The King: Eternal Monarch – kdrama Review

This is my second kdrama in six months which would have been an impressive show of control if I had actually been controlling myself. The truth is I just didn’t have the time. After Fight for My Way, I started Pinocchio but left it after two episodes. And now this. The pairing was the most enticing factor. The rest I knew wouldn’t surprise or impress me much, and I was right.

It was the same crap about fate and past selves, though it was approached a bit differently which was a small relief. I think South Koreans would have digestive problems if 8/10 of their dramas don’t show some version of people having doppelgangers. Usually, it’s in the form of past lives, this time it was about the same people living in parallel worlds. Fine, do whatever you like. The rest of us will still gobble it all up like a bunch of lovesick morons.

Despite the fact that I love both of the main leads and their acting skills, they were lacking in chemistry somewhat. I can’t put a finger on it but something was missing there compared with other kdrama couples. Still, there’s Gum Jeun-di and Go Jun-Pyo so I guess this couple wasn’t too bad. What I’m trying to say is, sparks didn’t fly between them and on the rare occasion they managed to do so, the level wasn’t ‘off-the-charts’. I found Jeong Tae-Eul’s falling in love with Lee Gon to be quite sudden.

The show also seemed a lot similar to Goblin. Yes, the heroine is the same but so is the uber-cool-and-powerful male love interest who defies all odds and breaks all barriers in order to find his true love. Blegh. (The crawling-through-time-and-space-to-your-girl trope does wonders for the ovaries and feels but I’m capable of rational thought no matter what my hormones tell me; this trope is overdone). Also, there is one song whose opening notes are similar to the ones in a Goblin song.

The music was okay-ish too. They weren’t super catchy or dreamy, unlike Goblin, for example, whose soundtrack was chock full of spectacular songs.

The show had its moments, but few and far between. I found it unremarkable and not a little disappointing. When the plot fails, as it usually does in kdramas, I put all my faith in the romance which often does not. With this drama, I did the reverse, tried to invest in the love story and when that failed, turned to the story.

As epic as the concept of parallel dimensions is, infuriatingly it’s always set up as a background for a love story, and I HATE that. I’m not sure I followed all the little ‘details’ that the crossing between the worlds entailed. And while I accept my incompetence, I also know that in typical kdrama fashion, this mythology-thingy was sketchy, had holes, and was vague in places.

The love triangle. Yeaaaahhhh, not a fan. Second leads are so, so … wasted. They’re as caring and as good-looking as the main lead, and half the time they are also childhood buddies of the girl. This unrequited-feelings cliche does nothing for the overall plot except perhaps to add some drama. Kang Sin-Jae had a larger role to play in the story and it would have been the same if he was shown to act like Jeong Tae-Eul’s big brother.

The characters are mostly meh. The uncle is evil and that is that. A tall glass of water, but evil. Lee Gon is the typical kdrama alpha male: boring. Kang Sin-jae is his copy, only less important. Jeong Tae-eul is a police officer and that’s about the only thing that makes her different from some heroines. The characters are all boring, and the acting is also boring. I have massive respect and admiration for Woo Do-Hwan after this, though. Not only were his two portrayals polar opposites, their mannerisms, their way of speaking and carrying themselves, but the drama also provided clever opportunities for the actor to switch between roles and it was incredibly fun to watch.

And okay, the bromance was nice. This is one thing kdramas always nail.

Before I started the show, the title led me to believe that the Kingly stuff and the Royal Court whatever would take place in an old era like it happens usually. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Kingdom of Corea was in modern times.

The drama had an underwhelming wrap-up, to say the least. All of that planning, killing people from another world, and getting their doppelgangers to assume their identities, all that hard work! It came to naught too easily. There was no epic showdown. Once Lee Lim was caught, Lee Gon made quick work of him. The last episode was about the couple, which is another kdrama recurring thing. The baddies are defeated in the second last episode and the final episode is just about the boy and the girl. Sigh.

My Rating: 6.5/10

 

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo – Kdrama Review

This was such a feel-good and happy drama! It was cute and stress-free, and super fun but I haven’t come to love it as intensely as I do others.

Things that were too adorable to handle:

• Jung Joon-hyung

• Jung Nan-hee
• Jo Tae-Kwon
• Joon-hyung and Bok-joo’s first kiss
• This:

She’s the main character, but I wasn’t too impressed with Bok-joo. She’s exactly like all other female characters in kdramas. The only thing that distinguishes her is her weightlifting and strength. I like the actress but Bok-joo was kinda boring. She was too loud sometimes, her running, despite being an athelete was horrendous (I’m glad Joon-hyung brought that up one time), her attraction to Jae-yi was almost silly in its sudden intensity, and well, like I said, I can’t pick one thing about her that I thought was genuinely impressive.

Oh, wait. She had nice clothes. Sometimes.

