[Drama 2016] Descendants of the Sun 태양의 후예

[Guest Tinkiebell]

Just now, annypooh said:

Lol!! So how was the research for science? 

Dots ruined her research too? Lol

 

What, no. If anything, DotS would help her research tremendously. You see, her research is about the power of "guided imagery" to elicit relaxation response in human brains and she's particularly interested in how much endorphins will be released by her brain when watching all those visually beautiful abs imagery that are shown in DotS.  

2 hours ago, rumasa79 said:

 

I'm picking out my own call sign!

>>>> Trooper79 to Big Boss. I love your abs and cheeky smiles, over.

 

 

2 hours ago, sanaeozora said:

 

Oh! I like this game! 

Mine:

>>>>> Babycakes to Big Boss: The Chinese Government has named you Person of Mass Destruction. Happy now? OVER.

 

>>>> Fairy Godmother to Big Boss: it's never too early for ramyeon. Over. 

 

 

[Honey Joyce]

Tomorrow is Wednesday! i'm excited to watch ep9! continue on MY's 'Public Confession'! hahaha  and our OTP kisseuu?~~ LIPStick... hahaha 

anyway, i just wanna share my Fanmade videos for DOTS 3 recent OST. hehehe 

 

Kim Na young & Mad Clown - Once Again FMV [Eng Sub + Rom + Han] 

 

K.will - Talk Love (말해! 뭐해?) FMV [Eng Sub + Rom + Han] 

 

↓  Gummy - You Are My Everything FMV [Eng Sub + Rom + Han]  ↓  :

Spoiler

 

 

 

i keep on listening to all of DOTS ost.. i think i'm going crazy already! 

[enzek]

@thea2410 there still one day. tomorrow is tuesday i love all your mv thanks

[Honey Joyce]

well @enzek .. here in my country it's already Tuesday (SK too) although it's only 3:30am (tuesday) i'm still gonna counted it..

i'm too excited to see DOTS already.. hahaha  

anyway, thanks! i'm glad you like my FMV.. hehehe..

 

 

[happyboy]

5 hours ago, gangurhar said:

Yea most have a fixed price based on experience (and to a good extent gender). SHK is one of the higher paid actresses due to her experience and list of hits and  SJK makes more than her  (but much less than say KSH) 

Since DOTS is a hit both SJK and SHK will be able to charge more if they want to for their next project. Otherwise their salaries are fixed from what they stated early on so nothing will change. If the drama was lowly rated SJK would've had to cut his salary but SHK probably would not have had to since she has had many more hit works and is a senior in the industry. 

SJK currently makes $50,300 for each episode according to sources and SHK makes $41,800

this sadly does show the gender gap in salaries given that SHK has been acting since 15 :') 

This is nonsense, almost like you EXPECT there to be these things because it's an Asian country and then try to make things fit.  This is not an informed sentiment, and only furthers ignorance and stereotypes which are not accurate.

 

There isn't a gender pay gap in Korea compared to Hollywood (which is one of the most Tribal and racist institutions in the US).  The top female stars such as Lee Young Ae and Jun Ji Hyun make exactly the same as the top male stars like Kim Soo Hyun and significantly more (like 40% more) than male Hallyu stars like Lee Min Ho.  This for example in contrast to actresses in the US such as Jennifer Lawrence who makes around 6 cents on the dollar of a top male star like Robert Downey.

 

Also it's not based on "experience" if it's based on experience how is Kim Soo Hyun who has only been working for half a decade one of the top paid stars in Korea?  It has to do with marketability and draw.  But most importantly success in recent projects.

Generally speaking there are gender differences in Asia and in Korea but in context Korean television is one of the most liberated and female-friendly media industries in the world.  It far outpaces Hollywood or Bollywood for gender equality both in front of the camera and behind it.  For example one of the areas where there's even more discrimination in Hollywood than acting talent is in writing... entire writing rooms in TV being dominated by a small group of almost entirely male, mostly elite, mostly Jewish & white people.  This drama and most of the top dramas in Korea are created, driven, showrun by WOMEN writers.  It's an amazing egalitarian feat considering how women are shut out of much of corporate Asia.  Women are the driving force in many of these shows, and that continues with the fact that women like Jun Ji Hyun, Ha Ji Won, Choi Ji Woo etc are as big mainstream draws as any male actor.  Again contrast to Hollywood and the West where Liberals basically shutter even top actresses to "chick flicks" or some other genre.

