Genre confusion: Historical

Historical, also known as Period, actually explains itself. The drama is set about 300 years back, maybe more, maybe a little less. Though I think we don't see historical series often in the US or in Europe, especially not involving castles or fortresses and the wonderful dresses, it's not that unusual in Korea and I think we see it at least more often than in Europe in other Asian countries as well.
In Korea, those dramas are usually referred to as sageuk which.. doesn't mean anything else in fact.

Giving examples? Well, let's just start with Secret Investigation Record which is not a typical sageuk drama (since it's somehow mixed up with the X-Files). We have for other examples Queen Insoo (starring Baek Sung-hyun, guess who'll watch this?), Chuno, Deep Rooted Tree, Yi San, Jumong, Gu Family Book, The Moon That Embraces The Sun, Faith and many many many more. Those are just a few examples, and the list probably could go on forever. Oh, and I almost forgot about Jang Ok Jung, Empress Ki and Jung Yi, Goddess of Fire. As you might notice, there are dozens and even more sageuk dramas.
Why do K-fans watch those dramas? We study history!

As to why that many historical dramas are filmed.. I have no idea. Even after doing some research I still don't really understand the reasons but maybe I will find out about that someday.

Queen Insoo