ItsAMe

Yeah, the FL actress is not suitable for this role. She plays both the female and the male part exactly the same: looking pretty or looking like a deer in the headlights. I have to admit that I'm a bit spoiled because of "The King's Affection" where the actress (not this one here) put a lot of effort into behaving like a male.

I don't blame FL for everything, though, because she probably didn't decide on the make-up, and the director probably didn't care that FL wore feminine make-up all the time.

Reading skills are not your strongest skills, are they?

Slakito claimed FL was chosen because she's ugly (compared to other actresses). I argued that she was chosen to promote the (botched) surgery look, not because she's ugly. Why do I think that? Because there are hundreds of actresses who do not look as if they had botched surgery, and who are prettier than FL.

Since you are an expert in Korean society, you know how big the beauty industry is in Korea. And you also know that the Korean government invests a lot of money in certain industries. K-beauty is known for a reason. People from all over the world go to Korea to update their look via plastic surgery. Due to your extensive researches, you also found newspaper articles stating that the Korean government also invests in K-dramas and sometimes gives instruction what is supposed to get promoted.

Nobody here talked about the appearance-based nature of the Korean society. The topic was something else: Compared to other actresses who had plastic surgery, they could have used someone who doesn't look "plastic" but beautiful. Your low opinion of Koreans probably does not reflect reality because if a Korean woman wants, for example, a "smaller face", she doesn't mean that she wants to look like Miss Piggy. She wants to look like, for example, Park Min-young.

However, since plastic surgery is expensive, the botched surgery look is still fine because even if you look "plastic", people see that you were able to afford it. They perceive you as rich, which is important in a society that was extremely poor just a couple of years ago. Or why do you think are Koreans obsessed with expensive luxury most of them cannot afford? Just because?

Ugly and poor is not desireable. This is true in basically all societies on this planet. Ugly and rich is fine, though. Or do you really believe that instagram "models" and their fans really love to look as if a bee had stung them right in the face? They invested a lot of money in that look, so they HAVE to call it beautiful. Everything else would mean that they made a mistake and regret.

And since you are an expert in Korean society, you know that Koreans do almost everything not to lose face.

Wow, I cannot believe it's the same guy I recently saw in "Shadow Detective". He looks like a completely different person with long hair. It looks good on him.

No romance, and the ending is a happy one for the protagonists.

They didn't _make_ FL the worst looking. The actress looks like that. Maybe the Korean government once again sponsored a drama to boost some industry. By telling insecure people that (botched) surgery is desirable, people probably feel the need to look the same. Koreans (and other people) love to imitate the main leads in dramas and movies because being the main lead means you are successful.

There was a time in the West when a certain "botched surgery look" was exclusive for rich people. Then they started to aim for a more natural look. Nowadays, instagram is full of dinghy lips, and average people in their 20s looking like people in their 50-60s trying to look like they were around 30-40 years old.

It's not a bad show. Or let's say: It's not Cha Eun-woo's fault if/that this drama is not the best out there. He portrays a nice, good-looking guy with basically no personality. Acting skills were not needed for this role. He fits the role. The actual story happens between the female characters, anyway, and the actresses are doing a good job, in my opinion. Of course, it's okay not to like this drama.

Unfortunately, once actors become famous, they don't seem to touch BL projects anymore. And if they do, the BL gets censored once it's getting "too hot". See, for example, "The Devil Judge". :(

I have nothing against people who have done too much plastic surgery. Looking like a walking walk socket does not automatically make somebody a bad person. Some people are born fairly ugly, so I understand their desire to improve their look. It's great that plastic surgery exists to improve people's lives. I just cannot unsee the botched plastic surgery, especially on young people. Sometimes, it makes me sad because most people with botched surgery looked fine before.

Almost no K-dramas are realistic, so I don't have any expectations in this respect. To be honest, I'm not that interested in realistic dramas. I'm just interested in a good, consistent and plausible story (without any pedo romance or stupid character which are supposed to be perceived as smart). ML's character was underwhelming but I think the actor did a good job anyway. It's not his fault that the writing was lacking. I also don't blame the FL actress.

I liked ML in "Fated to Love You" (certainly not the best drama out there but, at least, it had a few "crazy" ideas, and ML had a great chemistry with FL), and "Tell me what you saw" (not realistic either but I found it entertaining; FL wasn't stupid either).

I'm putting "Money Flower" on my watchlist now. I hope it's available on Viki in my country. :)

The funny thing is: In every other drama, the handsome ML actor showers at least once while the camera is panning over his hot half-naked body. We almost never see any relevant skin of an actress but IF we see some skin, it's basically full nude porn (see, for example, The Handmaiden). Koreans don't seem to know any nuances.

I didn't criticise the age gap per se but the fact that FL looked and behaved like a teenager. Personally, I'm not into pedo dramas. SFL looks like a grown-up woman and closer ML's age. SFL also has a stable job. She is an established doctor while FL does not even have any experience in her own job as a police woman. Despite the visible age gap, SFL would have been a more appropriate love interest, in my opinion.

Despite the many cliches and predictability of the story, I found this drama quite entertaining. Probably because I haven't seen any dramas taking place in the 1930s (or something like that) yet. Just the romance felt forced down my throat. FL and ML basically spent no time together, they were mainly busy surviving and fighting, so their love was not developed but "just there" out of the blue. I wished they had explored a bit more of the side stories instead of the "romance".