The Families:

• Bok-joo‘s father was as loud as her. I liked him a lot at first but his rough-exterior-soft-interior trait just started rubbing me the wrong way later on.
• I found it funny that the actors who played her father and uncle actually looked alike.
• I took a liking to her samchon instantly. And I hated that things didn’t work out between him and Coach Choi. The pair had potential and they looked good together dammit.
• Joon-hyung‘s family was as adorable as he was. He had a wonderful support system.

The BFFs:

• Okay, but HOW CUTE are the best friends in this drama? I liked Seon-ok but she wasn’t that cute, Nan-hee was. I LOVE THIS POTATO. She had a super-adorable accent in Cinderella and the Four Knights. It was turned down a notch here but I still couldn’t stop awwing over her every single move!

• Then there was Tae-kwon. Joon-hyung was a treasure and got along with every one but his chemistry and friendship with Tae-kwon was especially good. His goofing around, annoying Joon-hyung and saranghaes had me in stitches.

Other Observations:

• I liked the Si-ho had a track of her own and that all of it did not involve getting Joon-hyung back. She had her own problems to deal with, struggles to face, obstacles to overcome. It was nice seeing what the life of an athelete is like from her character’s perspective.
• However, I think that while her part was fleshed out, the writers dropped it midway. It was very sudden, the way her arc ended. All her practice lead to, what? Becoming a coach? And she must have started dating that swimmer dude but that too was never shown. I was disappointed by that.
• Why are Korean girls shown to be such ravenous eaters? All they want to do is eat, when they do get to eat, they don’t slow down. They’re practically stuffing their faces and it gets really uncomfortable sometimes. It’s almost in every show. The guy is astounded by how much the girl eats, the guy buys her food, the girl stuffs her face and it’s all very cute. And repetitive.
• Having said that, it was super entertaining to watch them eat. I know, I’m a hypocrite.
• I wish they had given Seon-ok and Taek-won more time than a single episode to become closer. It would have been so much fun.

Jung Joon-hyung:

Saving the best for last. I believe this guy was the life of the drama? Like, all the happiness and cuteness and innocence in the show came from this one person. How could he be SO ADORABLE? Helpful, kind, respectful, playful, softy, big-hearted, Joon-hyung was all that and more.

His arc was the most interesting and well-created. How he overcame his trauma and slowly, through each episode, took a step towards being better. I liked the progression very much.

 

I also simply love the way he teased Bok-joo. He radiated positivity and was cute 100% of the time. The guy was a treasure and Bok-joo was lucky to have him.

And can I just say, their first kiss? HOW EFFING ADORABLE WAS THAT? Honestly, after everything, all his silent and un-silent support of Bok-joo, all his teasing and jokes and cute antics, this was exactly the kind of first kiss they could have had. I’m positively certain I melted into goo.

My Rating: 7.5/10 (5 points for Joon-hyung alone)

 

Boys Over Flowers – Kdrama Review

I can’t believe this is one of the dramas that started the Korean Wave… Actually, no, I believe it. I’m just trying very hard not to die by cringing at the same time. Like…EW, SERIOUSLY.

Every trope and cliche of every kind, color and culture under the sky was crammed into this one drama that is actually ten years old but seemed about twenty. It was 24 episodes long which was 10 episodes too many. 1 episode = 1 hour, so 10 hours of garbage and cringe and funk ton of EW.

Let me get the pros over with, it’ll be quick:
– it was entertaining.
– The presence/acting of Lee Min-ho, the graceful lady who played his mother and the girl who played his fiance.

Now then.

The plot was a fucking disaster. The theme was simple: boy and girl have to be together. The makers of the drama proceeded to go about it in the most Indian soap-opera fashion possible, I think a lost a few brain cells. They dragged the show by its toes by doing one pointless and stupid thing after another. Love triangles, bitchy and controlling parents, poor parents and financial problems, that random dude who wants revenge because of reasons, unwanted finaces, memory loss, a girl that literally grows out of nowhere to create angst in the last two fucking episodes… I can go on but hopefully, you get my point.

Cringe after cringe after cringe.

Geum Jandi was…like all other kdrama heroines? Really fiesty and brave but displays startling idiocy when the love story begins. Like, listen, okay I get that you cry because he hurt you or because you miss him, frankly, the boys do the same but there are things I can’t ignore. Like, going out in heavy snowfall to look for a necklace you dropped hours ago in a HUGE FUCKING FIELD? And then inexplicably not being able to walk after 5 minutes? I shit you not. Geum Jandi, the girl who kicks and screams in the face of adversity, finds her ‘strength’ draining because snow is falling? She repeatedly drops to her knees and then faints. After which the guy swoops in saves her, takes his shirt off, gives her his extra clothes and they kiss. Nice.

You see, things like these, I can’t swallow. And this show is filled up to its fucking neck with them.

