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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jian" data-source="post: 9845124" data-attributes="member: 78087">Crash Course in Romance (2023, currently on Netflix)I'm starting with this one because it's been the gateway drug to K-dramas for a couple of people we know (including my parents-in-law, who have now been consuming a K-drama every one to two months). I'm not sure why this is the case, but CCIR was the most popular drama of 2023 and is nicely designed to appeal to a wide audience.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Course_in_Romance" target="_blank">Crash Course in Romance</a> is actually a rather odd translation. The Korean original is Ilta Scandal, where Ilta is a neologism based on the Korean words for one and star, and is used to refer to people at the very top of their professions. In this case, it refers to one of the protagonists, the most lucrative and successful hagwon teacher in Korea. Also, "scandal" in Korean can mean the same thing as in English, but can also mean "personal or romantic situation that might give rise to gossip" and that's more what it means here.Now seems a good time to talk about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagwon" target="_blank">hagwon</a>. Hagwon are private after-school academies attended by 80% of Korean high school students (almost 100% of those in Seoul) where, in the last three years before college, said students spend 2-3 hours after school getting extra tuition to improve their chances of college entrance. This is of course a reflection of the extremely conformist and competitive nature of Korean society. Hagwon are universal but controversial - there's been talk of banning them but literally every parent in Korea can't bear the idea of their child losing out on even the tiniest necessary advantage. The best hagwon and their star teachers ("Ilta") are immensely sought after and lucrative.Anyway (to quote our other protagonist who loves using the English word to change the subject), our two protagonists are Nam Haeng-Seon, the owner of a popular banchan (side dish) shop in Gangnam (a very rich part of Seoul) and Choi Chi-Yeol, the aforementioned hagwon star teacher (in maths). Haeng-Seon is very working-class and down-to-earth, and it takes her a while to realise that her teenage daughter Hae-Yi needs to attend a hagwon to compete. Fortunately, she runs into Chi-Yeol, who is very successful but very stressed, to the point where he can't bear to eat most foods, but her lovely banchan is the exception. He agrees to tutor Hae-Yi in exchange for food, and so our story progresses.There's a lot more in there, especially about Korean education and its effects on both parents and children, but never fear, there's a happy ending for almost everyone. There's barely a villain. In some ways, CCIR is a response to an earlier drama, Sky Castle (2018) which was incredibly popular and influential, and was far more critical of Korean education. Sky Castle is probably my favourite K-drama of all time and we will be covering it in due course.</blockquote>

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