Lalalalalala

You make a very fair point. The romanticizing is the wrong part, although it must be said JCW did not immediately accepted her advances back. There were still some boundaries.

But in movies such as Parasite there are no boundaries. Both Park Seo Joon and Choi Woo Shik were prowling on an UNDERAGE high school kid. Park Seo Joon even bragged to Choi Woo Shik how he would make a move on her when she is coming of age. CWS even went further. I find this even more troublesome than Backstreet Rookie. Teenagers watching Parasite might think it is cool behavior to mimic. I mean, PSJ is a pretty cool dude and he might function as a role model.

However, no one is criticizing Parasite (it even won an Oscar for best movie), Old Boy and My Sassy Girl (JJH won a Golden Bell) on this same type of behavior. Goblin and IC also managed to survive this stigma. Kim Da-Mi won a Baeksang for her role and Goblin a Daesang. I find this even more disturbing.

Moral policing should not be done selectively, but at every opportunity. All these K-netizens criticizing this drama should also write messages on Park Seo Joon's Instagram explaining to him that he should stop acting in roles that romanticizes this kind of deplorable behavior. I mean, he committed this mistake at least three times by appearing in Parasite, IC and Fight For My Way (Lee Elijah frenchkissed him out of nowhere). With a bit of effort I can even interpret the marriage proposal of him in Episode 1 of Secretary Kim as harassment. The scene of Ji Sung calling him oppa and chasing him across multiple blocks to kiss him in Kill Me, Heal Me as well. But this is of course ridiculous.

We should criticize the behavior in Backstreet Rookie openly, but we should stop using power terms such as sexual harassment. The bar for sexual harassment is way higher in a legal context. Using these terms so easily is dangerous. This the same as animal activists calling butchers murderers.

Did you watch Parasite? Both Choi Woo Shik and Park Seo Joon were prowling on an UNDERAGE high school kid. No one complained about that. Not even in the West. It even won the Oscar for best movie. I detect a very strong form of hypocrisy and selective indignation for this drama, but not for Old Boy, Parasite or My Sassy Girl. BTW, I am not saying that I approve the scenes. I did find them unnecessary, but it is not boycott-worthy. We cannot only show the good things on TV... There should be freedom to express taboos/ bad things. Also, the backlash generated is actually very positive. At least, people realize it is wrong. It is better to learn this through a fictional drama than with a real-life case, which might occur if we do not discuss these kind of controversial topics publicly. For example, in some cultures it is perfectly fine to have several wives, but through controversial shows such as TWOTM, we learn that adultery is wrong.

Having said that, I do think that the rating should be bumped up to 19+. The idea behind this is that adult people are better at separating the rights from the wrongs.

Look, we are at the same page when it comes to this situation. We both think it is morally wrong. But just as with the social sphere, there is room for interpretation, and that room is where problems lie. You are claiming that it is very clearly, unambiguously sexual harassment. I am just saying that it can be explained in a different way - something that you regard as fantasy. He bought her candy instead of cigarettes and told her to stop smoking. He showed her some care and this could be misinterpreted by her as a sign of interest. A kiss might go too far to respond to his kindness, but legally the bar for sexual harassment is quite a bit higher than your intepretation. I do not think it is right to drop this term as it is no biggie.

You have more of an emotional look at the situation. I have a more strict, legal way of looking at the term "sexual harassment". We can agree that it is inappropriate, but the situation is not as black-or-white as you claim it is. This needs to be reviewed by a judge or there needs to be a legal precedent to qualify this as sexual harassment. She did not do a Harvey Weinstein. Her's is more subtle.

If you are interested, read this article and you will understand my sentiment: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27831626

If she continued to kiss him, then it can be determined as sexual harassment as she is forcing herself on him, especially if he tells her to stop. Now it can be explained as that she read the signals/cues wrong. She asked him for cigarettes, which he refused initially, but eventually caved in. She thought he might be interested in her and she just made the first move/the wrong call, but immediately stopped the physical contact. Furthermore, he even gave her his number afterwards. I won't go as far as claiming that he gave her his consent, but there was a certain form of mutual interest. Since they are both adults, there is nothing illegal about the situation. Lack of tact? Certainly... Sexual harassment? A big stretch IMO

The kiss is inappropriate, but I am wondering whether the court will actually consider it sexual harassment. What I am saying is that the less mature and weaker side performed the kiss. She also did not continue kissing him. I think that the judge will tap KYJ on her fingers, but definitely not convict her of sexual harassment. If JCW did it. He would have definitely been in trouble, as he was an adult and the stronger side. I am not saying that I condone KYJ's action, but sexual harassment is a very big accusation for what looks like a stupid action of a young iljin-kind of girl.

