he Legendary Japanese Drama That Even Yoo Jae-suk Binge-Watched, Long Vacation
From "Dark Routes" to the OTT Era: Meeting the Golden Age of J-Dramas Again In the past, to watch Japanese dramas—commonly referred to as "J-dramas"—one had to rely on illegal downloads or pirated videos known as "dark routes." Even then, there were numerous famous dramas boasting immense buzz and cinematic quality, but Korean viewers tended to consume mainly genre works like mysteries, suspense, and medical dramas. For romantic comedies or melodramas, the demand was sufficiently met by excellent Korean romance dramas, so viewers did not necessarily cross the language barrier to seek out Japanese works. Furthermore, the tight plots and ingenious subjects unique to genre works were recognized as the most powerful competitive edge of Japanese dramas at the time. However, with the dazzling development of various global OTT platforms, including Netflix, an era has arrived where one can easily watch all movies and dramas from around the world from the comfort o...
