One of the fun things about watching kdramas is that they often make light of the very idea of kdramas and how such stories affect the lives of viewers.
There are examples where characters discuss dramas in general or even mention specific ones. Sometimes they discuss cliché behaviors in dramas and then proceed to act out the cliches.
There are also scenes in dramas that are inspired by other dramas, which only fans may get.
Kdrama characters often watch dramas and must interrupt episodes to take part in their own dramas. For example, the lovable grandmother, also the Queen Mother, in "Princess Hours" admits that she does not know very much about the lives of people outside the palace walls. All knows about them, she learned while "watching dramas." Fortunately, this helps her prepare for the drama that's about to unfold in the palace.
In "Mary Stayed Out All Night," not only does Mary, played by Moon Geun Young, want to be a drama writer, but her boyfriend's mom admits to being addicted to dramas and often criticizes them for being unrealistic. She and Mary's father are both characters who cannot get through a day without turning it into a drama.
The dramas characters watch can set the time and place for the drama you are watching. Take "Reply 1997." In the 1997 part of that drama, everyone is watching the drama, "Star in My Heart" which was big back then.
Some kdrama characters consciously live out the clichés. In "Flower Boy Ramen Shop," Cha Chi Soo, played by Jung Il Woo, tells the second male lead that he will never get the girl. If he watched dramas, he says, he would know the girl always falls for the bad-tempered rich guy. Namely him.
In that same drama, in someone's fantasy, Cha Chi Soo dons the sequined jacket worn by Hyun Bin's character in "Secret Garden." And that drama is a case where the bad rich guy does get the girl.
Another example of life-mirroring-dramas-mirroring-life is the fantasy sequence that involves another drama story. A good example can be found in "Dream High." Taecyeon and Kim Soo Hyun are thinking about what it will be like to be stars in the performing arts high school they attend. Their fantasy takes the form of them imagining themselves walking into the school like F4 did in "Boys Over Flowers." Light streams in behind them and girls are sighing. They are truly stars by a kdrama standard.
And then of course, there's the kdrama homage scene, a kind of inside joke for kdrama lovers. In "Gentleman's Dignity," the gentlemen play basketball for food. They don't specifically mention another drama but the scene is a parody of the drama "Last Match" because actor Jang Dong Gun was in that series too.
Next time you watch a drama, check out what's on TV or see if you can relate it to a previous one. Can you think of any more examples? Let us know.
