Monday, May 7, 2012

Queen SeonDeok

  • Title: 선덕여왕 (善德女王) / Seondeok Yeo Wang
  • Also known as: Queen Seon Duk
  • Tagline: The one who secures the people will acquire the world and rule the ages
  • Genre: Historical Drama
  • Episodes: 62
  • Broadcast network: MBC
  • Broadcast period: 2009-May-25 to 2009-Dec-22
  • Air time: Monday & Tuesday 21:55

Synopsis

Deokman was born a twin but was abandoned as a baby and sent to a place far away by her father, King Jinpyeong in order to protect her from being killed by an influenced royal court lady, Mishil who tries to snatch away the throne from the royal successor. Deokman was later brought back to the Silla palace, where she joined forces with her twin sister Princess Cheonmyong to oppose Mishil. However, Mishil devised sinister plans to have the two Silla princesses exiled from the kingdom, and in a secretive battle, Princess Cheonmyong was accidentally killed. But Princess Deokman shrewdly enlisted the help of General Kim Yusin and eliminated her archenemy Mishil. She then became Queen Seon Deok, the first female ruler of the Silla kingdom. This drama is about a story of a beautiful queen, who has to give up her love to save the people and thus, leaving behind many brilliant achievements.
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Yeah, so that's the synopsis DramaWiki would like you to have.  You can have it.

Ponder Angst – So much ponder I almost stopped watching the series.  If I wasn't trying to talk my friend into watching Damo, I wouldn't have finished it.  0 points
Love “ – “ Angles – YuShin Loves DeokMan, DeokMan loves YuShin, Bidam loves DeokMan, DeokMan eventually loves BiDam, SeolWon loves Mishil, Mishil loves Mishil.  30 points.
Sizzle – Oh, there was sizzle!  YuShin's "I'll always be by your side" sizzle, and when we find out he always knew DeokMan was a girl?  Whhoooooof.  And then Bidam's amazing charisma that screamed off the screen and right into my face.  Another 30 points, mostly because I loved looking at these two.
Physical Intimacy – Hugs and some intimacy. 20 points.
Tragic Heartwrenching Disease and/or Character Death from Same – The white cloth of life/death was out in abundance in this series.  Nearly everyone who dies - dies from the scourge of Shilla - the dreaded bloodinthemouth.  You know when you see the white cloth come out and someone coughs?  It always comes up bloody - so you know they are about to die.  When the white cloth comes out to cool a fevered forehead?  They live.  Because...no bloodinthemouth.  But we get bloodinthemouth even when there is no white cloth of Life or Death.  Stabbed in the belly?  Bloodinthemouth.  Stabbed in the shoulder?  Bloodinthemouth.  Arrow in the back?  Bloodinthemouth.  Even Chil Sook dies only -  ONLY when he bleeds from his mouth.  Bloodinthemouth kills more people than constipation; and toward the end, it was literally gushing out of our character's mouths.  10 points just because of that white cloth of death and all the bloodinthemouth.
Tazza Factor – Ahhhhhm, the tazza.  Sorry QSD, you blew it.  You started slow, then Bidam showed up and you almost had me, and then, well, and then the show got dull. 0 points.
Going to the Beach –  There was some suicide, but nothing at the beach.  0 Bonus points.

90 points on the e-mometer, which is way higher than the series deserves in my book.  Well, OK - I'll say that the tragic ending was a tear-jerker and I was most certainly moved.  Moved still to see YuShin still by the Queen's side at the end, just as he promised in the beginning.  

So OK.  I'll let the 90 stand. 

Posted by Unknown at 10:46 AM 0 comments  

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More Queen SeonDeok

Almost a Big Fat Fail.

I had moments where I thought Queen Seon Duk was going to be another Jumong.  The Mishil Smirk. Hot Hot Yu Shin.  Bi "I'm the Duck" Dam.  Twin #1.  Woot Tae, I mean, Munno.  Some really great cliffhangers, clever maneuvers and out maneuvers.  Kites.  You just can't go wrong with kites.

You know what killed it for me?  The length.  The freaking d  r  a  w  n  o  u  t  baaaaaaatttttttllllllleeeeeesssss hiiiiiiiiidddddddddinnnnnnnnnnggggg, ccccrrrrryyyyyyiiiiiinnnnngggggg, taaaaaaallllllllkkkkkkkkiiiiiinnnnnnng    mmmmmmarrrrrrcccccchhhhhhiiiiinnnnnnggg ssssssssiiiiiiiittttttttiiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggggg aaaaaaattttttt taaaaaaaabbbbbbbllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss.  Oh my goodness, and it just doesn't end.  Taking for freaking ever to do anything.

And it wasn't about the length of the series.  "Jumong: Legend of the Three Han" was 81 episodes.  I was sad when that series ended because I loved every single one of the characters - I even became fond of the bad ones.  Daeso?  Come on - loved that drunken sunuvabitch.  "Jewel in the Palace" - at 50+ episodes, I think I've watched that 5 or 6 times.

But somehow I just didn't fully connect with the characters.  I thought I was going to and I really tried. In the end, it was like basketball.  I don't like watching the game because all I can focus on are the squeaky sneakers on the gym floor.  I'm not even watching the game, all I can focus on are the stupid squeaks.  I stopped caring about the characters and started counting the pans across a room when someone would say something shocking - Mishil, BoJong, SeJong, Mi Saeng, Seol won, Ha Jong, Smirking Mishil, BoJong, SeJong, Mi Saeng, Seol Won and won and won and won.

