Top 5 most common tropes in Korean dramas that viewers are fed up with
Let’s take a look at the classic tropes often seen in Korean dramas that viewers probably know by heart by now.
Korean dramas nowadays are constantly trying to bring the audience a variety of new exciting storylines. However, among them, there are still many repetitive tropes that are “overused” by Korean writers, making the audience bored. If you are a fan of Korean dramas, you are definitely no longer unfamiliar with the following 5 tropes.
1. Rich guy and poor girl’s romance
The romance between Cinderella and Prince charming can be classified as the most typical Korean drama trope. However, it is undeniable that this motif has contributed to bringing the wave of Hallyu dramas to the whole world. To apply this “recipe”, the male lead in the drama must be a rich, popular guy and is only attracted to a girl with a straightforward, simple, kind personality and must be… poor.
2. Damsel in distress
One of the classic ways to make the male and female protagonists in Korean dramas fall in love is by using the damsel in distress trope. The male lead often has all the qualities that every girl dreams of such as a handsome look, talents, good personality, and most importantly, he does not hesitate to sacrifice himself to rescue the female lead.
3. Enemies to lovers
The most common trope in Korean dramas of the romance genre is probably enemies to lovers. Before becoming a couple, the two leads have to go through a period of hatred when they can’t stand each other, but eventually, without realizing, they will start to fall in love.
4. Marriage contract or reluctant to live together
Among the classic tropes of Korean dramas, perhaps the storyline of a marriage contract or the male and female lead reluctantly living together is the most absurd and makes the least sense. They accept to live in the same house or even make a marriage contract to gain personal benefits. In the process of living together, the two characters gradually develop real feelings and end up being a legit couple.
5. All kinds of mutants and superpowers
In recent years, Korean dramas have continuously taken advantage of the supernatural theme to attract viewers. Producers like to exploit various fantasy elements such as space travel, vampires, aliens, goblins, foxes, and destroyers. However, the audience’s love of this fictional concept was a thing of many years ago, as evidenced by the two recent fantasy romance dramas, My Roommate Is A Gumiho and Doom At Your Service, which both failed to achieve high ratings.
Source: K14
