Conversations with kdramas, part 1
Aug. 3rd, 2009 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI have started going through the kdramas available at Drama Fever. Pretty much, I’m planning to at least every one that sounds like something I could like, and every one that I remember people liking.
The hangup is that, while historical kdramas are my favorite kind of dorama, the more popular, trendy modern kdramas and I don’t get along well. There are a couple I love and a decent number I like, but I bounce hard off of most of them, and after the complete travesty of me and Goong, I realized that if I didn’t like it fairly early in the first episode, I’d be much happier moving on. On the list of “Things Megan Doesn’t Care For In Her Fiction,” the following rank pretty high: the vilification of family, the portrayal of women as unable to move on from past relationships, and stories that result in women standing to the side, probably crying, most likely hurt, while a guy works through his issues and angst. These are, of course, very popular kdrama tropes. Kdramas also have a habit of placing the heroines financially, legally, or professionally under the heroes’ power or in his debt, and I tend to be uncomfortable with that.
Of that 8 dramas I checked out, there are 2 I fully intend to watch more of, 1 I might watch more of, and one that might have had a better chance if, about the time the hero randomly took off his shirt in the name of fanservice, I hasn’t remembered that this was a pseudo-incest stepsiblings drama and fled in terror. (Which is an odd reaction for a heterosexual woman to have when an attractive man on her screen takes off his shirt, but there you have it.)
My Lovely Sam Soon: watched: 15 minutes of ep 1
HEROINE: The first 15 minutes are nothing but a nonstop parade of my rejection and humiliation. Even my daydreams are depressing and more of the same.
ME: Yes, I’m sure the entire drama won’t be like that (in fact, I’m assured of the opposite), but I can’t handle another minute of it.
HERO: But you haven’t even met me yet!
ME: True. But I know from the description that your arrival is guaranteed to be another scene of awful humiliation.
Goong S watched: entire first episode
HERO: Observe my died hair! My overly full, pink lips! The makeup that highlights my cheekbones just so!
ME: Boyband member?
HERO: …How did you guess?
HERO AND FRIENDS: Observe our supercracktastic jajjangmyung delivery competition!
ME: OMG I FOUND A SHOUNEN KDRAMA!
EVIL ICY CHICK: I send my goons to abduct the overly pretty, overly made up young Hero.
ME: I am intrigued!
GUY WHO RAISED HERO: By the way, you are Sekritly A Prince, and I have raised you as a commoner due to your mother’s wishes.
ME: Are there more girls in the palace? So far, this show is bizarrely lacking in women. For a kdrama, I mean.
QUEEN: Hi, I am the queen.
HERO: *almost breaks nose attaching it to the floor*
QUEEN: Observe how I am kinda awesome and composed and quite tolerant of young men with no manners yelling from this odd yet somewhat sweet boy’s phone.
ME: I am fearful, given that I liked the queen in the first and I’m pretty sure I was supposed to hate her! Also, I am oddly intrigued by your resemblance to an older, less cutesy Yoon Eun Hye.
QUEEN: It was probably deliberate.
SERVANT GIRL: Hi! I am clumsy and cutesy!
ME: Future Love Interest 101.
NOBLE BOY: I am clearly cold and arrogant, and skilled with weapons and martial arts.
ME: Rival. I suspect shall both adore and be quite annoyed with you.
NOBLE GIRL: I am quite pretty dancing with swords, but my job right now is just to be pretty.
ME: I kinda wish there was a hint of your personality here, but right now, I’m mostly thinking you an Noble Boy would look rather pretty together, and maybe should do a sageuk.
DRAMA: Well?
ME: Well, you went 63 minutes without annoying me. The original didn’t manage 5.
HERO: What about me? Not starting off the drama by breaking my promise with my girlfriend to wait until we graduated to go public with our relationship and giving her the ultimatum of abandoning any semblance of a normal life and her dreams or getting permanently dumped (sans creepy stalkery darkroom) gives me an edge, right?
ME: Yeah, pretty much. And you seem nice, as opposed to an arrogant jerk.
HERO: Yay!
Thank You watched: 1 minute, 33 seconds of ep 1
HERO: Observe as a glare at a sick child in a hospital who trips and falls and spills her drink on me. Did I mention I’m a doctor?
