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This review may contain spoilers
9/10 from my alter (call them So-La Di-Da), but my brain and I (Toot), not so much.
I always come out of a Hong drama feeling like it was a guilty pleasure. I enjoy it at the time, but all the while, feel like I shouldn't. And "Can This Love Be Translated", is no exception. I find Hong dramas often address big issues, and complex philosophical themes; what higher ideal is there than open communication, understanding and acceptance between people. They ask the question directly in the title - can love be translated? But the Hong sisters are too wont to fall back on tropey, caricature-ish plot devices and populist imagery, to actually give us a convincing answer. That just makes me come away feeling dirty. I personally find the Hong sisters, as writers, are not clever, they're manipulative. And in the experience of watching a drama you have to ask yourself, "Why am I thinking more about the writers than the actual drama?!?"
For ratings purposes, I'm going to take a leaf out of this script and create an alter for myself:
Me, My alter, So-La Di-Da: ...I'm just here for the entertainment!
Story: 9/10 Committed to romance, beautiful locations, easy brain switch off visuals of both people and places.
Acting/Cast: 10/10 The cast is great. Across the board. PRETTY!
Music: 7/10 To satisfy the "I'm here for the entertainment!", part of my brain, The Dancer should have had more dancing but meh.
Rewatch Value: 1/10 Still not switching off that part of my brain.
Overall: 9/10 Good chemistry, beautiful scenery, interesting dialogue. In the moment, whenever I can switch off my brain to just "ENTERTAIN ME" mode, this is a charmer of a drama.
Me, Myself, Toot: ...if I'm investing all of my time, make it mean something
Story: 5/10
Acting/Cast: 10/10 Worked well with what they had
Music: 7/10 Is not notable, which is to some advantage in telling a story.
Rewatch Value: 1/10 except for going back to make sure they really did or did not say that! Or checking the translation is accurate and there's not...more...
Overall: 4.5/10 There are just too many issues we're expected to swallow whole. The Italy chapter being illustrative - He's savvy enough to know that her belief that she is unlovable, is a delusion. They've written those words into his mouth. It's therefore absolutely unconvincing and inconsistent with the character, that he would just go along with her psychotic episodes (as Do Ra Mi) and not seek medical help. What gets me to a five/ten is the attempts at witty banter between the characters, and the fact that the main characters do...generally... present as intelligent and caring human beings. No-one is fully a caricature, they are ...somewhat... believable, if not well realised. And I believe that's a problem of the script rather than the acting.
In order to illustrate what I mean, I'm just going to focus on the use of Do Ra Mi: The Dancer (as the Hong's referred to her or if you prefer, The Zombie) Cha Mu Hui's disassociated persona/alter-ego: We, as an audience, ALONG WITH the male lead character Ju Ho Jin, are expected to accept this characteristic, without question. And more importantly for Ju Ho Jin, without action. It is a very obvious plot device, dumped in to create story, but never directly addressed or explored.
The ML is highly educated. He is also very clearly and in his own spoken words, aware that she has a serious mental illness. ("The idea that you are unlovable is a delusion") He is kind and clearly has a highly educated degree of insight, in being able to identify her alter. He is also informed enough to recognise that her core belief structure is a delusion. It is not realistic that, having this kind of awareness, you would just go along with a person's full blown psychotic breaks, her clear displays of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), without seeking help or care for that person. It is a disturbing illustration of how NOT to deal with serious mental illness, but is wrapped up in a lovely romantic bow. The ML being written as the ultimate polyglot, with the ability to understand and communicate on so many levels beyond the norm, is just inconsistent with a character who would fail to seek help and medical care for the person they love.
And so for my little rant...
