r/asiandrama • • Jul 23 '25

Discussion Where Asian Dramas and Visual Novels intersect: Asian FMV Games (Spotlight)

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18 Upvotes

Hi r/asiandrama !

For those who don't know me, I am a huge fan of East Asian dramas and culture, which is why I helped create and promote the Drama Addicts discord to help spread the joy that is Asian Dramas. In the past year, I have discovered another medium, that combines two interests of mine: Asian Dramas and Visual Novels, and that medium is Asian Full Motion Video Games.

I wanted to take some time to share with you all about this medium, as I figure some folks here may end up liking it, and I will stick around to answer any questions or give recommendations as well. I have also created a subreddit for this genre, which you can find linked below.

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To start, what are Asian FMV games?

Asian FMV games are interactive movies that can be played on Steam or Epic (there may be a couple on mobile too). They will play out like a normal drama, but you can make choices throughout the story that impact the outcomes of the drama. They have existed since the 90s (especially in the horror and mystery genre), but in the past 2 years have exploded in China and Korea for romantic dating simulators, mystery thrillers, and historical fiction.

These games are often indie works, but are more often now involving real actors, directors, and studios. They normally range between anywhere from 3 to 12 hours long for a single route. And these games are normally sold for about 6 to 20 dollars USD (averaging about 10 USD). They primarily come from China, but recently more Korean studios have been getting involved as well. There are over 60 Asian FMV that have released just in the past 3 years.

Many of the tropes found in Asian FMV are a mix of what you might find in Asian Dramas and Japanese Visual Novels, as they are greatly inspired by both.

What are some examples?

For those looking for lighthearted romantic comedy that isn't meant to be taken too seriously here are a couple recommendations:

Five Hearts Under One Roof (Korean) You run a share house left to you by your parents.
Don't Fool Me Beauties (Korean) You start working at a remote onsen hotel as your first job.
Master of Love (Korean) After a recent breakup you are brought 10 years back to change your fate.
Love is All Around (Chinese) Deep in debt, you flee to a new town to start a new life.
Hello Love: 18 Again (Chinese) After an accident, you wake up to relive your college years.
Knowledge or Know Lady (Chinese) You are the first male student at an all girls university.

If you are interested in pursuing men, there are not as many options that support English, but a few include:
Love Too Easily (Korean) After a drunk night out, all you remember is a kiss, but who did it?
HSHS (Chinese) You started your first job as a live broadcast assistant, but surrounded by attractive men.

There are numerous more serious FMV that have released as well, that normally focus more 70/30 on the mystery/thriller compared to romance, these include:

Vanity Fair (Chinese) You are a failed movie director, but how far would you bend your values to succeed?
Game of Fate (Chinese) You have invented time travel, but what repercussions does its use entail?
Breaker of Fatalism (Chinese) The fate of three worlds is in your hands in this modern wuxia fantasy.
Cellveillance (Chinese) Asked to spy on an apartment to pay your debts, do you report what you find?
Breakout 13 (Chinese) Discover the horrors of a correctional institute and break free.

More studios have also been experimenting with historical fiction and fantasy:

My Journey (Chinese) This does actually support Eng. You time travel to the past and influence the world.
Conquer the World (Chinese) Attempt to restore the Ming, overthrow the Qing in this historical drama.
Underdog Detective (Chinese) Under the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, live as a slum dwelling detective.

These are all just some limited examples of what is available in the Asian FMV world. Many are more indie, but the quality is increasing with each release, and they are still many funny and interesting titles to give a try. If anyone is interested in specific recommendations feel free to ask below.

I have also created a subreddit specifically for following Asian FMV's called r/AsianFMV where I try to post updates every few weeks or so on what is new in the Asian FMV world. If this medium sounds interesting to you all, I would love to see some of you all there :)


r/asiandrama • • Apr 22 '25

Community Join the Drama Addicts Discord Server!

