Of Swords and Parasols

Yesterday I watched the first episode of the 2008 series Iljimae and noticed that the child versions of the leads were played by Yeo Jin Goo and Kim Yoo Jung, who reunited 4 years later to play the child versions of the leads in The Moon Embracing the Sun. They were 10 and 8, I think, when making Iljimae and are so tiny and earnest and in danger of being devoured alive by their costumes that you could actually expire from the cuteness. I knew YJG was in The Royal Gambler since I watched some of it, but was curious about what KYJ was up to. And found out that KYH, who is currently 16, has an upcoming sageuk, Moonlight Drawn By Clouds, in which she's apparently being romantically paired with 22 year old Park Bo Gum.Who is playing a historical figure who actually died at 20.) Much worse is Mirror of the Witch, in which 15 year old Kim Sae Ron is paired with 29 year old Yoon Shi Yoon.

In The Royal Gambler, I was doing a lot of sideeyeing over that fact that I was expected to believe that YJG's character is only a year younger than the character played by 28 year old Jang Geun Suk, and was involved in a love triangle with 25 year old Lim Ji Yeon (who, like YJG, plays a character pretty close to her actual age), though I wasn't overly worried as JGS/LJY was clearly the Official Pairing. What's going on in MDBC and MotW is a whole other matter.

KYJ is a very talented actress and I'm told KSR is too, though I haven't seen her in anything, and while I fully support giving young actresses good roles, I know for a fact that there are plenty of good actresses who know their ways around a sageuk who are in the early to mid-20s range. If they had their hearts set on these particular actresses, then there are also perfectly decent actors in the 16-20 range. Granted, the legal age of consent in South Korea is 13, and large age differences in actors isn't too unusual in sageuks, but it's usually a case of an actress in her early or mid-20s being paired with an actor in his 30s (there seems to be less of this in recent years, though, with the Flower Boy craze hitting sageuks), not someone who's too young to legally drive almost anywhere outside of North America being paired with someone much older than her.

(As far as the dramas themselves go...I lost interest in TRG, and MDBC was like Hwarang, where my watching would largely depend on my schedule once it starts, and if there are more women than it currently looks like. MotW is one I REALLY look forward too, plotwise, but I was always leery of the casting, though I didn't realize how big the age difference was until after the first trailer came out, so it will depend on what wins out once it starts.)

1. One more episode of Beauty and the Beast, and all my summer shows are over. Not entirely certain what to make of this season of BatB. There are parts I really like, but the main plotlines of the season just haven't grabbed me. Also, massive waste of Gloria Vostis and Natasha Henstridge.

2. When Dark Matter and Killjoys started, I preferred Dark Matter of the two, but it's pretty firmly the opposite by the end of the season. Dark Matter just has too many microaggressions against Two-as-leader, and while it isn't exactly fond of rape threats, it came up enough for the show to lose points for it with me. Also, much as I like MOST of Dark Matter's crew, I liked One less every single episode, whereas D'Avin in Killjoys, who I initially also disliked, grew on me a fair bit. I mean, I like him less than pretty much every other named and main or recurring character, but I'll take him over One easily.

Both shows broke out the big guns for the finales (though I think the rebellion in Killjoys was a bit too background for the whole season to work the way they wanted it to in the finale). Killjoys is absolutely forbidden to open season 2 with sad music playing as the camera does a slowmo pan over the bodies of dead recurring characters (the show had it's chance with the "what's behind the door?" tension. It isn't allowed to pull anything like that.), and while I'm not pleased with the reveal of the traitor in Dark Matter, there aren't many ways that could have gone without my objecting.

Fingers crossed that both will get renewed.

3. Continuum is back, though, for it's fourth and final season. I wasn't big on the new future introduced towards the end of season 3, but we'll see how things go. If nothing else, I do at least trust the show to have a good ending. (Though I hope Kiera/Brad isn't end game.)

4.Years after Moon Embracing the Sun was the big Kdrama of the Moment, I'm getting around to watching it. I remember being moderately interested in it when it aired but not enough to watch it at the time, and that it seemed everyone either loved it, or hated it because everyone else loved it. It also came out in what seems to have been a bit of a Flower Boy craze in fusion sageuks after Sungkyukwan Scandal (another that i need to see, though most of my interest is Park Min Young) and it really shows.

I'm 8 episodes in and enjoying it, though in a somewhat passive way, largely because of my disinterest in the adult version of the main character. Kim Yoo Jung as Yeon Woo in the childhood (really early teens) part was really great, and I loved the character then, but Han Ga In as the adult Yeon Woo is rather...blank. I mean, part of it is because the character has amnesia, I think, but the acting is (IMO) rather bland. There have been a couple scenes where the character grabbed me, but they were exceptions, not the rule. There are a lot of other characters that I like, but it's hard for me to get invested when I don't feel anything for the female lead. I don't dislike her or anything, she just doesn't grab me.
Sseeing Kim Min Seo as Bo Kyung is a little odd, as she's also in Hwajung, where she also plays an evil scheming lady who wants to be queen. Though i'd say that, despite the type, the characters are completely different. I actually wouldn't have even realized it was the same actress because she looks and acts so different in the two series, but she has a rather distinctive face.

Speaking of faces, I don't know what casting was doing with the child actors, to a certain degree. It's like they actively sought to find young actors who bore a strong resemblance to the adult actors, then randomly assigned the roles without paying attention to which adults the younger actors actually resembled.

5. Fall shows start up again soon, though I'm not sure there are any new ones that I'll be checking out. Nothing grabbed me when I glanced through new shows a while back, but I might have missing something.

6. I rewatched the K Project anime as a refresher before season 2 airs, and also watched the Missing Kings sequel movie, which was pretty good, despite someohw managing to make Seri's skirt even shorter. I'm never forgiving the series for the reveal about Shiro's true identity, but I do still like it, mostly for the characters. I went ahead and watched the series dubbed and...most of the dubbing was ok, but Reisi and Fushimi's dubbed voices would have made me dislike the characters even if I didn't already have issues with them. (Reisi I would like if he wren't prone to manhandling prisoners and din't seem to enjoying showing off his powers to those weaker than him so much. Fushimi just annoys me. A lot.) I'll probably rewatch Noragami before the second season of that airs, too, though I watched the first season much more recently than my first watch of K Project.