imaginary history but still tugs at yr heartstrings

I cried tears of happiness at the ending -- one through-line from pansori to kdrama! The drums, some poetry, flashbacks, magical events, a family reunites and right on cue, we weep!

A great watch, imaginary history of course with a nice back-and-forth between the "invention" of the second great pansori tale, the Simcheongga, which involves a dragon-king under the sea and a noble self-sacrificing maiden with a blind father, and the plot of this movie, involving a blind daughter, a mother kidnapped to be used as slave labor and a poet-singer father. Not to mention a gosu drummer, a very shabby monk, an aristocrat in disguise as a drunk and many good pansori village audiences. Eolsigu! (yippee!) Jalhanda! (well done!)

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famous cult show, Hong sisters' 5th

Recommended for sheer joy. 2009, 16 eps at 1hr ea. The Hong sisters 5th show, not a big hit on local tv, blew up in popularity on contemporaneous Japanese tv and thereafter online. It is has been a cult show for years. Smooth as silk kdrama, laughter and tears regularly provided. Essentially a teen love story about a teen band, mostly situated in their "dorm", an utter pop 60's fantasy piece of architecture, but all organic curves (what is this building??).

First hook-- a separated-twin story and a twin-masquerade story (in the West, 12th Night and The Menaechmi likewise floated to the frothy top of their respective cultural scenes).)

The opening scenes have a mediterranean feel, is it the "technicoloring", the nun costumes , the naked marble statues or the scooter jokes? Thereafter the show is about the emotional interactions of a small cast. So deceptively simple.

Second hook -- missing parents and other relatives provide the nec. structural mystery, and they and the antagonists swoop in and out of the 2 main sets as if they are making stage entrances.

In an HS script, look for what the HS do better, those places where their absolute bravura breaks through; not essentially in original plots or characters , but in how well they do them.

1. In this production, the use of what is essentially a chorus in ancient classical comedy/tragedy is wonderful. The fangirls who camp outside the company (afterschool?) wail and beat their breasts astoundingly and comment upon the action in silly ways. In the countryside visit the three old women are incredible, not only does their performance have perfect comic rhythm, but HS weaves in references to trot singers and specialized tv shows where the other half of Korea gets its impressions of entertainment. A quick meta to the history of music in SK, in an idol drama!!!

2. The recognition-of-the-lovers section comes a little later than expected, but when it does the carefully built-up system of metaphors and puns explodes as the characters deploy them in the service of conversations practically in code. The light of the "star" (and awfully, the moon as reflector of it/the sun) versus the light of the sun which blots out the recognition of others, darkness and light, hiding and paying attention, seeing and not seeing, showing and not showing. The ML has night-blindness, oh yes he does. The pleasure of the final tensions being resolved in poetic language is so intensely the HS' territory.

it is not useful to trace influence in a hectic renaissance time like this one where dramas run only for 2 months, performers and writers work for cheap for companies which have state monies to spend, and where many of the behind the scenes creatives have one of the excellent university degrees in theatre and film available in SK. The consequence of the hurly-burly is that any successful show is instantly imitated piecemeal by competitors looking for that secret sauce. Only those on the scene have any memories of what went into that creative process.

You're Beautiful is a show on par with Hwayugi in characters who are almost instantly recognizable after just the 1st episode. I loved Lee Hong Ki there as the unforgettable PK (and Lee se Young as his zombie friend Richie!) and I love him here as Jeremy, a character who reflects a prototype love-is-love theme. Jang Geun Suk rises from the ashes of HGD as a Heathcliff-ian ML. Yonghwa of the band cnblue is the 2ml in semi-love triangle!

Park Shin Hye is one of those heroic kdrama actresses who started working at the age of 13 and is still going strong 33 dramas later. Although her trippy little dove-of-christ characterization made my teeth grind, I can believe that that sort of naivete existed somewhere before my own era--nowadays most nuns and novitiates after Vatican II are amazingly truehearted, practical and energetic persons. And of course, PSH's performance is a perfect, absolutely perfect, foil to the comedy (the term 'straight man' in reference to comic pairs is now unusable or I would use it).

