Arang and the Magistrate (2012)

So I picked up Arang and the Magistrate because so many people have recommended it and a lot of Youtube videos highly advertised how awesome it is, so I thought, why not give it a shot. Shin Min Ah and Lee Joon Gi were great in their roles and I enjoyed seeing them again. What I didn't like was how creepy/eerie the story line became starting around episode 4. On top of the unpleasant atmosphere of the drama, I also couldn't get past how slow the plot was progressing. In each episode, nothing really happened of substance and I didn't notice at first, but after pondering, I realized how much the drama dragged. The music was okay in the beginning, mostly went by unnoticed, but after we meet the *real* villain, the music becomes dramatic, loud, and overly eerie which only further deterred me. Since the drama wasn't sitting well with me, I went ahead and looked up a summary of the drama to find out the key plot points and I'm not really intrigued nor impressed with the "twist" because it was rather predictable. Even though I really wanted to like this one, this is a "drop" for me.

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Aging of a Drama

Before writing this, of course, I had to look at other reviews and what I found were a lot of the older reviews LOVED this drama, while the few more recent ones gave lower scores. It made me think back on all the older dramas I have watched and the scores I have given them, and maybe it was because maybe at the time when this came out, it was amazing, but now with all the dramas we have access to, it falls flat.

I really wanted to love this one because Shin Min Ah is one of my favorite actresses, but she does have a lot of dramas that are older. But from the dramas I have watched, she brings this young giddy charm to her characters, so I wanted to check out a historical drama with a supernatural plot. I've only seen maybe one of two supernatural dramas in the past few years, and I do like that genre and want to get into it.

Now that I have explained myself a little before, I feel confident that I can jump in.

It's been a few days since I finished this drama, and it has had a few days to digest.

I liked the premise of the drama, in all other aspects, I wasn't a fan. It didn't take me until Kim Eun Oh, the main character, or the Magistrate confessed his feeling for his character to stop acting like a jerk, and for me to actually like him. It felt very 180 and not a gradual character transition for him. He was kind of lousy up until the point he confessed, and then he was like screw everything else, I do everything for bae. Then we have a very confused and spunky Arang, who didn't go through much character development, but at some point, she just kind of started to chill out but her spirit remained. Their relationship was very cute once they were together. Before that, I honestly didn't think they were a great match. Hell. I thought Joo Wal was bae....considering....you know.

I thought that this drama was actually, not purposely, funny. We had the main villains with the Nobleman Choi and Moo Yeon, and yes, Chairman Choi was a bad person. But maybe it was just the acting for Moo Yeon, but she was acting out like a child most of the time and had the funniest facial expressions. Someone said in a previous review that it was because of plastic surgery, but I also feel like it had to do with her acting when she was distributing herself from the two characters she played. She only made funny faces as if she always smelled something rotten when she was Moo Yeon.

Finally, the ending wasn't extremely clear to me, but from what I understood from it, it made sense and was the only ending I could think of to work based on both of the mains' fates that were total twists at the end, but were explained previously and I had connected.

It was a very simple yet complicated drama. I might go back to watch one or two scenes.

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A scratch deviated end

This drama was superb as a plot, the idea of heavens and gods who see everything's and plan everything's and create everything so far as the humans will that can change facts and the idea of the enraged fairy that live by taking souls and human bodies and the death angels that haunt ghosts who may importune humans were all mastered and frivolous, thereby you can learn from this fictionality a lot of things that may benefit you.
Craving into the casts, they were all awesome, lee joon ki as always, his chemistry with shin min ah was overwhelming, the actor yeo woo jin and his character was the most attracting and pitiful and sadly i felt sorry for him, the female shaman and dol sae chemistry was fitted also.
The drama was full of enthusiasm and mysteriousity and funny moments, the conversations between those two so called gods are sneaky and entertaining, specially when they bet on things and preposterous conclusions of the human worlds, the manipulate everything like they want, i liked that
But the end messed everything, as they main story was for arang to find the cause of her death to that bell to ring, they show us that jo wal is the one who threw her from a cliff when she was unconscious after being stabbed by the magistrate mom before the fairy control totally the body and mask her soul so she died by his hands i presume and for him to atone for his misdeeds and for was deeply sorry for lee seo rim who sacrificed herself for him( she loved him when she was alive) while he didn't acknowledge who she was and didn't care that time, he took his own life... but why the hell they make it that arang caused her own death, were they playing with us? this concept deceived me and root out all the good and awesome filming of the 19 episodes.
The fact that eun oh couldn't save his mother life in the end is irritating and feel like all work was in vain. the reincarnating is fishy at the final scene and wasn't necessary also.
Those defaults in the final episode could have been managed otherwise, then this drama would be a skyrocket.

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Pas inoubliable

Je viens de finir le LONG visionnage de Arang and the Magistrate et j'en retire un bilan sympa mais presque oubliable par certains côtés.