Just out of own interest, I asked someone else the same question before and last time I was able to guess where that person was from. Can I guess where you are from? I think you are from a very liberal state in the US (such as California, Washington (Seattle) or New York), Canada or the Nordics. The reason why I am thinking that it is one of those places, is because they are really strict on these kind of topics. I remember that I watched Trudeau once correcting a reporter to not use the word "mankind" anymore, because it was sexist and instead should use "peoplekind". You are definitely not from Southern-Europe, Latin America, Middle-East, Eastern-Europe or Asia. Am I right?

There is an incredible thin line between disturbing and artistic. I am not saying that the scenes are artistic (quite the contrary), but I have seen more disturbing stuff in terms of relationships in Old Boy and that movie is considered to be one of the best movies ever produced in Korea. My Sassy Girl was also quite disturbing, but critically acclaimed. While we have not seen something like this before in dramaland, I felt that My Ahjussi and The Light in Your Eyes also had a big vomit level initially. It turned out to be two of the best dramas in recent years. Just wait and see whether it falls in the first category or in the latter. I will not be surprised that in a few weeks time, people will call it artistic. But for now it is indeed disturbing LOL. The director is definitely pushing the limit on what is acceptable.

I agree that it is better to leave the dreads guy out. But I am going to say something controversial... Whenever it involves some non-Asian culture (mainly cultures of people of color) I always see these type of comments pop up. But it is never the other way around. For example, when The Fiery Priest had a Korean play a Thai guy with a language barrier, people found it funny. No one felt that it was racist, although it was. Same with how Koreans portray for example Japanese people as rapists and brutes. Or whenever the director of The King mixes up Japanese and Korean flags during the editing. In those circumstances, people always look the other way around and are "able to look at the bigger picture" (when they shouldn't), but in these cases people always have their judgment ready. I am not familiar with the Rastafari culture, but isn't it also a religion. Is it a requirement that you have to be descendants of African slaves in Jamaica to join the religion and culture? - If not, what makes this guy different than a Koreaboo?

Anyways, I digress too much, let's hope they do not ridicule the Rastafarians too much and keep it entertaining.

A typical case of lost in translation. This is was the first comment that actually asked about the ending of TKEM itself, but the comment section for the last past days have mostly been a fanwar. So when she asked whether the drama had a happy ending, I made a joke about the messiness of this comment section. I responded with: "The battle has not finished yet. So we do not know whether the critics or the fans have won." Afterwards, I completed the joke with. "O, sorry you were referring to TKEM. Wrong comment section, mate... wrong section... Try asking it on another forum instead". People thought I was directing her to another website, but it was some stupid ironic humor we have in the West. People from other parts do not understand this type of humor. But the comment probably got deleted because of further misunderstandings and it is also not relevant to any discussion. But to be fair, I should have left the second part out of the joke, because it sounds unintentionally mean in hindsight

Age gaps of more than 10 years are very common in real life:
- Brangelina (11 years)
- Ryan Gosling and Blake Lively (11 years)
- Lee Byun Hun and Lee Min Jung (12 years)
etc. etc.

There are also extreme case such as George Clooney and Amal, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

Granted, most of them separated. But when they were together, no one made a fuzz about the age difference. In fact, in two of the most popular recent kdramas there was a huge age gap. But no one really complained about the 20-year age difference between Han So Hee and Park Hae Jun in TWOTM, or the 9-year difference between Kim Hee Ae and Park Hae Jun. The age gap of 10-years between Kang Ha-Neul and Gong Hyo Jin was also not a big issue. The only drama where people complained about the age difference was between Ju Ji Hoon and Kim Hye Soo in Hyena. But despite all this, the show was still popular because of the good acting.