Here is a question, are the Hong sisters basically insanely lucky in casting and directors so that their intelligent, flippant and tightly constructed scripts are thus given that HS stratospheric oomph?

first posted aug 12th, 2024 on Viki

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the theme of art and artists is fun to watch.

8 episodes in I recommend this. The actors are so good and sooo young.

All of them bear watching in the future, I would advise following them now. It is hard to be outstanding in this cast, all are excellent and charmingly good-looking but I would pick out Zhang Xuan Wu (21) for sheer beauty and outstanding charisma, and Yao Xing Hao for acting skills beyond his years (26).

The plot makes sense and has a clear clean structure. As always the theme of art and artists is fun to watch. As life becomes homogenized and Disneyfied, creativity, coming-of-age stories, individuality and bravery continue to be psychologically important.

As always BL is ahead of the international pack in new and trending themes and structures. Due to its brilliant and faithful audience (us, a'course!), creators can be experimental on shoestring budgets. More power to them.

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Combo hero-coming-of-age, wuxia, espionage and imperial intrigue.

Good watch. Prob'ly shot in 2018/9, 46 episodes -- only Part One of story! Combo hero-coming-of-age, wuxia, espionage and imperial intrigue. Many truly talented actors as supporting characters creates central focus on balancing nodes of power. The hero Zhang Ruo Yun/Fan Xian has excellent very masculine charisma and utter fidelity to his beloved.

A giant spy agency operating in the bowels of brutalist concrete architecture is balanced by the brilliant Chen Dao Ming as Dad the emperor puttering around with archery in slouchy white robes in his man-cave study, controlling his fractious family and state from afar. Fan Xian's story ties together this portion like the red string of fate.

Out of the city next, the fights get better (to my ignorant eye?) and the hero matures, fighting off various ladies' romantic overtures, and physical dangers, with aplomb, acting as ambassador to a northern country. Lots of cool 9th level masters and very dangerous enemies, and Fan Xian's faction starts to take shape.

To me the feminine rulers he grapples with in a northern enemy country seem like a cynical nod to then-fashion by the author or director (I am watching this during pride month which makes it feel particularly insulting) -- the northern emperor, obviously a woman, unacknowleged by plot (weird), is sismancing a great female martial artist, and then later suddenly one of the more politically ambiguous characters back home develops a bromancy henchman.

first posted July 2024 on Viki

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Big budget, lushly scored, epic romance all 10star.

17 episodes at 1 hr each puts this in classic weekend kdrama territory. Big budget, lushly scored, epic romance all 10star. The script is at least a 12. Unique use of the reincarnation theme. Normally Re-I is played for laughs or to solve a mystery. Here it is used as a frame for healing trauma -- the romantic tragic deaths of a pair of lovers from opposing families scars their communities, families and their hastily reincarnated selves who must work thru negative and positive attachment in order to live freely in their new present reincarnations. Great stuff. I count three amazing uses of this trope... 1. Inter-generational sorrow.. The original lovers (In and Korn: IK) suffered in the homophobic 90's and in the 21st C their reincarnations (Pharm and Dean: PD) in a BL friendly Bangkok struggle to believe in the utopian tolerance surrounding them. Y'all know what I mean, for ex. in the US weeping at gay weddings bec past fears rise in the throat. 2. IK vowed to find each other after death, so PD falls in love but they each live a life plagued with disturbing flashbacks and dreams. We learn more about IK as these increase in frequency, punctuating the narrative of the present love story with the unfolding of the original one. The astounding result is that IK and PD slowly become more distinct from each other, not less. PD cannot trust until they work thru the pain of the IK life, and this also works to support some of the ways in which Pharm, whose IK-suffering was extreme, needs to move slowly in love. 3. the families of IK were riven by the their deaths; PD reincarnated back into each others' families but we do not realize how damaged the families actually were until PD begins to reach out to introduce their loves..missing family members, changed names...so Re-I supports the reintegration motif usual at the end of longer dramas.
first posted on Viki spring 2024

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very literary depiction of powerful trust and desire