ME: …
OTHER KID IN HOSPITAL: Hey! Why aren’t you helping her up? She’s tiny and fell and you’re a doctor? What if she hurt herself?
HERO: *wipes his shoe off on OKIH’s hospital gown*
ME: Die. Next?
HERO: What? But don’t you want to learn about the deep, deep angst that has led to my callous, almost cruel behavior?
Sweet Spy watched: 23 minutes, 25 seconds (got distracted, as opposed to actually stopped, but…)
DRAMA: Hi! I am about pretty women with guns and pretty men who are undercover secret agents in disguise!
ME: I am curious, but…kinda bored? Which is strange.
DRAMA: …It’s like I don’t know you anymore.
ME: *cries* But I think I’ll try again later and see if it grabs me more?
Yi San watched: entire first episode
ME: You shall have much of Lee Seo Jin with a sword, yes?
DRAMA: I shall have plot, too! And observe my beautiful settings and costuming. Here, have an assassination attempt!
ME: WHEE! Assassination attempt! Does it involve Lee Seo Jin with a sword?
DRAMA: No, dear. First you have the childhood segment where he meets his supporting cast and there’s actual history and…look, here’s the future heroine being sent to the palace and separated from her baby brother!
ME: She better find him later!
DRAMA: And here is the future best friend/rival! Who is an eunich in training, but we’ll have a long sequence designed to reassure you that he does, in fact, still have that part. For the future love triangle, of course.
ME: I…uhm…yes. This is awkward and uncomfortable! Can we move on from the little boy angsting about his family forcing him to be a eunich and his humiliation?
DRAMA: And here is the kid who will grow up to be Lee Seo Jin, who is desperately trying to save his father, the crown prince, from being killed for supposedly trying to assassinate the king. Observe the amazingly expressive face.
ME: *squishes*
DRAMA: Here! Have the three future leads sneaking through the palace and being a love triangle in the making and bonding and running to save each other!
ME: EEE SO CUTE!!
DRAMA: Observe as I end the episode with no credits for the next episode.
ME: You just wanted to deny me clips of Lee Seo Jin with a sword, didn’t you?
DRAMA: I sense shallowness.
Hotelier watched: 11 minutes, 34 seconds of ep 1
DRAMA: Observe my weird angles and frantic cutting and camera movements.
ME: *gets dizzy*
DRAMA: Observe my detailed look into what goes on in the lives of hotel employees when you aren’t looking.
ME: I’m terribly sorry about this, but I’m rather bored.
DRAMA: I’m a classic?
ME: And probably the reason half the modern kdramas out there are about the owner or heir of a hotel.
DRAMA: …Maybe.
ME: If it helps, it’s mostly that the weird angles and cutting and frantic camera movements are giving me a headache.
One Fine Day watched: 11 minutes, 15 seconds of ep 1
DRAMA: Observe my gangster shootout car chase!
ME: Wow, Engrish is even worse with an Australian accent.
DRAMA: Shirtless male lead?
ME: That is a nice ches-*gears click* OMG I JUST REMEMBERED YOU! YOU ARE A PSEUDO-INCEST STEPSIBLING DRAMA!!!! *flees in terror*
DRAMA: Was it something I said?
ME: *from behind barricade* Aren’t you also one of those “hero out to trick and swindle heroine” dramas, too?
DRAMA: I suspect our love was not meant to be.
ME: Terribly sorry about that.
Cinderella Man watched: 13 minutes, 45 seconds of episode 1
DRAMA: Observe as I begin with a secretive and absurd BABY THEFT, and have another baby cry in the house as the babynappers drive off!
ME: You have set a high standard for crack! I hope you live up to it!
HERO: Observe my red, red lips.
ME: Actually, I find them moderately frightening. Though I am moderately intrigued by your slight resemblance to Fujiki Naohito.
DRAMA: See my scenes of deep, serious angst?
ME: WAIT! I thought you were a comedy from the description. And, uhm…your angst is so much that I’m waiting for a punch line?
OTHER HERO: Observe how I am a cocky, careless, arrogant rich kid. I no doubt have problems regarding the responsibilities my family expects of me, and have a rebellious streak.
ME: Does the world really need more of those?
OTHER HERO: It’s how kdramas survive.
DRAMA: *does more overly serious angst things*
ME: How does a drama about a babynapped rich guy who unknowingly asks his long-lost twin to switch places with him end up so boring?
