• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.351-365
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• 2017

Illness has long been an important plot device in Korean dramas. In earlier years, the device typically was supposed to be in the form of a terminal bodily disease occurring for the female main character toward the end of the story. On the other hand, the latest trend is to situate a mental illness for the male lead character at the earlier part, and use it as a tool to build characters, construct causal relations and set the intense tone for the overall story. The mental illness as a plot device helps to provide a series of reversals, revelations and turnarounds, giving viewers a stronger sense of intensity, empathy and identification. While the illness used to play the role of a deus ex machina to make a big emotional finish, the latest adoption of the mental illness as a main plot device has enhanced the flexibility of the plot and the effect of versimilitude in dramas. These noticeable changes make one suspect that the focus of Korea's drama contents might have already begun to grow out of the conventional soap operas into different genres.