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1 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 0m ago

Recommendation Request Notes from the last row japanese counterpart

• Upvotes

I recently watched notes from the last row and I loved it. The thing is I remember watching a Jdrama similar to this, and I cannot seem to find it no matter how hard I try. Can anyone please help me find it? I just want to know if both the korean and japanese counterparts had the same ending. Thank you!!


r/asiandrama • • 17m ago

Discussion what do you think of the chemistry in Love in Disguise

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• Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 1d ago

Discussion Thai dramas really said one slap deserves an entire staircase fall exactly like Indian dramas

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146 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 13h ago

Discussion 幾十年後,《1公升的眼淚》依然讓我心碎。我寫了一首致敬曲「企鵝」,獻給Aya的精神和SCA社群。😭✨

2 Upvotes

嗨,各位日本電視劇的粉絲,

自從《1公升的眼淚》(1リットルの涙)首播已經好幾年了,但直到今天,它依然是我看過的情感衝擊最深的節目。Aya摔倒在平坦的地面上、她努力在日記裡寫字時雙手失控的場景,以及她最終的堅韌,仍然讓我感動得流下眼淚。

作為一名創作者,我不能讓那份情感消退。我希望將那份深刻的心碎化為美麗的事物。我寫了一首叫做**「企鵝」**的歌,這個名稱來自於SCA患者必須站立以保持平衡的心碎方式。在AI音樂製作的幫助下,我將它打造成一首完整編曲、感人至深的作品。

如果你還記得這部劇,歌詞將立刻在你腦海中勾畫出畫面:
* 「最開始,只是不自覺地顫抖,在滿是傷痕的平坦地面上踉蹌...」(Aya的早期症狀)
* 「害怕那一天,握筆變得困難,字句在紙上無助地徘徊...」(Aya迫切想繼續寫日記的絕望)
* 「從輪椅移動到病床...」(痛苦的最後階段)

這首歌是我對這部戲劇的個人情書,也是對每一位在日常生活中經歷Aya現實的人的致敬。它以強而有力、激昂的合唱結尾,歌頌著愛超越肉體衰退的意義:**「請記住我的本來樣子像隻企鵝,雙腳微微分開只為保持平衡...即使道路顛簸,愛依然勝出。」**

如果你愛《1公升的眼淚》,想要透過音樂重溫那份美麗的、讓人放聲痛哭的情感深度,我邀請你來聽聽。

你可以在YouTube搜尋頻道:**CHL歌詞宇宙**找到完整的歌曲(或搜尋CHL的「企鵝」)。

https://youtu.be/KNjddLpKRZw?si=6IUxnbxwy_478MH0

我很想聽聽你的想法。Aya的故事是否仍然像我一樣與你產生共鳴?讓我們珍惜那些回憶以及她留下的愛。🌸


r/asiandrama • • 13h ago

Recommendation Request I would like to watch some "anti-Japanese" dramas—the kind that you are watching or have watched. Could you please share the titles with me?

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2 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 13h ago

Video Live Long and Prosper | Novel

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r/asiandrama • • 23h ago

Recommendation Request Where can I find kdrama in Hindi dubbed ? Is there any app out there ?

1 Upvotes

Pls help


r/asiandrama • • 1d ago

Resource I built a web app to make flashcards out of drama subtitles!

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone :) please remove if this isn't allowed, but I hope the language learners out there find it useful.

I started watching c-dramas this year (most recently Early Spring) and have been trying to improve my Chinese too.

So I built a web app + chrome extension that creates flashcard sets from the Netflix subtitles! You can export these to other flashcard apps like Quizlet or just use them on the one I've built.

It's free, and designed for Asian language learners, with things like HSK/TOPIK levels built in.

Please enjoy! and let me know if you have any feedback.

