There’s nothing like a well produced and well directed drama. If you’re lucky, its excellence will stick with you long after the drama has ended, even when the actual plot line may have disappointed. And while dramaland usually veers more toward being story and acting talent centric, there are so many great PDs that just know how to handle a story, a scene, and a moment, and make it come alive on screen.
While I’d argue dramaland is brimming with very capable PDs, it isn’t as easy for their individual styles to come out as much as it might in film, say, where there is more room to be interpretive. K-dramas operate under a lot of genre “rules” (be this stylistic techniques, storytelling tropes, or broadcasting regulations), which — to me — makes the amount of creativity and interpretation we do see in dramas quite laudable. It’s one thing to be creative when you have free rein. It’s another to be creative when you have a structure in place, and you have to work inside of it. *Kudos*
Who are some of your favorite PDs and why? What do you love about their work?