AnotherSeason

Stranger is a higer calibre work than Confessions. The pacing and music is good here though. The central characters don't have great actors but I see that the actors are trying. Even so, there have been some cringe-worthy moments.

Is it just me or is there an ex-detective running around like he still has his badge. If so, why are none of the people in authority questioning this? I'm at episode 6, and it seems to make little sense. For example, he tailed the guy who left prison. Doesn't that become stalking when you are not even assigned to a case and more so when you are not an officer of the law?

I started watching because of the ending comments from the final episode review on dramabeans. meh... i didn't like this one. there were jokes but they got old. the female character's logic of trying to use him as a worker after begging him to help her out and marry her made absolutely no sense to me. at moments when these issues could be addressed in the drama something else happened and they dropped the ball. no reason to think deeply about this. i finally dropped it after she slapped him for asking her why she didn't marry the old dude and become a concubine. his logic was sound. not to mention, the classism also seriously bother.

I love how this post off mine sparked a discussion when all I was doing was sharing my personal feelings about the drama. @Lilly - I would rather my character not be judged by a two simple statements. Also, @Forgotten, it's okay that you don't find the dialogue cheesy, I do though. I also watched to episode 9.

i miss my sweet girl. welcome back to dramaland eun hye ssi.

Oh I forgot our leads brooding face never changing expression and our female lead’s ornament-like placid role to the male leads. Okay maybe it’s not so good. Can’t see myself going far with this one after all.

This show. I have such mixed feeling about it. It’s good. BUT the shots and dialogue are sodamn cheesy. The traditional themes are overstated and the music- this new trend of using early 20th century Hollywood movie themes drive me up the wall.

I love the whole America this America that. It’s so prejudice. First, these are not the values of Americans, these are the values of snobs which you can find anywhere. Second, most of the things they are prolejudice against comes from the American Chinese community. Whether they are native or immigrated. Third, what kind of inferiority complex does one have that he/she has to put down another’s values to feel good about his/her own. values. Neither capitalism or (capitalist) communism has shining ideals. They are equally faulty and equally of merit.

Couldn’t agree with you more. Though, I already dropped it.

I decided to give this drama a start after 4 years of anticipating that it would be a disappointment. It didn’t let me down in. Coupled with seeing Ha Ji Won playing the same character for the umpteenth time, I had to put up with the gender bender stereotypes, the cliches of kick ass heroine and her abominable actions passed off as on par with the guys, and the everybody loves me syndrome. This historical accuracy is so distorted on the main characters it’s laughable.

1. The portrayal of black men is abhorrent: words towards the African man on his sexuality and the amount of kids he has, the roughhousing in the factory, the self-deprecating demeanour and language of the assistant (same African man).
2. The nonchalant mistreatment of the immigrant workers as comedy is not just not funny. Let’s bring up assistant asking for rightful breaktime. Then let’s sweep it under the rug as a boss gotta do what he gotta do. Still he’s their saviour? So confused.
3. I don’t even have enough words to describe the self-righteous attitude and behaviour of the pregnant girlfriend toward boyfriend’s mother. I feel she’s written as society’s POV telling mother to reign in her desire and decision to fight for herself. Honestly, I get angry and frustrated just thinking of the implications of this character and that for one so self-righteous she’s lived a very pampered life.
4. The horribly sexist portrayal of male characters as comedy is way too WTF. I don’t like sexism in any form whether towards men or women. If this is not the case, the writer is being lazy and just milking the political climate or is making light of the issue of role men play. Still confused.
5. The messy and not very thought out portrayal on women’s issues that the show banks on is really too makjang. That this is not #ownvoice writing says it all.

IKR. I find this drama sends a lot of mixed messages and some very bad ones. In the wake of the #metoomovement and aftermath, I understand the writer wanting to tackle such issues and more, but, wow, so poorly handled. Look below for spoiler:

Congrats My Misterfor being the highest rated show by number of viewers!

