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

 

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