Cinematic gem. Jdrama BL. I love this show beyond reason. A tight focus on the interactions of two characters, like a stage play rather than a drama, but with sex as part of the character arc. Total concentration on a domestic relationship partially closeted in a real world setting -- subtle and super interesting . Great, great directing by the three women who also wrote the script. A good and very literary depiction of powerful trust and desire.
The classic "unreliable narrator" is the hook which draws us into the story, rooting for Yoh and fearing that he is being abused, a feeling which slowly slips away as we realize this long relationship is actually going through a quiet adjustment matching each other's needs as they change.
Non-verbal communication is important in this story. I advise taking the subtitles loosely as a key to meaning and to depend more on other meaning clues: body language, facial expressions and delivery, the cinematic frame of the dialogue's dramatic rhythmn, and the visual clues of the camera for emotion, especially color and light. 8eps at 25 mins ea.

first posted on Viki Dec 21st 2023

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This first kiss is both wonderful and hilarious

Thank you to Director Lim Hyun Hee and to Writer Lee Shin Won for this lovely, funny show. !Fighting!

My reactions: (E1-2) I am so happy! Laughing like a nutcase. This looks like it is going to be good. (E3-4) Great, great first kiss. Completely bananas long-haired lover! Nam Shi An bias. Main romance gets sunny cool house scenes, heart-wrenching-already second romance gets yellow streetlight in darkened backstreets. (E5-6) (holding myself back from spoilers) A lesbian bestie, smiles, tears, a seriously heart-fluttering hug and a heartbreaking embrace. Oh that ominous fitbit. (E7-8) Ouch, very very PG. Sweet as honey.

Some commentators seem puzzled -- I think because the show at the very last minute loses its surreal edge and comes down to earth (a very nice earth) with a tiny thud. I still go with 10stars for quality, cinematic intelligence, art, and for Nam Si An ripping up any official documents within reach (adorably).

This is standard kdrama sequence in mini-mini form (8 eps at 30 mins ea.), all the best bits condensed. Several annoying loose ends/teasers for poss. sequel. Confession as the main issue, and its relation to personal growth.

If immature behavior is a topic I will grab the chance to say that I think the young guy/young girl/cute kid/charley-chaplin comedy characters work in Jungian terms, igniting psychological needs or functions in us, the spectators. In this comedy the childish terrors of our doll-like protagonist Jin Woo make us laugh as he ineffectually tries to stop the no-boundaries Id-representing Gi Seop from entering his house. [As Jade hinted] in BL these men will blossom quickly into true lovers, like flowers in a desert spring. They enable us to remember/compare/hope for our own spring and gain emotional strength.

Maybe that R rating is because there is a lesbian character. Ooh so scary.

first posted on viki april 30th 2024

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magisterial, upsettong and complex

Auspiciously suspicious beginnings. One shot -- a line of stewardesses wends its way into the terminal, crossing the drop off lane, timed to synchronize with the taxi pulling up, in which the journalist who will bear witness is arriving. Like a fish on a line. Perfect opening credits follow sometime afterwards.

Wow. Magisterial, upsetting and complex. The script, acting and direction act as one gripping whole -- I cannot say much more (my rule, no spoilers). Against my will I ended up in love with Fei Ke, totally seduced by the sensitive curve of Jing Bo Ran's upper lip; inexorably I was forced to look at each character from at least two different points of view. This is a mystery/crime thriller, so perhaps I can say that we are also forced to confront whether or not truth and legal consequences compensate a viewer for what feels more real -- several human tragedies.

I would like to say that I loved the way Viki dropped one episode per day for 10 days -- a super experience -- just enough time to digest the previous episode and wonder what was going to happen next.

first posted on viki june 3rd 2024

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nothing better for a summer binge

A smooth and addicting watch, recommended. A romance (no skinship necessary) set in a decent historical/political thriller. Nothing better for a summer binge (30 hours!! 40 eps at 45mins ea.) A woman is the protagonist of the story (Cdrama seems better at this than Jdrama or kdrama--why?). Is this a story about revenge (the FL motivation) and power politics (the ML/bro of emperor motivation) or about justice for women and a peaceful govt for the people? You decide.

Underlying themes:
1. The power of rhetoric to turn reality on its head. The powerful use it in most dramas, here the weak can, but only in the context of relative social stability.
2. The unspeakable crimes which women endure behind closed doors (including the suffering of hostages). Some survive with the essential integrity of their character intact, but some survive only as monsters, permanently damaged. All human beings deserve compassion because we all suffer, even these.

