Why are some things blurred out in k-dramas?

[kobe23]

I've noticed in the majority of k-dramas I've seen so far, there's always scenes where things are blurred out. Most common things being:

- Car registration plates
- Mobile phone numbers
- Airline name/logo
- Brand names and logos in general

I don't understand why ... perhaps because of privacy and sponsorship reasons, I really don't know, but the thing that irks me the most is that the blurring out is inconsistent. One scene yoiu might see the rego plate blurred out, and then the next scene the same car and its rego plate is clearly visible. What gives?

[mahsuri1284]

Hmm .. strange -- that doesn't happen here whether on TV / DVD so I have no idea why ...

[TyphoonBuzz]

haha, i know exactly what you mean. the thing is, if the company sponsers them, isnt it alright for them to use their logos? in lovers in paris i think, they used cars from Daewoo, but get blurred out every so often, even though they are sponsered by daewoo. but its more commonly used with cellphones though, blurring out phone numbers, covering brandnames with stickers, etc, etc. i have no reason why they do it though.

[DMPA]

hm....good question...probably cuz in one scene they're like 'oh...people can see it clearly!! must hide!!!' and in others they're like 'w/e! it's so far away only a magnifying glass will se it' lol. that's my explanation. (and i can't spell right, so bare with me...)

[kobe23]

I'm currently watching Green Rose. There are some scenes where a knife is blurred out - possibly to maintain a PG rating? And then a few episodes later, an even bigger knife is in clear view, not blurred out at all. This is totally bizarre.

[christaluvsdrama]

the things that are blurred out because they don't have permission to advertise them in the movie so for legality reason they blur it. we do the same in the U.S

[nightangelz]

I'm currently watching Green Rose. There are some scenes where a knife is blurred out - possibly to maintain a PG rating? And then a few episodes later, an even bigger knife is in clear view, not blurred out at all. This is totally bizarre.

Well I'm not sure exactly why those are blurred for K-dramas, but I know that in Thai dramas when a knife or some sort of weapon pulled out, they don't blur it.... but if it's close enough to a person's body (like up against their neck or something), they do... and I think that might be so that younger people (and possibly much much older people) don't get too scared/freaked out.

I know that Thai dramas also blur out any evidence of alcohol ^^

[kobe23]

the things that are blurred out because they don't have permission to advertise them in the movie so for legality reason they blur it. we do the same in the U.S

The vast majority of TV shows here in Australia are American, and I have NEVER seen any sort of blurring whatsoever.

I've never seen any blurring in k-movies either...it's just k-dramas.

[pokute]

Yeah, the Mercedes symbols on the cars were blurred out sometimes in Full House. And sometimes the license plates were as well... But not consistently. Probably because people would look for the license plate thinking it really was Rain's car and make the owner nuts.

[TrevorGod]

I remeber in Full House the mercedes symbol being blurred sometimes as the car drove up and then when they switched angles the blur was gone. I bothered me so much. (yeah i'm that anal) I always thought it was a waste of time blurring it if you aren't going to be consistent. If they hadn't done the inconsitent blur I probably wouldn't have even noticed the type of car. By trying to hide the symbol they drew my attention to it; It was quite an effective form of advertising.

I can see licence plates being blurred, that makes some sense if you are using real plates.

[pokute]

In the U.S. nothing gets into the picture unless a sponsor has paid for it to be there, so there's no need to blur. Independent filmmakers will even make sure they don't use competing products in a film because there is always a slim chance that they will be able to get some product placement candy money if their film winds up on TV.

[TyphoonBuzz]

how about in alone in love? the main characters always go into Dunkin Donuts, but dont their cups say Coffee and Donuts, even thought they are sponsered by Dunkin Donuts? i dont remember which episode or scene where i saw coffee and donuts, but i swear i saw it.

[Annessa]

the things that are blurred out because they don't have permission to advertise them in the movie so for legality reason they blur it. we do the same in the U.S

this is what i've always assumed. honestly, i don't recall seeing any kdrama that didn't blur anything out at all. there's always some product shown, but the name is covered or hidden in some way.

whatever is not blurred out, they have permission to show it.