I'd be surprised if this gets made at all.

Thanks for the article. I really appreciate reading your thoughts and it got me to thinking. I will have to beg to differ on your ideas though. I think that comparing Tia Mu to Kimura is like comparing apples to oranges.

SPOILER-ISH!!!

Kimura was not never intended to be the hero and was never written to make the choices that you are suggesting. He never had the opportunity to have motivations or choose outside of the character mold. He was never intended to be the hero of the nation (I don't think he was even Korean) but Tia Mu was meant to be the heroine of the nation and a beacon of socialist ideals - not humanist ideals as you are suggesting. I don't think Tia Mu would have made the same choices to save Japanese children as she did the Chinese children. She was written this way and, again, she is the Chinese socialist ideal as a woman. Compare her to Yu Hao who was given more agency than her and who was written to be the real hero of the story. Yan Zhi, our heroine, behaved in self-serving ways and also chose to become a KMT officer whose course needed to be constantly corrected by the ultimate hero Yu Hao.

Tia Mu never had the opportunity to become like Kimura and visa versa. I mean why couldn't Man Na become the type of character as Tia Mu or visa cersa? Because Man Na was another Kimura. They were both written to be betrayers of the nation who were corrupted by money and power (Tia Mu didn't have any at that scale to compare), the Japanese, and ultimately had put love of their family/death of a loved one above the nation. They were both driven to avenge their family (the clan). This was an ideal that would have been praiseworthy if it wasn't superseded the , now, praiseworthy ideals of nationalism during the late 19th early 20th Century.

To be honest, I believe that Kimura demonstrated the same qualities that Tia Mu did. He was smart, brave, made his own decisions and was loyal. I believe that if Tia Mu had her parents around she would have had to have aquiesced to her parents just as much or even more so than Kimura. The writing amps up his "negative" qualities after the the death of his brother and milked his jealousy (Kang To was just as jealous) to portray him as a villian and so downplayed his "positive" qualities.

I think Kimura is a more complex and beautiful character compared to Tia Mu.

I also believe that Gibran wrote on the level of the human experience that transcends national boundaries. I don't feel that we can compare these characters at that level which it appears you are trying to do. If we were to, I feel that Kimura is, in fact, a better character than Tia Mu in this regard. He was willing to reach out to the Korean children and love his wet nurse who was Korean. Kimura really only had a personal vandetta against his friend for the killing of his brother.

You are totally missing Thank You

So glad you brought up the sappy violin music. I’m pretty sure I last heard it in To Be A Better Man and In the Name Of The People. I might be wrong but I remember the last few times I heard that music thinking how “in your face” it was. To use the same music again her and so much I basically FF.

1. The big to do about Shu Che going to jail. We all knew he wouldn’t go. Let’s just show and tell and flash back that Shu Che stand up guy.
2. Money loving Cheng Ran. We all know he won’t Give the company car back so why make a big deal of asking him to give the car to the right person. We all know he won’t divorce his wife so what’s with bringing Lukas parents over for elaborate discussion. Yuan, we know he’s a wastrel.
3. Xiao Qong to leave school and return to her family’s side. This was by far the biggest waste of screen time. I thought she might actually leave but wait What??!!!

I only watched to 23 and as far as I could tell each of the main characters had this weird red herring like focus on them. I recall the two second leads being played out similarly. Honestly, I can’t figure out this storytelling device. Whatever it was to accomplish fell short of the mark for me.

I got to thinking tonight that razy drama did at least 3 false positives that were a huge waste of time (below in spoiler). The drama wasn’t interesting, funny or meaningful in any way except to serve as moral propaganda. The corny violin music seemingly an anthem for filial depression? -that I’ve come to recognize in a number of these modern dramas- was super distracting. The more I think about it the more I dislike this drama.

23 Episodes and the initially conflict is being dragged out. That’s pretty much half of the drama and nothing significant happens.