Website: popdeck.co

Extension: Popdeck


r/asiandrama • • 1d ago

Discussion Decades later, "1 Litre of Tears" still breaks my heart. I wrote a tribute song, "Penguin", dedicated to Aya's spirit and the SCA community. 😭✨

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1 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 1d ago

Question Why male lead matter so much to you?

1 Upvotes

What I find interesting is how easily audiences accept one very specific romance fantasy: the girl falls first and spends a significant part of the story admiring an impressive male lead.

In A Love So Beautiful, Chen Xiaoxi openly chases Jiang Chen, the handsome, brilliant top student. Even when he is cold or frustrating, fans are quick to contextualize his behavior through his family issues.

In A Little Thing Called First Love, shy, ordinary Xia Miaomiao develops a huge crush on handsome, talented top student Liang Younian and is partly inspired by him to improve herself.

In When I Fly Towards You, Su Zaizai is immediately smitten with Zhang Lurang, the handsome academic star, and openly pursues him. Personally, his attitude in the middle really irritated me, but the basic fantasy itself is still widely accepted.

Obviously these girls have personalities and their own growth. That is not my point.

My point is that girl adores impressive boy is treated as a completely normal romance setup, even when she is much more openly invested in him than he is in her.

Now reverse it.

In The First Jasmine, the female lead gets the much fuller emotional and narrative journey, while the male lead is comparatively so underdeveloped that we know far less about him outside of his relationship with her. His inner life, motivations and independent arc are much thinner, and a huge part of his function is simply loving, supporting and orbiting her.

The drama is simply more interested in her than in him.

And apparently that is where people suddenly become deeply concerned about character development and start calling the drama badly written.

A woman can spend a romance admiring an exceptional man and that is accepted as a perfectly normal fantasy.

But give the woman the bigger personality, bigger journey and more narrative attention while the man is comparatively 2D, pretty, devoted and mostly there to love her, and suddenly he has been “reduced to a love interest.”

Yes.

Sometimes a male character really can just be the love interest.

Sometimes he does not matter as much as the female protagonist.

That is completely okay with me.

Why is it so unacceptable to you?

Edit because people keep saying the youth dramas are apples and oranges: fine, let’s compare costume/fantasy dramas instead.

Look at Joy of Life. Fan Xian gets the mysterious parentage, assassination plots, politics, revenge, his mother’s legacy, mentors, enemies, friendships and the entire sprawling world of the story.

Lin Wan’er is literally his main love interest, and yet she gets nowhere near that amount of narrative development. Even fans and reviewers have complained that she is underused.

Did that make Joy of Life inherently badly written because the female romantic lead was much thinner than the male protagonist? Apparently not.

Or Fighter of the Destiny. Chen Changsheng gets the giant destiny, cultivation and survival journey while Xu Yourong, despite being the female lead, was criticized for being bland and underserved by the script.

Or Douluo Continent. Tang San gets the dead mother mystery, cultivation, sect conflicts, enemies, national stakes and hero’s journey. Xiao Wu is important, but the narrative is overwhelmingly built around him.

That is much closer to what I mean.

Male-centered costume dramas are allowed to give the man the giant world, giant arc and giant psychological journey while his female love interest receives substantially less.

So why does a female-centered costume drama become automatically “badly written” when the male lead is the thinner one?

Yes, The First Jasmine can have other writing problems. I’m not arguing otherwise.

I’m saying “the male lead is underdeveloped compared with the female protagonist” is not, by itself, a writing flaw.

We have accepted that exact narrative hierarchy in reverse plenty of times.

Sometimes the woman gets the whole story.

Sometimes the man really can just be the love interest.


r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Discussion Attempts to take Doctor X off the air over Episode 6's Gwangju plot completely backfired into free promo. Now Kim Ji-won’s SBS drama is sitting at a record 21.3% peak rating.

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5 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 1d ago

Discussion just saw they are doing a signed photo giveaway for Khom Khlang leads (NA only sadly)

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1 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Discussion Wrong Answers Only: Why she (suddenly) fainted?