She was shown to be 18 years old, right? And I’ve seen this done in Goblin too, there is a ‘___ years later’ that happens in both dramas and so to show the ‘difference’ between the young protagonist and the somewhat grown up protagonist, the actresses adopted this childish way of speaking. I couldn’t even with this because IT WAS SO ANNOYING. Even 12 year olds don’t talk like that for the love of God.

So we have the members of F4, the group consisting of four high-born boys, Jihu, Jun-pyo, Yi-Jeong and the last guy, a group that lords over the entire Shinhwa school, doling out punishments and shaming on a regular basis which the student seem to accept readily as fate. Until Jandi enters the picture. You know, the super special girl who ‘reforms’ a bunch of guys with her specialness? A few things as quick and as randomly as possible lest I forget:

– no one studied at that stupid school which was touted as the most prestigious in all of Korea. People were shown being bullied, going to and coming from the school and essentially doing all manner of things EXCEPT studying. There wasn’t a single teacher in sight though we did see the principal once.
-it was always ever Jun-pyo being an ass-hole and doing all those horrible things to other students while the other three were actually nice by comparison. Which makes me wonder why didn’t any of them EVER try to stop him? Especially Jihu? They followed him around like loyal dogs, all dolled up with their stupid hair and perfect clothes and it was rather infuriating.– the last guy, whose name is Won-bin I remember now was so useless I can’t fathom why he was even in the show. He and Yi-jeong made me so uncomfortable in the beginning with their stiff acting and fake, lifeless expressions but Yi-jeong had a semblence of an arc with Gaeul and his family problems. Won-bin had none of that. He was useless ornament whose only signifiant contribution is his ‘Yo, my bro’s.

– forget their faces (and GHASTLY hair) for a second, the boys are all identical copies of one another. They have the same issues, unrequited love, neglect from parents or parental figures, misunderstood-ness. Like…what the funk? Oh, Jihu plays the violin, Yi-jeong is interested in pottery, Won-bin does God Knows What and Jun-pyo, well Jun-pyo is a spoiled little bitch who does nothing, but this ‘distinction’ DOES NOT COUNT. THEY WERE ALL THE SAME TO ME.

Since Korean dramas are all about the LURVE, lemme tackle this now. Jandi and Jun-pyo? Not the greatest couple in the world. Yeah they fought all the time but most k-couples do. I could never understand Jun-pyo’s sudden (and by sudden I mean SUDDEN) fascination with Jandi that morphed into possessiveness and intense feelings for her faster than your usual meant-to-be couple. It just happened too fast and too forcefully and combined with no real chemistry/intensity, it was a rather boring couple.

Which brings me to Jihu, the martyr. Haye, bechara. The Second Lead, or as I like to call it, Sacrificial Lamb, was loved for 5 episodes and spent the next 20 loving the girl back and politely being pushed into the friend-zone. If there was ever a guy who deserved some love, it was Jihu. DESPITE his horrendous hair. She called him her soulmate near the end. RIGHT.

Again this made no sense? Jihu was in love with this hot chick who was a childhood friend, Jandi was in love with Jihu because he was nice to her when no one was and Jun-pyo was in love with Jandi because the fuck should I know. The way Jihu stopped loving his chick and Jandi stopped loving Jihu happened out of nowhere, without any apparent reason and it made me FURIOUS. They had to don their proper relationship hats in the love-triangle and for that their tracks were changed so tactlessly I can’t even.

The parents. In this show, they were either witless beyond repair, like Jandi’s (da fuq even was their deal?) or needlessly cruel like Jun-pyo’s mother or Yi-jeong’s father. Or you know, they were dead, like Jihu’s.

I want to take a special paragraph to say that while the character itself deserved a nice, long thwacking in the middle of a crowded street, the actress who played Jun-pyo’s mother was stunning. She was classy and graceful and gorgeous and had the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard. I think I fell in love.

And I want to stop right here. I’ve said enough and I would like to move on.

4/10

The Legend of the Blue Sea – Kdrama Review

This post is about a month late. I believe I finished watching this drama in the last week of April.

This was my first Lee Min-ho drama and second Jun Ji-hyun drama. A lot of actors from her other show My Love From Another Star were in it as well and that was cool to see.

I actually really enjoyed this. It was funny, the characters were fresh, Jun Ji-hyun was her usual quirky self, I finally understood why people love Lee Min-ho so much and even though it prompted several eye rolls, they were more out of fondness than irritation.

I absolutely loved all the underwater scenes! They were so well acted. I do, however, think that the mermaid, uh, costume should not have looked like a costume. Like, the texture of her tail extended to her chest and it was pretty clear that she had put on a costume. It wasn’t slick against her skin, it wasn’t scale-y and the skin beneath the bodice showed. So, yeah, while it was pretty, it wasn’t ‘believable’.