As I said, it is about the different stages in life. I also agree that Kim Yoo Young's reputation as Nation's Little Sister does not help. I hope they have the acting skills to overcome these obstacles, such as the actors of TWOTM, WTCM and Hyena manage to do it.

Pardon my English. I accidentally wrote "him" instead of "him/her". My sincere apologies

There are actually cues that made it obvious that it was a joke. The "O" before I started the joke for example. Or the fact that I call her my "mate". This word is meant affectionally in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. If it was not meant as a joke, my comment would be ban-worthy rude. It is condescending to call a random person your "mate" in a serious setting.

Do not take everything so serious. It is intended to be a joke on how the comment section has turned messy and personal.

May I ask you something? Just out of my own interest. Do you happen to come from a country outside America or Europe? I always notice that people outside these regions take tongue-in-cheek comments very seriously. Especially people from Western Africa, Middle East and South-East Asia do not understand these type of comments and interpret it as an insult. They are also more passionate and defend everything that it is hostile against their values ferociously. Totally irrelevant, but I think these same cultural differences can explain why these regions tend to enjoy watching TKEM, whilst the rest mostly does not.

Again, my question is not meant to be insulting (and certainly not racist), but I am just interested to see whether my assumption was right. I think it is fascinating that people from different cultures have a totally different mindset than what I am used to.

Charlotte, thanks for your thoughts. The words "haters" and "smart response" gave it away.

BTW, I will be honest with everyone here. I dislike Lee Min Ho. I think he is ugly and his acting style is comically bad. I also dislike Kim Go Eun since she spoke the words "Ahjussi Saranghaeyo". Thus, you can qualify me as a hater. But I do not troll nor mock the fans of TKEM, because there is no need for it - the viewership ratings spoke louder than any of my below-the-belt comments will ever do. There is no need for me to crush the fans further. But this view is not shared by most people here. They do not know when to stop. They have less class than the American female soccer team against minnow Thailand (FYI, Murica kept humiliating Thailand by celebrating every goal as if they defeated the French male soccer team).

The army of TKEM-haters (for a lack of a better word) are beyond pathetic. They will always call out the defenders for their fanaticism, but they do not realize that it is the story of the pot and the kettle. All these semi-well intended messages to ask fans to stop defending this drama and to keep the comment section clean is so counterproductive. IMO it is just reverse psychology to agitate the fans further.

As a hater of anything surrounding Lee Min Ho, I actually think that the "TKEM-haters" (again... for a lack of a better word) are more pathetic than the defenders. They are taunting the weaker side and then act surprised whenever the opposite side responds. If these people really preach what they say, they should have the class to ignore fans such as Charlotte. I mean, Charlotte is just defending her oppa through thick and thin, which is actually admirable in a sense.

So when is a hard response warranted against these defenders? Whenever we see stuff happening such as on Soompi, where all the members + mods are like Charlotte and spread bizarre claims surrounding the popularity of TKEM. But this is not the case here. There are 9000+ comments, of which 8000+ are negative. We should not be bothered by the handful of overly positive comments. So let these TKEM fans write their positive comments. If they have the diligence to produce 8000 positive comments to balance out the negative ones, then we can "crush" them again.

Oh yeah, for the ones wondering why I am reading the comments here, even though I do not like LMH... Well, I kinda find it fascinating to see how people fight over something so trivial. But it is getting sad when groups of people start cornering a person who is clearly impacted by these negative comments (heck, she even lost sleep over it), so I thought I speak up on her behalf.

Nothing wrong with wearing a trash bag. It is okay to be not okay.

Good movie, but far from perfect. Especially the first part is excellent, but the second part was too propaganda-like for my taste. I would have appreciated more nuance and use of facts. In reality, the H.Res 121-bill that forces Japan to apologize etc. is proposed by Michael Honda - a Japanese-American Congressman. But in the movie they named him Michael Lee (to make him sound Korean). Also the two Japanese representatives are portrayed as brutes that verbally mocked Na Ok Boon after her speech, but the Japanese are in real life way too "polite"(honne and tatamae) to engage in these shouting matches. This movie is clearly anti-Japan and does not try to separate between the good (such as Congressman Mike Honda) and the bad Japanese (the ones who committed the crimes).

