therapeutic and aggravating. The tl;dl (?) being: My Demon is darkbright and exquisite, Death's Game is just dark, Park's Marriage Contract is bright and aggravating, and Welcome to Samdal-ri is therapeutic, bright, and funnier than it should be. Content warning for discussion of suicide in Death's Game and Welcome to Samdal-ri. Take care and skip if needed by using...

Perfect Marriage Revenge is a drama that kept all its promises: revenge! marriage! perfect! We revel in how the drama revels in its story, with special props to writer Im Seo-ra for some of the best writing in dramaland this year. SPOILERS EVERYWHERE, BEWARE BEWARE! Feat. beloved and returning guest, Zaynab, who does not want to be found. Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Our new youtube channel, Bangtan Over Flowers. LEAVE US A REVIEW: Apple podcasts | Spotify |...

Saya and Anisa talk about 8(!) dramas, including writer Park Hre-ryun's newest Castaway Diva, gorgeous romance melodrama Call it Love, and the actually perfect Perfect Marriage Revenge. Lots of time travel, revenge and contract relationships in this one, so you know we're both happy campers. Leave us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIMESTAMPS: 00:01:00 Castaway Diva 00:12:24 Spoilers for Castaway 1-4 00:21:38 Daily Dose of Sunshine 00:31:09 Twinkling Watermelon 00:46:39...

Kick back with us on a diatribe filled episode where we talk about women written by men, unearned forgiveness, and the ethics of love potions. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINK: Listen to the trailer of The Broadside (new podcast hosted by Anisa) TIMESTAMP: 00:09:00 - Titanic (Spoilers) 00:19:00 - Women written by men (and also, Dev Anand's C.I.D.) 00:28:00 - My Lovely Liar (Spoilers) 01:14:00 - Destined With You (Spoilers up to episode 6) MORE EPISODES YOU'LL LIKE: Episode...

We are joined by kfangurl on an ultimate fan trip episode where we deep dive into a cult classic time slip romance that set new standards in storytelling for all of us. This drama has also been recently remade into the Korean, A Time Called You, which we discussed in episode 161. Tell us your thoughts about either drama in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Paroma's twitter post on face blurring the fangirl verdict blog TIMESTAMP: 00:01:52 - Introducing Someday or One Day: plot,...

Anisa, Paroma and Anisa's sister Zaynab talk about A Time Called You, remake of hit Taiwanese drama Someday or One Day, how it compares to the original, and the eternal question of the adaptation: why? Catch our spoiler review of Someday or One Day next week! Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIMESTAMP: 0:00 General thoughts on A Time Called You 31:00 SPOILERS for both the original and the remake MORE EPISODES YOU'LL LIKE: Episode 135: Extraordinary Attorney Woo Spoiled...

Welcome to another anniversary Mailbag episode! We asked for your thoughts on dramas, on us, anything at all, and you gave us a lot to talk about! Also, let us know if you liked, loved, or FF'd this episode in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: The Hollywood writers’ strike: Vox explains LA Times article about Netflix's affect on Korea Entertainment Industry Burn it Down excerpt RELATED EPISODES YOU'LL LIKE: The burning sun special, episode 37 On representation, episodes 65 and episode...

We bring you another long yak this months where we talk about two new dramas and final thoughts on three completed ones. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: The anime Paroma mentioned: How A Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom (on Netflix) TIMESTAMP: (No spoilers = NS) 00:00:40 - My Lovely Liar (NS) 00:21:08 - Behind Your Touch (Ep 1 Spoilers) 00:42:08 - Maturity of social discussion 00:46:06 - See You In My 19th Life (Final Thoughts/NS) 01:08:54 - ... 19th Life...

It's August, and that means it's our 6th anniversary! We're doing a special Mailbag Episode to celebrate, so send us your questions, your stories and your comments by August 19th. You can email us at [email protected], or leave a voice note here: PATRONS: SPECIAL THANK YOU to our beloved patrons for another year of helping us light the lanterns to sail our ship! Join our Patreon here! ❤︎ You can also support us by leaving a review on your podcast app, or sharing the episode with...

