‘Sandglass’ Voted Best Soap Since 1980

by Robert Koehler on February 12, 2009

The Chosun Ilbo reports that “The Sandglass” (“Morae Sigye”) has been selected as the best TV drama since 1980.

Of course, “The Sandglass” was quite good. Unlike, say, “Boys Before Flowers,” which makes me want to stick my head in an oven every time it’s on TV.

{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

1 JiMong February 12, 2009 at 2:13 pm: I would put Eyes of Dawn(여명의 눈동자) in first place.
2 R. Elgin February 12, 2009 at 3:21 pm: Man, this guy I met was cracking me up, telling me about how his wife would force him to be quiet when the “boys before flowers” came on TV.

It really is very Japanese in vibe and so bad that I was having fun doing my own lip-synching to it.
3 eaglenovan February 12, 2009 at 3:31 pm: When I surf through Korean tv, I sometimes think the average intelligence age is somewhere around 12 ? Most of it seems to be really mindless drivel. I haven’t been able to figure out what that program is with girls sitting around from different countries answering questions? I also do love to see the Rushee & Cashee commercials glorifying spending money at 48%. Can someone please tell me who needs money at 48% and what they NEED to buy ?
Is this the Kim’s keeping up with the Kim’s ???
4 chiamattt February 12, 2009 at 3:45 pm: I don’t have a TV because most of the crap on tv EVERYWHERE, is mindless drivel. It isn’t just Korea.
5 Iceberg February 12, 2009 at 4:47 pm: Wouldn’t that be “The Hourglass”?
6 red sparrow February 12, 2009 at 5:11 pm: Obviously no-one at the Chosun has seen “Dallas”.
7 tokyojesusfist February 12, 2009 at 5:54 pm: The article uses incorrect terminology. A soap opera is not the same thing as a drama. I don’t know anything about Sandglass, but I know Dae Jang Geum is definitely no soap opera. It has a beginning, a middle and an end, and has nothing at all in common with soap operas in terms of style or substance (not to mention quality).

If someone had asked me to guess what drama would be voted #1, I would have gone with Dae Jang Geum. Not suprised it took second place, because it really is an incredibly good drama.
8 bumfromkorea February 12, 2009 at 6:26 pm: Obviously no-one at the Chosun has seen “Dallas”.

Of course, he’s not talking about the American TV drama “Dallas”, but the lesser known “달라스”, an ill-fated but a brilliant show about unscrupulous bank tellers trying to rake in the ‘dollars’ any way they can.

I heard so much about 모래시계, but never had the chance to see it. You think they’d have it at a local Korean video store?
9 Sonagi February 12, 2009 at 7:32 pm: Wouldn’t that be “The Hourglass”?

Not on Korean television.
10 captbbq February 12, 2009 at 9:06 pm: While we are at it, let’s talk about the worst.

Anything has got to be better than that damned “아내의 유혹”. I swear I come home from a long day’s work only the hear scene after scene of wailing and crying and fighting and crying and bitching and moaning, and screaming and more crying and then people collapsing on the floor and crying more from the sheer insanity of it all.

So much so is every scene composed of nothing but this, that I am incapable of discerning any opportunity through which characters are afforded to commit an act to justify their actions, only that they seem to perpetually do so ad absurdia.

It would almost be a comedy, were it not for the fact that no satire could be any more absurd that what it already is so as to parody it.

In my relatively modest yet not so meager six and a half years here, I have seen nothing so vile as this horrid crap.
11 cm February 12, 2009 at 9:45 pm: ^ It’s a trash drama which is got high rating. Even Koreans are complaining it’s unrealistic and trash but they’re fascinated and glued to the next episode. It’s just fantasy, people want to escape the daily backlog of nothing but bad news. Let them enjoy it.
12 Iceberg February 12, 2009 at 10:05 pm: Not on Korean television.

Well, then, if we’re going that route, shouldn’t it be “The Sand Clock”?
13 Iceberg February 12, 2009 at 10:07 pm: And, for my money, 순풍 산부인과 was the best show on Korean television evah.
14 Iceberg February 12, 2009 at 10:08 pm: God, I just sounded like Shelton there.
15 betchay February 12, 2009 at 10:25 pm: I so agree. The Sandglass is the best Korean drama I’ve seen. I remember watching it in 1 1/2 days.
16 foflappy February 13, 2009 at 7:10 am: “It’s almost paradise!”
17 WangKon936 February 13, 2009 at 7:24 am: I liked 불멸의 이순신.
18 thekorean February 13, 2009 at 7:45 am: “나, 떨고 있니?”

That line stayed on for years. 모래시계 wins, hands down.
19 abcdefg February 13, 2009 at 8:25 am: I’d vote for Dae Jang Geum!

I loved that show. Nutritious, poignant, and with some great work done to get all sorts of Naturey goodness into the shots; one can feel the Winter and other climes of Korea through the screen, and the morally vivid world of good and bad, of suffering and forgiveness, true righteusness vs the wicked, was edifying stuff.

DAE JANG GEUM, mofuckaz!
20 JW February 13, 2009 at 9:02 am: If 이영애 or 최지우 don’t ever get married, i’mma go cry my nuts off like you ain’t ever seen.
21 WangKon936 February 13, 2009 at 9:33 am: 최지우 needs to stop doing this:

http://i.kdaq.empas.com/imgs/qrsi.tsp/7958064/10461058/0/1/A/화면%20캡쳐56.jpg

Before some man would be willing to take the plung with her.
22 sumo294 February 15, 2009 at 12:58 pm: Iceberg, you are still around? If I remember correctly, you used to have a pretty nice blog back in the day.
23 sumo294 February 15, 2009 at 1:00 pm: Also whatever happened to Nomad?