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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An awesome epic weeper

A really awesome watch. An epic 2-tissue-box weeper. A love triangle which will make you feel that all other love triangles are but shadowy caricatures of the real thing. The script overall is truly powerful, but this is a 10star watch because the plot, character arcs/characterization and the acting power of the leads are so magnificent that an 11stars would have been a nice option for them alone. Pay careful attention to the prophecies of the blind face-reader and the three cat metaphors (kitten, shameless and genuine/false clay). The lyrics of songs in a chinese soundtrack always carry extra clues to the plot -- I loved the opening credits particularly.

The magnetic and charismatic Ren Jia Lun (as Wei Zhao/Wu Xia) can really act, even with his face in a half-mask for 1/4 of the movie -- watch him fall in love with his eyes. Landy Li (as Xie Jiang Ci) is the best actress I have seen in a long time -- across her face roll waves of love, fear, happiness, sorrow and the best glare ever. Jeremy Tsui (as Pei Yan) with the mellifluous voice (a separate v-actor?) has amazing stature and dignity; he also carries off beautifully a fine transition between obsessive love to facing reality; I also have never seen an actor do this so well.

The actors playing the most important 'supporting' roles, Zhang Feng Yi as the Emperor (Xie Che) and Wen Zhang Rong as the mother of Pei Yan (Rong Yu Die) give powerful, finely understated and magnificently ambiguous performances as the two poles of the "interesting times" in which our 3 true lovers are caught. Here is a question for you: how would the lives of Pei Yan and Wu Xia been different had Jiang Ci not left her master and mountain village behind to go see the world of 'rivers and lakes'?

I enjoyed the finely detailed and solid structure of the provincial corruption. I dont like battle scenes or overly confusing palace intrigue generally; less melodramatic and stereotypical than usual, these here held my attention. There were some very fine moments visually, but overall I think the battle scenes do not match the expertise of the rest of the series. The imperial intrigue, less claustrophobic than usual, was run from the outside of the palace. Wait for the most nerve-wracking 24 hour build-up to a wedding ever seen!

There are moments where the soundtrack, cinematography and script do not mesh well, marring an otherwise masterfully written and structured show. A few cheesy or schmaltzy moments during the two wars, mainly due to an out of control soundtrack which did not match the action. The impressionistic storyline of the wars was closer to a realistic experience than the usual easy-to-follow narrative. Many other minor sequences also had interesting, more modern storytelling structures. I think this might make the show a rewatch possibility.

The costuming was really intensely beautiful, very little of the standard pink and blue filmy drapery. The cinematography was overall excellent and professional with many really great shots. The director is only eight years into the business and was able to pull off this cast-of-thousands epic, so I look forward to his next shows.

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