The reason for this specific phenomena is interesting in itself.  Compare for example to Japan, which like much of its pop culture is driven by consumption by males and "boy things" everything from super sentai for the kids to JAV and AKB40 for the men.  In Korea, during the development of K-dramas the consumption was almost entirely driven by women, because of how poor Korea was.  Men through the 60-90s were all working until 2 AM and never even home to watch prime time dramas, so the industry naturally gravitated towards the housewives who watched the shows.  Eventually Koreans got smart and started giving women larger roles in writing, production etc.  At the same time, the fact that WOMEN were choosing allowed females to become solid draws and get equal recognition and equal pay.

Anyways the idea that there is widespread gender bias among top billed Korean stars is wrong.  Joong Ki is the headliner.  He was the foundation of the drama, the first person cast.  Even in this thread you can simply click the first page to see.  SHK came along later, she wasn't as "hot" an actor, and has not had the recent successes that Joong Ki has.  Not everything is a square peg in a round hole.  Take the most logical explanation first, before going to conspiracy and agenda.

[Meowth07]

4 hours ago, enzek said:

so your dad is a soldier? great. i hope you post more and give your opinion/insightful about this drama especially soldier/military thingy. i'm reading some comment at other site/blog comment how this drama give incorrect info about soldier, cheesy, make soldier look weak bla bla bla so it's good you come and join us. and it great that you don't despise mo yeon cause i like her too. it's such a surprise that kim eun sook write her character like this cause if you watch heirs and secret garden you know will know why it's hard for me to like her female lead. anyway what your opinion about si jin? what is his flaw according to you well beside he has a dangerous job.

 

Hi ya. First of all I really appreciate your comment. At first I really hesitated about sharing my POV, since I don't want people to think I'm showing off or being condescending or anything. So your post's very encouraging. Pls stop me if I go on ranting though...

I think DotS is a drama, so naturally things are romanticized a lot. In fact, military is not all about patriotism or being heroes, of course ultimately that's what soldiers are But on a daily basis, it's all about the rules and the hard work. A soldier just obeys military rules and does what his commander tells him to do, every minute of everyday, believing that's the right thing. On this point, I think DotS does okay. But I don't try to find technical flaws in a fictional work anyway. Can you tell me what thing DotS shows that people say is incorrect or weak? 

I can think of what makes people say "cheesy", probably the way Si Jin and/or Dae Young pursue/treat their women right? Actually it's one thing I think DotS got perfectly. Soldiers are very romantic, perhaps because of how their work life is - surrounded by men and extremely lack of contacts with women - they appreciate females a lot (and a bit too imaginative - like SDY said, lol). If a young soldier has a girlfriend, he will run back to her the minute he gets a break. When an older soldier gets promoted, he will say that's all thanks to his wife, because she takes care of their family so he can solely focus on his job. And if a soldier has a daughter, believe me he will make her a Daddy's girl for sure (while if he has a son, he will be very strict...). When many jobs are tricky or even deceiving, and when it's somehow hard, you compromise, find a substitute goal, or wait; military job is very straightforward and absolute. Hence soldiers are quite sincere with their words and their actions, and very persistent to their goal. They go straight to the point, no nonsense, no bashing around the bushes, no waiting for another time. They don't have time for that anyway. Si Jin character was totally sold to me right from ep1 because he did all those things at once when pursuing Mo Yeon: sweet, straight, persistent, and very quick, lol, and I was like "yep, he's definitely a military man"

One thing though, Si Jin ignored his orders, not once, but twice at least. When the order with the bomb/mine defusing wasn't a direct one, he could get away with that. But with the Arab VIP, he disobeyed a direct order, man, it's the ultimate sin a soldier could do. If this was real life, he would just have to kiss his military life goodbye, not only his promotion. In both cases, Commander Park was too good to him really.

I read some opinions on previous pages about Si Jin's one big flaw: he makes light of his situation to Mo Yeon, most of the time, instead of being serious. I totally agree. While it's his way to cope with his hard work, it also makes him very charming to younger girls, a sensible woman like Mo Yeon doesn't want that. Moreover, he doesn't explain things to her. She's a civilian, doesn't have knowledge about the military, it would be a lot better if he just explained, showed her why that's right from the military POV, instead of giving no information and just expecting her to accept it. Nah. She rejects him because he rejects her too, he rejects her the right of getting to know the whole picture, of getting used to it.