YuShin sacrificed his love for a woman for the love of his people, Woot Tae, I mean Munno intrigued me, Seol won - I loved the way he loved Mishil.  The can't kill him Chil Sook and his tender love for Seowha, and then Korea's Johnny Depp steps in.

As I said before - Bi-dayum.  Kim Nam Gil injected something into the whole series for me; not just - is he good or bad - is he Mishil or WooTae - I mean Munno - but his characterization, the flexibility in his face; this wasn't just a one dimensional character.  Bidam was the best of Mishil's spawn, a diamond in the rough, waiting to be cut and given the facets that would make him shine from within and become the strongest and most beautiful rock in the foundation of Queen SeonDeok's impossible dream.  The dysfunction of a lifetime, his fear and his inability to really understand how to fully love and trust brought about his own end.  He was a fascinating character and I cheered for him even as he got as close as 10 steps to the Queen. 

Similar to Song Il Guk's Yeom Moon in "Emperor of the Sea", it was Bidam that forced me to come back to the series.  It was his multidimensional character that brought it all together and then mercilessly ended it, not DeokMan. 

I think I would have liked to see a little more of the strong and forward-thinking SeonDeok.  The woman who brought a Renaissance to her people.  Who built Buddhist temples and helped her people grow.  It was alluded to, but never realized.  It was plot plot plot, war war war, screw with Bidam, screw with SeonDeok, screw with YuShin.  And unfortunately, I got tired of that.

Posted by Unknown at 10:16 AM 0 comments  

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Queen SeonDeok


Mishil is bad.  The kind of bad you love to hate.  The kind of bad that you really want to see wander off into the ocean and lose her shoes.  She was ancient Shilla's version of white trash -  she had a kid by just about every guy in the series.  You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one of Mishil's spawn.  A skank with class and a dream.

SeonDeok/DeokMan is good.  The kind of good you want to see live happily ever after.  The kind of good you want to see have babies and till the land with the man she loves.

YuShin is good.  The kind of good that makes you ache.  The kind of good that comes around once in a lifetime; that sacrifices himself completely for the ones he loves.  The kind of good that will help his apparent enemies if it means the betterment of the nation and the health of his queen.

Bidam is...Bidam is...Bidam is hot.  The kind of hot that makes you turn on the air conditioner.  The kind of hot that makes you wish he was looking at you with those devil may care eyes, with those fierce eyes, with those wounded eyes. The kind of hot and anguished and good and bad that every woman longs for really, so she can fix him, but finds out later that he's always going to be sort of a delicious mess. 

Everyone else, as far as I was concerned, revolved around those four characters.  Ass-kicking Woo Tae...I mean, Munno, the twitchy and catatonic Seowha, the can't kill him with fire or sand Chil Sook - (Korea's version of Jason in Friday the 13th), the fancy brother, the annoying husband, the hot and devoted sergeant at arms SeolWon, the Nancy King, the crying Queen, the dead twin sister, the tricksy nephew, the many toadies and on and and on and on. 

The first third of the series sets us up.  We get the Big Dipper Prophecy alluding to Mishil's downfall, the twins, the escape; relationships introduced, formed, and cemented.  Sisters lost and found and lost again.  Devotion established.  Motivations built.  This part of the series is "AllaboutDeokman and Mishil" and the people who love them both.

The second part of the series; episodes 20 - 40 or so, we are introduced to Korea's Johnny Depp - Bidam. I call this part of the series "Bi-dayum!".  Mommy was he beautiful.  Hot hot son of Mishil and King Jinji.  Disciple of WooTae, I mean Munno.  Physically abandoned at birth by his mother, emotionally abandoned in adolescence by his master WooTae, I mean Munno, later describing himself as "The Duck" - following the first person he lays his eyes on when he's born (or re-born as in this case).  That person is DeokMan.  We learn about Bidam's past, we learn about his present, and we hope for his future.  Gets pretty messed up by his Mom and her violet cohort, the Men in Purple - Her husband, her son, her brother and her lover.  Thus begins the third part....

Which should have been titled, "Men Who Carry Feather Fans Are Up To No Good".  A mess of mistrust, miscommunication, and mismanagement.  Bidam styles himself into a gay asian hairdresser, Queen SeonDeok decides she can't trust anyone, and YuShin....well, YuShin is still good, and devoted and lovely and strong and courageous and brave, workaholic though he is.  

I will grant you that the ending broke my heart.  I was moved a la "Emperor of the Sea".  I had longed for Bidam to be able to tell the Queen what was in his heart, but it was not to be.  And there were some sincerely marvelous performances, particularly by Kim Nam Gil.  Come for his hotness, stay for...his hotness.

In the end, it was all sort of a Romeo and Juliet thing with our two Big Dipper star-crossed lovers missing each other by inches; tragedy at its Korean best.  If you are into that kind of thing, you will love this series.  It just got too long and drawn out for me and I wanted to put it out of it's misery at around episode 50. 

