A truly great largescale romantic history drama

A truly great largescale romantic history drama. Never cheesy, always intelligent, never lazy, it takes nothing for granted and never spends useless screen time. It will cause a storm in yr heart regularly every few episodes. Binge warning: you may end up with major sleep deprivation because you cannot stop watching. 21 eps at over 1hr ea.

Favorite things: The total coolness of a narrative frame where a rejected manuscript from the state history annals is reinvestigated (by the series!) and deemed too unusual to be true. Implied is that the narrator is a pansori singer, Rang Eum, who loves NM, played by a lovely 23yr-old actor.

Lots of battle but no big set pieces (hate them).

The vulnerability of women when social structures break, their disposability in war and their invisibility afterwards.

Confucian and other ethical questions: what do the just do in an unjust situation, how do people like us survive in the chaos of history?

Sigh...the house by the stream with a fence of forsythia branches is my favourite set -- wait for it!

Namkoong Min's face and attitudes(s) are the magnetic north of a tonal structure which knits together the larger political frame and the emphasis on the individual life. He is completely brilliant playing a jaded melancholy outsider who falls very very very hard for the young, spirited daughter of a comfortable provincial family. Ahn Eun Jin matches NM's subtlety with a steady powerful presence; changes in the young Gil Chae happen so slowly and always so late that they sneak up on you. She gets equal closeup camera time , deservedly. The essence of the central relationship, very Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, will drive you just as crazy as that couple did in the dark ages, and for over half the drama!!! about 15 hrs -- N.B. GWtW was only 2.5 hrs.

first posted on viki may 27th 2024

Read More

storytelling as a way of understanding personal experience

Memories of a love affair in Japan from both ex-lovers. 6eps at 1hr ea. Meditative and beautiful, not for those who need action and a fast-moving plot. It is a story about writers and about storytelling as a way of understanding personal experience.

In Japan, sublety in small spaces, a soundtrack devoid of balladry, mostly piano. Nice contrasts in perceptions of the past. In Korea, in the present tense of the drama, more open views, bigger spaces because the two ex-lovers are now successful grownups and have a better perspective.

Lee Se Young is more beautiful than I have ever seen her -- I think the director let the individual beauty of each actor shine through by releasing the cinematographer of the iron chains of kdrama beauty standards. Her voice-overs give her character more interiority than she normally projects. Via voice-overs, both actors 'author' the narrative in turns as it moves along.

I am glad I watched this on air. The experience depends so much on one's own sometimes slow realizations, understandings and intellectual or emotional resolutions of the events. One episode a week was hard to wait for, though. My advice would be to pace your viewing on your own and savor it.

ps.I am not sure how the cinematographer did it but while in Japan, I felt I was seeing visually what a Korean woman looks like in that setting, and while in the Korean setting, the same thing occurred with Mr. Sakaguchi's visuals (in RL he has attracted a lot of attention in Korea).

Their miscommunications were represented as being due to their youth, but also the two characters participated in intra-culturally-specific stereotypical behavior which in each case produces miscommunication: the strong and soulfully silent Japanese guy who cannot articulate feelings and the soulful, dramatic Korean woman who talks around the salient point as if she is silently expressing her real true feelings by that empty space in the middle of her discourse.

double-posted on viki at time of writing

Read More

masterpiece in new kdrama international formats

A gem. 10 episodes at 1hr ea. and the first really brilliant kdrama in the new international streaming formats.

Woo Do Hwan was born to play this role: a tragi-comic loner with a big heart and a mordant sensibility. No other current leading drama actor could have carried off this character's combination of sensuality and innocence in the squalid universe in which he lives. In the Korean context his theory of the life of a drifter as an essential micro-organism in the life of society is fundamentally radical. As a runaway from the psychologically unbearable life of a 'good son' in the Korean upper middle class he also has the chameleonic-like ability to insert himself into varying social strata which is necessary to a conman, but he uses these abilities to help others (for big bucks of course).