The existence of Mu Hui's alter Do Ra Mi, is realistic, in the sense that it's a protection from very significant childhood trauma. This is in keeping with DID. But tying her central belief - that she is unlovable - specifically to the fact that she was A WITNESS to a horrific act, is ludicrous. There's a perfectly reasonable rationalisation that she was an actual victim of multiple horrific acts. I won't spoil them all here... But why tie it to being A WITNESS rather than being A VICTIM? This could have been an excellent opportunity to explore how, as humans, we create layers of, often irrational, belief around trauma, in order to function in our complex world. But unfortunately, nope, they're just there as backstory, to create a facade of character depth, with no exposition at all. Looking further and accepting the Witness/Victim dichotomy as a believable trope, I also feel an opportunity was lost for developing this further, as an exploration of Korean Society. If we accept the idea that characterising yourself as a victim is harder to swallow that characterising yourself as a witness; and that being a victim or even a witness, makes you believe you are 'less than", and makes you accept that others will see you that way too... what does that say about a society?!? But alas, that was also not explored.
I come out of Hong sister dramas, always questioning whether these writers are just ignorant enough, to be unaware of what mental illness really is, or just clever enough to use mental illness to shine a light on a core SK cultural belief: That being perfect is a requirement. That being imperfect, damaged, filially rejected, traumatised or broken, and SHOWING those in any way, makes you a problem for, and at worst, worthless to Korean Society.
Fortunately I am cognisant that my opinion is mine and is valid, in that all opinions are valid if you can justify it. When you write something and release it out into the world, your own interpretations of your words, remain only yours. You invite multitudes of interpretations when you publish. So whatever you intended to portray, is only secondary to the audience's reception. I think that what makes me cross about the Hong Sisters' writing is that they cause me to question THEM. I should be able to forget about the writer when I am watching a drama. But they can't seem to commit. They try to be populist - they try to write for the masses, using obvious and lazy tropes (Meet/Cute, love at first sight, destined love, childhood trauma as plot device), but at the same time, try to make grand statements about social issues and the human condition. There is something...a certain amount of finesse that is missing. In trying to be clever, they can sometimes come off as stupid. And I just really don't want them to be stupid. It's a dilemma because either they are clever but they think we (their audience) are stupid, or they are stupid, and therefore so are we, for enjoying their dramas.
Truly, for me this drama might be enjoyable in some moments but afterwards, when your brain turns back on, it has an unpleasant post show ick. I admire the central idea of addressing the question of translating love, I am disgusted by the use of childhood trauma and DID as a plot device, and a form of audience manipulation.
For ratings purposes, I'm going to take a leaf out of this script and create an alter for myself:
Me, My alter, So-La Di-Da: ...I'm just here for the entertainment!
Story: 9/10 Committed to romance, beautiful locations, easy brain switch off visuals of both people and places.
Acting/Cast: 10/10 The cast is great. Across the board. PRETTY!
Music: 7/10 To satisfy the "I'm here for the entertainment!", part of my brain, The Dancer should have had more dancing but meh.
Rewatch Value: 1/10 Still not switching off that part of my brain.
Overall: 9/10 Good chemistry, beautiful scenery, interesting dialogue. In the moment, whenever I can switch off my brain to just "ENTERTAIN ME" mode, this is a charmer of a drama.
Me, Myself, Toot: ...if I'm investing all of my time, make it mean something
Story: 5/10
Acting/Cast: 10/10 Worked well with what they had
Music: 7/10 Is not notable, which is to some advantage in telling a story.
Rewatch Value: 1/10 except for going back to make sure they really did or did not say that! Or checking the translation is accurate and there's not...more...
Overall: 4.5/10 There are just too many issues we're expected to swallow whole. The Italy chapter being illustrative - He's savvy enough to know that her belief that she is unlovable, is a delusion. They've written those words into his mouth. It's therefore absolutely unconvincing and inconsistent with the character, that he would just go along with her psychotic episodes (as Do Ra Mi) and not seek medical help. What gets me to a five/ten is the attempts at witty banter between the characters, and the fact that the main characters do...generally... present as intelligent and caring human beings. No-one is fully a caricature, they are ...somewhat... believable, if not well realised. And I believe that's a problem of the script rather than the acting.
