ibisfeather
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
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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