An original script which combines generic expectations from kdrama (romedy and crime) and from the common international cinematic universe (road movies, riches to rags sociological commentary). These serve to maintain dramatic interest and emotional involvement while still streamlining out some of the more baroque parts of lengthier classic kdrama.

As a road movie, relationships are developed and memories are dissected by two characters at a time, in the intimate space of the two front seats. Theatrically, the setting in the fluid life of the underclass in a time of extreme social stratification, has been an eternally fascinating subject, whether in the cinema of mid-century US and Europe or in 21st century Korean films and drama.

The farce-like stock characters of kdrama (and some less common ones) set up expectations in the viewer which are quietly subverted as their pasts and present are slowly revealed. And some of my favourite stock memes still remain: a funny love triangle, an end-episodes reintegration of the small band and bonds of the main characters, standard and wickedly funny gang involvement, fields of onggi and often a vaguely familiar mysterious character, here John Na, a sunglass-cool bodyguard.

In fact the slow and subversive development of the character arcs is the heart of the drama so I have to stop here to avoid spoilers. GO RIGHT NOW TO THE SHOWPAGE and start watching with a fresh and happy mind open to this wonderful tear-jerker of a romedy-action-road drama.

simultaneously posted on viki

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24: Goblin, Hwayugi, Because This Is My First Life, Just between Lovers; the K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service; Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls (earliest to latest) and Mr. Plankton .

Read More

This will blow you away

Enjoy this show once, twice, a thousand times! This show is what drew me into Asian drama and cinema.

In this show the realm of the gods is very much xianxia, while the Demon Lord's world and Orchid's recreational vehicle between worlds seemed very different. It wasnt the world-building that hooked me, it was the dialogue as soon as silly Orchid came onscreen. It was very irreverent and the more I watched the funnier it became. The soundtrack was amazing. The cinematic intelligence in LBFD was way above and beyond any USA production. What makes this show so perfect, funny and awesome? I wanted to know.

When I heard that Esther Yu, a strong woman in her own right (as opposed to her role as Orchid), greatly influenced the LBFD production with constructive ideas drawn from kdrama, I had to find out more. I learned eventually and happily that although fantasy combined with irony in western cinema is not always successful, it is a fully mastered and developed style in asian cinema of all kinds.

So.....watch and laugh and cry (the ending is amazing).

ps. This review is a perfect illustration of my review philosophy -- we write as a group and my chosen parameter is not to be a judge of works I dont like, but a cheerleader for those I do. There are so many great reviewers with beautiful prose and good analytical skills who work on shows like this. I have chosen to define my contribution as an attempt to amuse and entice people who like my style to watch great shows.

first posted on viki april 27th 20214

Read More

absurd, wonderful and heartbreaking

The Korean Odyssey/Hwayugi is the 11th script of the Hong sisters. 2018; 20 eps at 1hr20 mins ea. Hwayugi (HW) was one of the first few kdramas I ever watched. It is absurd, wonderful and heartbreaking; an indelible memory. The comedy/romance/supernatural fusion combined with sophisticated filmmaking and an absurdist/surreal panache was enchanting but difficult to ease into; it made me an instant fan, obsessive and curious about the Korean industry and its history.

And yes, I bawled buckets the first time... and the second....and...
Please, please give it a try and become a Hong Sisters fan too!

I was amazed at this remake of/take on the chinese buddhist novel Journey to the West (one of the six classic pre-modern chinese novels), whose characters permeate pan-asian cultural products of all kinds.

That premise is essentially a comic set-up. The 3 companions from the novel, the monkey King, the pig, and the fish king are like Homer Simpson -- they are driven by human appetites to constantly get into trouble. It is the job of this motley crew to protect the Monk, Sam Jang (Tang Zang/Xuansang), on his journey to the West, but even he cannot save them from their own idiocy.

But in Hwayugi, Son Oh Gong (SOG) tricks a little girl who sees spirits into releasing him from heaven's punishment of imprisonment. So heaven punishes her by forcing her to take on the dharma of the Monk in modern times. Is this fair, no. Is this a tale of the supernatural, yes, so fairness does not pertain.