L'histoire :

L'histoire nous replonge dans l'époque Joseon en nous orientant un peu plus sur le folklore qui tourne autour de la mort, du monde des esprits, de l'enfer et du paradis donc forcément on parle de faucheuses et surtout de fantômes. Même si le sujet est intéressant j'ai trouvé fort dommage que le drama n'explique rien de tous ces points de culture qui sont dévoilés, il est vrai que l'on peut faire des recherches par soi-même par la suite mais, ayant essayé moi-même, je ne trouve pas beaucoup d'infos sur internet...
Le rythme est bieeeeeen trop lent, je ne dis pas qu'il y aurait forcément dû avoir moins de 20 épisodes mais j'aurai aimé un rythme sinon plus rapide, au moins humainement normal. Toutes les scènes traînent en longueur sur des plans bien inutiles, à tel point que des le troisième épisode j'ai mis la vitesse de lecture multipliée par 1,25 parce que je n'en pouvais plus et là, miracle! J'avais l'impression que l'action se déroulait normalement (à part peut-être pour les scènes de combat).

Les personnages :

Concernant les acteurs, j'ai trouvé que Lee Jun Ki (Kim Eun Oh) jouait bien son rôle, concernant Shin Mina (Arang / Lee Seol Im), autant au début elle plante un personnage fort qui sait se débrouiller et ne se laisse pas faire pour petit à petit, retomber dans l'écueil de la caricature de la demoiselle en détresse ce que je trouve bien dommage, voire même usant.
Par contre, Kang Mun Yeong (dame Seo / Hong Ryeon / Mu Yeon) campe un personnage de méchante super crédible, selon moi, et sait composer également selon la personnalité qu'elle incarne.
Par contre, celui qui joue le fils du seigneur Choi, m'est apparu particulièrement mou, affichant tout le temps un regard éteint pour ne pas dire bovin (je ne veux pas insulter nos amis les vaches non plus) excepté vers la fin lorsqu'il

ATTENTION SPOIL
confesse son crime à Arang et qui, s'excuse auprès d'elle.
FIN DU SPOIL

C'est à tel point que, quelques minutes après le visionnage, j'ai déjà oublié son nom, c'est dire! J'espère que cet acteur aura fait d'autres dramas où il est mieux représenté.

La réalisation :

Alors là, on attaque le noyau dur... je pense que le plus gros problème du drama c'est que le script part bien souvent en cacahuète et je vais donner des exemples en SPOIL, vous êtes prévenus...
Tout d'abord, concernant un personnage qui est l'officier de justice (le gars habillé en bleu parmi le trio comique entourant Kim Eun Oh, celui-ci change de manière d'être à la vitesse de l'éclair, ce qi pourrait être une prouesse en soi vu le rythme du drama car

ATTENTION SPOIL
Il passe de personnage comique et lâche à assassin sans pitié quand il s'attaque aux personnages principaux puis à homme super loyal auprès de ces mêmes personnages
FIN DU SPOIL

Ensuite, les actions et leitmotiv de certains personnages sont parfois particulièrement absurdes ou ne sont mêmes pas expliqués.

ATTENTION SPOIL
Pourquoi la méchante de l'histoire crée des « soldats chasseurs d'âmes » puisqu'elle essaye de ne pas se faire remarquer par les divinités ou encore pourquoi doit-elle changer de corps? Elle « aspire » l'âme de jeunes filles pures en gardant le même corps et en gagnant des forces et du pouvoir, OK. Le corps de Arang va lui fournir la vie éternelle, OK. Mais alors pourquoi a-t-elle pris le corps de la mère du héros? C'est idiot selon moi de prendre un corps plus vieux que celui qu'elle avait avant.
FIN DU SPOIL

Ou encore des fils du scénario qui n'ont aucun sens :

ATTENTION SPOIL
Le plan de la divinité, comment l'empereur de Jade a pu imaginer ce plan si Dame Seo était si bien cachée depuis 400 ans? Comment a-t-il su où envoyer nos héros?
FIN DU SPOIL

La seule réponse ici c'est TGCM (ta gu**le c'est magique!). Désolé c'est cru mais c'est vrai.
Je vous passe les autres incohérences et discussion entre personnages qui n'ont aucun sens et pourtant j'ai été assez sadique avec moi-même pour me les repasser à trois reprises en lecture normale pour bien comprendre que je ne comprenais rien.

ATTENTION SPOIL
Vous verrez l'épisode 18, la discussion entre le héros et son père...
FIN DU SPOIL

Enfin, il y a beaucoup de points négatifs, notamment la lenteur du rythme mais la romance, l'histoire ont réussi à me faire tenir éveillé.e (la grande majorité du temps) jusqu'à la fin. D'ailleurs mention spéciale pour la fin que j'avoue avoir trouvé sympathique.

Maintenant, à vous de vous faire votre avis.

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