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This week: International Drama Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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Have you ever watched a movie or TV series that was set in another country? Have you ever written a piece that highlights aspects of your nation and culture?
This week's Drama Newsletter is all about International Drama. 
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline |
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Some weeks ago, I was browsing through Netflix for something new and interesting to watch. I wanted to find something that wasn’t too heavy, as I was still working on my final paper of the year. When you’re writing about politics, morality and global poverty, you don’t want to fill your mind with more negative stuff... or, at least, I don’t. I’d already re-watched the series I recognised, however: The Big Bang Theory, Friends, The Fresh Prince, Full House, the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. I’d watched Fuller House. I began to think that I’d run out of options, when I stumbled upon Reply 1997.
Reply 1997 is a South-Korean TV series that ran for one season. It centres around friendship, romance, family and education. I have to admit that I wasn’t too certain about it for the first couple of episodes – it is quite different than what I am used to from British and American TV shows. For example, I am not too keen on laughter tracks or live audience laughter, as I can figure out for myself whether or not I find something funny. It’s a feature of some British and American shows, however, so I am familiar with it. Reply 1997 is free of that, thankfully, but when something embarrassing or awkward or amusing happens, it plays a sound that I am pretty sure is a bleating goat...
Considering I had nothing else to watch, I stuck with the series and with each episode I began to love it more and more. I smiled, laughed at times, and yes, I cried. The characters were endearing. The insights into South-Korean life and culture were fascinating. I think I would have been completely stressed out being a South-Korean student, because the pressure is one that I never experienced. And it covers the rise of K-pop culture, which attracts the type of fandoms that are beyond anything I had ever imagined in its intensity. I did some research into it afterwards, as the makers of the TV series could have exaggerated it, but it seems to be true.
Having enjoyed the experience, I was happy to discover the existence of Reply 1994, by the same makers. This series centres around a family who move to Seoul and open a boarding house. They have to adapt to life in the big city, as do the young people who come to stay at the boarding house – they are all from different provinces. Friendships form, and love blossoms, and they grow up together through the events of the 90s, including the economic recession. Again, I smiled, and laughed, and cried. I actually have the final episode to go still, and as each series has a mystery of who the main female character will marry, and in Reply 1994 she married the guy I wasn’t rooting for, I think it will be the same this time around.
There is a Reply 1988, but Netflix UK doesn’t have it. 
Watching these series made me think of the limits of my knowledge of different nations and cultures. I have never travelled outside of Europe, and even as a tourist you don’t gain a whole lot of insight into the day-to-day lives of the people who live there. Of course, not everything you see in TV series is true. I can’t base my view of American families on Full House, nor my insights into the dangers of city life on The Wire. Likewise, all Brits are not like Mr. Bean. Honest. I do feel that the Reply series have given me some glimpses of insight, though, and I definitely want to learn more and, perhaps, one day visit the country.
And that made me think of how, as writers from around the world, we can share some of our culture with our readers. There are some excellent authors who do so already – for example, THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  has some wonderful pieces in her portfolio. It’s always worth checking out her writing.
I was born and raised in the Netherlands, and apart from my blog entries, I have never really written a piece that contains glimpses of my birth country. Strange, now that I think about it. I might have to give it a go.
What do you think... will you join me?
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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The Drama Newsletter Team
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Drama: June 06, 2018 Issue [#8940]
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