3
1
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Amastris Dratwka
미국
Worst of the Bunch of Adaptations
This is definitely my least fav version of this adaptation. It doesn't help that they had to have a 3 year delay of this drama. It was totally understandable, considering Choi Tae Joon's close relationship with quite a number of the guys involved in the Burn Sun Scandal that started early 2018 and picked up steam towards the end of the year when this should have been broadcast. It also didn't help that the posters they choose got a lot of hate comments from female viewers for the way it looks totally misogynistic. A very poor choice considering the #MeToo movement was starting to get more hype.The drama itself reflects the timeframe it was filmed in. The first 6 episodes, had this aired on time, would have had dozens of negative forum posts, I have no doubt in my mind. It was tone deaf on just how awful treating women, especially those who aren't considered "rich", "talented", or "pretty" by industry standards, and it doesn't sit any better knowing it's just for the drama either. After a while the poor treatment just grates on you.
The time allotted to characters was so out of line as well. The 2nd leads had FAR too much screen time and story than the OTP that I found myself fast forwarding through a majority of it because it was simply repeat after repeat of the same issues and arguments. Halfway through, I was like... I get it... there's jealousy and betrayal... now move on with the story.
The romance went from 0-100 in a nanosecond. Wasn't sure how all that emotion came about... Once there, it was cool. I liked the mid-half the best of this drama. But then the last 3 episodes ruined the whole vibe with this 2 episode forced 'distance' between them. Beyond cliche even if it mirrors the adaptive material. And now I feel like I wrote far more about this drama than the value I placed on watching it. It was fine for a quick one time watch just to know what this version was going to be after such a long wait...and to see Park Shin Hye's husband finally be in a "popular" drama where people know and remember who he is.... lol.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is going to be a long review with parts that can be considered spoiler-ish.
The novel was written in Rococo style. What does that mean?
'...perhaps the most rebellious of design styles. It was exceptionally ornamental and theatrical – a style without rules. Compared to the refinement and seriousness of Classical style, Rococo was seen as superficial, degenerate and illogical..'
As the novel's synopsis states, '...In that year, she was beautiful and he was not old; after that year, she was eternally beautiful and he finally got old...' there's no more explanation of how this drama goes. At least the director/producer decided to at least take out/change the secondary EVIL male. The drama still ends up starting off nutso though.
From the first episodes, I wrote that this drama felt art nouveau due to the flowery sensual vibe of the scenery and cinematography. Towards the end, knowing this is based on a novel, I wanted a clearer understanding of what's happening that this drama isn't conveying well to me due to so many blank/black screen and poor choices in editing. I was utterly confused by any timeline or fullness of any particular scene. Majority of the time it felt like a scene left something missing. The fact that art nouveau was influenced by Rococo is not lost on me. I think this is why I find this drama to be a mess in many ways. Rococo is all about fantasy and illusions which this drama has in boatloads...topping it off with a grown ass alcoholic prancing her fantasies in front of a mirror rather than living in reality.
"The Rococo writing style is like lyrical poetry in which erotic, elegant and frivolous aspects are reinforced and exposed with dyes towards sensuality." The themes are based in more mischievous and festive aspects of daily life, using sensual pleasures that lack any seriousness or any particular etiquette or moralizations. To this style, the drama fit the novel to a "T". Jerry Yan, with the looks so many women seem to love, playing this main character along with a young actress who does fun-loving and flower sprite fairy so well doesn't surprise me that this drama got higher ratings than I'm willing to give. I have to admit, I am not one that has ever been in the Jerry Yan fan boat, however, I don't dislike his acting etc where appropriate. As Rococo style exemplifies, there wasn't much depth to Jerry's Xiao Han so I'm actually impressed how much more feeling he put into that character than I think was actually written on paper. High ratings go for the thousands of intimate scenes, touches, caresses, kisses, etc that all looked and felt REAL which is unusual in C-Drama territory. The OTP didn't shy away from being in each others arms very intimately. I also think this tickled a lot of girl's fantasies and bolstered the ratings.
I thought about giving this drama a higher rating than this because I watched it all the way through without FFWD any part of it. However, this drama actually did not illicit any emotions from me whatsoever. I felt more like I was watching a train wreck so I detached myself from being invested in pretty much anything the characters were doing.
I didn't understand why the family let that fool Han Yu go on and on obsessively like he did, almost encouraging it. Between her mother and Han Yu, 'family' relationships were so suffocating.