A powerful screenwriter (Ren Ya Nan) makes justice and various forms of real love possible in this show for a series of imperfect beings. The violence is therefore bearable within the theatrical frame.

Astounding slow simmer between the leads; ML actor Wang Xing Yue (Duke Su, Xiao Heng) does not use a voice actor and whenever in his mellifluous and emotional baritone (?) he says "a'Li" your heart will flutter. And that is even before the two acknowledge their love -- by gaze only and in the middle of a really good fight with very bad guys!!!!!

FL actress Wu Jin Yan (Xue Fangfei/Xue Li/Jiang Li) does use a voice actor and she also uses the serious nature of her part well enough to paper over the large age difference between the leads (34/22), helped along by judicious camera work. But never fear, their acting is so wow that after a few episodes you won't care. Every time they look at each other, suddenly the world goes silent and you realize you are holding your breath.

first posted september 2024 on Viki

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funny, great dialogue

The Hong Sisters' 7th script, 2011, 16eps at 1hrea. The first of 3 directed by Park Hong Kyun (Warm and Cozy; Hwayugi).

An excellent classic tearjerker kdrama romedy, a real feast, with several dramatic climaxes and my all-time favourite of relaxed last episodes. The ML has heart problems both medical and emotional. Set in the world of celebrity, it still pretty much exhausted every expression to do with the heart, especially pounding the heck out of heartbreak. The HSs also got quite a bit of mileage out of roses, azaleas, camellias and potato flowers.

Cha Seung Won was genius as Dokgo Jin, a truly self-involved movie star, and Gong Hyo jin put in a great performance as his true love, the unlucky Gu Ae Jung. These two do not so much have misunderstandings as verbal brawls every time they meet. Their interactions have a realistic edge at the same time as being larger than life.

Warning to the sensitive: at about the 10th episode the FL's noble self-effacing, self-sacrificing nature drove me insane. I had to quickly view the first episode of the 2018 Encounter (when Bo Gum meets Hye Kyo in Havana) to recharge my romantic mojo.

All the supporting cast were uniformly excellent. This was really popular in its day. I would re-watch it in a group for its throwback value, or to compare and contrast with other celebrity-life dramas. It is a truly indelible classic, but oddly enough, too real for me. I cried a lot, too.

first posted sept 2024 on Viki

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absolutely wonderful, the Hong Sisters 6th show

Astounding and amazing; still wonderful 14 years later. 2010, 16 eps at1hr5mins ea. The Hong Sisters' 6th script, wildly successful at home and internationally (pan-asia). At 23yrs old, this was Lee Seung Gi's third drama; a genius singer (for 6 years already then), lyricist, host (for the previous 4 yrs) and actor (his 2nd drama had been a hit too).

LSG is the guy-est of 20-year- old guys as Dae Woong, a character in the kind of role done to death by the FL lately (but with no psychological problems) -- DW is handsome, kind, everyone's idea of a great boyfriend, but hesitant in love and conflicted about what he really wants; he spreads misunderstandings through the small group of college friends and the acting company he wants to work for.

Shin Min Ah was a relative veteran at 26 with 4 movies and 4 dramas under her belt. Her vibrant energy crackles from the the tips of her toes to the top of her head as Mi Ho the gumiho who wants to be a human woman. Vulnerable and gullible, alert and suspicious, she is utterly without pretense, and very very curious about human mating behavior.

Part of the fun is a series of Korean expressions about responsible, adult, respectful and decent behavior which is characterized as "being like a human". DW's grampa complains that he isnt even human yet -- DW is immature still and innocently self-centered.

MH is an innocent wild animal, a fox spirit, recently freed from a 500 year imprisonment. Not just animal lovers will be rolling in the aisles at her near-miss at drinking from a toilet bowl which she mistakes for a water fountain. At one point she licks an in-bus advertisement for restaurant food/"meat".