The monk in the novel is looking for texts, but in Hwayugi she/he has become a sort of "sin-eater" who has to bear the burden of human evil. Her flesh still has the monk's fragrance of lotus flowers and even a tiny bite of it grants immortality. Meanwhile she grows up plucky and resourceful and turns her spirit-seeing ability to good commercial use as a real estate agent.

The Bull (Demon) King, Ma Wang (MW), who had sent her on the original errand and gotten her into the situation with the Monkey King, ends up remorseful when they all meet later on, He is no longer the novel's villain but a more ambiguous figure, a media mogul, a celebrity show host. The group moves into his house. Including PK (the pig) and the elusive CEO, they all pity her but also cannot stay away from her fragrance. Thus the comedy.

Even SOG is uneasy at what they have done; he refuses to admit it but has kept an eye on her all along ever since she was a child when he tricked her and lied to her. Deities are fundamentally different from us -- but the Monkey King is a demi-deity; in an ambiguous position, he can fall in love and he does so unwillingly.

There are some cool props: the slave-love bracelet the Geumgango; the Onggi of prophecy in the little shop--as soon as the FL lifts the lid out of curiousity, a pandora's box situation occurs; the Doom Bell and the Love Bell. Spoiler alert, there is no HEA.

ps. The scriptwriting duo of the Hong sisters set the bar if not the entire tone for the kdrama industry renaissance overseas -- not primarily in the West, mind you, but across South, East and West Asia. They are famous for being consistently commercially successful.

Each HS drama stands on its own, rarely repeating genres. The HS use literary tropes and texts with abandon, reinventing them, combining them, with a mastery that is hard to describe. Not only do they always catch the wave of audience interest with their creative wildness, but they also appeal to all different sorts of viewers who can tune into the dramas at differing levels of meaning and complexity.

first posted july 31st 2024 on Viki

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24 (earliest to most recent): Goblin, Hwayugi, Because this is my first Life, Just Between Lovers/Rain or Shine, The K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service, Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls 1-2, Mr. Plankton.

Read More

the sacred energy of Mount Jiri and a murder mystery -- a perfect summer binge

A good thriller with a great splash of the supernatural, worth the watch. The setting on the majestic Mount Jirisan, one of the great sacred mountains of Korea, makes this a perfect summer binge -- the perspectives across the misty ranges and ridges of this huge park alternate with dark shadowy intense scenes among the trees and cliffs where the action occurs.

The spiritual energy of the mountain makes it a popular tourist destination and the rangers who care for them and the park are devoted to the mountain itself. A serial killer is loose and a ghostly spirit emanating from a comatose ranger aids in the search for who the killer is and what his motives are.

The strange and sad limitations of this spirit's abilities are realistically delineated. This is not a comedy. There is some quiet romance but in essence this is a mystery story with a really interesting ghost. The moral core is the way evil deeds have a way of living on and affecting the future of a community unless they are exposed and punished.

This is a really beautiful show and emotionally very satisfying. You will really enjoy it, I guarantee it.

simultaneously posted on viki

Read More

beautiful but too netflix for me

An excellent show but I wont rewatch it.

The ML, a kind, happily married guy from Hokkaido with a dangerous heart condition, receives a transplant from a man who dies at the culmination of his life, just as his girlfriend agrees to marry him. The dearly departed seems to have difficulty leaving this plane and moving on, and essentially pulls his girlfriend, the FL, into a situation of forced intimacy with the ML. Since the ML consistently lies about his heart problems to everyone except his wife and best friend, he has a tendency to be indecisive or confused in his relationships, possibly due to physical frailty. Thank goodness for the ML's wife, who twice kept a very difficult situation from devolving into an incoherent disaster by enlisting the FL to keep her own husband reasonably safe.

The director has said that he wanted the series to look very different from the production values of regular japanese tv, more like a movie. Sometimes it seems as if the directors and writers of Jdrama are so expert in depicting the big themes of love and death and memory that they can do it in any size of enclosed space. In this show the director and cinematographer (s) have gone for truly big backdrops with powerful visuals, May as well use still shots of huge patterned clouds in skies which look like early 19C paintings. Truly spectacular and original, they fill up the eyes and one's poor sore heart, sore because of the painful stories both explicit and implicit in the narrative.

