Korean culture has been revealed massively globally in today’s generation. This can be seen through the many modes of media coming from Korea that are shown in other parts of the world. They start to influence other people through their music, movies, TV dramas and other media. Due to the high quality production, they were recognized from people across the globe, gaining popularity as the days go by.
One of the most popular Korean TV dramas is the “Princess Hour”. This TV drama shows all about Korean culture and the traditional socio-cultural practices with touch of modernism. It mixes the color of the traditional political government body with the hues of romanticism to gain the hearts of the younger generations. This combination of genre has been appreciated both by the Korean population and to the strangers of their culture.
“Princess Hours” revealed the government mode of Korea which is monarchy. The king of Korea made a pact with a commoner to have an arranged marriage with their kin. This promise coerced the current Korean prince to marry a commoner teenage girl and abide by the wishes of the King.
The drama series revolves around the two young people bound to marry each other. They started off as strangers hostile to the idea of marriage but have no choice due to orders of the royal highness. It is more like a modern Cinderella movie with Korean background. The normal girl turned instantly into a princess via marriage is indeed similar with the original Disney’s Cinderella.
Chae-gyung is the modern Korean Cinderella. She is a daughter of a commoner experiencing normal life as an ordinary citizen. She goes to art high school with cheerful disposition. She dislikes the upper class in the society like the prince because of his prince syndrome. However, as she is thrust into an inevitable situation to live in marriage with the prince, she has no choice but to conform with her new life.
Conforming to her new world, Chae-gyung found into difficult at first. She struggles physically as she needs to wear the royal clothes to make her status as a princess fit. She struggles psychologically as she needs to act and think not as a commoner anymore but as part of the royal family. With this, she must act more reserved, more polite and cautious of her actions since she needs to uphold the royal traditions and customs.
Chae-gyung is very much like Cinderella. Her natural cheerful disposition influenced the whole palace later on. She brought change to the all too straight and strict royal ways. Due to her presence, the stiff air in the palace gradually became gay. Though she started humbly, treated indifferently by other members of the royal family, she still overcame this prejudice. Instead, she turned her tables at her side, gaining massive respect not only from the respected royal members, but also with the hearts of the viewers. In the end, she gained not only her title but also a happy ending love story with the real prince.
The plot of Korea’s “Princess Hours” is not a new story. However, the shade of Korean culture has made it have a new taste with today’s viewing population. A love story always catches viewer’s attention. But with the added spice of giving the world a view of what Korea is all about is a new thing.
The characters involved in the story relates with the Korean socio-cultural practices. Korea is known for respect for authority and elders. Their code to honor family and intensive obedient qualities was explicitly shown in how the characters portrayed their roles. In fact, the story all started with the King’s command. This command is not written in their book of laws or found anywhere in the contexts of their policies. However, as the king declared his orders verbally, what is said should be done. This compliance of the king’s orders is one revelation of the monarchial traditional form of government. A king is always at all times right. A king at all times should be respected and regarded with utmost obedience regardless of the receiving subordinates’ distaste of the orders. This drama series, explicitly revealed the absolute monarchial rule that influenced the lives of the characters.
The whole TV drams production is a showcase of Korean culture to the rest of the world. This can be seen through the whole plot, the characters, the settings, and the thematic organization of the story. The rest of the world has been intrigued with the Asian cultures. This drama series gives the rest of the world a glimpse of different cultures.
Part II.
1. “Living with Conflicting Subjectivities: Mother, Motherly Wife and Sexy Woman in the Transition from Colonial Modern to Postmodern Korea” shows modern feminine concepts that transformed in the culture of Korea. First is the rise women working class. This can be likened to the movie “ A Female Boss”. Traditionally, Korea lives in the concept of men only working class. They are the sole breadwinners and women are strictly adhered to household chores, taking care of the family and not exposed to the society. However, with today’s generation, women have grown forcefully into the employed population. In fact, some of them rise up to the highest positions having men as subjugates. Women today are no longer ignorant in terms of economy, society and even politics.
Another concept touched is the women way of dressing and reserved attitudes. Korean women before are not to raise their heads when they talk. They are bound to keep quiet in discussions and never to raise their hands to men. However, with the movie “My Sassy girl” a different Korean girl is revealed. She is modern in the way she dressed. She is modern in the way she talks. She is modern in the way she treats men. She meets men eye to eye. She is not afraid of her being a woman. She even hits the man in the movie. She beats him without regard of her gender. In today’s generation, women have the liberty to do what they want without regard to gender classification.
2. “The unity of woman and mother” is a grave subject in the movies “Three days in that autumn” and “Woman”. Generally, the plot of the movies revolves around the subject of woman. “Three days in that Autumn” touches about woman being the bearers of children. Although the movie talks about an abortionist, still, in the end she realized the extraordinary gift a woman has that she can bear children. The essence of a woman is exemplified greatly in the life bearing gift. He other movie “Woman” also shows about woman being strangled and killed. This suspense thriller portrays women’s influence in the society. They are greatly important and must be taken care of. Women are indeed important in a certain society. They are the mothers of the people in the civilization. Their role as nurturing mothers creates people and molds them into disciplined human beings. In the absence of nurturing, the world would turn humans into monsters, not knowing what is love.
3. The movie “No Regrets” is one exemplary to the notions of John Cho. He discusses about homosexuality, lesbianism and how to respect them. The movie is about homosexuality and how they accepted themselves and how they faced the judgment of the society. Humans regardless of their sexuality have their own human rights. They deserve respect. They should not be judged and treated inhumanely. This movie exposes the struggles of those people having identity problems.
