The Art of Adaptation - The Healing Magic of KDramas

 

Nine-Tailed Fox from Pinterest

Welcome to the Supernatural Underground! Today we are looking at another form of adaptation as seen through the magical world of KDramas.

Why Korean Drama?

What is so spectacular about KDramas that makes them popular? 

First, the obvious. 

South Korea is financing their Art, film and music industry, and what a difference that support can make We are seeing more and more polished, well-written, directed and acted shows produced for a rapidly growing audience.

These shows present a window into another culture that broadens our international perspective. They bring the heights of emotion to the surface, exploring tropes of love, family, romance, fantasy, mythology, contemporary goals and timeless longings.

Gong Woo and Kim Go-eun in
Guardian - the Lonely and Great God

When well done, and many are very well done, they richly entertain while sparking creativity, cultural empathy and compassion.

KDrama as International Films*

KDramas, once categorized as foreign films but now referred to as 'international', have a magical appeal, tempting viewers with new settings, customs, styles and ideologies while staying firmly rooted in familiar feelings, narratives and archetypes. Think of them as the epitome of immersion into another culture, the next best thing to being there. 

The Brain Delights

As with all international media, we must adapt in multiple ways to experience these films to the highest degree.

From the original post, Kdramas not only adapt one medium to another - book or screenplay to film, they translate it for another culture. For this to work, the 'other culture' must find the truth of the story through sound, sight and the interpretation of the written word, ie subtitles. 

Not how the brain watches films.

We might think of this as multiple tributaries flowing into the same reservoir of cognition, but that isn't the case with the human brain. Not even close.

Each interpretation of sight, sound and language is processed differently and in different parts of the brain. 

How the Brain Views Multiple Media

For example, sound begins as an air wave, entering the ear where it turns into an electrical signal and travels through the thalamus to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe for 'translation'.

Sight, on the other hand, is light that journeys through the eyes, into the optic nerve where it turns into different electrical signals and is carried to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe for interpretation.

Reading the written word, however, is fairly new to human experience, at least in evolutionary terms.

Because of the infancy of the process, there is no specific part of the brain responsible for written language translation. 

Instead, we must rely on our memory of the sounds heard while linking them to the sounds we 'see' in the written letters or glyphs. This process is known as phonological recoding, describing how our brains understand writing.

Via these multi-layers of stimulation, the brain learns to make sense of films with subtitles to our great benefit.

Watching Kdramas is Good for You

A major benefit of watching KDramas is the activation of multiple areas of the brain. Think of it as enhancing comprehension, memory, recall and attention to detail. It's stimulating and entertaining all in one.

With soap-like plotlines that aren't afraid to tackle everything from grief to joy, agony to ecstasy, watching KDramas can help us reconnect with our own emotions and process past trauma.

The idea that Kdrama binging can help with mental health may seem a stretch, but it aligns with psychological research. These models show how viewing creates a safe space for individuals to explore their experiences and by doing so they may regain a sense of control, restoring well-being. Healing through the art of storytelling

Expert Im Su-geun underscores, "Watching Korean dramas can be beneficial for anxiety and depression from the viewpoint of art therapy." KDrama for mental health

Subtitle Caveat

Kim Jung Nan plays Talupio
in Tale of the Nine-Tailed

Although subtitlers do an amazing job of staying true to the translation, they sometimes fall short. 

Take an instance in Tale of the Nine Tailed, for example. Here our hero is a Gumiho, a nine-tailed fox, who has a grandmotherly relationship with Talupio, the beautiful, ancient woman in charge of afterlife immigration and protector of the Samdo River. (Think River Styx)

Our fox calls her halmeoni, or Halmeonim, a form of supreme respect given to a venerated ancestor goddess. And rightly so.

But what words does the translation team choose for this exalted women?

Old Hag.

In the subtitles, he calls her Old Hag repeatedly!

If I hadn't been watching the film with someone familiar with the Korean language, I would have been very confused. Certainly, the actor never treated her like a hag, old or otherwise. 

The Bottom Line

Kdramas, with their high production values, strong acting and gorgeous stars have propelled South Korean TV shows to the top of global charts, but there are even deeper reasons to get hooked. 

With soap-like plotlines tackling everything from earth-shattering grief to the joy of new love, watching KDramas can help people reconnect with their own emotions. - Bing watching KDrama

"We all have family pressures and expectations, conflict, trauma, hope, and watching heavy topics being successfully managed on screen can change people's ability to navigate real-world challenges.