I’m currently on another dimension called ‘tired with the kdrama past lives and soul mates cliche’. What you are on this dimension is basically well and truly done with seeing this concept pop up in every other kdrama. So tired that you’ve stopped giving a shit.

Or so you think.

At least, on this show, they did it slightly differently?

What they showed was, every single character from the past, or at least 90% of them, were reborn into the present in essentially the same roles as their past lives. Usually you only see the two leads being reborn while the people around them change? But here, as the drama goes on you see all characters being tied to the leads and their past lives. I thought that was neat.

I checked out the reviews after I watched it and I was shocked to know that the drama was criticized for lack of chemistry between characters and a loose plot, both things I disagree with. The chemistry between the two characters was insanely good and I thought the plot (except for that trite past lives thing) was pretty well rounded up.

My views are reinforced by remembering the fact that I watched this on the heels of The Bride of Habaek and bro, if you want to criticize something for its terrible, terrible plot and horrible, horrible chemistry, it’s this one. This show was so bad I couldn’t believe what I had just watched. Compared to that, I’d say Legend of the Blue Sea was downright marvelous.

The actor who played the hacker kid, I just… my brain shuts down trying to understand how anyone can be so EFFING CUTE.

Then there was the eldest of the trio. This guy confused me a lot. I liked him and then I doubted him, there was a lot of back and forth. But he was an enjoyable presence.

The villain, was one of the three adorable dads from Reply 1988 and it was hard for me to hate him at first but he was so good I couldn’t help it.

The mermaid song was so incredibly soothing and beautiful but they only played it like TWICE in the whole show? WAE WAE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAE??!!!

The show did have a classic ‘and they lived happily ever after’ ending. However, I’ve begun to dislike the way they make it dramatic right before the ending. As far as I was concerned, Shim-chong did not need to wipe the memories of every single person she’d ever met if she was going to go back to the sea. And even that didn’t make any sense. Or rather it did but it was obvious how weak of an excuse and plot device it was.

Like you just spent a staggering amount of time meeting these people and building these relationships, all to be just erased? It’s like I noted in You Who Came From the Stars, what the story seemed to be saying that while all of these people were nice and all, ultimately they don’t matter, only the two lovers do.

The scene-stealer moments were when Lee Min-ho spoke English. Especially, his discursting sheyth. Priceless.

I also loooooooooooooooooved the intros! The one where Joon-jae’s sitting on the beach and a mermaid swims in the sky and the other one where the city is beneath the sea and you see fish swimming near the skyscrapers. Oh and that one in the Joseon era where he’s in a small boat with a dope lantern reaching for her hand in the water. The visuals were great.

My Rating: 8/10

Scarlet Heart: Ryeo – Kdrama Review

I was apprehensive at the idea of watching this, the reason being that the show didn’t do so great despite having a fan following. Once you read something like that it imprints a certain image in your mind. I thought the show would be bad. That wasn’t the case, for the most part.

The show had an ensemble cast, there were eight princes, that’s eight good-looking Korean dudes in one show, a lot of times together in the same scene. Overwhelming? Yeah, you could say that. There were several characters besides and as far as the acting is concerned, the show was excellent.

I began enjoying it immediately and continued enjoying it till the end. It was sweet and cute and light-hearted at the beginning but  steadily grew darker and full of despair. Actually, this is where things went a bit haywire. The first half was incredible, so was the second last quarter, though less so. The final quarter was insane and there were so many things that either didn’t make any sense or made everything seem rushed and ill-conceived.

There were four love interests and despite being ridiculous, it didn’t surprise me. As we all know: more guys in the show = increase in the number of romantic partners. Two were obvious and made sense, the other two I could have done without. Especially Ji-soo’s 14th prince. I, somehow, haven’t warmed up to his acting, though he is good, and I never much cared for his character. One of the most surprising parts of the show was Hae Soo’s marriage to him. I can think of one other who deserved to have her by his side but never him.

The show’s soundtrack was impressive. All of the tracks bar one or two were wonderful.

There’s a lot of bloodshed and killing and dying and it was absolutely heart-wrenching.

One day I will stop scoffing at the concept of ‘multiple lives’ Korean dramas are so fond of, but this is not that day. They’re plucked out of their ordinary lives and into their past selves and just as unceremoniously dumped back or either the guy or the girl is shown to love all lives of the same person through time. So, GAH is what I’m saying. The former scenario happened in this show and it was lame beyond reason and imagining. It was particularly disappointing because of the seemingly open-ending. Are we supposed to accept that?

And what of that homeless guy? Who turned from being homeless to a museum tour-guide within the same lifetime. (I was super-stoked to see the Reply 1988 dads together, though.)