Posted by Unknown at 10:06 AM 0 comments  

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Monday, April 9, 2012

My Princess

“When someone gives you something you thought he could never give, that’s when a person’s heart thumps.” – Seol

Cast

Correlation Chart
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Well pinch me if this series wasn't the cutest darn thing I've seen in a long time. Predictable - sure. Kdrama must haves - absolutely. Happy ending - sweet mother, yes. None of that bothered me because I was charmed right through to my little toes with our main characters Park Hae Young and Lee Seol.

QuickPlot: Down on her luck adopted plucky gal, meets astonishingly wealthy, young diplomat fella. Gal turns out to be a gen-u-wine princess, fella is assigned to be her "I will teach you all things royally political" protector. A variety of personal and professional challenges later, he is fatally charmed by her cuteness, and she can't help but fall in love with his diplomatic hotness. 16 cutesydrama episodes later, happy happy happy joy joy joy!

When I said My Princess had kdrama must haves, I wasn't kidding. I actually started looking for them to make my warmth for this series turn in to downright affection. We had palace machinations, hospital scenes with a humidifier, drunk girl getting piggy back ride from rich man, evil girlfriend and an evil sister. We had a forgotten meeting between our two lovers when they are pre-pubescent and while there was no dramatic eye-cancer there was some heart disease. There was also a showing of two of my very favorite kdrama staples; poop jokes and the healing white cloth of life. (My all-time favorite is fatal constipation; you just don't see that often enough).

Kim Tae Hee was the absolute picture of plucky sparkle balanced nicely by Song Seung Hun who went from bewildered charm to captivated delight to head over heels in love. The other characters...meh. I think that Little Chef Gunnie was underutilized - so adorable - we didn't get much of him until the end. I liked Professor Glutton-for-punishment Nam, a guy that needs some serious therapy having deliberately entered back into a toxic relationship with B*tchy McBotoxFace. Come on Jung Woo - you are a smart good looking guy - you can totally do better.

My nits to pick? I have no idea what motivated Yoon Joo (B*tchy). Maybe I blacked out or something; but why so bitter? Why so absolutely hateful to everyone? B*tchy to the only people that had any affection for her – to Jung Woo, to her father, to Hae Young – and then after burning all her bridges, whined “How could you do that to me?” ------- Really Yoon Joo? Really? Was I supposed to care for the character in the end when she lost all of her prestige? I didn’t understand her at all and she was an expressionless annoyance from beginning to end. And she looked like she was 40.

I also thought the last two episodes could have been mushed into one. I didn’t need the agony of a two month absence and then the next episode’s agony of a two year absence. It all started to feel contrived and campy – ridiculous in a fluff piece, right? But I hadn’t felt that throughout the series until the end, having enjoyed the character and relationship development.

Ponder Angst – Not too much of the ponder here. We got some, but it was all going back and fetching some repressed memory stuff that was important to the plot. There was ponder toward the end that started to annoy and I had to ffw. 10 points

Love “ – “ Angles – Jung Woo is in love with Toxic, LS initially crushes on JW, PHY is initially in love with Toxic, but eventually falls for LS who in turn falls for HY. I'm giving out a half a point for adorable little Gunnie's crush all over LS, like a fluffy little brown-eyed puppy. 20.5 points.

Sizzle – Ah, the sizzle. Our main characters definitely had the chemistry set out. It all seemed sweet and genuine, with some really stellar sizzle moments from Song Seung Hun. 15 points.

Physical Intimacy – A good amount of nice kisses, wrist grabbing, and hugging. 15 points.

Tragic Heartwrenching Disease and/or Character Death from Same – Like I said, we have some heart disease, which in its’ strictest sense of the metric would be considered heart wrenching, but it's not stomach cancer, so I can really only give it 10 points.

Tazza Factor – Ahhhhhm, the tazza. Did the series grab my interest like a jealous oppa taking hold of my arm? Did it keep it there, panting for more like a dysfunctional Professor hugging his soulless ex-girlfriend? Doesn’t hit the level of Tazza, War of the Flower, for which this metric is named. This was a nice sweet series that I will recommend to ahjummas everywhere, telling them their nice teenage daughters can watch. I'll give it 10 points.

Going to the Beach – Nothing in the bonus round. We have flashbacks of little Lee Seol on the beach with her Dad - clearly homeless, and he makes it fun, but no suicide. 0 Bonus points.

80.5. Overall, I enjoyed this series and I will absolutely watch it again for some mindless entertainment. Not thought provoking at all, but charming and diverting; and sometimes that’s just what you need. - e

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Secret Garden

Cast


Secret Garden

QuickPlot: Claustrophobic Rich spoiled Captain of Industry (Kim Joo Woon) meets Orphaned poor hard working Stunt girl (Gil Ra Im). He is entranced, she is angered, he is entranced, she is annoyed, he is entranced, she is intrigued, he is disgusted, she is hurt, they drink magic flower wine, switch bodies; hilarity and drama ensues.

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I read about this drama back in 2010 when Jang Hyuk was slated as the Rich Claustrophobic Captain of Industry. There were some issues with his management company and aigooo - Hyun Bin was cast as the Rich Claustrophobic Captain of Industry. I haven’t seen enough of Hyun Bin’s work – in fact, the only other drama I saw him in was “My Name is Kim Sam Soon”, where he played Leg Wounded Rich Spoiled Captain of Industry. So sadly, it felt like I was watching the same character.

Ha Ji Won –I’ve seen her in Damo and Hwang Jini. Different characters, both fierce and striking. She impressed me with her grace and intensity. Her character Gil Rae Im started out all fierce and butchy, then turned plucky, then got all weepy and apologetic toward the end. I was a bit disappointed.

