PrettyCarEye

lol #smh

My love for Lovers is entirely my own. I don't expect others to feel the same way about it as I do nor am I disappointed or hurt if they don't like it. So watch it or don't watch it, up to you! :)

Thx!
Wow, are you still living in Tokyo now? Awesome! I so want to visit. Anything on your 'currently watching' list that's particularly wowing you?

Hehe, for me even when the story & characters are great it's still frustrating when the romance appears in the last 2 minutes of the show! Grrr...

I have to admit I'm still suffering from culture shock regarding this! :) I'd prefer they leave out the romance entirely rather than tease us with it & then not deliver! This is kind of what happened in Nagareboshi. Truly disappointing.

Say, I noticed just now that you have When A Man Loves on your favourites list? Wow! :) You're the 1st fan of this drama I've encountered.

Pretty much everyone else cut this down every chance they get. And can't really say I blame them if the particularly laughable kiss scene I saw on YouTube is anything to go by! It did not endear this drama to me at all although I'm still tempted to watch it just for Song Seung Son.

So can you help me understand? How? Why did this work for you? :)

I saw In The Mood for Love in the early 2000s when it was first released & introduced to Western audiences. The film left an impression that didn't quite sink in until years later when I was in film school. By this time I had matured somewhat, both as a person & someone with an interest for cinematic art. When I saw a rescreening of the film at a festival in London it just blew me away with how exquisitely symbolic the shots were!

This film is pure art. It's able to tell a story entirely in pictures (without the need for dialogue). Every filmmaker aspire to such artistry. And it is admired in film circles exactly for this reason. The breathtaking cinematography, the magnificent attention to detail in the direction, the superb cast.

The best cinema occur when technique couples seamlessly with story. For what is a technically sound film if you're left with nothing, emotionally, at the end? For many filmmakers it's not possible to be a great technician AND a great storyteller at the same time. You're either one or the other & only the true masters accomplish both.

For me ITMFL delivered in both departments. The story might have been mundane & average, but the framing of the pictures used to tell that story is what's so moving & beautiful about the film. The voyeuristic intimacy of the cinematography that give us a glimpse of these people's anguish as if we were seeing their life unfold through a crack in the door. Perfection.

I'm glad you enjoyed it even if it wasn't perfect in your eyes. :)

I'll leave you now to watch whatever you want! lol
Is there anything you're particularly enjoying at the moment? I'm thinking about starting Can You Hear My Heart? (or is it Voice?). Whatever. I'm told it's suppose to be good! Do you have any favs you'd like to recommend me?

I haven't seen any of the dramas you mentioned & I probably won't watch any of them in the future either. I know IHYV has been very popular, but I'm not the least bit interested. Shark seems like a drama I could have liked, if the ending didn't suck. So I won't watch it! :)

I finished Sweet 18 last night. I liked it & then I didn't so I gave it a 6. I'm considering Can You Hear My Voice as my next drama. Have you seen it? If you did, what did you think?

It's nice to have a busy & full life, I guess. Don't work too hard! :)

I see you've completed Orange Days and gave it a perfect 10, but you didn't respond to any of my previous messages to let me know you even started it! Girl, what's up with that?
Glad you enjoyed it, though. It is indeed a gem! :)

You're welcome! :)
I know you're still considering, but may I ask what would have made this a 10 for you instead of a 9? No worries, I'm just curious! :)

For me I have no preferrence one way or the other when it comes to shorts. To me shorts are simply a stepping stone to a feature film career. No filmmaker I know of has ever made a living making shorts.

When I visit festivals & I'm wearing my producer's hat, looking for talent I can develop and work with I look for films that have something to say, films with a distinct artistic flair or both. Preferably both.

Many shorts tend to be comedies because most film students are taught to believe only comedy is suitable for a short format. I think this is nonsense. Every genre can be suitable as a short as long as the script suits the format. I personally am not a fan of comedy (unless it's black comedy) either as a producer or creator (writer/director). I'm always draw to films that move my emotions & or stand out in my mind for both it's emotional resonance AND it's artistry.

Cinema for me, no matter how artistic, is barren without emotional impact. Every year as I attend all the major festivals in Europe I see so many exquisitely shot films that leave me with nothing after a screening. What is the point of such films other than to show that the director is a great technician? Those type of films are uninteresting for me and are films I want to avoid making. Ideally story & technique must go hand in hand, but where one must dominate I'll take story to great technique any day.

And this is what's interesting about Asian cinema juxtaposed Western cinema. Technically Western cinema is superior, but when it comes to story & character development ... Asia wins this round by far.

It's really difficult to say exactly which I'd recommend. It depends on whether you prefer family dramas or pure romantic comedy. Also one of them is quite long (45 eps) whilst the other is your standard 16 ep drama.

Both are your typical cutesy rom-com with all the dead fish kissing you can stomach. I started SY for the comedic relief & the family politricks. Sweet 18 I don't know why I started it. A moment of madness spurred by a convo I had with someone about the show. At the time I read the synopsis & was reminded of My Little Bride which is the movie version of the drama. I really enjoyed the movie. It made me laugh & I was charmed by the leads & their antics. But in a 16 ep kdrama I should have known the story wouldn't materialize in a way that would entertain me. Let's just say I don't understand the point of making a romance drama if all you're going to do is avoid the romance & replace it with every kind of juvenile, childish nonsense you can think of. lol

Not at all my kind of drama. But I can't drop it. Have to finish everything I start. I have 2 eps left to go & I'll watch those when I get home. For now, it's feeling like a 6. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't watch these, but after a good few dramas (Lovers, MARS, Cruel City ... in that order) I was at a loss as to what to watch next so I simply started them out of desperation.

