你受到“韩剧热”的影响了吗？韩国肥皂剧为什么广受世界各地观众的喜爱？英国人喜欢北欧犯罪片的原因又何在？

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It may not be a real illness but K-drama fever is sweeping Asia with as much force as an infectious disease. The latest hit show to come out of South Korea has already claimed over 440 million victims in China alone, where it's being simulcast. Many millions more are glued to their screens across the continent.

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'Descendants of the Sun' is the latest in a long line of TV dramas to come out of Korea which have taken Asia by storm. The usual theme of star-crossed lovers is still very much there but there's a twist which many of its fans say gives this drama a distinctive flavour. It's a military romance which is set in a fictional European country.

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Ms Gao from Beijing said, "The military theme does not usually appear frequently in TV shows so combined with the romantic theme, this is not like other Korean soap operas."

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The female lead, played by Song Hye-kyo, is a surgeon, while her male counterpart, played by Song Joong-ki, is a special forces captain.

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"Unlike most Korean dramas which are about a rich guy who falls in love with a poor, golden-hearted girl, the story feels more like the love story of two evenly-matched adults," says Chen Yuanni, from Beijing.

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But it's not just Asia which has seen a boom in the popularity of foreign-language TV dramas in recent years. Since the Danish crime drama, The Killing, was first aired on the BBC in 2011, the nation has been gripped by so-called Nordic Noir. What surprises some is that it's not only thrillers, such as The Bridge, which have captured the imagination of British viewers. There have also been ratings successes for shows such as Borgen - about coalition politics – and 1864 – a drama about an obscure 19th century war between Denmark and Prussia.

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So why do these international dramas appeal when the cultrual references are so remote from the experience of the viewers? Perhaps the answer lies in this piece of advice for aspiring scriptwriters from the BBC's Writersoom: "Engaging characters are at the heart of all good drama, no matter how mainstream or unusual your idea may be." So if the characters are strong enough, it doesn't matter if they're from Sichuan, Seoul or Sweden.