This is the reality whether we think it fair or not, and ultimately dramas and movies and the stars in them are all commodities. The business is the end product. Lovely Runner has wrapped its airing and has already sold overseas licensing rights to broadcast in various countries network channels, this happens to a few K-dramas a year that get really popular. An industry insider said that the sales are all because of Byun Woo Seok‘s popularity and the overseas broadcasters expect their domestic viewers to tune in because of him. This has been true for decades now that K-dramas are sold overseas on the backs of the male lead’s popularity, basically since Lee Byung Hun in Beautiful Days and Bae Yong Joon in Winter Sonata over two decades ago. It’s rare if ever a K-drama gets wide overseas sales due to the female lead and female lead centric K-dramas in fact are hardly broadcast overseas. Right now production needs to make its money back on domestic CF sales and are resisting selling to Netflix for global streaming because it’s a 10 year deal and benefits only Netflix and not the production. The best bet is to make a popular drama that has broad appeal for overseas airing and is sold to various countries separately thereby making a genuine material profit.
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I don know, I think it depends from case to case, or from drama to drama, since I saw dramas where female characters getting more popularity.
So Ye Ji in Psycho, IU in Hotel Del Luna, very successful female centric dramas like Song Hye Kyo in Glory and Park Eun Bin in Extraordinary Attorney Woo. For last year I see many news about female actresses as main leads in dramas: Han So Hee and Jeon Jong Seo in Project Y, Kim Go Eun and Jeon Do Yeon in Price of confession, Kim Tae Ri in Jeong Hyeon, Go Youn Jung in Resident playbook (whole PR was on her only). I can’t remember so much attention to female cast in dramas 2-3 years ago, it seems like situation smoothly changes, and both gender characters seems interesting for audience now.
So, I want to say that Byun Woo Seok popularity and Lovely Runner doesn’t speak about whole kdrama tendency to be focusing on male actor more than on female.
Or, well, maybe it’s my optimistic side speaks for it.
In a way it’s not exactly true that women focused dramas didn’t exist back in the day. Dae Jang Geum, Painter of the Wind, The Princess’s Man, Jang Ok Jung and Queen Seon Dok did exist and were extremely popular and re broadcast across various countries. Especially Dae Jang Geum which is just as much a part of the original Hallyu wave as Winter Sonata. Actually female focused dramas don’t do as well as they used to. Actresses don’t gain immense popularity from them. All the actors you’ve mentioned are already well known and extremely popular hence why they are getting dramas focused on them but none of these dramas will get re broadcasters for TV in other countries since they are already sold to either Netflix or Disney+. Nor do female focused dramas of recent years contribute to the Hallyu wave. They mainly exist to make the women look “cool” instead of giving them proper narratives. It’s just women doing roles that were originally played by men without making the narrative very uniquely female. Except Jeongnyeon which sounds quite original but the drama is erasing all LGBTQ elements from the original source material so let’s see what the final product ends up being.
Hmm, about women look cool, the same goes for men, since they have the same type of roles. So this is can means that people like “cool” characters regardless on gender.
You said that female focused dramas don’t do well, but Glory and Extraordinary Attorney Woo were extremely popular last year.
What “uniquely female narrative” means?
About Jeongnyeon, is this considered that they erasing LGBTQ elements from a script? I thought it’s just predictions from k-drama fans
@Oleysa Isn’t BWS famous for being a lovelorn loser in LR? That’s the narrative I’ve seen on YouTube. Many are talking about the popularity of EAW but it was mostly due to the elements of Autism and a quirky female lead that it became popular and created a syndrome in Korea. LR has a different kind of popularity. The male lead is besieged by sasengs and people have gone crazy for him. PEB didn’t get that kind of fanatics after her drama. They are very different in outcome but men definitely gain more crazy fans while women just get recognition.
@raised
Yeah, I mostly compared BWS popularity with SYJ and IU’s popularity after their dramas, and Glory and Attorney Woo as worldwide successful dramas with female leads. Just to say, that female actress and dramas with them can be popular as well.
