I have never been one to enjoy subtitles on my video screen, but on a whim at the beginning of 2020 with my abundance of free time, I decided to check out some Korean and Chinese dramas. I became hooked on this new style of entertainment in which I 100% relied on the subtitles.
After the third series, I was able to identify a number of things that happened over and over again in these shows.
A young woman of low class or limited power would suffer unfortunate loss. She would struggle for a little while, find a way to overcome, and slowly gain power through charm and intelligence. She will typically become connected with the royal palace and rise through the treacherous and deadly game of royal favor.
She would catch undesirable attention from treacherous men, but she would also captivate two handsome acceptable men who admire her will and poise. A love triangle would play out for 60% of the narrative until finally, she chooses the one that can finally secure her attention and advance her on the rise to the highest position of power in the land. Usually, this position would be queen or empress.
The tension and curiosity of what could have been with the man who loved and lost will continue for the duration of the show, sparking the smoldering flame of passionate jealousy in both male members of the established love triangle.
The lady protagonist would always outsmart her palace rivals eventually, and there would be many shipped off to meet their maker via poison after a scene or two involving torture of some kind.
And I loved every second of it! (Minus the torture scenes, of course)
Here are two compilations from the first two dramas of this kind that I binged in March 2020. You will easily notice references to the thing I mentioned above.
Empress Ki
Legend of Hao Lan
When reading through The Culture Industry by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, the following reminded me of the observations I had quickly been able to make about the third Korean drama I watched:
“Not only are the hit songs, stars, and soap operas cyclically recurrent ad rigidly invariable types, but the specific content of the entertainment itself is derived from them and only appears to change. The details are interchangeable. (P. 8)”
The business of leisure entertainment content pays close attention to what sells to their masses. It’s only good business to hit that sweet spot again in a “new way” resulting in, as the writers say later, “Constant reproduction of the same thing. (Adorno, p. 8)”
This seems to extend across many cultures, with their own style of repetition contained in their popular culture.
If the themes of sameness in popular culture come from the influence of the superstructure of a society, what can we derive from these themes in K-dramas and C-dramas? Is it easier to spot areas of recurring sameness in popular culture we are immersed in or the popular culture in which we are guests?
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