Modern Asian dramas and well-fulfilled topics
Being young and of dysfunctional family sucks (but sometimes there is a found family to save you).
Drama: Reborn / 焕羽 Characters: Qiao Qingyu, Ming Sheng & Qiao Beiyu Screentime: Main & Minor It's a great drama but had gotten wrong presentation: promos promised us a school love story or smth like that, but it's 90% social drama and the last 10% is some hints to romance somewhere far in the future. The social part is good, though. The girl from a dysfunctional family (in our Western beliefs, because they value their filial piety and roots more than their own children and children's well-being) in a pretty realistic for a teenage girl manner goes through the stages of grief for her deceased sister and starts investigate the story behind her death. It the process, she "leans" on a strong shoulder of her classmate (who has got his own teenage problems, but not so severe as hers) and reveals the truth about ugliness of some filial piety traditions and village mindsets of Chinese society. The story of her sister is a story of a person who didn't find her found family in the moment she needed it the most, which is a great contrast to a FL's dynamics with her classmate. The story was interesting by itself and the amount of classmate in girl's life was just enough for me to enjoy this trope.
Drama: Better Days / 少年的你 Characters: Chen Nian & Liu Beishan Screentime: Main It's an ultimate gem on this topic! Love it a lot! A school girl of dysfunctional family who fell victim of school bullying and a street bandit boy without family find comfort and warmth in each other. Their connection can't be broken even by a crime and police persecution. The film is very hard to watch in terms of emotional impact but it's very realistic and ends on a bitter-sweet note (but I think they will be all right).
Drama: Twelve Letters / 十二封信 Characters: Tang Yixun & Ye Haitang Screentime: Main It's very similar to the previous film, but a little more positive, with fantasy element and is a series. The school girl from a dysfunctional family meets a young orphan bandit and they find family in each other. They try to solve their current problems and, at the same time, exchange letters with their relatives in 35 years in the future. Their relatives learn more about mains and mains learn more about future and wonder if these letters could prevent them from making grave mistakes that will change their lives so much. Sometimes it was hard (emotionally) to watch, but for me it mostly was an awaiting for better days (huh, pun!) for them and I waited not in vain!
Drama: Come and Hug Me / 이리와 안아줘 Characters: Yun Hyeonmu & Yun Namu Screentime: Secondary & Main On the surface, it's just another romantic k-drama with traditional Korean maniacs in it, but if you look deeper, you can find this trope x2, in two different ways, one for ML and another for his brother. In my language, this drama has something Biblical in it's name - not just "Come on, pal, let's hug" (it passes well for ML and FL's relationship), but more like "Draw nigh and fold me unto thine arms" (and it passes well to ML's brother and his found family's relationship), it's feels like returning of a prodigal son into loving arms of those who waited for him to come back.
The plot (beyond romantical part) is like that: a maniac, who had got two teenage sons, married a woman with a little daughter. His older son craved for attention and recognition from his father but never got it because his father counted him as spineless and worthless. The boy hated his stepmother (just because he was a teenager) and his younger brother (because their father saw him as someone more worthy), he was a school bully and a nasty person (but still with a glimmer of hope because at least he cared about his stepsister). Even in jail he still wanted to get attention from his maniac father and promised him to fulfill his wishes as soon as he gets out of here. But as his adult life after jail unfolds, after some crimes and some attempts to do some grave ones, he understands that he still cares for his yet grown stepsister, and his stepmom cares about him unlike his father, and he can't kill people despite his father wished him to, and it's too late to chose another path in his life, and he fucked up this one for good. (He even dreams of being a real family with them all without his maniac father, which is so touching!). So he decided to protect his stepfamily from his father and another monsters even if he dies trying.
To my pleasant surprise, he survives his father's attempt to kill him and his stepmom (I like how they shielded each other from the hammer, just like real son and mom would do). He should go to jail again now because he has made a lot of stuff before the realization hit him, but his stepsister and his stepmom are here for him and promise him he will be welcomed in his found family as soon as he is free again.
ML has got another personality - a firmer, stronger one, it's interesting to watch him as a teenager in his dysfunctional family. In the end, he finds his family not only in his stepmom and his stepsister, but also in his childhood friend, FL (because it' s a romance k-drama, after all), but I find it not so exiting as his brother's "parable of the prodigal son".
Drama: Derailment / 脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian & Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main Although this drama isn't about this trope at all, I like a story within a story in eps 19 and 20 a lot. It's some kind of a solid flashback and looks like a little film. The rich boy, unloved by his parents, has run away from home, lives on the street and intimidates everyone by his bandit-like behavior. A girl from a very poor family, who fell victim of a school bulling, meets him, and they find genuine care and domestic warmth in each other.
