How I got into Asian Dramas and Movies.
My journey into the Asian Films and Dramas all started one day when I went to a video rental store. I went there with my family, it was rent 3 movies for 5 euros and I was to pick a third. Honestly I did not even feel like picking a movie, I was more into video games at that time I rarely watched movies or tv shows only when with family or the odd time with friends (usually we played Yu-Gi-Oh cards or played games instead). So I picked one randomly and it was So Close a Chinese film the 3 women looked attractive (I mean come on!). The back of the cover looked interesting seemed that it would be a good action flick so I went with it. Oh boy did it change my entertainment for life!
I really loved the movie I enjoyed it's simplicity but yet awesome action scenes and strong emotional
moments.
When I brought the film back to the store it was actually my birthday, the owner of the store asked my thoughts I said I really enjoyed it, he knew it was my birthday so he gave it to me as a gift. Which was a good thing but probably a bad thing too since I watched it like 3 days in a row!
From there, I watched Shaolin Soccer from the same rental store, sort of became a fan of Zhao Wei. Then afterwards it just expanded, I never really used internet for anything prior like shopping and I have to admit even downloading but when my interest first sparked I had to.
So the first part of my journey was Chinese movies with the odd Chinese drama.
The second part of my journey was that I moved onto J-Dramas, it was almost like a blur on how it happened. But I supposed that back when I first got into Asian media was that access to subbed content was really different compared to now (I feel old!). Also that a lot of Chinese dramas were quite long. D-addicts was the place and J-dramas was the most popular content with a lot being subbed. I first watched Attention Please which was a hit with me especially since I used to travel a lot for personal reasons. Watched other dramas like Hana Yori Dango which was awesome and it went for a good while, years even.
It came to a point I felt that I was missing something from J-Dramas. I was not one for the romance but when after going through hard ships and challenges then a big build up with beautiful scenery and music then.... just a hug and not even a passionate one. Seriously? Konkatsu! I am looking at you, okay to be fair it wasn't the only one. But I do understand and have to respect the differences of culture and of course maybe there regulations on the tv stations or maybe it was just bad luck (I don't know). But I did also wanted to try something different as I had been watching J-Dramas for a few years at that point.
So I moved onto K-Dramas and it was a good time as well with a few services starting up and the popularity was on the rise. I felt like that I filled the void felt with Chinese and Japanese Dramas/Movies, it even felt like a combination of the two. Even though it didn't start off the best with Forbidden Love and My Princess but then... with the likes of Coffee Prince, HEALER! Plenty more came it was like hit after hit after hit. That leads up to pretty much today, I have watched K-Dramas for about 8 years now. Starting to get into K-movies now also. I do still watch the odd Chinese movie and Japanese drama but now pretty much 90% plus of the time it is all K-Drama baby!
I may update the post in the future and also if you have any questions, ask away! :)
Thanks for reading!