Okay, so the love triangle. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was THE most worth-investing love-triangle in the history of weird romantic shapes. The second lead is normally a great guy but he’s out-shined by the main lead even by a hair’s breadth and the heroine (and the viewer alike) aren’t that interested though they agree that he is likable.

This wasn’t the case here.

Not only did I love Wook as much, if not more, than So, he and Soo were a serious thing and the fact that it lasted for 10 episodes had me screaming with joy. Then the inevitable happened. He was ‘out-shined’ and out maneuvered and literally everything went bad for the poor guy. That made me pissed because that was a giant waste and all because he wasn’t the main lead. The least that could’ve happened was Soo marrying Wook and not Jung because DAMMIT WHY?

So and Wook’s love story was tragic and sweet and beautiful and while I knew what would happen, I still hoped it wouldn’t. Ah.

Wang So was probably my favorite character in terms of how real he seemed. His struggle to be accepted by his mother, his pain at being considered cursed and a monster, his desire to be loved, all made him extremely root-worthy and lovable. If only the creators of the show hadn’t completely ruined the ending, I mightn’t have mourned how they misused Wook in favor of So. (I don’t remember the name of the actor who plays So but the guy’s face has some resemblance to a lion’s and it’s GORGEOUS)

Then there was the incest. YUCK but I guess that’s what people did back then.

And wtf was that even with Baek Ah and Woo Hee? Okay, not him but her alone. Her suicide made NO sense to me, like AT ALL. The show became so muddled and confusing at the end.

Still, it was mostly impressive and entertaining and it did give me a ton of feels so…

My Rating: 7/10

Full House – Kdrama Review

I had a blast watching this. It wasn’t completely devoid of faults I admit but it was a thoroughly enjoyable show. Interestingly enough, one of my absolute favorite Urdu shows of all time, Yeh Raha Dil, which aired last year, is actually a remake of this korean drama. I had read people compare the two but back then I wasn’t interested in watching kdramas.

Song Hye-kyo and Rain were amazing. They were funny and charming and able to carry their characters perfectly. I liked the supporting cast as well save for two people. They must have done their job well because I HATE THEIR STUPID GUTS.

The plot revolves around Han Ji-eun, whose two best friends send her on a trip to Japan while they sell her house behind her back to settle their debts. On her trip she meets Lee Young-jae, a famous actor and on her return she realizes that her house has been bought by him. The two decide to live together in the house in an agreement that is mutually beneficial and the rest is not incredibly hard to predict.

The similarities between the original and the Urdu remake were few which was a good thing I guess. We didn’t copy too much, just the best-friends-house-selling bit.

• The main characters are both aspiring writers.
• The ‘full houses’ in both shows were so lovely!
• The male love interest in YRD is a restless soul who can’t decide on what to do with his life while Young-jae is an established actor.
• Zaki has quite a sweet relationship with his family, his father in particular. In fact, it was the highlight of the drama. Young-jae’s relationship with his father is strained and because of that he rarely visits his family.
• Han Ji-eun’s family is dead while Hayat’s father still lives and she has a step sister too.
• There are additional love interests in both dramas but obviously they are different ones. I found Kang Hye-won to be a pretty decently written character. The angst her arc in the story caused was compelling. Nida in YRD was complex and layered as well.
• I did not expect the pair to get married so quickly here and without much ceremony too. But it was certainly entertaining to see the two of them living together in the same house, as a couple no less while barely tolerating each other’s presence. The bickering was glorious. I wish Hayat and Zaki had more time together like this.

• I loved that all four characters suffered heart breaks. They were more acute in Full House than YRD.
• In YRD, the friends were never seen again until the very end and even then only the guy friend came back and apologized. I was mad at that then because Hayat conceded too easily but it was way better than what happened in this drama. Here both of them were a constant, annoying presence.

There are two types of assholes. The ones you never want to see again and the ones that make you so angry you want to rip them limb from limb, pickle those limbs and then feed that shit to them. Han Ji-eun’s ‘friends’ were that particular breed of asshole. In the beginning when they had sent Han Ji-eun off, they seemed sorry and kept saying so and I was quite pleased at that since I didn’t get that in YRD. But those shits not only did not properly apologize to her when she came back, they ignored her and downright imposed themselves on her.

Also, the girl friend was supposed to be pregnant from the very start but her belly refused to show throughout the WHOLE SHOW. Months and months must have passed but her stomach remained flat as a pancake. I hated her more for it.

I also got tired of the repetitiveness in the last quarter of the drama. There was a lot of back and forth and it was agonizing and annoying. Han Ji-eun was home waiting but Young-jae was out, then Young-jae was home waiting while she was out. One was angry at another, they made up and then it repeated with their roles reversed.

The tracks that played in the drama were all catchy and nice to the ears.

Full House had quirks. It was fun, family-friendly and heart-warming. I give it a 8/10.

