I've heard it said before (actually I read it on the net a few days ago) that soap opera is only successful if it is soap + another genre. A soap that just tries to be a soap becomes a melodrama. So what is the secret of Korean soap success? From what I can see, Korean soap opera is straight 'down the line' soap. I can't understand the dialogue but you don't need to follow the words to understand what's happening.
I'm curious to know, what are the most successful Korean soaps? I know there have been stunningly successful short series which have received international acclaim (particularly in East Asia), but what about recurring series? Specifically, the question I want to ask (of anyone who can answer) is, what kind of turnover is there in the industry? Are characters constantly being written in and out? The reason I want to know the answer to this is because the soaps are obviously written with Confucian morality and therefore include large families. If characters are continually dropping in and out of the series, it would make it difficult to retain that morality, because the families would shrink so much. Are there lots of deaths in soap operas? Otherwise it detracts from the confucian ethics, if characters depart to follow their dreams and desires in other places. Or, are the soap operas not as confucian as I think?
It must be an utter nightmare trying to follow these guidelines when writing for Korean soap, because every time you introduce a character you would have to introduce the whole family- or come up with some tragic orphan story (which I bet is a recurring character type).
East Asian "tellanovellas"
I haven't seen many Korean "dramas" (though I did enjoy Dae Janggeum since it was a historical ;) ) but I have seen Cantonese ones (although I don't really understand that language either! ;) ).
The fundamental difference between Western "soaps" and "dramas" and East Asian ones is that East Asian "soaps / dramas" don't drag on forever. The whole "As the World Turns" style thing in the US goes on since the world began, filled with convoluted and blasse mini-plots of someone sleeping with some other guy's wife who happens to be his stepsister or garbage of that sort.
East Asian "soaps" are actually "tellanovellas" because they often have only a few dozen episodes (sometimes as short as less than a dozen) and follow a linear plot line in the structure of a novel, thus having clear character development and resolution of conflicts and events.
East Asian dramas tend to incorporate aspects of other genres as well; sometimes you have a drama that mixes mafia stories, crime dramas, martial arts fantasy, or comedy. And then there are also some that are "period dramas" set in a historical setting, but incorporate martial arts fiction (wuxia in Chinese) or fantasy. One example in particular is a Chinese "period drama" of the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, which focuses on a "forbidden romance" and has aspects of martial arts and fantasy on the side. East Asian dramas still follow the line of a drama, but they simply have other things to spice them up.
Of course, this is not to say that East Asian TV dramas aren't melodramatic! Some of them are a bit over-the-top (such as the dreaded high school dramas *yuck* ) with flat cookie-cutter characters that Western dramas also unfortunately feature. There are several East Asian TV dramas that seem to be cheesy carbon-copies of each other, but with different characters or sent in a different period (if it is a period drama).
In both romance dramas and "romantic comedies", you might notice that in East Asian dramas, things are a bit conservative. Passionate moments are done more by facial expressions, moments of blissful silence (with cheesy romantic music in the background of course!), and words. Things are more subtle. Typically, there aren't any "let's have sex in the garage" moments. There is indeed a hint of Confucian morality, as characters that are romantically involved or have had pre-marital sex usually do get married in the end, but it isn't really shoved down the viewers' throats. Some dramas do feature characters with large extended families, but it is actually quite easy to follow along because characters are different from each other and oftentimes, you'll only really be following a main core cast of individuals. There aren't so many pointless deaths since dramas follow the line of a novel and not a traditional Western story-that-never-ends soap opera.
Thanks
That's really interesting Ogedei, that's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know.