Drama: I Want to Be Brothers with You / 我要和你做兄弟 Characters: Dong Dawei Screentime: Minor It's a nice drama about school times by itself - the mains are two teenagers who forced to live together against their will, they have got plenty of friends with rich, multidimensional personalities. It calls out serious topics which can be interesting for teenagers and is pretty light (remains me of old Soviet movies for teens). But the character that hooked me the most was just a guy in the background. At first, a viewer sees him as a school bully who brings troubles to the ML. But as the story unfolds, we learn that he is of a poor family, his father is uneducated and the atmosphere in the family isn't healthy. He is involved in a gangster world and desperately tries to escape it, his study results aren't good so he has got no bright future and is forced to walk the path of his uneducated father who works as bus driver. He is unrequited in love with a rich girl with a bright future (so he understands he has no chance), he can't proceed his carrier as a football player because of trauma he got when he tried to serve justice for his trainer and because he was expelled from the team for a fight (again, because he wanted to serve justice). He understands his only way is to be like his father and accepts it in the end. It's a very realistic yet very sad story of a strong person who didn't find a found family and support in the moment he needed it the most. Feel for him a lot.
Drama: High School Return of a Gangster / 조폭인 내가 고등학생이 되었습니다 Characters: Song Iheon, Choi Sekyung & Hong Jaemin Screentime: Mains & Minor Finally, there is something funny on the topic. It's a transmigrator k-drama about revenge for the bullying - I hate this topic and usually don't watch dramas about revenge, but this one was pretty OK and touched this topic pretty lightly. At the same time, it has got three characters whose life sucks and who need a found family: the original owner of ML's body who lost his subjectivity because of huge family problems (he didn't get help in time and took his own life), his quasi-friend from school who doesn't have his subjectivity neither but in the different way (he gets his support in the form of a current dweller of ML's body), and a school bully who has got a marginal family and no perspectives in life (he didn't get help, too, but I wished he would).
The love of youth
Drama: Adult Trainee / 어른연습생 Characters: Ban Yura & Kim Namho Screentime: Main This drama is an anthology on 3 stories about coming of age, but since I'm an adult, I found interesting only the second one (eps 3-5), which was about one of my favorite tropes. A girl who was dumped by her bf wants to show him that she is all right. She asks her male friend to pretend to be her boyfriend but something goes wrong... I felt very nostalgic when I watched it: the brightness of teenage feelings is so realistic in this one!
Drama: Hidden Love / 偷偷藏不住 Characters: Sang Zhi & Duan Jiaхu Screentime: Main This story feels somehow disturbing because irl it would be somehow close to grooming, but in the terms of purity and intensity of feelings it's pretty good. A school girl falls in love with her older brother's friend, carries her unrequited love through years and, as she becomes a young adult, decides to win him over. Zhao Lusi is a great actress, I recalled all the pain of unrequited love and cried with her a river. The second part of the drama, when they got together, was not so exiting, but still worth watching.
Unusual but interesting titles
Drama: To The Wonder / 我的阿勒泰 Characters: Li Wenxiu, Batai and many others Screentime: Main It a very meditative mixture of National Geographic documentary about traditional life of Central Asian people and a European slice-of-life films without the plot, the beginning of the story and the end of it. Although nothing about this type of life is something surprising for me, it may be interesting for a Western viewer. A good story.
Drama: This Thriving Land / 生万物 Characters: Ning Xiuxiu, Feng Dajiao and many others Screentime: Main It's a solid saga about lifetime of Chinese peasants whose adolescence time was in 20-ties of XX century: time of great changes in Chinese government and society. Although it's about hard times, ML and FL are good people so they have a relative optimistic lifetime. Worth watching.
Idols and a plot
Drama: Lovely Runner / 선재 업고 튀어 Characters: Im Sol & Ryu Seonjae Screentime: Main It's a pretty standard Korean romantic drama, with a love triangle and a maniac, and "they met in childhood and fell in love that time" stuff, but I somehow like it anyway. It starts like something somber and serious but in fact it's not, so mind this. A disabled girl learns that her favorite idol is dead (probably, took his own life) and gets the opportunity to travel back in time to prevent it. She comes back in her school times and finds out that he is her neighbor and studies in the neighbor school. The most of the drama is situated in their school times and is about her wavering between her feelings for him and her genuine wish to make him happy and alive in the future. An absolute HE (the whole last ep! Koreans, please, give this screen time to Chinese xianxia!) is attached.
Drama: Imitation / 이미테이션 Characters: Kwon Ryok & Lee Maha Screentime: Main My most favorite drama of this list! The romantic story of a popular idol and a rookie one, heavily interlaced with how the industry works. The romance is not particularly typical for k-dramas and the representation of the industry is the most realistic and, sometimes, bold. I explained what it tells about industry here and recaped the love story here.
Drama: Let Me Be Your Knight / 너의 밤이 되어줄게 Characters: Yun Tae-in, Kim Yuchan, Lee Sin & Chae Jiyeon Screentime: Main & Secondary Another well-written romantic story between an idol and a mere girl, but in the background you can see a lot of multidimensional characters with their own problems. The plot tells the story not only of the mains, but of 4 ML's bandmates as well. More details about this title are here.
Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe They didn't make it, but I remember them They didn't make it (and didn't even try), but I remember them