A resource on where to watch your favorite asian drama series
75Asian dramas
If you haven’t heard of them, Asian dramas are probably best described as the soap opera meets the mini series. If you have seen them, you know they’re so much more. The suck you in and don’t let you leave until the end. The Asian drama meisters are the masters of ‘so good you can’t put it down.’
Very quickly rising in popularity, but still mostly obscure, (a year ago, it was almost impossible to find anything about them, you can get quite a few hits on google, these days, but not near enough), Asian television can sometimes be the best TV you’ve ever watched. They are made in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and (less spectacularly) mainland china. But the best come from Korea and Japan (but mostly Korea).
Since Asian dramas don’t have the popularity of their more famous cousin, anime, one is often left wondering where to find these hidden treasures. Your local video store probably won’t have them. Wikipedia, which generally has everything you ever wanted to know, is severely lacking in Asian drama information.
Not sure what to watch? I have some suggestions
- Best Japanese Drama series
Japanese drama series (also known as “Doramas”) have been around longer than their more popular Korean cousins, but they have their own unique qualities which make them stand alone amongst the sea of... - Best Korean Drama Series
Korean Television is experiencing a world renaissance. Known as the Korean wave, Korean culture, its comics, its music, its food, but especially its television shows, is being transmitted around the world... - Best Taiwanese and Chinese Drama Series
And now, Chinese dramas. Chinese dramas are unique in that they can come from multiple cultures: Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China (but mostly Taiwan). They could conceivably be given their own top 10...
Asian Dramas at Amazon.com
 | Amazon Price: $43.48 List Price: $69.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $47.77 List Price: $79.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $48.37 List Price: $79.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $53.99 List Price: $59.99 |
Finding the facts
The information is out there. You just have to know where to look. If you’re wanting to know more about a particular drama series, go to the dramawiki. It’s run by the d-addicts community and is generally the best resource on the net for drama info. It’s wikipedia for Asian Dramas. Another good site is soompi.com. It’s a strange, comprehensive community dedicated to Korean culture (but also suffers from annoying lag times).
Where to Watch?
As to where to watch them if you’re video store doesn’t have them, try online. The legality of watching dramas online varies by region and particular series. Some Asian dramas are available online for free. Some can only be purchased without breaking copyright law.
If you’re looking to purchase your particular favourite series, the best and most popular pay site is yesasia.com. They have a comprehensive, (and multi-language translated selection) of pretty much every series created. They’re also a good resource for collectibles and Asian drama merchandise, if that’s what you’re into. I got my favourite television show of all time, there, “Dae Jang Geum.” Amazon also has a large selection of Asian Dramas available, but they don't have near the stock of YesAsia.
If a particular drama you want to watch isn’t currently in copyright violation, there are many options available to you.
The most popular place to watch them online, today, is mysoju.com. They host hundreds of dramas on their site and are available to watch anytime. There are a few downsides to mysoju.com however. Their videos are grainy and low quality and they are split into hundreds of parts, making the watching somewhat tedious. Crunchyroll.com is an alternate to mysoju.com and offers much the same service but you’re still left with low quality watching. You can also find dramas hosted on pretty much any video hosting site. Youtube has a few and I’ve heard you can find a lot on Veoh.com
An alternate to watching them online is downloading. The greatest resource for this is d-addicts. They are a large Asian drama forum community with an extensive listing of asian drama torrent downloads. You can find very high quality versions of your favourite shows here (sometimes too high and they take forever to download). The only thing about d-addicts, though, is that it’s going to take some work to get your show up and running. The video download often won’t come with the subtitle file. More often than not, you’ll have to go digging through the forums and hope that there was some nice fellow out there who’d gotten around to translating your show for you.
I, personally, like to use d-addicts to find my Asian drama series. It’s a lot less convenient that mysoju.com, but I prefer to go a little extra out of my way to take advantage of the higher quality their videos afford. Asian Dramas can sometimes be pretty spectacular programs. It’s a shame to watch a sprawling period piece on a throttled, video hosting connection.
Clips from the show on the forefront of the first Korean Wave, "Winter Sonata."
CommentsLoading...
Those are great. When I said, "sprawling period pieces," I was mostly meaning Jumong. I think I'm next going to write some hubs on what I think are the best dramas. Stay tuned!
And good to see more disciples on the internet. You have good taste, sir.