A classic kdrama romedy about dating, with forced cohabitation etc. Leaping from one crisis to another, their development as a couple is slow but lots of fun. Secondary characters are great. As in My Girl, the secondary pair of lovers (absolutely standout comic talents!) incorporates the lovers fart joke .

ps.This is the first time In this watch of Hong Sisters' scripts from 2005 to 2024 that I noticed a circling shot of the main character at an emotional climax. There are books to be written about the changes in techniques in kdrama as influenced by the Hallyu shift from movies into TV (essentially being a massive shift in funding as well as expenses), the Covid phenomenon both in audiences and in the age of the actors, the use of techniques from blockbusters etc etc etc.. interestingly accelerated by the furious pace of productions coming out in increased numbers every season, , so that in the space of a year you can see a sudden interest in one new camera trick or angle sweep through many shows like a wave and then ebb away. So cool.

pps. I admit to congenital 2ML syndrome but Noh Min Woo, another musician like LSG, is haunting and gorgeous and does a yeoman's job of his role.

first posted August 16th 2024 on Viki

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Gong Yoo's supra stellar physical acting skills

The Hong Sisters' 8th script, 2012, 16eps at 1hr ea. A wonderful watch, made deceptively simple by a truly sophisticated production. Gong Yoo's supra stellar physical acting skills alone would have made this series way better than the 1988 film Big which supplies the original premise. Not only is GY's performance superior to Tom Hanks', but thank you very much, TH would have withered under 16 hrs of acting and character arc.

Pastiche references to the 80s are common with millenials, but this is a true and subtle loving homage to sitcoms and films of the period by consummate professionals all the way down the line of cast and crew. Directed by Ji Byung Hyun, who did the HS' first script, and by Kim Sung Hoon, whose first series was Dream High, Bae Suzy's debut as a Hallyu star actress.

Suzy has a magnetic screen presence even here in 2012, and although as Mi Ra, the unlikely 2FL, she is about as blunt as a hammer, her own pure sincerity and emotional boldness work well inside this storyline. It is also the nicest foreign cinematic compliment to the essential innocence and idiocy of the American teenager that I have ever seen. Brilliant casting. The other idol actor, who would normally have been the 2ML, spends most of the film in a coma, as his character has migrated to the body of a classic "good son" Korean doctor.

As part of the American homage, not only is the lighting warm and consistently bright and the acting style more naturalistic in the vein of US comedy, but the FL has a loveable, cozy and intact family around which revolve all the other characters, most of whom are written with American connections. Her brother is, I think, the real 2ML opposite Suzy, amidst an absolute storm of romantic connections which background the central storyline.

The HS, in an intelligent loyalty to the genre, often run an underlying theme of romance: the love within an enduring marriage (Chunhyang), teen love (Youre Beautiful), dating conventions (My Girlfriend is a G), sex before marriage? (Warm and Cozy) and the theme of fairytale weddings here in Big.

At first seemingly another naive short-skirted FL, Lee Min Jung's character as written avoids the skewered, frozen and frustrating stereotype current in kdrama recently. Much more easily read by a western audience as representative of the girl who lives in the heart of every woman, her hopeful innocence is one of the factors which helps Big avoid the skeaziness of the '88 film. The other is the relatively minor age gap between an 18-20 yearold and the middle 20s of the substitute teacher. She keeps calling him a kid, which may be a joke about Korean reckoning but is definitely part of her goodhearted naivete and essential moral nature.

Just as Gong Yoo dominates the first part of the series and Suzy 's character rises to the fore in the final dramatic events, MIn Jung's beautiful eyes and Barbra Streisand-like soulful upturned gaze focuses the central part of the series. Her conflicted guilt at two-timing her husband- to-be (the doctor) by falling in love with her de facto husband, a brilliant characterization by Gong Yoo of a moody, rebellious and intelligent American teen in her original fiance's body, seems annoying at first but draws the viewer into the necessary suspension of disbelief.

In short, you will fall in love with Da Ran and her Kyung Joon. This is such a long review that I barely have room to say that GY's physical acting is insane, and the rest of the cast are so sensitive -- example: as a well brought up Korean American the teen is aware of social conventions but tends to automatically evince american behaviors. GY actually DOES that! Da Ran's family notice this but sweetly attribute it to something else...amazing stuff.

ps. The ending isnt perfect but is classic kdrama driven (think about twins...the true lovers do unite! But the now older younger twin looks exactly like his older brother, duh!. The HS often pack some character development into a forced separation in the last two episodes, and indulgence in a little ambiguity is common event in kdrama when tidiness isnt possible. Until recently, the plot of a series is written on the fly after the first few weeks, via negotiation or balancing act between the audience reactions in real time, the scriptwriters original intentions if any, and the director's plans, if any.