18 Upvotes

GIF Source: FM Korea


r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Question Help! Song ID request: heard this in a video clip, anyone recognize it?

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28 Upvotes

“Hi everyone, I came across this song in a video clip and haven’t been able to identify it. Could anyone tell me the song title and who sings it?”


r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Recommendation Request Looking for a PG-16 drama

6 Upvotes

I love K and C-dramas, and I’ve seen a few so far that have just slightly more elevated kissing scenes and hotter relationships. Nothing crazy, but along the lines of “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim” and “Nevertheless”.


r/asiandrama • • 3d ago

Discussion Best Korean thriller of all time?

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72 Upvotes

Reddit has discussed The Man From Nowhere a lot, but I just can’t get over how good it is.


r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Question Alguien que busque kdramas

1 Upvotes

Tengo links para ver gratis varias de ellas


r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Discussion Parallels between The Glory and Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied

2 Upvotes

I watched Glory and read the bullied manga and holy shit there's a lot of parallel's I can draw from this.

Moon Dong-Eun and Yuichi Aizawa share a very similar history with critical differences.

Similarites

-Both bullied by a high status group of students, brutally even (both have visible physical scars that stay with them permanently). They both had to drop out of school because of this.

-Both tried to get help, but they didn't help them

-Both spent years plotting revenge against their former bullies

-Both are calculated and cold individuals, you can't tell if they're good or not

-Both are methodolical

-Both utilized the ringleaders cronies to exact their revenge, weather through aligned goals or blackmail

-Both destroy their bullies lives by taking everything away from the, leaving them completely alone, creating the same hell they were once in.

-Both became teachers for the purposes of their plot. They also use that position to get close to the ringleader's daughter.

-Both continue to help others get their revenge on their tormentors.

Differences

-Dong-Eun was not just alone. The people closest to her didn't give a damn about her. Not much is known about Aizawa's family

-Dong-Eun at least had a friend in Kyung Ran before it ended (though she had the school nurse to console her), whereas Aizawa had no friends

-Dong-Eun's homeroom teacher knew the bullying was going on and turned a blind eye, even abusing Dong-Eun himself. Aizawa's homeroom teacher was negligent at worse.

-Dong-Eun comes across as cold and distant, view it necessary to keep her hatred alive. Aizawa was similarly cold, but showed more warmth to Shiori

-Dong-Eun's main journey is getting her revenge on her bullies. Aizawa only focused on his revenge near the end of his story as he mostly kept an eye on Shiori

-Dong-Eun's bullying was arguably more brutal than Aizawa's, which is hard for me to say since they tried hitting aizawa's face with a baseball.

-Dong-Eun's master plan was on systemic destruction of their lifestyles, while Aizawa focused more on gathering evidence and posting personal information online.

-Dong-Eun recruited allies to help her in her revenge, whereas Aizawa went solo

-Dong-Eun is very transparent about getting her revenge right to her bullies face, whereas Aizawa lies about not holding a grudge against his bullies

-Dong-Eun eventually has her own romance with Yojeong, whereas Aizawa never got involved romantically

-Dong-Eun doesn't apologize to Ye-Sol, but told her in advance that she truly deserved to hear it, whereas Aizawa apologized to Shiori the first chance he got.

-Both were willing to do illegal things, however, the nature of it differs. Dong-Eun considers framing people for murder by planting evidence, while Aizawa tampered with technology to install both a monitoring gps and spyware so he can see online activity.

Then there's the bullies, Yeon-Jin Park and Shinji Suzuki

Similarities:

-Both left physical scars on their victims

-Their cronies send fake apologies to their main victims

-Both had flimsy reasons for bullying their victims

-Both come from influential backgrounds (Yeon-Jin comes from wealth, Shinji was a popular class president)

-There's romance within their friend group (Yeon-Jin and Jae-Jun, Satake and Takano)

-Both feel no remorse for their bullying behaviour

-Both work highly respectable jobs and have the perfect family

-Both cheated on their spouses

-Both love their daughters

-In the end, both end up alone and isolated

Differences:

-Yeon-Jin was more sadistic, breaking into Dong-Eun's house and burning her with the curling iron. Shinji has not shown to break into Aizawa's house (but he burned his body with cigarette scars), and he tricked Aizawa into believing he wan gonna pour acid on his face.