In the beginning of the series, I found much that was endearing; puzzled over her lack of social standing, money and breeding, KJW can’t stop thinking about GRI. When he walks, he imagines she’s there with him, when he’s at the opera, she’s there with him, wherever he goes, there she is, moving at his pace, just there. Gil Ra Im eventually gives in to her feelings and is willing to accept whatever spoiled Kim Joo Woon is able to give, just as he realizes that what he wants to give her is everything. It’s really very sweet.

K-drama staples – this series has ‘em. Modern-day palace machinations at the shopping center, evil mothers, scheming sisters-in-law,the white cloth of life made an appearance, oh and the sacrificial if-one-of-us-has-to-die-let-it-be-me episode. The chemistry between HB and HJW definitely kept me coming back – there were lots and lots of achy moments that made my belly flop.

Oh and Lee Phillip as Director Im Jong Soo? Wow. I had more empathy for his character quietly loving GRI. Sigh. Nice.

The odd stuff? The whole Oska hallyu singing sensation and the ruinous relationship that left him a bitter bitter player plot didn’t do it for me; and I never quite got the gay ingénue that developed feelings for him – that felt contrived. However, I did feel bad for gay ingénue leaving and having no one in the end. And was I supposed to believe that Son Ye Jin was into Im Jong Soo at the end or was she just hiring him to be a director? Didn’t get it. KJW’s mother was a monster – just a plain, evil, hateful, bitter dreadful excuse for a human being.

Hyun Bin behaving as a woman? Hilarious and adorable. Ha Ji Won acting as a man? Well, she was pretty butchy as it was – all Coffee-Princey, so not such a stretch. On reflection, the body switching thing, I think it was simply a mechanism for the sacrificial if-one-of-us-has-to-die-let-it-be-me episode and that was too bad. It could have been more. We could have seen KJW learn to have appreciation for how and why GRI lives as she does, GRI could have learned bits about KJWs crippling and heart-attack provoking claustrophobia…but maybe that was too obvious. Better we all just get awkward at work and learn that Joo Woon’s security password is 36 24 36 and that Ra Im’s roommate leaves the bathroom door open asking if it smells bad. You can’t miss with a good poop joke.

Ponder Angst – Not a lot of ponder angst. This was not a ponder-fest. There are some moments that reflected on the past, but that was all Oska’s and his woman’s and it was blessedly brief, because I didn’t care. 20 points

Love “ – “ Angles – KJW loves GRI, Oska loves whatshername, hot hot Director Im Jong Soo loved GRI, one of the other students at the Action school loved GRI, and Joo Won’s mother loved no one but herself. 16 points.

Sizzle – Ah, the sizzle. As I said, there were some sizzly moments between KJW and GRI, some aching looks from Im Jong Soo and that kept me coming back. 10 points.

Physical Intimacy – Lots of stiff kisses, wrist grabbing, hugging and a couple awkward cappuccino lip locks. The payoff kiss at the Christmas party went on too long and seemed a little, I don’t know, slick somehow. I wanted to give them a hanky to wipe off their faces. 10 points.

Tragic Heartwrenching Disease and/or Character Death from Same – There was no death from disease. GRI’s dad dies in a heroic flashy elevator car of death, and Joo Woon has a claustrophobia induced fainting spell. GRI is brain dead for a little while, but that all gets fixed. I’ll give it 10 points for Dad’s fiery fireman death.

Going to the Beach – Nothing in the bonus round. Too bad mom didn’t do us all a favor and smother herself in all that organza she wore. Hag.

So, 71 on the e-meter. It wasn’t a bad series, but I won’t be watching it again. The last 5 episodes or so felt rushed and not really in concert with the whole. The editing seemed sloppy and some of the story lines were dropped without any explanation. The effort to pull it all together in the last quarter of the series with Ah Young’s predictive dreams was lame.

When the squealing charm of Hyun Bin acting like a girl wore off, I wondered how the series would have been different had Joo Woon been played by Jang Hyuk.

And I could have done without the leopard print robe.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Little Bit on Emperor of the Sea

I watched Emperor of the Sea two years ago now, but thanks to a recent re-run, there has been renewed interest in my very first Korean Drama – the one I had so desperately wanted to discuss with someone, but no one shared my fever.

I like my endings happy and it certainly would have been more satisfying if that little pig Yang Kim would have been gotten cut to pieces, and Jang Bogo had grown old with his wife and children, and if Jung Hwa had finally opened her heart to a redeemed Yeom Moon and given his life the meaning he lacked. As a team, Yeom Moon and Jang Bogo would have done great things for the world.

I found that of the little I know about the history of Jang BoGo was that he got a little too involved in politics and Yeom Moon did kill him. So it would seem that the writers were trying to keep that part of the story real. This isn't Hollywood and this tale has all the markings of a Greek tragedy. The bad guys won. Well, sometimes they do. But can we find any positive message in the way our beloved characters died in the end?

I want to tackle this from a little different perspective. BoGo was stubborn to a fault – he expressed that to Yeom at one point. Was he doing the right thing? He wasn't going to compromise himself. It could be said that that unrelenting "morality" was going to bring war upon countless thousands of people. There was going to be blood and a lot of innocent people were going to die. I suppose that in the end, he recognized the risk, his people agreed with him and they were all willing to die rather than live in a world where corrupt nobles bought and sold them like chattel.