In order to illustrate what I mean, I'm just going to focus on the use of Do Ra Mi: The Dancer (as the Hong's referred to her or if you prefer, The Zombie) Cha Mu Hui's disassociated persona/alter-ego: We, as an audience, ALONG WITH the male lead character Ju Ho Jin, are expected to accept this characteristic, without question. And more importantly for Ju Ho Jin, without action. It is a very obvious plot device, dumped in to create story, but never directly addressed or explored.
The ML is highly educated. He is also very clearly and in his own spoken words, aware that she has a serious mental illness. ("The idea that you are unlovable is a delusion") He is kind and clearly has a highly educated degree of insight, in being able to identify her alter. He is also informed enough to recognise that her core belief structure is a delusion. It is not realistic that, having this kind of awareness, you would just go along with a person's full blown psychotic breaks, her clear displays of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), without seeking help or care for that person. It is a disturbing illustration of how NOT to deal with serious mental illness, but is wrapped up in a lovely romantic bow. The ML being written as the ultimate polyglot, with the ability to understand and communicate on so many levels beyond the norm, is just inconsistent with a character who would fail to seek help and medical care for the person they love.
And so for my little rant...
The existence of Mu Hui's alter Do Ra Mi, is realistic, in the sense that it's a protection from very significant childhood trauma. This is in keeping with DID. But tying her central belief - that she is unlovable - specifically to the fact that she was A WITNESS to a horrific act, is ludicrous. There's a perfectly reasonable rationalisation that she was an actual victim of multiple horrific acts. I won't spoil them all here... But why tie it to being A WITNESS rather than being A VICTIM? This could have been an excellent opportunity to explore how, as humans, we create layers of, often irrational, belief around trauma, in order to function in our complex world. But unfortunately, nope, they're just there as backstory, to create a facade of character depth, with no exposition at all. Looking further and accepting the Witness/Victim dichotomy as a believable trope, I also feel an opportunity was lost for developing this further, as an exploration of Korean Society. If we accept the idea that characterising yourself as a victim is harder to swallow that characterising yourself as a witness; and that being a victim or even a witness, makes you believe you are 'less than", and makes you accept that others will see you that way too... what does that say about a society?!? But alas, that was also not explored.
I come out of Hong sister dramas, always questioning whether these writers are just ignorant enough, to be unaware of what mental illness really is, or just clever enough to use mental illness to shine a light on a core SK cultural belief: That being perfect is a requirement. That being imperfect, damaged, filially rejected, traumatised or broken, and SHOWING those in any way, makes you a problem for, and at worst, worthless to Korean Society.
Fortunately I am cognisant that my opinion is mine and is valid, in that all opinions are valid if you can justify it. When you write something and release it out into the world, your own interpretations of your words, remain only yours. You invite multitudes of interpretations when you publish. So whatever you intended to portray, is only secondary to the audience's reception. I think that what makes me cross about the Hong Sisters' writing is that they cause me to question THEM. I should be able to forget about the writer when I am watching a drama. But they can't seem to commit. They try to be populist - they try to write for the masses, using obvious and lazy tropes (Meet/Cute, love at first sight, destined love, childhood trauma as plot device), but at the same time, try to make grand statements about social issues and the human condition. There is something...a certain amount of finesse that is missing. In trying to be clever, they can sometimes come off as stupid. And I just really don't want them to be stupid. It's a dilemma because either they are clever but they think we (their audience) are stupid, or they are stupid, and therefore so are we, for enjoying their dramas.
Truly, for me this drama might be enjoyable in some moments but afterwards, when your brain turns back on, it has an unpleasant post show ick. I admire the central idea of addressing the question of translating love, I am disgusted by the use of childhood trauma and DID as a plot device, and a form of audience manipulation.
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