Back to the plot, the initial proposal is underlined by friends setting off fireworks and half the mountain avalanches into the bus the lovers are riding in (altho this connection isnt made, it seems obvious to me and anyone living in the mountains anywhere that explosions create avalnches). In one of the many beautiful moments at this particular bend in the road, the lovers are tossed aside from the bus wrapped in each others' arms, and have to be gently pried apart by rescuers. The site is then visited by the main characters in combination and alone in search of the identity of the departed.

The more common silent and somewhat mutually intelligible struggles over death etc are complicated here by misunderstandings and lack of knowledge. Normally cultural agreement in the countries of production enrich this understanding and the audience's experience. This show verbalizes a lot of that, as per Netflix style and internationally projected audiences needs. All concerned do seek to understand the departed which is a comfortingly normal development.

The background of especially sourced coffee and cafes devoted to it, is sweetly nostalgic for the old and currently a trend for the young in various parts of Asia. It keeps the action reasonably cheerful and afloat. A wonderful perspective on Hawaii as a romantic and relaxing destination where the lovers meet several times. In sum, a treat for the eyes and a morally interesting plot, but somehow too lightly conceived and executed.

Read More

Cool show. FL Nam Ji Hyun has great acting chops and suitably gets max camera time (for once in kdrama!!!). Favourite shot -- a woman from behind her car window watches her adulterous spouse domestically affectionate in a glass-walled elevator coming down to the first floor. Double lenses of inspection and consideration.

This is my kind of cinema. A friend in NYC in the 70s said that the only signs of nature in the city are the human beings; in this show I feel as if the intimate architecture of these tall buildings are the forest glades and hills where the human denizens spend their days and nights.

Super interesting topic of divorce with lots of relationship to wonder over. Adore it so far. Am pretty sure I will feel the same at the end so why wait to recommend? Watch this! You will have a good time!

Added 22/09: The script was truly excellent. You could feel that tightening of the heart and then its slow release over and over again. Heart and intellect were consistently engaged in tandem. Super-talented writer.

ps i stubbornly classify ep 5 as a dream sequence; why else would the broad highway end up as a nightmare trek up a mountain path only to find the case to be an illusion and a dream of lifelong love to be real?

first posted on viki July 20th 2024

Read More

sensuous semi-historical costume drama with great script

I am writing this without finishing the watch bec although I was cut off about 2/3 of the way through by its removal from viki's list in my area, I still wanted to record the powerful impressions it left me with before they fade. Therefore I can only recommend it provisionally, but since it is a very literary adaptation of a novel with amazing actors and fascinating visual detail, I can do so with confidence.

It is the first cdrama I have seen set in the 19th century/Qing dynasty. It is set in Suzhou, one of the largest non-capital cities in the world in the pre-modern historical era prior to this story, just south of Shanghai now, whose production of silk fabric boomed in the 19thC (although foreign export was still banned) along with huge family businesses devoted to it. Although this show may superficially resemble Blossoms in Adversity it is of an entirely different genre. It is not episodic, not light entertainment and definitely not set in a generic fantasy-ancient china, so it supports much less anachronism of the simple and clear sort found in fantasy.

The drama starts at the central cause of the story, the disappearance of the titular head of a silk-producing family business. The main characters are vividly established at the very beginning. Events leading up to that moment are flashed back to as each character comes into focus at different points, and character development unfolds beautifully in sequence.

Appropriately for a family engaged in the fabric trade the costuming is awesome. Natural fabrics, cotton, linen and raw silk with woven and dyed patterns in loose rather baggy combinations of vests, overcoats and over tunics look very chic and modern in the present moment. The long undertunics, often of raw silk, have nice neck detailing in their closures. I also have never seen such a flock of handsome men careering about in Manchu tonsures and beautiful long queues (although closeups of the artificial hairpieces on backs of their heads should have been avoided).