Yeom Moon wanted to spare everyone all the bloodshed. I don't think that's a less noble position. He walked into the lions den in order to change BoGo's mind. Just bend this little bit – we can save people – you and your family can still live. You can do more good things if you only live. Brilliant as well, Yeom discerned BoGo's reaction and was prepared for that. He warned BoGo, "If you don't climb off this wall, I'm going to have to kill you." Not particularly admirable to you and me and it tore him up because I think he so loved and admired BoGo. He thought he was doing the right thing though, and he did it.

Yeom did have one guiding principle in his life. His love for Jung-Hwa. He was unable to be with other women because of her, he defied Master Lee because of her and risked his life saving her life countless times. His love of her was the principle that he couldn't compromise. And I think he DID redeem himself in the end – he saved Jung-Hwa, but he also saved BoGo's child.

So maybe more the message is, even if you lose, you win. BoGo and all the inhabitants of Cheon-Hae were slain – but for a brief shining period of time, they lived as they wanted to live. Free and equal. They died for that ideal. Yeom Moon died for his ideal too. He died saving Jung-Hwa and was finally released from his life of pain. Beautiful, conflicted and tragic - he achieved his long sought peace in death. In the end, the good guy didn't win. He doesn't always win in real life either. But I'd like to think that the takeaway is - be the good guy, even if you have to die doing it. There's honor in that.

It's a testament to the writers and the actors of the series that we cared so much about these characters. We loved them and wanted them to win. We grieved when they were gone. The chemistry between Choi Soo-Jong and Song Il Guk was incredible. Song Il Guk is a superb actor – you could feel all the conflict without him saying a word. You pulled for Yeom Moon, you hated Jung Hwa for not loving him, and you wanted so much for Yeom and BoGo to be friends. I don't know how many actors could have pulled that off. Song Il Guk is the one that kept me coming back night after night. Very powerful.

I really hated the ending too – I wanted my Hollywood ending. But the story of these historical characters didn’t have a happy ending either. Since I didn't get my happily ever after, in order for me to make sense of the series I needed to at least come up with some reasons why it was redeeming in the end. I spent countless hours watching it – I had to justify it somehow.

Posted by Unknown at 2:21 PM 2 comments  

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Goong (Princess Hours); Thoughts

“If I’m not more careful I might let a pigeon poke at a falcons heart.” – Hose Bag Mom of Royal Prince Yul.

That was just a great line.

princesshours This series seemed wildly popular (you don’t get 2000 pages on a soompi forum that easily), and I’ve considered watching it for a while.  Since I stopped watching Terroir and I’m waiting for additional episodes of When it’s at Night to become available, I decided to give this a try.  It’s popularity recommended itself to me.

goong1 Princess Hours is an 21st century alternate reality story of a Korean monarchy (there hasn’t been one since the Japanese took over back in the earlier part of the 20th century and it never came back)  and Shin Chae Gyeong (played sweetly by Yoon Eun Hye) – commoner.  Poor Girl.  SCG is a high school girl (she’s 19 – high school must last longer in Korea) attending a private institution.  She wants to be a fashion designer and has the clichéd k-drama young poor girl spunk.  Against her will, she is betrothed to…

Crown Prince Yi Shin (Joo Ji Hoon).  The Crown Prince isn’t too happy goong02 about all this.  See, Dad the King is ill, more than likely dying, and it is decided that the prince should marry, perpetuate the species, all that good stuff.  Kicker is, Crown Prince is in love with Yesoya (Song Ji Hyo).  Sorry, she has another name, but she played Yesoya in Jumong, so she is Forever Yesoya in my mind.  Yesoya is a ballerina with a toe shoe and a dream who doesn’t want to be smothered inside the castle, so she rejects the Prince. 

After the marriage, it is decided that since CG and Prince are under age, (yes, much stricter laws) that they should not engage in the conjugal act.  This suits our couple since they, in another cliché, can’t stand each other.

goong3 Enter Yi Yul (Kim Jeong Hoon).  Yul is Crown Prince Shin’s cousin.  He was originally the Crown Prince, but he and his mother were banished from the castle.  See, her husband, the first crown prince died and the second in line assumed the title.  Apparently, Yul and his Mom were banished because by 21st Century Alternative Reality Law, only one Crown Prince could live in the castle at a time.  Personally, I think it’s because Yul’s Mom was bangin’ her brother in law (the current King).  Yeah, like any good kdrama with a palace backdrop, it gets pretty complex, but anyway, they get booted out.

As coincidence would have it (every polite self-respecting k-drama always has the karma of evil coincidence) EVERYONE is going to the same high school.  And they are all 19. 

The Prince and the Poor Girl get married.  Poor girl eventually falls in love with her husband the prince.  Prince still has feelings for Yesoya
Ballerina.  Yesoya Ballerina regrets her decision not to marry the Prince and wants him back.  Yul falls in love with Poor Girl, wants her, wants his god-given position as Crown Prince back and wants to bring back Korean Cultural treasures back to their homeland. 

