It’s not only personal preference. Viki policy is that we tone-down swearing in dramas but leave it as is in films. So that’s what I do.
In dramas, many people just resort to punk or jerk, but punk sounds ridiculous in historicals. And I’m trying to find out alternatives, so that it doesn’t become boring. I hate asterisks with a passion. See my alternatives here: English Subbing and Editing Guidelines by irmar - Google Docs.
As in films… I have moderated two films where swearing was an integral part of the plot and character:
Fasten Your Seatbelt - a very interesting satie by the way - and Sunny (Sunny is maybe the very best Korean film I’ve ever watched). In both there is a main character who is (in)famous for swearing all the time. So you cannot touch that.
However, as I learn Korean, I find out that most Korean swearwords are actually much milder than their English equivalents.
The one you find most frequently (kae sekkia) translates into “puppy”, or “son of a dog” (without any implications about the morals of the person’s mother). So if you translate it into SOB it is not correct.
Another one (the one which sounds as “sekki-ah”) is the exact word also lovingly used for “baby”. Why “baby” is an insult among adults? It’s beyond me. But that’s the way it is.
As for “kicchibae” for women, a relatively mild but still rude expression, it used to just mean “the house’s daughter” or just “girl”. (How a word for “girl” came to be an insult tells a lot about the position of women in Korea)
The real equivalents of f* words, starting by sh* in Korean, are seldom or never used in dramas. I’ve only seen them used in films, as for instance in the aforementioned Fasten Your Seatbelt where you can see the Korean equivalent of Gordon Ramsay swearing, and use of such words in every f* sentence!