I was struck in particular by some shared trends with western female dress of the 19C because it dovetailed with my impressions of literary concerns held in common. The detachable stiffened collars with embroidered or starched points radiate out from the neck to emphasize that middle parted and flattened hairstyle with a low bun shared also with women in this hemisphere at mid-century. So often in literature a woman's nobility of character is described in common with a 'noble brow' (forehead), and calm radiant expression, both of which were sought after by women and enhanced by similiar costume details.

The importance of the needs of an individual's soul is considered now to have first been extended via literature to women and children of this time period, and Marvelous Women uses a similiar focus on two major female protagonists who work towards a personal self-realization within the extreme pressures and responsibilities of their family crises. The very simple Rousseau-ean set-up of natural personal feelings opposing those dictated by an artificial society clearly informs the struggles over the young son born to a concubine who is technically the 'son' of the matriarch by custom.

I need to mention the incredible interpretation by Mao Zi Jun of a tragic man whose love brings one of the protagonists alive psychologically. He and Jiang Qin Qin (who plays Shen Cuiu Xi to his Wei Liang Gong) exchange true soul-to-soul glances as they fall in love. His (and others') aesthetic interest in operatic singing and painting are important to the story as all of these characters essentially 'paint' using embroidery or a brocade weaving technique. More time is spent on these aesthetic productions in the first third of the show, but as events move more swiftly in the central section the exposition of these recedes and I was sad.

I suddenly realized last week that the gardens in the show were not generic sets but parts of (or imitations of?) the real Suzhou Ming-era classical gardens, some of which remain today. I will just have to wait for the show to return to see which gardens the rockery and the waterfalls belong to.

So, there it is. This show is a feast for the senses in so many ways. The soundtrack is excellent, and although for westerners the style of chinese operatic singing is very unfamiliar, I think that listening with attention to it produces a provisional comfort and familiarity which one must needs cultivate as a matter of respect to such an important world cultural production. The acting is amazing, absolutely amazing. I feel like a reader/listener of Dickens anxiously awaiting a missed installment, while I wait for the rest of this great show. Hope I wont have to wait too long!

simultaneously posted on viki

Read More

about making movies and the crazy pressures of being a female celebrity.

A great watch, a good binge, lots of fun at 12 eps of 50mins ea. A workplace drama set in the film industry with an ensemble cast of 4 to 9 actresses (depending on where you are in the plot). Not a female-buddy show or a 9-to-5 show. Two main themes are that life is too short to hold grudges against friends or to reject sincere romantic love. As so often in shows placed in the entertainment world (perennial crowd-pleasers), those who work at creating illusions and dreams do not often have an easy time in their private lives.

A nuanced script creates 3-dimensional characters, imperfect, often funny, struggling as we all do to balance work and love, to live a human life. The estrangement and reconciliation of the friends who are the two main characters ties the show together. The plot's focus moves through the whole ensemble cast, starting with a coming-of-age story about the youngest actress and ending romantically for another. In between 2 women rescue fading careers, 3 people retire and 1 comes back from retirement, there are 2 or 3 divorces, 2 breakups, 2 affairs, 2 true love stories and, all the actresses learn and grow in their careers and as persons.

The frame is the the intense rhythm and stress of directing and producing two movies in sequence by a husband and wife team. The work ethic of these successful actresses means that their personal lives are put on hold during shooting and once the films wrap they have to deal with whatever problems have arisen meanwhile at home. The movies are plays-within-plays, their plots reflecting these women's lives superficially. The show concentrates on what happens behind the scenes.

My favourite out of these 9 equally talented actresses and their characters is Cheryl Yang as Chou Fan, living in semi-retirement in a filthy hotel room. She is brittle and difficult, unfiltered and vulnerable. She was the offender in the wedding debacle that caused the rift with her best friend, she is past-her-prime (maybe) and unknown to a younger generation. My favourite scene? Her, standing in a dumpster, receiving an impulsive confession from a younger guy standing in the adjacent dumpster. Of course.