Thank you
I watch my doramas at konoban.com
Good introduction and suggestions on asian dramas and where to watch them.
Just a note - to say that taiwan dramas (ESPECIALLY those idol dramas) is better than mainland china in terms of quality is a complete and utter insult. Try watching more dramas produced from mainland china.
(PS - Not trying to provoke any anger. I love taiwan idol series, and i am NOT from China, but I still know a fact as a fact)
I just wanted to say thanks for the information. I just finished watching the Korean Drama You're Beautiful. I loved the music in it and was trying to find the soundtrack. I finally found it at yesasia.com so thanks. Also I watch drama at dramacrazy.net
i suggest u all to visit this site:www.gblog85.blogspot.com
i find this site by accident because the site i always download my favourite dorama sometimes has broken links (www.cyber12.com).not only dorama, the site also give mediafire links to download new movies. no need to sign up or pay,always updated. i just want to share something i know and sorry for my broken english because this is my 2nd language.
My son introduced me to these dramas. I am now an addict. My favourites are Why Why Love, It Started With A Kiss, Gokusen 1, and Hana Dori Dango. I will visit suggested site to purchase It Started With A Kiss
"you can get quite a few hits on google, these days, but not near enough"
you get 320,000 hits on google for a simple search on "boys over flowers korean drama". according to google trends, several korean variety shows, dramas, idols, music groups, etc, have more ENGLISH results than some popular shows from the english-speaking world (eg a few british reality shows) . super junior rank behind justin beiber on twitter this year? some americans i know have heard of korean entertainment.
"They are made in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and (less spectacularly) mainland china. But the best come from Korea and Japan (but mostly Korea). "
Yes, I love korean dramas but mainloand china seriesdo appeal to some people. and you've left out hong kong, not to mention dramas from asian countries.
"Wikipedia, which generally has everything you ever wanted to know, is severely lacking in Asian drama information."
I find TONS of information on asian dramas on wikipedia. EVERY SINGLE hong kong tvb series nowadays has its own article on wikipedia. english wikipedia lacks in korean, japanese and taiwanese drama series articles, but usually those articles are just poorly managed. but there are tons of well-managed asian drama articles in asian languages wikipedia?
"Another good site is soompi.com. It’s a strange, comprehensive community dedicated to Korean culture (but also suffers from annoying lag times). " soompi's times are fine. and it's not strange, these types of forums are all over the internet for loads of different stuff, and soompi is popular worldwide.
& theres loads other sites to download asian stuff other than d-addicts. d-addicts is a great, full site, but there's also kpopella, am-addiction, avipzone, enterhk.com, asianload, yellow cinema, mehanata, and, not to mention, practically loads of chinese-language, korean language, japanese language, or other native asian language download forums and websites. and not to mention clubbox which is very popular among asians worldwide who love korean entertainment. dramas also available for HIGH QUALITY streaming on dramafever. more download sites: kpopshare.com, jpopshare.com, cpopshare.com. news sites?? allkpop, tokyohive, asianfanatics (its got a download area?? and discussion forums). and you've got 6theory forums.you've just been including around 20% of all the popular english-language stuff available. and then theres tons of dowbnload sites and foums in the NATIVE or asian languages.
I really suggest you to stop writing from your ethos and start including some logos to your articles (which i won't even consider it an article) I've read another piece from you about asians dramas just awhile ago and you were again, insulting mainland dramas. To say that mainland dramas are less that the others is an utter insult and extremely untrue. I assume that you've never really given a chance to mainland dramas especially their historical ones. I will say that if you give it a chance you will find the beauty to them and how unjust the public was to mainland dramas. The only reason that Mainland dramas were overshadowed by others are because they are not idol dramas. Mainland dramas consists of real actors and actresses who actually studied acting. Mainland dramas are considered arts and they qualities are absolutely up there with international level. I believe you've heard of the legendary huan zhu ge ge (princess pearly) if not watched. Try watching The Myth, The Vigilantes In Masks(?????)2011 version and Schemes of a Beauty.
Do you research next time and write the Logos/Pathos and not ethos.
Well, I suggest Thai drama. It's really enjoyed
Thara Himaraya http://lyxe-lycee.blogspot.com/
or you can watch other with eng sub in youtube and viki
dramafever.com
tony0724 3 years ago
Jumong was very good ! And I liked My Lovely Sam Soon too !