-She bullied multiple girls, whereas Shinji only had his eyes on Aizawa.

-Shinji really love his daughter, whereas Yeon-Jin sees her daughter as somewhat an extension of herself

-Yeon-Jin bullies people out of boredom, whereas Shinji made Aizawa's life a living hell over getting a better score than him, preventing him from getting a video game.

-Yeon-Jin's cheating only served to benefit Dong-Eun's plan, whereas Shinji's affair with Yazaki is what started Shiori's bullying and nearly drove his wife to suicide.

-Yeon-Jin does show affection to her husband and doesn't abuse him, whereas Shinji abuses his wife and apologizes afterwords for repeating that pattern

-Their endgames are different. In the Glory, Yeon-Jin and Sa-Ra are in prison (Yeon-Jin now being a bullying victim of inmates), Jae-Jun and Myeon-O are dead, and Hye-Jeong loses her voice. In IIMFIGB, Satake and Takano are still alive but have their reputations ruined, whereas Shinji gets a taste of his own medicine before being killed by one of his present victims.

Now we get to the daughters, Ha Ye-Sol and Suzuki Shiori

Similarities

-Both are daughters of the ringleader, whom love them very much

-Both have their parents bullying victim as their homeroom teacher

-Both are incredibly kind, sweet, and empathetic

-Both disowned their parents after learning of their bullying history, choosing to spend the rest of their lives with the other parent instead.

Differences

-Ye-Sol is mostly a side-character and treated more as a plot device for other characters involved, whereas Shiori gets more spotlight as the deurotaginist.

-Ye-Sol was just in elementary school and lived a normal life. Shiori got subjected to bullying in middle school

-Ye-Sol is a product of an affair between Yeon-Jin and Jae-jun, passing her off as Do Yeongs child. Shiori is the direct biological daughter of Shiho and Shinji Suzuki

-Ye-Sol is color blind, whereas Shiori has perfect vision

-Ye-Sol hasn't developed much to be conscious of outside things, whereas due to her bullying, Shiori is watchful of her surroundings

-Ye-Sol's friend is afraid if she's gonna start bullying her, whereas Shiori's friend, Yumi, eventually joined them.

-Ye-Sol immediately disowned her mother after seeing her bullying past publicly exposed, whereas Shiori was coming to terms of who her father really is before finally disowning him.

-Ye-Sol doesn't understand why her homeroom teacher would apologize to her which is expected. While Shiori was surprised Aizawa apologized to her, she fully knew the context. Hell she was apart of that context.

-Ye-Sol was never really that close to Dong-Eun, only seeing her as her mom's "friend", whereas Shiori was initially skeptical of Aizawa, grew to trust him and have more of a close bond with him to the point discovering her dad bullied him led her to disowning her dad.

Then there's the bully's spouses, Ha Doyeong and Suzuki Shiho.

Similarities

-Both are married to bully characters without knowing their history

-Both have spoken with their spouses victims

-Both were unsettled when they dig deeper about their spouses

-Both got cheated on by their spouse and then eventually divorced them at the end of the series

-Both vowed to take better care of their children after their spouses horrific actions have gone public (this also highlights Do Yeongs character considering he found out the truth about his daughter)

Differences:

-Do Yeong was in a transactional relationship with Yeon Jin from the start, only valuing her for her looks and being a trophy wife. Shiho believed she had a loving relationship with Shinji and did everything she could to make herself and her daughter the perfect wife/mother and daughter (though Shinji believed she baby trapped him)

-Do Yeong is a CEO of his company, whereas Shiho is a house wife.