On the side, we got Queen Gramma, who is just as sweet as can be – she loves everyone in her family and mourns the fact that they aren’t all in the same castle.  The King, is a rigid, pedantic son of a b*tch who is all holier than thou, which we realize is a cover for his lurid affair with the hose bag of a sister in law, Yul’s Mom.  Yul’s Mom is a psychotic freak show who wants her son to sit on the throne and wants back in the castle and doesn’t care how she gets it.  We have the uber-b*tchy frigid queen (couldn’t stand her) who only wants her son Yi Shin to sit on the throne (it’s always the mothers who want their boys to be king.  The boys never seem to care a whole lot until their mom’s twist their little bellies up).  Then there is Prince’s older sister, sweet and gentle, the only voice of reason in that castle of The Karma of Evil Coincidence. 

It’s pretty busy.

The series was too young for me.  I’ve come to prefer characters that are a little more adult, since I am a little more adult.  But for all the immaturity in the characters I enjoyed the series overall.  The character development was rather slow, but the scenes with Poor Girl and the Prince getting to know each other, the palace attempt to “make a baby crown prince”, and their burgeoning attraction was sweet.  I really liked Yul for a while and felt badly that he suffered so for his unrequited love. 

I loved the Queen Gramma.  Asian cultures treasure the older members of their family and she was a delight.  She just loved everyone and her family came first.  She was always doling out good advice: “You have to go through everything you should at your age in order to get old properly.  The most important thing is not the fact that you made a mistake, but that you realize your mistakes and gain courage to fix your mistakes.” She was lovely.

I did not like Crown Prince’s Mom.  I couldn’t stand the obsessive love of Yesoya Ballerina toward Crown Prince Shin.  Move on already.  I up loathing Mr. “If I hadn’t been kicked out of the palace wrongly, I would have been the one to marry poor girl” Yul.  Shuuuut up.  Geeeeet over your bad self.  I really couldn’t stand the hose bag Yul Mom – Queen of Palace Machinations. But I reserve all my bitterness toward that Faithless Ass Hat King who favored the son of the hose bag, simply because she was the hose bag.  That rigid, condescending nasty waste of a man constantly placed the blame where it didn’t belong, railing all the while about shaming the monarchy and the family and blah blah blah blah blah.  Just stroke out already.

I think the eventual moral of the piece was that The Karma of Evil Coincidence persists until someone has the courage to break it.  The Hose bag and King Fling-with-the-in-laws set the bad karma in motion creating the the desperate unrequited love that Hose Bag’s son Yul felt for in law.  So Yul was punished for the disordered affection that occurred 14 years before.  He could have continued on the path, but then he decided to do the right thing and break the cycle of the evil karma.  He walked away and let our protagonists be happy and so he could start his life clean.  “Sins should be written in sand.  Forgiveness should be written in stone.”

The Prince and The Poor Girl.  It seems that k-drama writers think the more emotionally abusive they can make the guy, the more touching it is when he melts with love.  And the more perky they can make the girl, she will have a Cinderella ending. The Prince was nasty.  Even after he declared his love for The Poor Girl, he was cold and shut her out.  To be fair, Poor Girl didn’t manage the relationship with Yul as she ought to have done, causing a whole lot of confused feelings and pain. 

The message there for our youth – Girls: Persist in submitting to your abusive F-Stick of a boyfriend, he’ll change.  Boys: Treat your women like sh*t.  They aren’t going anywhere.

I enjoyed the angsty moments that Crown Prince Shin exhibited as he began to fall in love with Chae Gyeong.  My yardstick of achy begins with “Full House” – an emotionally abusive young man and perky girl format, at the end of the yardstick – annoying me with it’s immaturity.  The yardstick ends with Coffee Prince – another rich boy perky girl with a lot of angst but the performances were so much better and so the series was more moving. 

This was not a great drama by any means.  Full of cliché.  A typical kdrama cookie cutter series.  But overall, I was entertained.  In that,it was successful.  Oh.  And the bears were cute.

Goong5 goong6

Posted by Unknown at 11:39 AM 0 comments  

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Terroir; or How Drunk Do I Have To Be To Like This?

Tip #1 – How can you tell that the writers and the producers didn’t terroire03kor081208hdtvyb1-1care a whole lot about this series? If they can’t get something as basic as “Bordeaux” right in WINE poster in a WINE series…bless me - I should have stopped watching at this point.

I hit a trifecta of craptacularity in some recent samples of Korean entertainment. While it hasn’t put me off the genre, to the dismay of family and friends, I realize that some shows just suck and I don’t have to finish watching them. No I do not.

I made no secret of my disappointment in “Kingdom of the Wind”. Being a firmly grounded fan of Song Il Guk, and still feeling the guilt for never having finished the equally craptacular “The Lobbyist”, I forced myself to finish that particular saeguek. The film “100 Days With Mr. Arrogant” was just insipid. But I finished it. I find I just can’t finish “Terroir” and it’s a shame.

I wanted to like it. I thought highly of Han Hye Jin in “Jumong” as Soseono and I 081125_p14_sipwanted to see her in a different role. In “Terroir” she played the irrepressible Lee Woo Joo. Playing opposite HHJ was Kim Joo Hyuck as Kang Tae Min.