OMG, it’s really crazy if BWS even has sasaengs.
@Olesya1 is IU really comparable tho? She’s an idol singer with a huge fan base from that as well. She was already a huge success even before Hotel del Luna. While popular, I don’t recall SYJ reaching anywhere close to this same popularity as BWS currently but I also don’t follow her career.
Hmmm…I disagree that it’s recent for female centred to get popularity. Female centred dramas have always been a thing and as @Seven said there even used to be a whole genre of sageuks which were mainly focused on female protagonists and their world where the male characters were more like supporting characters. Those dramas were huge domestically and sold overseas to great success but they are very rare now.
Of the dramas you named only Song Hye Kyo and to a lesser extent, Park Eun Bin’s dramas sell overseas now. The jury is out on the other dramas on your list as they aren’t released yet, some haven’t even started filming.
@Sunny
But comparing with male centric dramas I can’t remember anything so successful like Song Hye Kyo or Park Eun Bin’s dramas. Maybe Reborn rich and Big mouth, but this makes them equal
Squid Game, Hot Stove League, Vincenzo, Punch, Flower of Evil, Hospital Playlist (majority of the cast is male), Kill Me Heal Me (Ji Sung was the heart of the drama), Doctor Prisoner, Taxi Driver etc. There are plenty of male centric dramas that have been very successful. I would even put down Moon Embracing The Sun, Iris, All In and The Giant in that list.
@techi
I mean for the last two years, since I mentioned that situation smoothly changing.
EAW was sold for cheap to Netflix and The Glory only sold at a high price because SHK is a veteran Hallyu Star and KES is a star writer. When people talk about female oriented dramas don’t sell well they mean before the drama airs when they have to sell it for simulcast broadcast dramas that have female leads at the main don’t sell well. Even Castaway Diva sold for cheap despite the success of EAW and it had mediocre ratings and Netflix ranking. Dropped out in just 3 weeks from the top 10 globally. Male lead dramas tend to sell better. The dog drama with CEW sold at a high price because of his casting. MBC was not ready to air Wonderful World until CEW was cast. Even for Tempest KDW is top billed over JJH. Same might happen with the GY-SHK drama where he is more likely too be the main star.
A trending article yesterday says that Kdramas are now mostly pre-produced so they could no longer rely on advertising as products would be out of fashion one year later when the drama is finally broadcast. At the same time fees for actors, directors and writers are increasing so it is really difficult for production to make a profit. This makes overseas sales doubly important. Overseas sales have always been important but are more so now, and as very few female stars could sell dramas overseas on their appeal alone this is why male actors are much more valued and rewarded. Only actors with overseas fame would be cast in top dramas. I guess this is why BSW’s agency is busy scheduling his overseas fan meets.
ps. I am not that sure about the three Bazaar cover images newly released. They seem to prioritize the Cartier jewelry much more than the artist.
ps. I am not that sure about the three Bazaar cover images. They seem to prioritize the Cartier jewelry more than the artist wearing it.
A lot of kdramas are sold in other countries, they don’t do articles about it.
Yeah I thought literally every single kdrama was sold overseas tho, even the not so popular ones cos I see it on my local channel every night. Korean weekend dramas are big where I live, interestingly, not the trendy ones like LR. Not sure why an article needed to be written to make this seem so special for LR. I’m just amused at all these articles for this drama
Also there are alot of really popular female centric dramas that users above have alr talked abt. Dong Yi, Dae jang geum, my sassy girl to my glory m hotel del luna in recent years.
He is so good-looking😍
I dont see this drama being talked about that much in my country. Try asking a random person on the street outside of Korea if they know who Byun Woo Seok is, compared to when you ask who Lee Min Ho is, for example, when he did Boys over Flowers. To compare BWS & LR with the phenomenon created by Winter Sonata is exaggerating IMO.