Reality comparing:

Spoiler

My dad does as a dangerous job as Si Jin does. His work is defusing bombs, mines, all explosive stuff that were left in our land after wars (yup my country was war torn for a very very long time) and he's an expert in this field. The scene in ep2 with Alpha team sweeping land finding explosives, I chuckled a bit because that's what my dad's men does everyday, it's just so familiar. It's a dangerous job, even for soldiers, with a real chance of dying (and in fact his men died), but he always tells the truth about it, no hiding, no sugarcoating. He tells me from time to time that "someone has to do it" (a point for DotS's writing here), explains what he can when I ask questions, give as much info as he can when he has to go away, even took me to the funeral once (another point...) - because just a fact, there has been always some of his soldiers die doing this job, and a year without death is considered a big successful year. Now, he's a Colonel, means he doesn't normally work on the field, his men can deal with most of those bombs. But rarely, when they find some big-richard simmons one, or some special type, they have to ask for him to come, then he always tells mom and me about it. What's the point in hiding anyway? One thing similar and also different to Si Jin, he just smiles and says he's good at his job, he knows how to deal with that bomb, and ensures us a lot BEFORE he goes, not after like what Si Jin does. I think it's the right way to be with the important people in your life when you're having a dangerous job. Si Jin really needs to change his way here.

Well, did I rant? Sorry for that. lol. In short, I think DotS does a good job with the military thing, many small details just makes me smile because of how familiar they are. Yet my view is from a secondary point and I'm not very picky. Maybe I can ask my dad to watch and give his opinion, lol, don't think he has time, but it's tempting.

And yess, Secret Garden and Heirs are my less fav of KES's works too. I like strong and smart female characters, that's why I prefer her other dramas, and so happy with her Mo Yeon character.

[sanaeozora]

1 hour ago, rumasa79 said:

 

ROFLLL!

Science class will never go bleak 

 

@sanaeozora >>>> Big Boss to Babycakes, wine is always a good idea, over.

 

 

>>>> Babycakes to Big Boss: Beauty disagrees, she says she prefers ramyeon!  OVER.

@Tinkiebell: Nice recruiting! Even if it's for science!

[sunflower1]

Oh! Credits to all! SJK! SHK! THE WRITER and all! 1more day and it's Wednesday☺

[enzek]

54 minutes ago, happyboy said:

Anyways the idea that there is widespread gender bias among top billed Korean stars is wrong.  Joong Ki is the headliner.  He was the foundation of the drama, the first person cast.  Even in this thread you can simply click the first page to see.  SHK came along later, she wasn't as "hot" an actor, and has not had the recent successes that Joong Ki has.  Not everything is a square peg in a round hole.  Take the most logical explanation first, before going to conspiracy and agenda.

thanks for the info but what do you meant by "SHK came along later, she wasn't as "hot" an actor, and has not had the recent successes that Joong Ki has?" i'm trying to understand but better asking before i'm making wrong assumption myself.

anyhow i'm admit that maybe i don't have enough knowledge about star salary whatnot but since this drama focus more about kang mo yeon & yoo si jin character and love story between them, song joong ki and song hye kyo both are the main foundation of this drama. just because song joong ki had recent success doesn't mean that this drama success because of him alone. the writers, producers, directors, other actor/actress and all people who involve behind the scene also contribute for this drama too. no need to downgrade other people because of an actor/actress.

 

[alleverything]

The pay gap is unfortunately something that still exists everywhere around the world. Don't pretend women get paid the same (not just in acting, in any function) as men because that's simply not true. But I think that discussion might be a little too much for this thread, don't you agree? @happyboy

[melleri]

Well, I don't know if SJK is actually the sole headliner who carries everything and who was cast first, because in the main trailer she is actually given first billing over him and is the one given the monologue as well. SJK did have success before, but he was also coming back from the army, which can be risky.  SHK was coming back from scandal, but had a proven track record of 20 years of acting.  And MY is not a character who is just there to be the male lead's love interest either.  She and her values are of equal importance to the story.  I'm not downplaying SJK, but I'm also not going to downplay the hallyu goddess that is SHK.  The paid gap is a REAL and it's unfortunate if she's truly not paid the same amount as him (especially considering her part in getting the drama paid for and sold to China).  But  I agree with @alleverything  though that this thread is the place for this kind of talk. 

It's already Tuesday (in some places).  Let's celebrate.  

And I love your posts @Meowth07.  So informative.  While SJ is damn near flawless, you really explained what he could do better to make MY feel at ease.  I do think he'll change though and not hide so much soon. I can see how he's equally scared as well, maybe not so much scared of dying, but how to make MY accept him and his job.  So he hides things from her, and isn't very honest at times.  I love what you said "she rejects him because he rejects her too", which is so true.   Earlier in the drama we actually did see that SJ has a lot of hidden pain and bad experiences, and I'd love to see more of that and for him to open up to MY about his worries and fears.  She'll never understand him if she doesn't let her know everything.  