The hangup is that, while historical kdramas are my favorite kind of dorama, the more popular, trendy modern kdramas and I don’t get along well. There are a couple I love and a decent number I like, but I bounce hard off of most of them, and after the complete travesty of me and Goong, I realized that if I didn’t like it fairly early in the first episode, I’d be much happier moving on. On the list of “Things Megan Doesn’t Care For In Her Fiction,” the following rank pretty high: the vilification of family, the portrayal of women as unable to move on from past relationships, and stories that result in women standing to the side, probably crying, most likely hurt, while a guy works through his issues and angst. These are, of course, very popular kdrama tropes. Kdramas also have a habit of placing the heroines financially, legally, or professionally under the heroes’ power or in his debt, and I tend to be uncomfortable with that.
Of that 8 dramas I checked out, there are 2 I fully intend to watch more of, 1 I might watch more of, and one that might have had a better chance if, about the time the hero randomly took off his shirt in the name of fanservice, I hasn’t remembered that this was a pseudo-incest stepsiblings drama and fled in terror. (Which is an odd reaction for a heterosexual woman to have when an attractive man on her screen takes off his shirt, but there you have it.)
My Lovely Sam Soon: watched: 15 minutes of ep 1
HEROINE: The first 15 minutes are nothing but a nonstop parade of my rejection and humiliation. Even my daydreams are depressing and more of the same.
ME: Yes, I’m sure the entire drama won’t be like that (in fact, I’m assured of the opposite), but I can’t handle another minute of it.
HERO: But you haven’t even met me yet!
ME: True. But I know from the description that your arrival is guaranteed to be another scene of awful humiliation.
Goong S watched: entire first episode
HERO: Observe my died hair! My overly full, pink lips! The makeup that highlights my cheekbones just so!
ME: Boyband member?
HERO: …How did you guess?
HERO AND FRIENDS: Observe our supercracktastic jajjangmyung delivery competition!
ME: OMG I FOUND A SHOUNEN KDRAMA!
EVIL ICY CHICK: I send my goons to abduct the overly pretty, overly made up young Hero.
ME: I am intrigued!
GUY WHO RAISED HERO: By the way, you are Sekritly A Prince, and I have raised you as a commoner due to your mother’s wishes.
ME: Are there more girls in the palace? So far, this show is bizarrely lacking in women. For a kdrama, I mean.
QUEEN: Hi, I am the queen.
HERO: *almost breaks nose attaching it to the floor*
QUEEN: Observe how I am kinda awesome and composed and quite tolerant of young men with no manners yelling from this odd yet somewhat sweet boy’s phone.
ME: I am fearful, given that I liked the queen in the first and I’m pretty sure I was supposed to hate her! Also, I am oddly intrigued by your resemblance to an older, less cutesy Yoon Eun Hye.
QUEEN: It was probably deliberate.
SERVANT GIRL: Hi! I am clumsy and cutesy!
ME: Future Love Interest 101.
NOBLE BOY: I am clearly cold and arrogant, and skilled with weapons and martial arts.
ME: Rival. I suspect shall both adore and be quite annoyed with you.
NOBLE GIRL: I am quite pretty dancing with swords, but my job right now is just to be pretty.
ME: I kinda wish there was a hint of your personality here, but right now, I’m mostly thinking you an Noble Boy would look rather pretty together, and maybe should do a sageuk.
DRAMA: Well?
ME: Well, you went 63 minutes without annoying me. The original didn’t manage 5.
HERO: What about me? Not starting off the drama by breaking my promise with my girlfriend to wait until we graduated to go public with our relationship and giving her the ultimatum of abandoning any semblance of a normal life and her dreams or getting permanently dumped (sans creepy stalkery darkroom) gives me an edge, right?
ME: Yeah, pretty much. And you seem nice, as opposed to an arrogant jerk.
HERO: Yay!
Thank You watched: 1 minute, 33 seconds of ep 1
HERO: Observe as a glare at a sick child in a hospital who trips and falls and spills her drink on me. Did I mention I’m a doctor?
ME: …
OTHER KID IN HOSPITAL: Hey! Why aren’t you helping her up? She’s tiny and fell and you’re a doctor? What if she hurt herself?
HERO: *wipes his shoe off on OKIH’s hospital gown*
ME: Die. Next?