The SK television audience has a much higher tolerance for loose ending, in consequence. But now with the internationalization of asian drama on streaming svcs, as drama lengths shorten and regional differences (unfortunately from my sentimental perspective) tend to be ironed out, likewise quick or ambiguous wrap-ups will become less common.

first posted sept 1st, 2024 on Viki

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a pleasant watch but sneakily unsettling.

Hong Sisters 10th script, 2015, 16 eps at 1hr ea. Overall W&M is a pleasant watch but sneakily unsettling. Set in beautiful Jeju Island, whose dialect and differently gendered economics are used as the comic background, it looks like a commercially motivated script but it is an outlier in the romance genre; the ML is a central, complex character whose emotional needs and problems have a gravitational pull far exceeding those of the FL.

Jeju, the main setting, is an oasis from feverish Seoul, but its citizens are not caricatured; the dialect is the big joke. The 2romance (elder bro + haenyeo) is actually a classic romedy form, acting as a sort of a supplement to the unconventional main romance. The 2ML in the love triangle (mayor of the village) is funny and warm and provides just enough balance and fun to offset the disconnect between the ML and FL.

The FL, Lee Jung Joo (played by Kang So Ra) finds refuge and a real home in Jeju, with friends of her own and the ML's business to run by herself. Active and energetic, she still plays a passive role in the second half of the script, and most of her camera time thereafter is used to reflect the emotions (?) of the ML.

The ML's own name for his hobby-restaurant, Warm and Cozy, is a word in Jeju dialect like hygge, untranslatable; probably comfy, easy but literally it means "pleasantly warm". He takes a long time to warm up to the FL, and somehow the show feels tepid until he starts to find out about his family.

The ML Seo Geun Woo (played by Yoo Yeon Seok) is born on the wrong side of the blanket to a hotel conglomerate, or more exactly to a woman of legendary affairs and serial marriages (the Gatsby allusion is to her as Daisy, for pitys sake, not to him!). He is trapped emotionally by a predatory female villainess (grasshopper), Mok Ji Won, a heartless sexual tease of a gold-digger who uses him as a decorative companion in-between her targets.

He is encircled in the script by other people's feelings about him: he is an 'oasis prince' to the young FL, first seen in the show in a polo melee; an unserious outlander to the island community; a photogenic and easily objectified chef to influencers and foodies; or an indolent 'grasshopper' to his family, an unemployable chaebol.

He is bitter about his own attractiveness and desires. His communication with the FL, his coeval from highschool, is at first only made possible by his mistaken belief that she is about to die; his character is too cynical otherwise, but he automatically responds with compassion to her.

Any real conversation as it emerges afterwards is still spoilt by his insincerity, apparent shallowness and sudden flares of sexual teasing. He feels closed off to her. A wedding, the unraveling of his own family mystery and a forced separation finally open his heart.

At the point where normally I want to grab the FL by the shoulders in frustration at her willful misunderstanding of about everything and give her a good shake, one finds oneself hoping both the director and the FL will give this ML a solid whack on his pretty bottom.

Who is the director who let the HS have their way with him? Park Hong Kyun, the only one to direct 3 of the HS' shows, whether by accident or design or an emergent mutual trust. The soundtrack is wickedly sly. Torch songs (Moon River on a date?) and lush full orchestra accompaniment... I was left with the feeling that the writers wanted to skewer the romance genre without the audience noticing.

To be honest I keep thinking about this show and its characters and certain scenes, which probably means intuitively it is actually a better show than I have described. This has been the hardest to write about so far in my Hong Sisters rewatch project.

Spoiler alert to follow!!!. The temperature metaphor is expressed only by the ML . He characterizes their relationship as one of suppressed heat. When they finally confess mutual love, she wants to go on dates and he wants to go to bed. He wins, which is flabbergasting in this context.

first posted august 26th 2024 on Viki

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It's not the meme, its how you use the meme --the first Hong Sisters' script

2005; 17 eps at 1hr ea. 10stars because it is a classic, not bec it is perfect. Apologies in advance for a series of longer reviews of early Hong Sisters' shows (getting ready for can this love be translated).