-Do Yeong was very attentive to his daughter Ye-Sol, whereas Shiho was critical of Shiori despite being a loving mother

-Do Yeong had more personal interactions with Dong-Eun, while Shiho spoke to Aizawa where it was socially expected for a homeroom teacher.

-Shiho is a kind soul who stood her ground against Shinji, while Do Yeong took drastic measures to take care of Jae Jun so he doesn't come near Ye-Sol

Then there's another parallel, but just 2 similarities. Son myeong-o and Choi Hye-Jeong are resentful lackeys of yeon-jin, sa-ra, and jae-jun, betraying them for their own benefit. Takano and Satake also resented Shinji for his success and worked to bring him down.

Eri Yazaki wants Shinji to leave his wife so she could marry him and become Shioris stepmom, whereas Jae-Jun wants Yeon-Jin to divorce Do-Yeong so he could be with her and take his position as Ye-Sol's biological father. Also Jae-Jun is an unrepentant bully, unlike Yazaki, who is firmly against bullying


r/asiandrama • • 3d ago

Recommendation Request K-drama recommendations needed

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5 Upvotes

r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Video AI Drama channel

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r/asiandrama • • 2d ago

Video IRYU MEDICAL DRAMA S3 and S4 pls

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r/asiandrama • • 4d ago

Discussion wait, Meng Ziyi and Li Yunrui are doing a second pairing already?

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43 Upvotes

ngl, I still have Dou Zhao and Song Mo in my head whenever I see these two together lol.

Now they're back in Tigers Sniff the Rose and the setup looks pretty different. She's a princess and he's a scholar with his own agenda, so hopefully this isn't just Blossom 2.0 with different costumes.

I saw the trailer on Tencent Video and the chemistry looks promising so far. I'm always a little nervous about second pairings because sometimes the magic just isn't the same the second time around 😭

but I'm definitely curious. give me a couple who can scheme together AND fall in love.


r/asiandrama • • 3d ago

Question Trying to Find a Movie

2 Upvotes

I'm trying to figure out a movie (or possibly a show? I'm pretty sure it was a move) I watched ages ago. The problem is, I only remember plot points. I've been googling around for years to no avail. I finally had to ask Gemini to help narrow it down, which helped iron out the plot points, but kept detouring to the wrong titles.

  • The Accidental "Murder": The main character is a low-level, rough-around-the-edges gangster who gets into a brutal street fight. He knocks his opponent out completely cold, panics, and flees the city—fully convinced he is now a wanted murderer.
  • Hiding as a Background Extra: To stay off the radar and blend into a crowd, he sneaks onto a massive television studio lot and registers as a nameless background extra.
  • The Stuntmen Fight: During a scene where he is dressed up as a generic thug supposed to get easily beaten up by the show's "hero," his real criminal paranoia takes over. Believing the stuntmen closing in on him are actually real plainclothes police officers or rival mobsters coming to arrest/kill him, he abandons the script and brutally beats up the professional stuntmen for real.
  • The Romantic Lead Rewrite: His terrifying, raw street-fighting intensity blows the director away. Instead of calling security, the director falls in love with his "unprecedented method acting." As the show's ratings explode because of his viral raw energy, the writers continuously rewrite the script on the fly. He gets upgraded from an extra, to a recurring villain, and finally into the lead romantic role directly opposite the show's glamorous female star—leaving him trapped playing a heartthrob on national television while secretly terrified the police will recognize his face.

Movies Google is convinced I'm talking about, but are not it:

  • Change of Gangster (2019)
  • Too Cool To Kill (2022)
  • The Magic Hour (2008)
  • Where is Jung Seung-phil (2009)
  • Shinsukki Blues (2004)
  • A Bold Family (2005)
  • Rough Cut (2008)

Somebody please help, this has been bugging me for years!