Now when I first read the premise, I smelled marketing. I could hear Korean guys in a room saying, “Yeah, see, Coffee Prince, see,” all plotting guys in a room sound like Edward G. Robinson in my head , even if they are Korean, “Yeah, that Coffee Prince, did a lot for the coffee industry. Yeah, yeah. Let’s make one up for, wine, yeah, wine, see? “ and so they did. Indeed, promotional stills showed everyone raising their wine glasses in joy, toasting each other – mmmmmm, wine is so goooood! Yum! Let’s go to France! Let’s dress up in black! We are so sophisticated! Sadly, this was no Coffee Prince andterroire04kor081209hdtvuy1-1-1 any wine I wound up drinking was only to make the series slightly more palatable.

Tip #2. We are supposed to be in a restaurant, presumably to sell food and wine. It would help to be able to read the specials on the menu.

I had a difficult time at first believing that Woo Joo and Tae Min were supposed to be our love interests. Tae Min was cold and cruel with a face carved out of wood, Woo Joo was immature. loud, brash and quite frankly, annoying. I’ll admit, as the series progressed, I began to enjoy the characters and their development as a couple more and I was optimistic. It was poetic in some ways, really, that Kang Tae Min and his old girlfriend Ji Sun – their relationship was like the wine “Chateau Margeaux” - having not been kept carefully it spoiled. The relationship between Tae Min and Woo Joo, was represented by the the “Chateau Mouton Meyer”, getting better and more precious with time.

Then, I don’t know what happened. It was like they took all the good writers away and replaced them with chimps. The last third of the series had all sorts of plot twists thrown at the viewer without warning – like angry chimp poo. Sweet sweet Joey (played by Ki Tae Young - Dr. Whiny Crybaby from “White Tower”) turning all evil because no one would forgive him for setting Auntie and Uncle on fire when he was a kid and killing them so he decides to go psycho and take over Grandfather’s company to PUNISH THEM ALLLLLLLLLL.

WTF? I mean, seriously, WTF? Do you think I’m an idiot? Obviously the writers did, because that was only one of the ridiculous plot devices used toward the end to beef it up. It lost me. I didn’t want to finish. I realized today that I don’t have to finish it. I decided to keep the few sweet moments in the series and just let go of all the rest. I still like Han Hye Jin and am willing to watch Kim Joo Hyuck in something else, I simply can’t bring myself to finish this series.

No enthusiasm. No review. Too bad. So Sad.

The good news is I am watching “When it’s At Night” with Kim Sun Ah and Lee Dong Gun. This series? Not a chimp-poo fest. Not yet. So far – fabulous.

Posted by Unknown at 8:05 PM 0 comments  

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Monday, February 9, 2009

Damo; A Review

 damo5 Recognizing that my review process is more than a little tongue in cheek, I think it might be difficult to lump Damo in with so many other k-dramas.  I remember feeling similarly about “Thank You” after having watched that show.  Damo has been the only k-drama that I’ve put my head down in my arms and out and out wept wracking sobs.  It was unlike anything I have seen to this point and it almost feels wrong to apply my typical k-drama review formula here. 

But my reviews are my reviews.  Let’s see what I can make of it.

Ponder Angst – There was a lot of ponder angst in this series.  Our characters went back in their minds and pondered over moments of each other pretty frequently.  It may have gotten a little tired, but I never rolled my eyes.  I’m giving it the full 20 points.

Love “ – “ Angles – Woof.  Chae Ohk loves Hwangbok Yoon, Hwangbok Yoon loves Chae Ohk, Chae Ohk also loves Jang Sung Baek, and he loves her back.  Nan Soo, the daughter of the police chief sincerely loves Hwangbok Yoon and another guy really loves Chae Ohk, “Marry me and I will spend the rest of your life making you smile.”  Maybe she should have picked him in the end.  Six angles makes 24 points.

Sizzle – The lead actors in this series Ha Jin Won, Kim Min Joon, and Lee Seo Jin were exquisite from the first scene to the last.  Whenever they were together in any combination, heat came off the screen.  Hwangbok Yoon struggling with his love for Chae Ohk, her desire to serve him and not to love him, her struggle to do her duty as a Damo and arrest Jang Sung Baek or to give in to her growing feeling for him.  Jang Sung Baek and his love of his people.  They all had sizzle and I’m giving them 30 points for it. 

Physical Intimacy – The most we ever get of physical intimacy for any of our protagonists is an embrace.  No kissing, no baby making.  There was enough intimacy when Yoon tended to the wounded Ohk and whenever Sung Baek looked at Damo for me to give this 20 points.

Tragic Heartwrenching Disease and/or Character Death from Same – Not a lot of disease, aside from leprosy, in the series.   There are so many scenes where someone is wounded, infected, bullet-ridden, or slashed with a knife.  The intention of the metric is for cancer, anorexia, or constipation, but I’m giving it 10 just for all the wounds.

Tazza Factor – The Tazza factor is about being spellbound from the first episode of a series, as I was with Tazza.  Tazza, I watched in just over 24 hours.  I was absolutely held in this series’ thrall, though it took me a week to watch all 14 episodes.  10 points.

Going to the Beach – Jae Hui and Jae Mo’s dad offs himself, a bad cop kills himself by butting his head against the wall, a Japanese killer for hire commits hari kari.  If there is more, I’ve forgotten it, but there was no suicide at the waterfront.  15 points in the bonus round for Damo. 

Damo6So Damo gets a 129 on the E-scale, the highest any series has gotten to date.  It was a neat 14 episodes, the sound track was at times sad and gentle, at others, filled with energy and action.  The look and feel of the series was wonderful, and even I got some of the more arty and beautiful shots. 

