A long time ago I did nothing but watch entertainment that was mostly Western: I would lose myself in films and TV series. Thinking about it, I have always had a soft spot for old cinema, dated comedies and niche films.
Probably because of the happy times I spent at my grandparents’ house as a child and a teenager, where we grandchildren went on real film marathons over the Christmas holidays. But once that time had passed, I soon realised that the “modern” offerings of the day no longer interested me.
Growing up, I looked for an alternative, and little by little I started watching Japanese and Korean films. Between unknown titles and different genres, I drew up a series of endless lists that I would tick off every weekend in my spare moments.
And scrolling through various suggestions, I saw for the first time a kind of entertainment I had deliberately ignored until then (misled by the school-themed posters: an unforgivable mistake). From that very moment I moved closer to what are commonly called dramas (East Asian TV series), which today seem to have won huge approval, not only in Europe but, I would dare say, worldwide.
There could be many reasons that sparked this extraordinary interest, but the most convincing one, I think, lies in their psychological side and in their ability to draw the audience in with a solid, well-built story.
Dramas, and K-dramas (Korean ones) in particular, are the ones that have been most successful in recent years, and it is not just me saying so, but a series of “surveys” on the choices, preferences and personal tastes regarding the TV series that have been on air for some time now.
Curiosity about “something else” is growing so much that it has sparked deep interest, and as a result some publications, such as Vanity Fair Italia in November of this year (2025), seized the opportunity and published an article on the subject, recommending a series of titles not to be missed because they are considered the most watched worldwide, and therefore easy to find.
We can certainly confirm that K-dramas, compared with others, have been pushed by extreme commercialisation, thanks to fairly well-known phenomena of recent years such as Squid Game (especially in Italy) and, in music, K-pop (worldwide): BTS, Stray Kids, Blackpink (to name just a few) set off an unrivalled passion for all things Asian and everything around them. This explosion of media interest is vaguely reminiscent of what happened with the Hallyu effect, 한류, the “Korean wave”, which did a great deal to spread Korean culture around the world.
This wave began around the 1990s and, besides gloriously carrying the splendours of Korean culture around the world, it also had a very significant economic and geopolitical impact, making Korea itself more “accessible” and therefore more visible than China and Japan, which the West already knew well.
What is surprising, though perhaps not that surprising, is that once you get hooked there is an almost automatic next step: you start reading and finding out more, cooking recipes or even planning trips just to visit your favourites’ places, or trying somehow to “copy” that lifestyle.
This next step, which could rightly be seen as an obsession, actually seems to be a phase that almost all drama fans have in common.
In general, the desire and curiosity to go deeper into a culture so different from your own comes from the drama itself and its undeniable power of attraction.
This phenomenon has grown a lot in Italy. Starting from K-dramas (precisely because they are advertised all too much), many fans, driven by curiosity and by the need for a change of scene while staying with Asian stories, try Japanese and Chinese dramas (currently the most searched online) and Taiwanese dramas (which, although only a few are translated, seem to be attracting a lot of interest today).
Each country brings its own features, precisely to stand out. For example:
Korean dramas are known for their production quality, often with plots ranging from romance to epic stories, dramatically complicated lives, and medical or legal settings;
Japanese dramas tend towards a softer, more reflective tone, with attention to emotional restraint and to inner or physical unease;
Chinese dramas offer stories with a mix of social, political and melodramatic crime elements;
Taiwanese dramas combine melodrama, a strong romantic side and attention to important social issues such as depression, rebellion, psychological abuse, drastic life changes and redemption. But they also deal with themes still considered “daring”, such as relationships between young men.
Among all fans, the common opinion is that dramas, whether Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Taiwanese, share the same captivating force, that evocative power able to build intense emotional climaxes that are hard to resist.
Evocative, melancholic or sentimental soundtracks (OSTs, original soundtracks), together with very expressive acting and the use of close-ups as the main technique to strengthen the story, give the viewer a constant rollercoaster of emotions, and an immediate involvement that comes from the empathy between character and viewer.
As a result, this bond draws its strength from stories told so well that viewers can identify with the protagonists’ lives.
The emotional impact is remarkable; the plots are always, or almost always, gripping, with a narrative structure that builds up gradually, letting you get to know each character in the round, exploring them from the psychological, personal and emotional point of view.
It is no coincidence that the plot, necessarily broken up, unfolds over a series of episodes, roughly between ten and forty, yet still reaches a planned ending.
Viewers never have the bother of waiting “centuries” to see how it ends (remember American series lasting for years), so it is also pleasant to watch simply because it avoids wasting time before reaching the longed-for ending.
Not to be underestimated is the importance of the setting, usually urban, covering cities, neighbourhoods, villages, places that give back a sense of normality, and so of ordinary, real life.
You may find yourself in a remote, quiet seaside village, or in the middle of the chaos of a city. The possibilities are countless: we can say that the location is a founding part of the drama itself, giving it that extra touch that never hurts.