[Vanya Pramitha]

Annyeong.... i'm newbie here.... luv Dots and luv SJK too...

just wanna share this cute SJK on Gag's....

https://youtu.be/cOPXjVLYr4s

https://youtu.be/cOPXjVLYr4s

Edited March 21, 2016 by Vanya Pramitha

[utkim]

Unfortunately the paid gap is an issue that still exist whether we like it or not, even in europe here. I have read for quite some times back then shk got more than 41K, at least 50K at that time... it's not a big deal for me and i don't think it's a big issue for shk as she loves to work and with this great script in her hand, i dun think she cares much about money. Well, not to mention, shk is quite big in china.  I dun want to compare her with anyone, but it's a handfull of korean actors whom are really famous in china.  Anyway, to have this successful drama is a teamwork by the writer, director, actors etc, not by 1 alone and There is no need to downgrade other actors.

 

 

dc

 

 

[zebiekste]

>>>> Weasel to Big Boss:   Catfights starting on soompi, may not be able hold out until wednesday, need some kiss scene ASAP. Over.

[melleri]

Need a snack to calm down? Some ramen?  I also have a paper due in 4 hours, stop distracting me DoTS! 

cr : dc

[ck1Oz]

Actually I don't think certain posts are heavier than others. I have been following this thread but not commenting.  Because the majority of comments have been along a certain  trend of comments. It is good a forum has different view points.  But this forum has not been very encouraging for expressing  all views rather than having or being encouraged to encourage certain opinions. 

 

People watch dramas for many reasons. It may not be to the majority or to only for a certain view. Like I do not watch Kdramas just to fawn over abs scenes. I've repeated certain scenes a few times. Like the rappelling nightscene. This time SJK is not wearing a helmet.  Vs the scene where he was the only one wearing sunglasses.  I have to laugh and marvel at the PD. Doesn't mean I didn't like it but it also meant I laughed at the obvious filming scenes. It's like the writer likes to ram the shining halo onto SJK. Not that he doesn't shine well enough on his own.

So yeah I have been disappointed in this forum and chose not to comment. But unlike others, I am not intimidated and am only posting because even I can't take all this " rules" of what is acceptable to read or post.  Remember I was asked to go away because I see flaws in this drama. What a ridiculous  assumption. There are a lot of people who can or want to  watch Kdramas not simply for escapism. K dramas actually tell stories without the excessive need for expletives or nudity like in some Hollywood productions. So yeah I watch Kdramas regularly. And so? I can't comment.

 

And I aģree with the comment that SJ disobeyed orders. Maybe the writer thinks it's a small matter. And Special Forces soldiers need to have a certain mindset anyway and be an independent functional unit. But its perfectly true that just as there are good superiors in real life there are bad superiors everywhere. When I was a junior officer we had a p**ck of a Captain.  Everyone knew it and he was truly ridiculous in his grandstanding.  To his face I had to obey and could do nothing about it. You know, it doesnt matter what you feel, the military operates on a hierarchy system.  And it's called being hauled in for insubordination when you disobey even for minor issues. 

 

And that's why I don't go ga-ga over abs scenes or morning runs. And not the reason why I admire the leading males in Kdramas. True they are all almost universally 180cm, have perfect complexions or look after their bodies. It's because most of the time they can act and the Kdramas plots though predictable are enjoyable. And no matter how unfit some ahjusshi soldiers look- they have an acceptable fitness levels and can do the required push ups per minute. Or chin ups. I've supervised enough yearly fitness checks to know. And the SF units? Their morning runs are with full packs on. Not shirtless. And you wonder why I laughed at the shirtless morning runs. Caveat- the Korean SF do shirtless runs in the snow right? 

So yes there is a reason why I don't comment. Because really do I just write and repeat the oft repeated views?  No I don't. But on the other hand neither can I stand having other viewers being told what is acceptable or not here. Soompi rules are the only rules here.

 

 

 

 

[gilaswan]

6 hours ago, enzek said:

please don't destroy my hopelessly romantic idiot mode i don't hear you lalala

Hahahaha... I would like it to be YSJ too leh but come to think of it, him asking such a question doesn't seem within his character. He's such a gentleman... I don't even think he needs to ask though... Hehehehe... 

[gangurhar]

Well to lighten up the mood (from my dark posts eek sorry) I found this. How true is it? 

Cr: Tumblr 

[melleri]

Yes, as said before in this thread, there really only two days of the week

Days with DoTS

Days without DoTS

And to further make this thread a happy place, let's look at  Captain Yoo's looks of love

 

[gangurhar]

the OSTs are siting firmly in their spot since a few weeks now as walls. They are now battling amongst themselves for top spots but Davichi has had #1 for quite some time. Bravo to the team who got such awe-some artists on board. I am sure Junsu and SJK's track will hit #1 when it releases