Moon Embracing the Sun – Kdrama Review

One of the two good things I can say about this drama is that it was so mediocre, I didn’t even have a hangover after I binged it. No emotional scarring? YASS! It gave me zero feels, made me incredibly mad and was stupid and predictable often times. The only saving grace was the ray of sunshine that is Kim Soo-hyun, who is the second good thing about this drama. Really, I can’t imagine how unbearable this show would have been if he wasn’t in it.

It’s about a Crown Prince that falls in love with a nobleman’s daughter when they are 15 and 13 respectively but she is killed by the machinations of the court ministers. Years later, the prince founds her alive but she’s posing as a shaman so they struggle to bring the truth out while trying to keep the people around them safe.

I’m surprised I didn’t use the word ‘shit’ 10 times in that summary because lemme tell you something: this drama is filled with some seriously, stupendously stupid shit.

It’s lame in its handling of big revelations and showdowns and the plot is filled with superstitious garbage that I couldn’t digest because it seemed to have no firmness to it. I’m referring to the presence of existence in the story line. They legit wove idiotic traditions and curses out of thin air and the royals lapped it up without a second thought. Some of the magic and spells we saw (cringe) and the rest was just a bunch of witless people inventing things that never came to pass. The ‘talisman to absorb bad fortune’ shit, for instance. GAH.

Also, the fact that they were 15 and THIRTEEN when they fell  in true love disturbs me as much as kids that age being all wise and spouting philosophy. But that kinda thing was probably true in olden times so we’ll just look past this. Moreover, the dude refrained from touching another woman when he had so many at his disposal even though he thought her dead was super duper sweet.

Another thing I noticed was the way the drama was shot. Cinematography?  I’m not an expert on this so just, er, be kind, in your thoughts or whatever. So what I noticed is that the shots were documentary-like? They were wide and there was no playfulness and theatrics or beauty to them. Like I could tell that this show was years old. This is a 2012 drama and I compared it to Love in the Moonlight another period piece that aired in 2016. The difference is remarkable and at first it was kiiiiinda off-putting.

The plot is un-special and I say that with extreme disapproval. Throw in a frown for good measure.

• a) it’s predictable to the beat
• b) there’s barely any levity
• c) it’s the story of yet another king being screwed over by his ministers while he struggles with his love life in the background.

It’s entirely due to Kim Soo-hyun’s strong performance and presence that the show is bearable. He literally carries the whole show on this shoulders and does a damn good job of it. His king is wise, decisive, strong and fierce and he pulls it all off with such finesse. Particularly the crying. Is it just me or that Korean actors are really good at crying? They cry at command and they also do it off-screen. It’s impressive and kinda adorable.

I genuinely wasn’t impressed by any character other than Lee Hwon, the king, played by Kim Soo-hyun. Some of them I liked, but in a passive, ‘I-don’t-really-care’ sort of way. I felt bad for the prince and the queen, both of whom had tragic arcs but that was it. The actress who plays the head shaman in beautiful and I liked her presence. The absolute worst character, ironically, was Yeon-woo, our heroine. Thanks to the actress who played her adult version.

Her bland acting and placid expressions were infuriating. Might have been a statue for all the emotion she showed. She isn’t a bad actor, I can tell, but her portrayal is awful. Her male co-star did all the heavy lifting when they were in scenes together, as the poor fellow did throughout the show. Their chemistry could have been so much more if yeon-woo wasn’t a total doormat. Not only did she not show any emotion, her lines were terrible too. ‘I only wish to see you healthy’, ‘if I’m close to his majesty I want nothing more’, lines like that… The woman had no personality, no spunk. The typical crying/sacrificing type who is HUGE eye-roll.

The second worst person with bland expressions was the king’s personal bodyguard, Woon. The first time I saw him I remembered Kim Byung-yeon from Love in the Mooonlight. Ain’t no one like you, Byung-yeona! He was stone faced too but his stoic-ness had nuance and character. Not the brick-faced rigidity of this guy.

There are shows that you like, there are those you do not and then there are some you can watch to keep yourself occupied without having to emotionally invest and just forget it afterwards. I guess this show is that one.

My Rating: 6/10

 

Goblin: The Great and Lonely God – Kdrama Review

This was my third K-drama. Yes, I’ll keep on numbering them until I get to 100 or something.

Love in the Moonlight was a really good show. It was sweet and funny and made me cry. I gave myself 4 days to get over it. Then I started watching Goblin. It took another 4 days for me to actually shake off the hangover and start enjoying Goblin. I believe it was some of that plus the fact that the first few episodes of Goblin just weren’t that good which made it difficult for me to like this show. Like it I did, eventually. It grew on me but slowly, hesitantly.

I watched this drama in four days. The first quarter was intriguing and exciting in a way a new show always is. You’re up for discovering the tone, the characters, the setting and the story. So these first 4 episodes were okay.