The kung-foo was very “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” but didn’t take me out of the story at all, indeed, was very much a part of it.  Many k-dramas boast a tragic ending, few are as worthy of Shakespeare as this one. 

Will I watch it again?  I just don’t know.  I’ve said no before; particularly to “Thank You” and “Coffee Prince” and I wound up buying the box sets for both those series.  I’ve had to go back already to get a couple of quotes correct and I burst into tears again. 

I’ll have to let you know.

Posted by Unknown at 12:52 AM 0 comments  

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Damo; An Attempt To Organize My Thoughts


mae hwa bat [A Grove Of Ja -

Damo I just finished this drama and the tears are still streaming down my face as I listen to part of the official sound track to Damo: Adagio and A Song of Sorrow.

Damo was another of those Korean Dramas I thought would be important for me to watch like Stairway to Heaven, Winter Sonata and Full House. I was no where close to being as touched by any of those three dramas as I was with Damo. I’d been putting off watching for a while; I had read the summaries, the plot had a little of a disturbing twist that I think I was avoiding, but I decided last weekend to give it a go. It was only 14 episodes, after all.

Damo is the story of Jae Hui (played superbly by Ha Jin Won)– a seven year old girl whose nobleman Damo3 father, after a government scandal, kills himself rather than be taken in by the royal guard. Jae Hui and her brother Jae Mo (played by Kim Min Joon) ride off together so they are not captured by the guards and taken away. This attempt is for naught, they are captured and cruelly separated.

Damo1-1 Enter Hwangbok Yoon (played by Lee Seo Jin), teenage son of a nobleman and his mistress, he is shunned by a society that favors noble purebreds. Jae Hui becomes his slave girl, but as they grow a familial bond forms between the two that cannot be broken. Jae Hui is no longer called so by society, since she is a slave, her name becomes Chae Ohk, which aptly means a colorful marble.

Damo2 Chae Ohk becomes a damo – a female police officer. Not quite what we in the west consider a female police officer, she is also still considered a servant girl, less than nothing, used as a female police officer when a woman dies so she can investigate where no men can go. This position is suitable to both Chae Ohk and Joon, she is able to serve him and he is able to keep an eye on her and keep her near.

As time goes on, we sense his confusion as Joon becomes aware of and begins to acknowledge deeper feelings for Ohk but because of his rank, he is unable to express them. We sense that Ohk may have feelings for Joon as well, but she will not give them any purchase because she is a slave and unworthy to even have thoughts of loving him. It is enough for her to think of him as family.

Chae Ohk goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters/Damo4 rebels in the mountains and meets the very charismatic Jang Sung Baek, leader of the rebels. As a part of the gang, Ohk begins to see that Sung Baek is not just a foul law breaker, but a leader of people who love him, who loves them back as a loving father would. She is drawn to Sung Baek and his mountain people – and begins to develop feelings for him.

She knows her duty, but her instinct will not allow her to kill him. Jang Sung Baek knows that Chae Ohk is a damo, knows she has infiltrated his camp, but his instinct will not allow him to kill her or give her up to his men.

We learn pretty early on that Jang Sung Baek is Chae Ohk’s brother and are a little creeped out that they are falling in love. While we are trying to cope with that, we watch as obsession begins to overtake Hwangbok Joon, as he gives in to his love for Chae Ohk and has to find her.

Watching the irony, as Chae Ohk pushes away Joon, saying she loved Hwangbok Joon as her brother, but drawing love nearer as a woman to her blood brother Jang Sung Baek.

Hwangbok Joon, laments throughout the series that he has never done one thing for Chae Ohk, all he now wants is to take her into the mountains to love her and care for her forever. Jang Sung Baek no longer wants to live the life of a rebel, wants to take Chae Ohk to the mountains; “I used to dream about the “good” life where I could hold a shovel instead of a sword, and till a field, and find a wife and raise a child. My "good" life is the treason and the conspiracy”.

I was pulled in every direction possible with this series. What was right? What was wrong? Characters manipulated by evil power hungry nobles, trapped in a cruel society that discriminated based on birth, based on perceived scandal, who fought to hide the love they felt for fear of disgracing themselves and their families.

In the end, I understood that Chae Ohk truly loved Joon as a man and the pull of love she felt toward Jang Sung Baek was the love of a sister for her brother – they had both confused the attraction of their blood for something more earthly.

There were so many moving moments I can barely enumerate them. The final scene at the beach, the scene at the cliffs, Joon cleaning Chae Ohk up and brushing her hair in the temple when she is in a coma, when Jang Sung Baek realizes he just missed Jae Hui in the temple and runs out to find her, but cannot.

I thought the ending was as it had to be. Hwangbok Joon was finally finally able to do something for his beloved Chae Ohk. Jang Sung Baek understood that his movement of the people would continue, that his steps simply forged the beginnings of a new road for those he loved. He as at last able to shed his pain and look upon his sister. I wept and wept the last 15 minutes of the series and for some time afterward, in fact, as I type now, I am still crying.

I will be haunted by those words, “I missed you Jae Hui.”

“A far off mountain, a mountain with a deep green forest.
A destiny that could not foresee that divide
A love I could not measure
A love that tore apart my heart
Not again, never again
Do not live for me”

Posted by Unknown at 6:11 PM 0 comments  

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