The setting in time matters just as much, ranging from historical costume dramas to contemporary ones; in short, there are a number of conditions that make a drama gripping or not. There are many options, all of them very good: it only depends on each person’s choice, drawing on a vast and constantly updated landscape.
What is more, once you start it is hard to stop watching altogether, because the stories often deal with real-life themes such as friendship, careers, health, parents’ worries, school life and so on. All handled with such delicacy that they play on emotions that are often strong and conflicting, sometimes also lightened to make the story, even when it is harsh, bearable emotionally and psychologically.
Some compare a drama to a comforting hot dish you eat in the cold months, others to an absorbing puzzle that makes you want to find all the pieces to reach the hoped-for ending, and there are those who love the characters so much because they see some resemblance to their own story. Because, deep down, dramas influence our view of the world by mixing fiction and reality; by stirring strong emotions they can open the mind, encourage cultural openness,
change points of view and offer new models of behaviour, thus deeply influencing how we interpret and live the world around us.
From a “historical” point of view, if we went back in time we would find that the first information about an experimental form of drama dates from around the 1960s.
KBS (Korea’s public broadcaster, Korean Broadcasting System) consolidated their broadcasting, establishing this new television genre.
In particular, K-dramas originated from what, many years ago, were considered Japanese soap operas. Later they would develop their own distinctive feature, the mini-series as we know it today, with a set number of episodes in one season. So with a beginning and an end.
Even earlier, though, during the Japanese occupation, the very first forms of radio drama were broadcast, which marked the beginning of real production of today’s dramas and later also found enormous success in China.
In the international, European and above all American context, where most of the time we are fed films and TV series full of plot twists, fast pace and surreal stories at the limits of reality, without generalising, a good share of dramas represent a more reflective, authentic world of personal growth, which does not neglect important aspects and values such as loyalty and respect: firm points that, despite objective geographical and linguistic differences, manage to create a very important universal cultural connection.
From a global point of view, their success comes from the availability of widely used streaming platforms, from the need to watch something different from the usual, and, as we have seen, from the no less important force of the commercialisation of the phenomenon itself.
Besides, the infamous algorithm of every streaming platform suggests new dramas and helps users keep discovering more, helping to create a continuous cycle of emotional involvement. Meanwhile language barriers have been overcome thanks to multilingual subtitles. Overall, the platforms have democratised access to Asian dramas, enormously widening the audience and changing the way they are watched.
As for me, when I started getting interested and talking about dramas there were only a few of us, and all this interest seemed far away. Today my small community has grown considerably, and I find that sharing about the subject keeps expanding.
But thinking back to how it all started, I admit I was led by a strange and completely mistaken prejudice: I thought dramas were mostly about teenage and school stories, so with this belief I always deliberately avoided them. I could not see myself in that context, not even in my imagination, even though at the time I was exactly that age.
In fact dramas have a very varied narrative form, they suit a wide audience across a fairly broad age range, and they offer social, psychological, historical and fantasy content and much more. In short, there are no excuses: anyone who is curious and wants to try a few only has to choose.
And indeed searching for and choosing a drama is very personal; psychologically they create a kind of benign addiction, and we fans all fairly much agree: once you have watched the first, there is no going back, you move straight on to the next. The reassuring power of the drama, where everything stops for a while, gives moments of leisure, reflection, emotion and lightness. Like a cuddle, a safe place where everyone, whatever their age, is welcome.
So you may come across a recommendation, or an exchange of opinions in the search for a newly released drama, and between one thing and another stories pop up of grandchildren who introduced their grandmothers to this “new world”, and of mothers who, after taking their children to K-pop concerts, became interested themselves.
Cohesion and a fine, solid community are created, confirmed by the creation of pages and groups where everyone can express and share their experiences of watching, of liking or not liking. There are comparisons, different points of view, reflections and suggestions, and that is enough to build something important and always available.
I do not think it is excessive to say that dramas also have, as far as possible, an educational power: themes such as bullying, inequality, injustice and the difficulties ordinary people face in everyday life are part of many of these stories, and you can find a kind of emotional refuge that leads the viewer to reflect on society in general and on what it has sometimes produced, including negatively.
In the end, whoever is still sceptical today, whoever has a prejudiced idea like mine at the beginning, and whoever wants to try something different, new and well made that moves away from the usual stories we are used to seeing, has no excuse. The internet is full of good suggestions and recommendations that I am sure will convince you too, so go ahead and start: you will not regret it, it will be an incredible journey!
Below I leave you a few (international) titles just to get started; the rest is up to you! :-)
Go Ahead
Yong-Jiu Grocery Store
The Good Bad Mother
Our Blues
My Dearest
War of Prosecutors
Goblin
Silent
My Mister
Meet Yourself
My Unfamiliar Family
My Dearest
Something In The Rain
When Life Gives You Tangerines
Our Movie
Road Home
Last Princess