(1) FL's mother was portrayed as a monster, and the only thing that was able to make her human is her daughter. In all those episodes, she killed everybody but her daughter. For this reason, it made sense to me that she also attacked ML.

(2) We don't know if it is "the" parasite or whether there are multiple parasites inside Seong-sim's body. We also don't know what happened after that scene. It's called an open ending. Open endings are often used to make people excited for another season.

(3) We don't know whether the cup contains the parasite. This was obviously a scene with an unanswered question to increase suspense (and excitement for season 2).

(4) In one of the earlier episodes after ML landed on the pile of bones, he walked through the corridor. The camera showed an oddly shaped hand print on the wall that ML touched a few seconds ago. In the last episode, his neck looked somewhat odd as if he had a surgical scar. We can assume that he is infected. Whether he is immortal, is not answered in this season.

If you found that ending confusing: It's an open ending leaving many questions (for season 2).

Omg, he finally got a picture that looks like the guy in the dramas, not like some drug abuser pulled out of the sewer.

Not as well as the winners of the oppression olympics. Unfortunately. ☹

Most celebrities behaved well. There wasn't even any relevant incident with Yoona. If you watched the video, you certainly noticed that Yoona obviously made a mistake, the female guard communicated the rules in a way that is universally understood, and Yoona moved on. That's how most guests who made the mistake behaved because that's how "decent people" behave in Europe. Other guests simply moved on because they very likely knew that one is not allowed to pose on the stairs, so there was no need for the guards to usher them.

Only certain individuals made a scene.

Since you asked: In most places in Europe, there are strict rules for bigger events because, in the case of an accident, fire and/or terrorism, the place must be cleared as fast as possible without a stampede. The fire brigade tell the organiser in advance what to do, and they check if all requirements are met before the event starts, and they also check during the event. If the requirements are not met, the event might get cancelled, and the organiser might also have to pay a hefty fine. In the worst case, people get injured, and the insurance will not pay because rules were not enforced. Or maybe the worst case is a preventable accident in which somebody dies. It depends on who you ask.

One of the most important rules is that nobody may stand, pose or sit on stairs.

An example: In many European universities, students are not allowed to sit on the stairs in the lecture theatre even if there are no free seats anymore. That's not because those students are Black™ or celebrities but because of security requirements.

Thanks for the information. I didn't know that France will host the Olympic Games this year.

Do you live in Europe? If not, let me tell you that the reason for not being armed is not "it is not needed" but usually because only the police may carry weapons here. In some European countries, they may carry a weapon only in certain situations.

The Olympic Games is not Cannes.

Security guards can be racists but I watched the concerning videos. Yoona seemed not to be aware of the rules. The female security guard told and showed her the rules (not everybody speaks Korean). Sure, it's embarassing to make a mistake in public but Yoona moved on. Problem solved. We don't even know if Yoonah complained afterwards or if the scandal is just made up by her toxic fandom.

The other incidents were a "lovely" black woman trying to gouge the security guard's eyes out in the typical (black) US-American way. In most places in Europe, shoving one's finger into somebody's face is interpreted as an attempt of assault. If that "lovely" woman did that to me, I would probably have punched her in the face in an act of self defense. The security guard remained calm but strict. Since that "lovely" celebrity is black, we must not even tell her to put her f*ing finger down because that would be "racism" because the finger happens to be US-black.

Another woman, a white woman, posed at the top of the stairs while other guest were still walking up. She even fought the security to continue posing and made a scene. Obviously, she felt above the rules. Multiple security guards had to help the female security guard.

People on the internet and certain celebrities demand that the security should make an exception for certain people. That's ridiculous because there are hundreds of other celebrities who would like to get nice pictures on those stairs, too. Even if we applied modern American racism against white people, there wouldn't even be enough time for all non-whites to get pictures. Some "pocs" would have been ushered to make place for the more equal "pocs".

Terrorism and accidents aside, if everybody is supposed to get treated equally, there must not be any exceptions. Hard to grasp for lots of people.

Many Western politicians in the West get murdered when they are in public. It is relatively unlikely that a terrorist makes a career as a politican just to murder somebody in the parliament.

Cannes is not a public event either. Not everybody can attend. You have to be "in the industry", you have to have money and connections to get invited. It is unlikely that some future terrorist makes a career in the industry. Not impossible but unlikely.

When I was in university, I had to enrol in courses where the topic was "security". Despite the growing number of moslems in my country, terrorism was statistically unlikely (in that course) because there was a looooong list of things that are more likely to kill people, especially fire and stampedes (see Love Parade 2010 or Itaewon 2022). And the fire brigade would check every single detail.

If terrorism is a concern, people get scanned and screened outside the location, not inside it because it makes no sense to worry about terrorism on the stairs. The guests cannot walk fast enough to escape bullets and granates.

Yes, of course, if "they" are the police. The security people (like the concerning woman) do not have any weapons in Europe. That woman is not expected to protect the celebrities against terrorists. It would be against the law if the employer demanded otherwise.

Since there are multiple people on the stairs, we can assume that terrorism is not a much of a concern there.