Saya and Paroma pick apart Our Blooming Youth and pore over its bests and not-so-best things. Bests include: Park Hyung-shik and Jeon So-nee. Dissatisfactions include: plot lapses, villains with unconvincing motives. Erratum: Saya's first Park Hyung-shik drama was Nine (2013). Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIMESTAMP: 00:01:52 When fandom doesn't feel the way you do 00:07:43 Character development vs. plot 00:14:20 Unwinding the villains 00:23:56 Heir vs. King vs....

We are back with a long yak after a very long while. Settle in as we discuss two new romances and one completed romcom with a side serving of murder! Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Paroma's video about kdramas badly solving classism [here] Jun-ho and Yoon-ah's 'Senorita' at MBC's music festival [here] TIMESTAMP: 00:00:38 - King The Land (first 6 episode overview) 00:34:21 - See You In My 19th Life (first 7 episode overview) 00:52:45 - Crash Course In Romance...

In this Spoiled Yak, Anisa and Paroma review Dr. Cha and talk about why dramas about a middle-aged woman getting a new lease on life are so enjoyable - and mention some other favorites in this genre. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: TIME STAMPS: 00:00:00 Dr. Cha Spoiler Review 01:03:40 A wild Kwon Min-woo appears! (Yes, this is an Extraordinary Attorney Woo reference) 01:14:40 Other dramas in this genre we loved! 01:15:24 Twenty Again 01:19:00 Mystery Queen 01:22:42 SKY...

Bora! Deborah was mostly frustrating yet sometimes joyous to watch. So we do a needlessly long deep dive into why it gripped us so hard. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: Mattie Kahn's excellent Vox piece on Viktor Frankl [here] (the real source of Bora's "getting pretty" quote) My own short piece on why using such an anecdote without context is harmful [here] TIMESTAMP: 00:01:54 - Yoo In-na made us watch it 00:16:00 - Episode 1 00:26:25 - Yeon Bora 00:33:11 -...

Saya and Paroma went to see BTS's concert film, Yet to Come in Cinemas, which took place in Busan on 23 October 2022 and released in cinemas worldwide in February 2023. We talk about the boys, the music, the fans, and our good and bad experiences at the cinema. Check out the official trailer here. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS MENTIONED: ScreenX trailers: Run BTS version, Dynamite version One of our favourite performances: Mic Drop & Run BTS Stage CAM @ BTS “Yet To...

We finally talk about why Crash Landing on You is SO GOOD. And we discuss Anisa's master's thesis on media portrayals of love across the borders created by partition - and why CLOY's depiction of that yearning is the best we've ever seen. Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: LINKS: Anisa's thesis, Visualizing the Fractured Nation: Narratives of (Un)belonging in 21st Century Indian and South Korean Media Interview with Park Ji-eun’s co-writer Kwak Moon-wan, a North Korean defector,...

Here's a special sneak preview of something we've been doing on Patreon: The Lone Yak! We take a moment (or a few) to tell you what's on our minds, whether about a drama we've been watching, general K-drama thoughts, or life! This episode contains Saya talking about becoming a new version of yourself in public, Paroma talks about when we defend our faves (and don't) and why, and Anisa reviews the first half of Crash Course in Romance - and talks a little about murder rom-coms. Tell us your...

If you've missed Park Hyung-sik in a sageuk or if you have a fondness for tortured Crown Princes, we have the drama for you. As a pleasant surprise, you also get a capable heroine with her own heroine arc in the story. As Saya puts it, Jeon So-nee might actual be the real protagonist of this show! Tell us your thoughts in a voice note here: MORE EPISODES YOU'LL LIKE: Episode 149: Screenwriting Part 1 Episode 150: Screenwriting Part 2 NEWSLETTER: Join our email list for the monthly...

In Part 2 of our discussion on K-drama screenwriting, we talk about Kim Eun-sook, whether great acting can rescue a bad script, why dramaland has so many serial killers, and much more! Listen to Part 1 HERE. We recorded this episode during a livestream discussion in 2022. If you here us speaking about comments, it's from the attendees of the stream. In Part 2, you can hear some of their voices in the final segment of the show as they jump in to give their own takes on drama writing. Leave us...