The first HS script. Comedy predominates. The internationalization of kdrama has meant the slow disappearance of toilet jokes and most of the continual threats of slaps and punches amongst family members, but they still form part of the broad-comedy style here. The soundtrack is much less intense than a super romantic drama too.

It's not the meme, it's how you use the meme. Pouting, slouching bad-hairdo teens in the boonies end up in a contract marriage after an innocent (in every way) drunken mistake. Frenetic and weird, but honest and familar teen-stupid behavior.

Then..they endearingly almost immediately bicker and protect each other like a decades-long married couple, and this remains the central joke and plot point while they work through eternal problems of miscommunication and the backwards joke of contract-marriage-before-confession. The hairdo etc styling is the contrast to the adult problematics of true love.

Classic self-referential meta touches from the H-sisters. The real Korean legend of Chunyang, a smart cool heroine, involves a tardy almost-too-late return of a scholar-family-son from his career-exam-appointment in the capital to fulfill his promise of marriage to a country-girl-daughter of a gisaeng, rescuing her from death and a bad guy, an oppressive-magistrate-son.

Here the girl and the guy are in a silly highschool setting usually seen with more angst in romances. The end-of year school play is always Romeo and Juliet. If the actors really kiss, the teen legend is that they will stay together forever. The play ends in chaos of course, the kiss lands and the drama goes on in high gear from there.

Most of the original premise of the legend undergoes funny reversals and enjoyable transformations in really quick tightly constructed dialogue. The girl isn't left behind, her guy is a bit dim or, more charitably, immature, etc. Lots of hullabaloo and plenty of angst somehow resolve, in the musical sense, sweetly into love by the end of the series.

first posted August 2024 on Viki

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very pretty and very silly classic, a watershed for kdrama

I recommend this for rainy days, snowy days, slow Friday nights or whenever you want to relax. Enjoy. The Hong sisters' 2nd script, their first hit, their trademark trustworthy dialogue and cool plots already evident. Std. length, 16eps at 1hr ea.

Very pretty and very silly fun involving Jeju Island, Lee Dong Wook, Lee Joon Gi and Lee Da Hae. Two chaebol heirs, LDW and the beautiful LJG, and a poor girl who lives by her wits asked to masquerade as a family member...if it seems familiar it is nearly two decades ago and lots of series have tried the formula since. Deathless stuff.

Truth and lies, think of actors and filmmakers. A fable ( from a 13th C compilation!!) of the king with donkey ears is not used as a frame, but something like a comment on the action. His secret, shouted into a bamboo grove, is repeated on the wind like urban myths. The king uselessly mows the bamboo down..

The liar says the best lies in a con are outrageous, the best liars are persistent and shameless. Kdrama in a nutshell. Love alone cannot be lied about for very long. A great kiss and confession are late, look for the little catch of air in the throat of the listening recipient..

The personal fantasy sections are great. Also a drunken ramble along a sidewalk cursing obstacles. Snow and snow globes are overdone. Glass-walled elevators ; hotel setting. The eavesdropping scenes are particularly nice since each one is done differently, and obvously, when lying is a problem, listening is a hard necessity. Product placements mainly the latest phones in 2006, lots of fun.

The show is more polished for a general audience than the HSs' first, on purpose. Until Hotel del Luna (12th show), Hwayugi (11th), and Alchemy of Souls (13th), this show (2nd ), My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (6th) and The Greatest Love (7th) were the most popular.

The excellent experienced director Jeon Ki Sang, is the same as for Sassy Girl Chunhyang. The composer, Oh Joon Sung, of an interesting soundtrack which wraps around the ends of scenes often in emotional counterpoint (to move the audience along?) went on to a long career after this, his first.

A positive welter of pop culture and older movie/show references is too much for me to parse, but the lover's farts from Goodwill Hunting are there for future Phds.

I have read that My Girl in 2005 was a watershed in the depiction of strong independent FLs. I think that in MG the Hong sisters also reduced the amount of corrosive manipulation by the MLs as well, at least that is what I infer when I watch other shows from that era.

first posted aug 8th 2024 on Viki

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