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meganbmooreThis short kdrama is a retelling of the folktale of Chun-Hyang where Mong-Ryong does not fall in love with Chun-Hyang, but with her servant, Hyang-Dan. It’s essentially a vehicle for the actor playing Mong-Ryong, who I believe is member of the Korean pop group, Super Junior. He does a decent job, but is outclassed by pretty much the entire cast, in both the humor and drama parts.
It started off pretty fun, but inevitably started getting bogged down in more angst than the setup could really handled in the end. Though the lead actress will do an excellent job if she ever decides to start doing the melodramas. While I like that we no longer have a hero who runs off to the capital while a creepy corrupt official is trying to force his girlfriend into a relationship (I appreciate the whole “victory through the law” aspect, guess why I’ve never been quite comfortable with the original version.) and instead he leaves her with a family who treats her pretty well, as such things go, I don’t really care for how they ended up vilifying the traditional heroine, Chun-Hyang, in the process. Also, Mong-Ryong rather lost me when he interpreted “No, I do not want to run away with you. No, really, I meant that.” as “Please kidnap me! And keep dragging me behind you as I protest.”
Still, it was largely entertaining. My favorites parts were the trio of girls (representing the traditional narrators) who would randomly appear for a musical number, and Hyang-Dan’s daydreams when she though she and Mong-Ryong were going to be rebel heroes.
It started off pretty fun, but inevitably started getting bogged down in more angst than the setup could really handled in the end. Though the lead actress will do an excellent job if she ever decides to start doing the melodramas. While I like that we no longer have a hero who runs off to the capital while a creepy corrupt official is trying to force his girlfriend into a relationship (I appreciate the whole “victory through the law” aspect, guess why I’ve never been quite comfortable with the original version.) and instead he leaves her with a family who treats her pretty well, as such things go, I don’t really care for how they ended up vilifying the traditional heroine, Chun-Hyang, in the process. Also, Mong-Ryong rather lost me when he interpreted “No, I do not want to run away with you. No, really, I meant that.” as “Please kidnap me! And keep dragging me behind you as I protest.”
Still, it was largely entertaining. My favorites parts were the trio of girls (representing the traditional narrators) who would randomly appear for a musical number, and Hyang-Dan’s daydreams when she though she and Mong-Ryong were going to be rebel heroes.