Koala makes it seem like Lovely Runner is the only drama after Winter Sonata that gets so much popularity & sold to many countries, when in reality so many other dramas did as well.
Sold to multiple country? I thought it already no 1 in 130 regions on Viki? To whom they are selling it?
BYW he looks so fine
When I first started watching kdramas the split used to be pretty even Steven. Female leads like Ha Ji Won, Song Hye, Jun Ji Jyun has a very loyal international base. Stories used to be female centric, but off late it is shifting changing. Now the focus is on the eponymous Oppa and no one else with rabid female fans. At that time the Indian and Pakistani shows I used to watch were very male centric and this is what I used to love about k dramas. Cue in 2024, we have multitude of female led shows from Aarya, Heeramandi and so many more in Indian shows. Also English language based shows are becoming so female led such as Brigerton. The shows are also tackling gender bias such as reindeer which shows how even men can be harassed and women can be perpetrators. So well I am finding that most of the times the plots in k drama land are being overused. And the focus on the enteral Oppa. Thankfully shows like the Revenant, 2521, Movies like Exhuma, Attorney woo exist all of which have become intentional hits. But yes the everyday average k dramas, I find myself skipping mor and more
It’s so unfortunate that the influx of OTTs is causing the worsening problem of actors being more valued than actresses. The original source mentioned many things that were very concerning. They said Netflix and the OTTs have their own “leagues” of actors that they evaluate to bring returns (or have the connections I guess), and insert them into their productions. That’s basically saying whoever the casting directors had in mind can be thrown out and replaced. Also this league of actors has a ton of actors but only 10 or so actresses. Yikes.
This is why the quality of Netflix dramas has been going down the drain. Only investing in the same formulas that have the highest streaming numbers is such a short-sighted approach. Sigh…
It’s actually less than 10 actresses and it might even be less than 5 during some quarters since these lists are updated quaterly. Both writers and directors are suffering since they can’t even have the cast of their choice if they want to go to a big OTT like Netflix and writers don’t make any money once they sell their script since there are no reruns for them to earn loyalties on. The whole concept of a Kdrama trending on the top 10 and hours watched and all mean nothing at the end of the day as the quality of dramas have gotten worse. Just look at Hierarchy! This needs a whole article for itself but OMG is that drama BAD! But it’s still No. 2 worldwide and it’s viral on Twitter and other social media but most of the commentary is about how terrible it is yet Netflix will only see the hours watched and call it a huge success. Imagine having another season of that MESS! The female lead in that drama was literally a flower vase. She had zero substance and was just there and the male leads were ridiculously one note. They were both very toxic in their own way and the whole love triangle was juvenile even for a teen drama. Netflix is just plagiarising itself at this point. Making the same dramas in different languages and with different actors but it’s the same formula over and over again.
Wow. Hierarchy is soooo ridiculously bad. I could not watch past 15 mins.
This year I will just wait for Jeong Nyeon and the Seo Hyunjin Gong Yoo drama.
Well that is depressing. I saw like half of the teaser of that Hierarchy show and immediately knew what it was made for. For the buzz of course. Trash TV brings people together, the whole idea is to get everyone to hate watch and collectively sh1t on it. It worked for western shows like Emily In Paris, and now it’s infecting kdramas. *Flips a few tables*
I can’t agree with you. If writers and directors suffering, why so big writers like Kim Eun Seok, Noh Hee Kyung, Im Sang Choon, Jung Seo Kyung etc, started working with Netflix and Disney?
Some actors and actresses weren’t popular enough for top 10 or top 5 list, but still acted as main leads in Netflix dramas: Jeon Jong Seo in Balerina, Park Gyu Young in Celebrity, Ju Ji Hoon in Kingdom, whole Squid game cast and a lot, a lot of others examples.