The next 5 or so episodes were definitely not that great. I will admit that on that particular day I was not in a happy state of mind so that might have affected how I felt? But it also could have been that because I wasn’t happy it made me critical in a way I normally would not have been. In any case, this 2/4 part was really off-putting and I even noncommittally considered abandoning it.

The problem that was staring me in the face in these episodes was the humor. It may have improved/grown on me later on but at the beginning it was super cringy and awkward. It was making me uncomfortable because the characters cracking jokes were supposed to be the serious and silent types. I felt that at that point of time their personalities should have been established more and then the humor should have been added. Subtle humor, not the loud and embarrassing display that we got.

The last half had me invested, finally. I began to enjoy it considerably more. Another thing which I noticed, or ‘let myself’ notice, much later was the music. The soundtrack is amazing, especially, what I believe is, the main theme of the show. It was this spunky mix (I have very little knowledge of musical instruments so bear with me) that was part electric guitar and part (the only way I can identify it) Dracula-music. I know I’m musically illiterate but I tried.

That’s the only thing that keeps coming to my mind whenever I think of this theme. You know that eerie keening that is often theme to Dracula or vampire based movies or shows? Beauty and the Beast 2 had this evil piano who was breaking up the castle at one point and he sounded like that? So maybe it’s a piano? I don’t know I’m just going to stop here. Point is, I loved that theme.

The mythology in this show is really shady. First the how and why of Kim Shin becoming a Goblin (he killed a lot of people so he was made immortal with a sword stuck in his chest as punishment even though he was a good guy and was just protecting his country? And he was made ‘goblin’ because, oh I don’t know, he wished really hard while he was dying or something? So it was a combination of his wishing and him being punished that he was made a dokkaebi? Yeah. I’m still confused) then this lady in red being a deity, as well as another ‘main’ male one, then why specifically there needed to be a ‘bride’ in all of this at all.

It was all very specific and narrowed out, to be honest.

I did not like the actor when I first saw him as a warrior fighting. He has an unconventional face. But like everything I came to like him a great deal. It’s funny how vastly different the people in this show look once they change their hair. Kim Shin without the mane is more handsome than Kim Shin with the mane. Same with the Grim Reaper. It was astounding how much of a difference it made when his hair was pulled back from his forehead. It was like looking at two different people.

The ending left things very open. Yes, it was all perfectly emotional and the makers achieved whatever they were hoping for, but the question is, now what? Kim Shin obviously didn’t turn into ashes and he’s still very much immortal while Eun Tak is very much not. She has two rebirths left, the sword is out so now what? She lives all three of her lives with her husband until she grows old and dies?

The bromance was really nice. Kdramas truly know how to do them right. First Yoo Si Jin and Seo Dae Yeoung from Descendants, then Lee Young and Kim Byung Yeon from Moonlight and now the Goblin and the Grim Reaper.

I loved how Kim Shin just stared at Eun Tak and calmly listened to her rants. This side of his was more endearing than the cringy jokster he sometimes became. Also, he cries beautifully.

The other pairing, that of the Reaper and Goblin’s sister was intense and sweet as well. They had to cry a lot, didn’t they? The nephew and the red lady were two people who always brightened up the scene whenever they were in one.

It was a good one. I give it 7/10.

Descendants of the Sun – My First K-Drama Ever!

I’m not sure when exactly Korean media started getting popular but I got a whiff of it in 2014 when I was reading Nemrah Ahmed’s Naml and one of the main characters in it was obsessed with K-pop and K-dramas. I was like, heh, that’s a thing. And then I ignored it. A month or so ago I got to write this small article on K-fashion and while reading about it I came across this term  ‘Hallyu Wave’ or ‘Korean Wave’ that basically refers to the rise in popularity of Korean entertainment industry.

That must have planted a seed because a couple of days ago while I was reading a friend’s post on Instagram about a Korean drama that’s supposed to come out, I suddenly came to the decision that I was going to watch a K-drama, that it was time, dammit.

I chose Descendants of the Sun because that’s the name I’ve heard more than a few times for the past 4 or so years. I have zero knowledge about their dramas and films and actors and actresses so this drama was kind of an introduction.

It was an impressive and helluva delightful one.

It’s a love story of a soldier and a doctor and while it has romance and comedy it is often dramatic and serious and sometimes painful and has a lot of cool action.

• The first thing for me was to get used to their language and just the way that they talk. It was strange and funny, is still very strange and funny but really cute and amusing to listen to. I’ve grown to recognize like, three words total but that initial strangeness of hearing a new language has worn off. I love the noises they make when they stretch a word out, idk how to explain it but yeah, I’m all for it.