[PJB]

I think there is inconsistant blurring because, it's possible that the longer and more visible a logo is - the more royalties you have to pay. Or, having to pay any amount of royalties - So maybe it's possible to show a logo for a short time, but after a time period royalties kick into play. That's just what I think.. no facts.

[kaasbris]

I've noticed in the majority of k-dramas I've seen so far, there's always scenes where things are blurred out.

As far as I know, there is a guideline for sponsorship & its exposre-in-drama supervised by Broadcasting Board of Korea. Also Korean viewers are not happy about too much showing of in-drama exposure of commercial product.

e.g. "Princess Lulu" was officially warned by Board for violating guideline: over-exposing sponsored products.

[kobe23]

I've noticed in the majority of k-dramas I've seen so far, there's always scenes where things are blurred out.

As far as I know, there is a guideline for sponsorship & its exposre-in-drama supervised by Broadcasting Board of Korea. Also Korean viewers are not happy about too much showing of in-drama exposure of commercial product.

That seems like a plausible explanation, but amazes me that Korean viewers rather see things blurred out than being exposed to commercial products. I dunno, but blurring things out makes the drama look cheap because it gives you the impression its been edited by some teenager living in his parents basement, considering how inconsistent and inaccurate the blurring is.

[freezspirit]

I got a bit bored so read through this topic, here's my 2cents (1p) worth:

Yep its about product placement - a scene in a coffee shop the actors will be stting at a table, drinking from logo branded cups and in the background will be the well known brand signage. Or the actors will have the latest technology - mobile/laptop. Or drive a brand new expensive car or ride a high spec motorbike. Also they wear the latest designer labels even if the character the actor is playing is meant to be really poor, need I go on.

About the blurring, its there for many reasons:

blurring of phone numbers, website address's and car reg. plates

I know what your thinking, but alot of stupid people actually ring up the the phone number sometimes the show will register the number and have a recorded message but sometimes the show doesn't they just use a random number which inturn is an actual real persons number that get hundreds of calls.

Same with a website address, the show will register that address so that once the show is broadcast people will log on to it sometimes they have competitions other just show informaton.

About car reg. plates being blurred its to do with cutting out crime, they use the reg plate numvber on their car, go over the speed limit camera reads the reg. plate yet someoneelse will have to pay the fine. Or sametimes the budget for the show is limited so they use the same car for different characters instead of changing the plate they just blur it out for one character.

blurring of knifes and guns (sometimes mute the sound too) - acts of violence etc, in some countries they edit whole scenes out, alot of the time it depends on real events at the time of broadcasting the show for example at the time of 9/11 or 7/7 and even on the aniversiary there were going to be some movies and shows containing terrorism the broadcasting channel replaces the shows with something else.


Editting of movies and dramas in different countries have different broadcasting guidelines for example alot of american shows that are broadcasted in the uk will have products blurred for example on american idol the drinks bottles look like red blobs we all know that its a wellknown fizzy drink. In the last series of sex in the city Carrie was drinking from a cup from a very wellknown fastfood place yet it looked like a white rectanglur blob.

Another thing I noticed slightly of topic sometimes when an actor is talking they beep out a word or put in an extra noise to disguise it, sometmes it comes in handy being able to lipread or the subtitles will have the actual words spoken but recently I have noticed that they will blur out the mouth. Usually they will beep out in the uk if before watershed 9pm (not suitable language etc)

Sorry everyone this was only meant to be a short note.

[TrevorGod]

My problem with the blurring is the same as kobe23's. It is so inconsitant that it makes the show look really cheap and "it gives you the impression its been edited by some teenager living in his parents basement".

I was just re-watching My Girl and the episode I watched last night had the lead actor driving up in what is obviuosly a land rover, but the name is blurred out. As he nears the camera the blur ends up on the hood instead of over the name. So the blur was done when the car is in the distance, and the name would have been hard to read because it would be so small. Then with the nameplate up close and personal, the burring is so half-assed that it doesn't even touch the name. All the bur effectivly did was draw attention to the make of the car.

If I were a car company I would pay the dramas to do the bad blurring, becasue it draws attention to something you probalby wouldn't have noticed in the frst place.

If there was no blurring I would have simply thought "oh... they're gonna see eachother, I bet there will be another misunderstanding"... with the lame blurring "hey look; a land rover!"