NickJu wrote:If truth be told, most Korean dramas start off great, but completely bomb at the end. I think that is the most frustrating aspect of Kdrama. Every time I start one I pray for a great ending. Like now, I'm afraid to finish You're Beatiful. They could mess it up in so many ways.
Not true. Most Melodrama endings and drama endings suck. But really great dramas if you have the sense for them rarely have horrible endings.
Out of the endings the Hong Sisters pulled out Only 1 was bitter-sweet, but not sucky. I mean it wasn't unreasonable and I think it was at the request of the director. That makes My Sassy Girl Chun Hyang, My Girl, Fantasy Couple, have good solid endings, with Fantasy Couple with the best pacing. And then Hong Gil Dong with a logical, but sad ending. (Bitter sweet, probably because they couldn't stand a "sad" ending--not their style...) Leaving a 3.5 record behind of good endings.
Coffee Prince, by another director and writer team also had a good ending. Goong had a good ending as well.
So I don't think the real problem with Korean dramas is the endings. That's more of a chief complaint of Japanese Dramas. The chief complaint about Korean dramas is the pacing. It's because the studios pack in and raise money for the popular dramas and then insist on more episodes, the writers, who are careful to pace out their episodes are more likely to want to save their ending, so then filler episodes appear out of the blue. For a writer, this is hell.. are they going to extend, are they not going to extend, how do we deal with it?
American Dramas have some of the worst endings ever. You get to the end of the series and you did not know it ended. That's called a crap ending. Worse than the open end of Japanese dramas Americans cry about. Also called cancellation, so I wouldn't be so hard on it being Korean shows... US side, it's worse. (British shows I haven't seen in a while... but they aren't much better from what I know of that system.)
Lesson: Stay away from Melodramas. Go towards the romantic comedies of high budget with people you know and like, particularly writers and directors. Actors that pick good projects often choose consistently are also good choices. You can spot them by the number of sponsors at the bottom of the screen, the quality of the colors...
I really really like you had a good ending. Who wants to end up with your foster brother? Go for the guard.
Prince's First Love sucked all over. Worst drama ever. Traumatized me for years.