The acting by Na Moon Hee and Lee Je Hoon is very good. I heard that both cannot really speak English in real life, but I could understand them very well in the movie. Especially Lee Je Hoon's English was impressive. Although I was still able to hear his Korean accent, he had a very precise American twang. I would have believed it if you told me that he attended an American school in Seoul during his younger years.

All in all, good movie. Sad that they give Mike Honda zero credits and portrayed all Japanese as bad people.

What you describe as part of the fun (i.e. filling the plot holes) would only work if the show was still airing and no one knew the ending yet. Since the show has ended, the story has finalized and theorizing is useless. So the plot holes are actual flaws and not some cliffhanger from the writer. Also, many TKEM-viewers will move to the next drama, so the number of people that you can discuss your theories with will decline. Moreover, the only people you can reach with your messages are the binge watchers, but I guess that these people are not active followers of every comment here because that would give them too much spoilers to enjoy the show. A big reason for binge watching is because they do not want to speculate (i.e. filling in plot holes) and wait too much between various episodes. You would achieve much more by saying something as "this show is great and everything will be explained in later episodes" or "this show is so exciting, it is binge worthy". IMO telling binge watchers that filling in the plot holes is funnest part of the show is actually the biggest reason not to watch it. My two cents.

Yeah, Soompi Forum is full of censorship. Words such as "bitch" are automatically changed to "Richard Simmons", which is way too excessive.

Even Soompi (the website not the forum) itself is very politically correct in their reporting. The final episode of TKEM had 5.8% and 8.1% in rating, which is extremely low for a regular episode of a Friday-Saturday drama on SBS, let alone for a finale. Can you guess what the heading was on their website? - “The King: Eternal Monarch” Ends On SOLID Ratings For Finale. "Solid" is the last word I would use for any finale with a top of 8.1%. This is almost fake news

I was watching the latest trailer and there was a big highlight with the word "romantic comedy".I hope they meant dark comedy like Parasite, because I have no idea how they would incorporate it in the story otherwise. I do not see any humor in any of these trailers. But I am afraid that the comedy aspect is the input of Studio Dragon and TVN, where they want to have long scenes with awkward stares, wrist grabs, head petting and cheesy Touch Your Heart-humor.

Doesn't Reddit hide all comments with a lot of negative points? I can imagine that people would vote any negative comments away. For fun, just try to say that Hospital Playlist is overrated on Reddit. Your comment will disappear in less than 5 min due to all the downvotes. Soompi Forum also has a very low tolerance. Their mods are essentially fanboys themselves. I read messages there saying that TKEM was Kim Eun Sook's biggest hit ever, larger than DOTS, Goblin and her earlier dramas that did like 40% in viewership ratings. The majority of them agreed and the mods would kick out any comments that try to talk sense into these people. Even factual comments about TKEM lagging IC and CLOY on Netflix Japan are banned, as Soompi has a policy where you are not allowed to compare dramas. Reddit and Soompi are essentially controlling any criticism. Reddit via a big fan community and its downvote system. Soompi via the mods. You are only allowed to speak in Newspeak like in George Orwell's 1984. MDL allows for conflicting opinions, unless the comments are extremely rude, personal or spam. Also, MDL is a rating website, so you tend to have more "critical" responses. The other websites are essentially fan cafes

I do see a silver lining. Most actors just look at the name of the writer and blindly accept it. Since this writer is not well known, I think KSY must have taken the time to read the script carefully before accepting. I mean, he took quite some time post-army to find the right drama.

But I hope I am right, because the synopsis reads like a JTBC drama instead of a TVN drama. It has been a while that I have seen a production of TVN and Studio Dragon that dares to be raw, edgy and real. Both have been too commercial to my taste for the past years. This worked well in 2014 or when a script does not include a lot sensitive topics, but this story deals with mental health etc. I hope this drama will be used by TVN/Studio Dragon as a test case to reinvent themselves. Surely, they noticed that the crown of cable TV is slowly shifting to JTBC. Also with a renewed interest in Korean entertainment due to movies such as Parasite, I can imagine that they will broadcast more socially relevant dramas