Why does black comedy work? It’s no easy feat to delve into the darkest depths and pull out laughs. The key ingredient is pathos. Take the lovable Jack Lemmon in “The Apartment,” perhaps the most successful black comedy of all time. Sure, he’s a sleazy guy involved with…
Head out from Gangnam in any direction. Within a few miles you’ll hit places where people are living out their rock bottoms. Seedy karoke joints, hostess bars, dumpy apartments. From its opening shot, The Shameless is out to remind you of this cold hard fact.
“The Shameless” isn’t…
Do you remember those halcyon days when the world was young and it was possible to tell the difference between hastily typed fanfiction and a novel published by a major press?
Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout seems coldly calculated to offend and insult. It is racist, poorly…
K Dramas and fan fiction share a lot of common ground. Both are filled with inexplicable plot twists and couples coming together against all odds. Both often act as a form of wish fulfillment and fantasy for the audience. And both skew towards the same young & female demographic. So…
Korean dramas are a fantasy space. They don’t show the world we live in but the world we wish we could access. The underdog conquers all obstacles; the painfully average person achieves greatness. Love is always true and good always wins. The poor gain opulent wealth without surrendering their…
If you don’t speak Korean, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s happening now in Korean film and even harder to learn about films made before the first Korean wave. This list of resources will give you a fuller picture of Korean film and its place…
Much has been made of the extreme “chastity” in Korean Dramas. In a previous article, I’ve already covered the emphasis on female purity in dramas, where women’s storylines have more in common with June Cleaver than Detective Stella Gibson. Dehlia has also shown the connections between squeaky 60s…
Here’s a fun game: next time you are in a room full of film buffs ask the question “Hey everyone! How do you feel about Kim Ki-Duk?” Then sit back and watch the room explode.
While not widely known by mainstream audiences, Kim Ki-Duk is an enfant…
Most of the other members of the BH writing team don’t watch those blockbuster chaebol-following K Dramas. You know, the ones where big-name stars spend a lot of time wandering about in terrible (but expensive) outfits acting all love-sick and what not.
Me? I love ’em…
Lots of time and attention is given to the stars of K Dramas, but rarely is the spotlight shone on those working behind the scenes. Screenwriters and directors are equally important to a drama’s success (or failure) but are largely ignored. So I set off to answer the question…