Yes, I’m completely agree with you, Hierarchy is a bad drama. But it’s not like TV channels doesn’t have bad dramas or some dramas like Boys over flowers weren’t toxic as well. And Heirs, oh, I don’t want even to start, but all things you wrote about Hierarchy I also thought about Heirs, and the only reason to finish both of these dramas was some actors/actresses in the cast (Lee Won Jung, Lee Chae Min, Ji Hye Won) who at least can get some recognition from this hours watched, and I can hope for them to play lead roles in the future (although I also have a fear, that bad reputation of this drama can be not good for their careers).
Netflix has bad dramas, but good dramas as well: DP, Squid game, Juvenile Justice, Daily Dose of Sunshine, Kingdom, Sweet home s1. The same for all other channels. It’s not about getting worse or better, it’s more like ups and downs.
And as you can see list of writers I wrote above whose dramas wil be aired in next year for OTT, they look promising and not worse than future dramas for TV channels.
And none of them look like a plagiarism.
@Olesya1 how can you say writers and directors are not suffering when the article shows that they have gone on record under anonymity to air their grievances. The comments about mistreatment are coming from the horses mouth directly. In fact writer Park Haeyoung who wrote My Liberation Notes, My Ahjusshi and Another Miss Oh is leading an association of writers to demand for new laws and policies to be created that doesn’t exploit the writer and gives them better returns. Maybe the star writers you’re talking about are already so rich they don’t care about losing some income or maybe Netflix gives them a special bonus to keep them happy. However it doesn’t change the fact that most of them are suffering and demanding better conditions. Actresses being irrelevant is something that directors themselves are saying directly. That’s a huge problem when that’s how they are viewing women. You want to ignore the misogyny in the industry and consumption of these works then go ahead but doesn’t mean it’s not real and happening on a regular basis.
@Trip
I didn’t read original article, so I’ll read it.
I don’t know that exactly was said about actresses being irrelevant, so I don’t know that to think about it not knowing contest. Because for last year on Netflix were Glory, Balerina, Mask girl, Celebrity, female centric dramas with non-famous and probably not “top 5” actresses as main leads in three of them.
Don’t decide for me if I want to ignore misogyny. I need to see misogyny at first to ignore it. I don’t understand why you think it has something to do with misogyny, again, I need to read article, but still will answer to you. I think this is a business and the only thing they care about is money and income. Netflix has a lot female centric korean and international dramas. Did they gave a reason to assume them in misogyny? I can’t understand how is this related to top actors list, because for me it seems that in their lists the only thing they care about is who can make for them more money.
@Trip
I can’t find this article. Can you please send me a link?
He looks like he has botox…
Oohh this article is so problematic giving the headline as thanks to the only lead actor , mentioning fair , unfair biases… oh my god,nah , LR’s success is because of exceptional direction of beautiful storyline and too good acting performances from Kim Hye Yoon , Byeon Woo Seok and the other actors Song Geon Hee, Lee Seung Hyub as well, Actors who acted as Im Sol’s (KHY fl character) mother , ML’s father, Hye won ( Fl’s friend) , brother ……. Nah this article is biased and harmful that can manipulate readers mindets and perspectives. Periodt. U need to follow up with the other articles and what the directors , cast , costars about eo and staff say about the lead actors ! (P.S. I absolutely do not understand the purpose of this article other than pure manipulation and gathering views through instigation) sure u are getting lots of comments i did not wanna contribute but yeah all about the history of great k dramas , hallyu , downplaying women .. woah u gotta touch grass dude! Just take down this article and write a better one buddy !!
Koala did not make this up. This is a trending article on naver where industry insiders have shared these trends and grievances. It is obviously unfair but it’s the reality. Drama consumers are all female and hot male leads are what sells. Its all about business in the end.
oh i see, thank u for informing .. Anyway i would still do what i can to stop circulating this news.. it ain’t newsworthy… the way this triggers me and many to think of how female actress’s talents are degraded or here , how intentionally and obviously as a consequence, BWS’s efforts are being downplayed !!!
What a manipulative article