Besides, they are so wonderfully done and addictive!

***

Are you keen to let yourself adapt to a new experience? Try stories that make the heart beat faster, through KDrama!

xo Kim

*International films were referred to in the past as 'foreign films', which in contemporary settings is seen as exclusive and outdated.

Other Posts in the Art of Adaptation 2025

January - The Art of Adaptation - Films in 2025

February - The Art of Adaptation - Authors' Response to External Pressures

March - The Art of Adaptation - The Healing Magic of KDrama

April - The Art of Adaptation -  Reader Persuasion

May - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 1

June - The Art of Adaptation - Fantasy Monsters Part 2 

July - The Art of Adaptation - Alternate History

***

About Kim Falconer 

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is ready with the third book, out in 2025. TBA

Kim can be found on AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site See you there!

Choose Your Weapon - Time Travel

Lee Dong Wooj in Tail of the Nine-Tailed Is the past repeating itself again?

Time Travel as a Weapon

You might think of time travel more as a mode of transportation, at least in film and literature, and you would be right. It certainly offers a way of moving characters into precarious and plot-twisting situations.

But it is also a weapon. 

If you don't believe me, read on to discover how deadly time travel can be.

In the 2016 series Travelers, future surviving humans send their consciousness back through time into people of the 21st century to change the path of humanity. Of course, they kill their hosts to do it...

Time Travel Defined

Think of time travel as a way to transport a) information (precognition as in The Minority Report) and/or b) characters forward, backward and sideways (into parallel universes). And note, even though Einstein's Relativity says time, travel or otherwise, is an illusion, quantum physics begs to differ. 

Brief Sidestep into Science

In quantum physics, we have the idea of time symmetry in that it flows both ways, forward from past to present to future, AND backward, from future, to present to past. The latter is the most common because an observer is essential to 'see' a thing for it to exist. 

As John Wheeler puts it, "...what the observer will do in the future defines what happens in the past—even in a past so remote that life did not then exist, and shows even more, that 'observership' is a prerequisite for any useful version of 'reality'."

Don't you love how 'reality' is in quotes? 

Time becomes both complex and illusory, but that doesn't stop us from using fiction to get a handle on it.

Wheel of Time depicts time with a seven-spoked wheel marking the seven Ages. The turning of this wheel and the events of each Age generate the Great Pattern, a predefined plan which defines the past, present and future -  not unlike Hindu and Buddhist representations of time.

The Sub Genres of Time Travel in Fiction

Writing time travel in fiction offers a way to weaponize a character as well as play with the time/space continuum. And the best part of this, to me, is you can cross genres like crazy to do it. TT includes multiple classes of Speculative Fiction from SF, Fantasy and alternate history to even more obscure niches. 

We have books and films ranging from Fantasy, like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Dragonriders of Pern, to Fairytale like Rip Van Winkle to the War subclass like The Edge of Tomorrow (adapted from Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need is Kill), Alt History like Outlander, comedy as in Groundhog Day and of course SF from H. G. Wells' 1895 classic The Time Machine to comedy/SF Back to the Future. 

I played with the symmetry of time in deadly ways in the Quantum Enchantment series, specifically Arrows of Time.

Time can change the course of history.
Right, Mr. Queen?

As well, we have works across more Spec Fic subgenres like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Wheels of Time to the wonderful array of KDramas such as Lovely Runner and Mr. Queen.

Conclusions

The point is, that time travel isn't always a glitch in The Matrix. It can be used to correct the devastating collapse of humanity (Terminator), to win the battle and save the day, for example...

"By making use of time displacement equipment, agents from both sides (pro Skynet and anti Skynet) are deployed on missions designed to either ensure, alter, or eradicate the status quo as perceived by the participants at the time." - Terminator Universe 

Now that is some weapon!

On a more subtle level, there is the temporal fugue portrayed in Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny where our hero moves through time, adding himself to a causality loop so his 'copies' can join the fight. The possibilities here are endless!

* * *

Do you have a favorite time travel book, film or game? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Choose Your Weapon Series 2024

Poison

The Perfect Storm

The Sword

Firearms

Ranged

Spells

Unarmed

Curses

Time Travel

Invisibility

* * *

About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site