YA Entertainment Essay: "What Impact Have Korean TV Dramas Had On Your Life? What impact hasn't it had?" - by Aryf Hussain

YA Entertainment, the main source to feed our Korean drama addiction, recently announced the winner of their essay contest, "What Impact Have Korean Dramas Had on your Life?" The winner is.....not one of us (boo-hoo!) The winner is Sosina Feinga, from Hawaii (http://yaentertainment.com/catalog/winner_sosina.htm). Aryf has given permission to post his entry here. (Thanks, Aryf! Great essay! You should have won!)

My name is Aryf Hussain. I was born in Korea but was adopted and grew up in Sweden. This background information plays a large part in why and how much Korean TV Dramas (K-Dramas) have impacted my life. Being ethnically Korean, for a long time I had had a mild interest in Korea and had made various half-hearted attempts to learn about Korean language, customs and such. All that changed in the Summer of 2006 when I browsed the DVD section of an LA Public Library branch.

I picked up the K-Drama 'Hotelier' and although nothing was written about it on the box, decided to see what it was about. When I started watching it I was surprised at how absorbed and engrossed I became - even more so because I don't watch TV, being one of the few who think it's generally a waste of time. 'Hotelier' had such interesting characters and story. The plot twists, writing, pacing and format was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I immediately tried to write down who was who, in order to fully understand the plot. This led to learning to write and read the Korean 'alphabet' (known as HanGeul). 'Hotelier' was to be my first experience with not being able to wait to see the next episode after each cliffhanger ending. I would make the 45 minute drive just to go to that library every other day, since one can only borrow three DVDs at a time, thus burning through nine episodes every other day. I was born in Korea but abandoned at a n orphanage in Seoul and I guess that must have had something to do with how much of an impact the scene in which 'Frank' and 'Jenny' get reunited with their father, who gave them up as children, made on me. As I cried while watching this scene, I realized for the first time in my life that there may be some issues I still hadn't resolved with being abandoned.

As I jokingly say, "'Hotelier' got me into this whole mess to begin with," and in Fall 2006 I enrolled in Korean lessons at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles (KCCLA). Growing up in Sweden, there were no Korean role-models or even Korean friends and so I always felt like I was never ethnically part of anything. Watching K-Dramas has played a huge part in enabling me to feel that I not only belong, but am genuinely happy to be part of this group we call 'Koreans'. I have met and continue to meet so many Koreans and Korean-Americans (KAs), many who share the same passion for K-Dramas, and for the first time feel like I actively belong to a group, rather than passively accept being Korean.

Also at KCCLA was a talk on K-Dramas with Tom Larsen of YA Entertainment as guest speaker. We all knew EXACTLY what he meant when he talked about how addictive these dramas are. Everyone laughed when he said something like, "We've all found ourselves awake, watching a K-Drama at 2 am on a work-night, but we think, 'if I only stay awake three more hours, I can find out how this whole thing ends'." I guess this is the K-Drama addict's version of someone who's drinking at a bar and as the morning approaches, convinces himself that he can get by on four, no three...or maybe just two hours of sleep. Myself, I've certainly rolled into work on barely two hours of sleep from having finished a K-Drama at 4 am that morning. When I bought 'All About Eve', I finally had to stop myself after viewing the first eight episodes non-stop.

This summer I participated in a Korean language speech contest at KCCLA. I mentioned how much of an impact food and eating together has on relationships, citing K-Dramas as a prime example where this could be seen. I won second prize, which was a study-trip to Korea. The media was there and there were articles on me and my story LA's two biggest Korean-language newspapers. As a result, people have contacted me about things ranging from finding my biological parents to wanting to set me up with their niece.

These dramas have helped me understand people a little more; that everyone has their problems and sources of suffering as well as joy. For example, how can one not feel sad for Choi Ji-Woo's character in 'Mr. Duke' as she struggles to drive on the freeway, trying to see Kim Seung-Woo's character, all the while aggravating the other drivers? Whenever I see someone drive erratically, instead of getting angry, I try to think of that scene and understand that there's probably a reason for it and that I don't know what they might be going through at that moment.

Even in real-life, the suicide of my favorite Korean actress, Jung Da-Bin (Rooftop Room Cat), hit me really hard. It surprised me how difficult her death was for me, to think that someone felt so worthless and could see no other solution but to kill themselves simply broke my heart. We all die - even when my own father died, I didn't feel the sadness I did with Da-Bin. This is not a terrible thing to say, as I know he had lived a full life and had accepted, even welcomed the need to 'move on'. With Da-Bin there's so much more she could have done, already having reached so many people. This is a testament to K-Dramas and their ability to move people all over the world despite language differences and being out of the Hollywood mainstream.

Even in conflicts with others, K-Dramas remind me that two adversaries don't need to kill each other. How many dramas have had rivals or enemies that can still sit down (over a bottle of soju...) and talk things through, even if things don't get solved overnight? Although it's fiction, this is something we see more in K-Dramas, whereas many Hollywood productions would have the same people just threatening each other.

So now my addiction that I spend too much time and money on is these dramas. Without owning (or borrowing) a series, I can only imagine the agony of having to wait another week for the next episode to be broadcast on 'regular TV'. As mentioned above, these dramas have had a profound impact in my life, but just as important is the simple, sheer joy of tuning in to these characters on the screen and finding out what will happen in their world, which has become ours.