I feel as if saying that women might enjoy this show more is like saying that The Hunt For Red October is best appreciated by men and enlisted personnel. However there is very little bromance (there is one cute scene though) in the show as opposed to the central group of female friends frequently letting off steam over snacks and drinks. Imagining being the lover of a fabulously beautiful actress but meeting up with a real person instead of the fantasy is an underlying theme which is easily accessible to men, and the mess an affair can make of one's life is of universal interest. In the end this is a very good show about friendship, about making movies, and about the crazy pressures of being a female celebrity. I predict it will be a future classic in this genre.

simultaneously posted on viki

Read More

Timeless, wonderful and super romantic. A great watch for valentines' day.

Timeless, wonderful and super romantic. A noona show combined with a reverse cinderella premise both of which end up subsumed into a bona fide story of true love. Lots of poetry and photography. Great actors, really romantic ballads on the soundtrack, absolutely beautiful outdoor scenes in Havana and on the NE Korean coast. A great watch for valentines' day or any anniversary. Park Bo Gum and Song Hye Ko give very precise emotional performances full of joy. When they weep you weep.

Fine production, all 10star. I have too many favourite scenes: first kiss, several proposals in various forms, many accidental meetings, even the exchange of couple rings is special. Natural acting sweetens and smoothes out some of the more arcane standard parts of a drama. The two hotels run by the semi-chaebol FL are high-end but not threatening or gloomy and the actual chaebols are operatically scary until they arent. 2ML syndrome for me on Jang Seung Jo, hapless romantic victim bad boy. Really outstanding supporting actors. Really, really outstanding.

Cannot forget to mention the opening/episode title/ending credits -- very pretty, they provide a left-field dream narrative which is useful to the more visually oriented.

first posted on viki sept 4th 2024

Read More

brilliant acting

How to romance your long-time boss and crush? So many boss and employee/intern romances, BL or hetero, yet this stands out. The back and forth of dialogue without an intrusive soundtrack is such a pleasure when watching jdrama. I was afraid that the feelings of these men in suits would not be respectfully treated (cupcake?). A ten-year age gap, a respectful relationship in a small office, and somehow the younger Togawa manages to give his friend and boss the gentlest and most patient push needed, to wake him up to love. Brilliant acting. My favorite shot -- Nozue's face sideways in bed, lit up by the screen as he reads missed texts from his friend -- the years drop away, his eyes and lips glow.

Read More

one of a kind, romantic and melancholic

Script is a wonderful fusion. Extremely funny, romantic and melancholic. Canada never looked so lovely. Did I say extremely funny? You havent lived until you weep from laughing at a gorgeous Grim Reaper and blindingly handsome Goblin warrior struggle with learning to use cell phones.

Kim Go Eun is astounding -- watch this drama for her acting skills.
Her facial control and timing is incredible. You can see that she is a great film actress.
She doesnt overpower the charm of the others, but she rules the room in charisma.
She is absolutely enchanting as a 18 year old (k-reckoning 19) darting here and there -- very comical, unleashed innocence and knowledge all at once.
She is heartbreaking as a grown woman, as brilliant and shining as her Goblin often says she is.

Great physical attitude-visuals from the dashing duo of Lee Dong Wook and Gong Yoo. Yoo In Ah is in beautiful form here. Excellent and consistently funny supporting cast. A good year for fashion, the leads are very chic.

One of those great kdrama soundtracks that tells you with charming dominance what you must feel at every turn of the plot: squeezing out your tears, filling you with melancholy, calming your fears as only kdrama must, so that you will worry, watch so closely that you will drop snacks all over the couch and sigh with satisfaction and relief as lovely resolutions of the plot appear....

Guardian can be watched again and again without any loss of magic. And it is being watched right now, this very minute, by hundreds of viewers around the globe. So join their company and watch well!

first posted on viki oct 29th 2024

On my top ten best ever kdramas list as of 12/24: Goblin, Hwayugi, Because This Is My First Life, Just between Lovers; the K2, Run On, Doom at Your Service; Tomorrow, Alchemy of Souls (earliest to latest) and Mr. Plankton .

Read More