HERO: What? But don’t you want to learn about the deep, deep angst that has led to my callous, almost cruel behavior?
Sweet Spy watched: 23 minutes, 25 seconds (got distracted, as opposed to actually stopped, but…)
DRAMA: Hi! I am about pretty women with guns and pretty men who are undercover secret agents in disguise!
ME: I am curious, but…kinda bored? Which is strange.
DRAMA: …It’s like I don’t know you anymore.
ME: *cries* But I think I’ll try again later and see if it grabs me more?
Yi San watched: entire first episode
ME: You shall have much of Lee Seo Jin with a sword, yes?
DRAMA: I shall have plot, too! And observe my beautiful settings and costuming. Here, have an assassination attempt!
ME: WHEE! Assassination attempt! Does it involve Lee Seo Jin with a sword?
DRAMA: No, dear. First you have the childhood segment where he meets his supporting cast and there’s actual history and…look, here’s the future heroine being sent to the palace and separated from her baby brother!
ME: She better find him later!
DRAMA: And here is the future best friend/rival! Who is an eunich in training, but we’ll have a long sequence designed to reassure you that he does, in fact, still have that part. For the future love triangle, of course.
ME: I…uhm…yes. This is awkward and uncomfortable! Can we move on from the little boy angsting about his family forcing him to be a eunich and his humiliation?
DRAMA: And here is the kid who will grow up to be Lee Seo Jin, who is desperately trying to save his father, the crown prince, from being killed for supposedly trying to assassinate the king. Observe the amazingly expressive face.
ME: *squishes*
DRAMA: Here! Have the three future leads sneaking through the palace and being a love triangle in the making and bonding and running to save each other!
ME: EEE SO CUTE!!
DRAMA: Observe as I end the episode with no credits for the next episode.
ME: You just wanted to deny me clips of Lee Seo Jin with a sword, didn’t you?
DRAMA: I sense shallowness.
Hotelier watched: 11 minutes, 34 seconds of ep 1
DRAMA: Observe my weird angles and frantic cutting and camera movements.
ME: *gets dizzy*
DRAMA: Observe my detailed look into what goes on in the lives of hotel employees when you aren’t looking.
ME: I’m terribly sorry about this, but I’m rather bored.
DRAMA: I’m a classic?
ME: And probably the reason half the modern kdramas out there are about the owner or heir of a hotel.
DRAMA: …Maybe.
ME: If it helps, it’s mostly that the weird angles and cutting and frantic camera movements are giving me a headache.
One Fine Day watched: 11 minutes, 15 seconds of ep 1
DRAMA: Observe my gangster shootout car chase!
ME: Wow, Engrish is even worse with an Australian accent.
DRAMA: Shirtless male lead?
ME: That is a nice ches-*gears click* OMG I JUST REMEMBERED YOU! YOU ARE A PSEUDO-INCEST STEPSIBLING DRAMA!!!! *flees in terror*
DRAMA: Was it something I said?
ME: *from behind barricade* Aren’t you also one of those “hero out to trick and swindle heroine” dramas, too?
DRAMA: I suspect our love was not meant to be.
ME: Terribly sorry about that.
Cinderella Man watched: 13 minutes, 45 seconds of episode 1
DRAMA: Observe as I begin with a secretive and absurd BABY THEFT, and have another baby cry in the house as the babynappers drive off!
ME: You have set a high standard for crack! I hope you live up to it!
HERO: Observe my red, red lips.
ME: Actually, I find them moderately frightening. Though I am moderately intrigued by your slight resemblance to Fujiki Naohito.
DRAMA: See my scenes of deep, serious angst?
ME: WAIT! I thought you were a comedy from the description. And, uhm…your angst is so much that I’m waiting for a punch line?
OTHER HERO: Observe how I am a cocky, careless, arrogant rich kid. I no doubt have problems regarding the responsibilities my family expects of me, and have a rebellious streak.
ME: Does the world really need more of those?
OTHER HERO: It’s how kdramas survive.
DRAMA: *does more overly serious angst things*
ME: How does a drama about a babynapped rich guy who unknowingly asks his long-lost twin to switch places with him end up so boring?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 06:36 pm (UTC)I recommend Queen Seondeok! It has its own share of problems, but it's full of dominant female characters at least, who are all pretty fascinating (particularly Mishil).