Last year I watched the entire first season of Kosem, which is a Turkish show, and has two hour long episodes. I think it had a total of 20+ episodes? I watched the first couple of them with subtitles and then when I couldn’t find subtitles for the rest I watched them in Turkish and because the episodes were so long I grew somewhat familiar with the language and could watch whole episodes without reading a summary. I’m hoping I’ll  be able to do that with Korean too.

Okay but their names! Uff! It took me till the last episode to finally figure out what each of them were called and that they use their surnames first. Which is Weird.

• Second, these people are all FLAWLESS. From the men to the women, they all look like they’re in their twenties or something. WHY GOD, WHYYYYY. I like men with a little hair on their faces but these dudes were an entirely different breed. I probably have more facial hair than they do. I checked all the actors’ ages and while some did look their age (the main lead for example, he has a baby-ish face but he did look 30) most of them did NOT.

• I loved the story and all the twists and turns and cliffhangers. It’s dramatic all right. From earthquakes and epidemics to kidnappings and rescue operations, it had everything. It made me cry and lot and giggle a lot and laugh a lot. I cannot control myself when I see a character cry, tear ducts fail me. It was so emotional at times!

• I particularly enjoyed the action in this drama. It was clean and efficient and executed really well. It was fun.
• There were several theme songs, some chirpy and happy and a few action-appropriate, some sad and sweet. I loved all of them. ALL OF THEM. Especially the music that played with Seo Dae Yeoung and Yoon Myeong Ju. Those two were in pain all the time so their music was very romantic and soulful. The main theme ‘I Love You’ was nice too.
• I didn’t have any expectations really since I was going into this blind and uncaring, but these actors are phenomenal. I was and still am super impressed by all the performances. The two leads (they’re both called Song and not because they’re married in real life), the guy who played Seo Dae Yeoung (he deserves a special mention because I LOVED this dude. His seriousness, deadpan humor, camaraderie with the male lead, his romantic relationship, just all of him was perfect), the girl who played Myeong Ju (I think she made a cry the most, she was so good!), the company of doctors, the soldiers, the guy who played David Argus, I tell you all of them were AMAZING.
• One of the first things I heard and understood in the drama was two words: Harry Potter. LOL. Harry Potter was someone’s call sign in the hero’s team and it took me a while to figure that out but it was nice hearing the name of my favorite thing on the planet.
• The drama is nice and clean, very family-friendly. I was surprised by this but I obviously appreciated it. The characters mostly hugged and very rarely kissed and it was just too cute to handle.

Characters and Relationships:

There were four main characters and six main ships.

1. Yoo Si Jin and Kang Mo Yeon: The lead pair.

2. Seo Dae Yeong and Yoon Myeong Ju: The second male and female leads.

3. Yoo Si Jin and Seo Dae Yeong: The two best friends and their bromance.

I loved the guys just a little bit more than the gals. Yoo Si Jin was adorable and not only because he was hairless baby angel.

He had a strong sense of duty and loyalty to his country and it showed throughout the drama, I loved that about him. Seo Dae Yeoung was adorable for a different reason. He was serious and stiff and intense most of the times so when he cracked jokes they were hysterical in all their deadpan glory.

The first ship was obviously the main one but if I look at it realistically the second one was more FEELS-inducing because the pair was in pain all the time and trying to get back to each other,

and the third ship, the platonic friendship was the sweetest because the two men had excellent chemistry with each other and their bond was powerful.

What I loved about Mo Yeon was that she took her time accepting Si Jin’s love. She contemplated it from every angle, thought about it for a long time and then said yes. There were times when I was like HUG HIM ALREADY DAMMIT because he was being heart-shatteringly cute but she held back and didn’t immediately fall into his arms. I liked that a lot.

Favorite Moments:

Argh, there are so many!

• When the two couples went on a double date! The girls’ and Si Jin’s reactions when Dae Yeoung tells his phone story were priceless.

• When the two soldiers get back from Urk and get hammered. THEY WERE SO CUTE. Especially Dae Yeoung’s ‘salute’ and drinking from Si Jin’s ladle killed me I laughed so hard.

• The ‘your ideal blood type’ scene. She made him laugh and it was adorable.

• The two men receiving a package from their past flings and their current girlfriends confronting them about it. EHEHE.

• This reunion scene. LOL. ‘I don’t need you, I’m going to become a nun.’

• The soldiers put on face masks to prepare themselves to go home and snoopy smacks his face by way of a massage.

• Every time these two were in a scene.

• THIS. OH MY GOD, THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I have rewatched this a gazillion times since and it never gets old.

• The two prepare chicken soup for their girlfriends and get mock-mad when they start babbling about a guy they both dated.

• The one in the hospital when Mo Yeon comes to check on Si Jin but he’s just come back from another small mission and is trying to change into his hospital trousers before she comes. Dae Yeoung’s reactions were priceless.

This show was really, really cute and I’m happy I got to watch it. Now, excuse me while I board the K-drama train.