Tuesday 7 September 2010

Geekery leads to mass delay


Okay.

Hi everyone. My name is A Simple Thing.


And I... have a problem.


It's pretty serious. I can honestly say it's affecting my life. It's depressing really. Finally managing to throw off the shackles on one addiction, only to fall into the grasp of another.

I'm talking about: K-drama.

For those who don't know, K-drama is basically Korean drama series. They're short in that they (usually) don't go on for years at a time, and the scheduled air time can be as short as a month.
At the moment, my current crack drama of choice is called 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho'. Gumiho means Nine-Tailed Fox, and you can read the wiki article here, as I'm too lazy to regale you with the mythology facts.
But seriously? Another nine-tailed fox? As if my Naruto addiction wasn't bad enough?!
The plot can be summed up as: A boy frees a gumiho from a painting and she decides to stick to him, and this effects his life in all manner of sweet and comedic way.


Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that, and adorably so. Every time Shin Min Ah (the female lead) and Lee Seung Ki (the male lead) are in a scene together, I want to be the irritating friend in the background, slyly peering over a handy magazine or newspaper, silently cheering them on. They're ridiculously adorable! I love the plot, and the way it's playing out. I'm excited about the rest of the episodes that haven't been released yet and so impatient about it that I keep getting distracted.


This basically sums it all up...

The series is in the Korean language, but you can find the one with English subtitles easily on site such as MySoju.

Levels of geekery revealed:
If you are a absolute novice: When you press the play button, you think 'Oh crud, I'm going to have to read'

If you're intermediate: You're so used to the subtitles, you think you can actually understand Korean (or whatever language you're watching in). Convinced of this, you take a second or more to look away, they say something and you think "What? What?! What was that?!" Cue hurriedly rewinding the clip to get the subtitles...

If you're advanced: You've actually picked up some of the language! Well, mainly the swear words....(they're the only ones ever said by themselves!)

If you're seriously advanced: You don't even need subtitles. Subtitles are for WIMPS! You're so hardcore, you're a subber!*


So far, 'My Girlfriend is a Gumiho' is why I'm neglecting my dissertation work. And only half of the episodes have been released so far!

If your interest has been peaked, the site I like for info is Dramabeans ^_^
I'm afraid that I'm too much of a coward to take any responsibility if you get addicted. My sister's on it already...she's so mad at me that only half the episodes have been released, I'm sleeping with one eye open.

*Someone who is kind enough to subtitle the TV shows from it's original language into another.

5 comments:

  1. I feel your pain. Except, I haven't (yet) succumb to the world of Korean dramas. I'm afraid to open that can of worms, because I can only imagine how depressed I'd be if I couldn't see all of a series, due to a stupid thing like broken links or something. I stick to the movies. For variety, I toss in the occasional Japanese or Filipino movie when I get a good synopsis.

    And on that scale, I think I'm at intermediate-advanced. If it weren't for the suckiness of my internet provider and the slowness of my laptop, I'd probably be semi-fluent by now, lol.

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  2. Ugggh, don't! It's a slippery slope (greased with romance, sunshine and romance. THERE'S NO WAY BACK! O_O) The raw (unsubbed) version of episode 9 just came out and I'm literally writhing on the floor in agony as I type :)

    Ah! Jealous! My interest flickers, meaning that my knowledge of one language is corrupted by another >.< Any good film recommendations? :D

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  3. Just out of curiosity, what is your level of geekery?

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  4. Japanese - advanced, though with the amount I watched, I should be seriously advanced..
    Korean - Intermediate. Though I know that 'Mashita!' means 'Yummy!' or 'delicious' and 'kogi' means 'meat'. I'm getting there....slowly :)

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  5. Hi :)

    For a start, Sad Movie, 100 Days with Mr Arrogant, and My Sassy Girl. A Millionaire's First Love was good too.

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