It took the drama too long to provide a background to why this family is so utterly broken. We get pieces here and there... Even worse Xiao Han doesn't even get all the pieces the viewer had gotten slowly until the very, VERY end. Xiao Han was too kind and good for the world this drama created. He Ran was too selfish to the very end. The only saving grace was her mom's psycho attitude got vindicated. We got to fully understand why she's such a broken person, but like her daughter's attitude to Xiao Han, even at the end I felt like she's the type to never believe anything happy should happen to her. That kind of depression is taxing on a human emotionally who is there trying to prove to them otherwise. I'd rather a boy live a fresh, clean life, with his lively, loving family and someone who properly fits into that happy world. He doesn't deserve the Rococo style of pure eroticism and superficial pleasure from a human who cannot ever give him anything more than that emotionally.
I stuck with the ending from the source material. If the way it was written was worthy of a drama, then let it be. I didn't get any emotional healing from it. I didn't see anyone grow emotionally. The choices were selfish. Having to make choices between happiness or suffering, being together to go through life's events, or crawl in a hole and everyone doing their own individual thing struggling on their own. The choices made weren't healing. They were torture and emotional abuse to everyone involved. There was absolutely NO peace in it whatsoever. She can go all the way to the highest altitude with him but he can't go with her on her journey? Made no sense. He is an esteemed horticulturalist despite his reasons for being a recluse. Are we saying he can't get a job internationally or something like that??? It's just archaic crazy talk. This is 2023 ffs.
The openness of the ending was to compensate for the fact that the story is a bitter train wreck where no one comes out of it truly okay. It was for those who watched not knowing the source material, like myself, to make up for having stuck it out watching this expecting to see a Silver Lining somewhere in it all...only to find none. I guess the best part was that the music 100% fit everything the drama took us through.
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This OTP had incredible chemistry.
I even felt she had more chemistry here than she did with Nam Joo Hyuk during their drama, and they were dating. I really, really liked this couple even when they were fighting with each other. They were so fun to watch.I wasn't a particular fan of the 3-4 episodes they took the drama into a bit of melodrama and thriller, but everything else was fun to watch even if it could be considered cliche. The cast was worked so well together that, cliche or not, you still found it interesting and entertaining because the actors portrayed their characters in a really fun way 90% of the time.
Since it's been really hard to find a K-drama in the last couple years that was fun to watch, I really rated this high. ...the ending of the final episode, with the bts gave me all the vibes I felt I was getting watching this. This cast seemed to really, REALLY like each other, and it showed in the end results.I even felt she had more chemistry here than she did with Nam Joo Hyuk during their drama, and they were dating. I really, really liked this couple even when they were fighting with each other. They were so fun to watch.
I wasn't a particular fan of the 3-4 episodes they took the drama into a bit of melodrama and thriller, but everything else was fun to watch even if it could be considered cliche. The cast was worked so well together that, cliche or not, you still found it interesting and entertaining because the actors portrayed their characters in a really fun way 90% of the time.
Since it's been really hard to find a K-drama in the last couple years that was fun to watch, I really rated this high. ...the ending of the final episode, with the bts gave me all the vibes I felt I was getting watching this. This cast seemed to really, REALLY like each other, and it showed in the end results.
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Old School Rom-Com Cliches
I really hate when they have last minute NEW drama they have to resolve halfway through the final episode. Even worse I hate the time slips and travel that make no sense.This was 100% standard Kdrama rom-com cliche.
It was fun enough for a quick watch.
My honest opinion is that Kim Min Gue was the better actor in this drama and I really liked him as Cha Sung Hoon. I enjoyed the secondary couple much better, although they wrote Young Seo as having episodes of psycho chick in her. I didn't get it, because most 80% of the time she was a sweet, down-to-earth, rational person who is a loyal friend, but every once in a while she acted like she didn't know what was going on and got angry for BS reasons. Past that, I did love them as a couple.
The rest of it was pure cliche... that's all I can say... lol.
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For the amount of script, and time this drama had to convey its message, it's a complete 10/10. They nailed every aspect of this, and made this such a beautiful little gem!!
Even if the concept was a standard cliche South Korean chaebol drama, the added element of it being gay is the cherry on top. If you're expecting a story that breaks new ground, ask yourselves if KBS, SBS, JBTC are STILL giving you the chaebol cliche dramas??? Then thank your lucky stars that, in a nation that STILL stigmatizes this topic, the producers put this out for you. Let's break the ground first and worry about full length trailblazing screenwriting later!
Baby steps... and, again, for what this drama had to work with, this was fantastic. Best part is that, unlike other newbie LGBTQ actors in dramas, these two newbies have some serious acting chops, and not one time did I feel cringed out by them.
Thank you to the producers for finding this talent and giving us this treat!
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