Sorry I'm not of more help! :)

Edinaa, long time no chat. What's cooking on your endz?

Well, my life is just one big pressure cooker. Stress. Stress. Stress. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die from stress! :)

Thank god for dramas which are a great stress reliever for me. I'm watching Smile, You, but took a break to marathon Sweet 18. Sweet 18 is not my kind of drama. It's a cutesy rom com that's every kind of juvenile that I hate. I tend to avoid dramas like these like the plague, but decided to give this a go in a moment of madness. I liked the synopsis, but I should have known how a story like this would go ... being a kdrama. I have 2 eps left to go. I'll watch those when I get home. For now, it's feeling like a 6 for me. I much preferred My Little Bride which is the movie version of Sweet 18.

What about yourself, young lady? All's well? Watch anything you'd recommend lately? Cruel City? Nice to hear from you, chingu! :)

hehe, I was just about to write you! I'm really liking it. Normally this type of innocent, cutesy, playground like romance would bore and or annoy me, but somehow it's holding my interest. I've never met a more bubbly character than Joon-sooki so it's hard to not like her. And as I suspected the more I look at Lee Dong Gun the more I like him. I also like that he's sensitive (or trying to be) to Joon-sook even though she's a bit childish & naive! I wish they'd stop dragging things out though & let them have their wedding night! WHEN are they going to confess to each other ... something's always getting in the way, grrr! :)

What are you watching now?

Actually I realize now that I did read that article! Apologies, hehe, my bad! :)

I have directed a couple shorts, but my goal is to make feature films. Shorts are just a stepping stone to a feature (long film) career.

Oh, I'm planning a trip to SK for the near future. Hopefully next year or the year after (if life spares). I'd love to live there for a year just see how I react/am influenced by the culture. Will I be as charmed as I am when I watch dramas? Thankfully due to the nature of my job I can pretty much work anywhere as long as I have my laptop & internet connection. So I'm looking first at a 3 month trip while I write the script for my next project.

Yeah, film sets are crazy, but the best part of the job for me because that's where, as a creator, you truly CREATE. The chaos on film sets are also a direct result of the director and his/her working style. Some directors prepare EVERYTHING before going on set so everything happens in almost mechanical fashion while other directors are more intuitive. They tend to figure things out on set & that's where the chaos comes in. Chaos isn't necessarily a bad thing thing though. As long as it's organized chaos & the dir. knows what s/he's doing it's fine.

One day soon I'm going to meet this writer at some festival in Seoul & give her a bear hug for writing my most favourite drama ever, Lovers!

I've also seen A Gentleman's Dignity and it was nice. Would have preferred a different female lead to Kim Na Heul, though, that's for sure. Sadly I'm passing on On Air & Secret Garden for the same reason (I'm not a Ha Ji Won fan either).

But I'm looking forward to City Hall! Cha Seung Won impressed me in The Greatest Love with his comedic antics & I've heard nothing but acclaim for Kim Sun-ah's acting chops. I can not wait to 'meet' her for the first time in this drama. Hopefully, I will agree with masses!

Last but not least I have to say that now that I know she's the writer behind Heirs I feel a little more confident in watching it. At first my only motivation to watch it was to 'meet' Lee Min-ho since I've never seen him in a drama, but now ... I'm curious to see what she does with the script.

Great article! I shall look forward to the others! :)
By the way, could you please provide a link to the first Screenwriter article? I didn't read that one, but would love to. Cheers! :)

You've been to Japan? Awesome! How was it & how many times have you been? I guess you'd really have to know where these people hang out in order to bump into them, particularly in a city like Tokyo that's bursting at the seams with people.

This, though, is one of the big benefits of working in the film business. It's very easy to run into celebrities at film festivals & other industry gatherings. Sometimes it's not always easy to get close to them, but I've met many Western celebrities this way. And given that most Asian stars are not known in the west, they tend to be more approachable & on the same wavelength with average festival goers. That's why I'm pretty sure I should be able to meet some of my favs. :)

Life sure is funny, I've never really had an interest to visit Asia before I caught the drama bug. Previously, I've had many opportunities to shoot in Asia but passed on them. Now of course I'm full of regrets, but I'll make a trip one day soon. I want to move to South Korea for a few months to learn the language.

As for what I do, well by rights I'm a producer. I develop & source financing for short films and all kinds of audio visual media, for eg commercials, music videos etc. Lately, however, my interest have shifted from producing to writing & directing. My hope is to write, produce & direct my own feature films. For now it's still a dream, but I'm working hard everyday to make it happen! :)

It's a fun job, but very stressful & cutthroat at the same time. That said, I don't know that there's anything else I'd rather be doing.

How lovely. Always nice to hear from my chingus! :)
How have you been? You've been on holiday recently, didn't you? Hope that was nice and relaxing!
As for me, I'm doing fine. I'm watching 2 dramas at the moment, Smile, You & Sweet 18. Both are romantic comedies. Not exactly what I was in the mood for but they're growing on me as the episodes go by. First time ever I'm watching 2 dramas at once. I usually only have time to watch one thing at a time. What about you? I know you're watching a lot of airing shows. How are those coming on for you? Depending on how they end I want to watch 2 weeks & Who are you? I'm not so interested in Master's Sun because I don't really care for the Hong sisters & their dramas. And normally I avoid medical dramas so I'm probably going to pass on Good Doctor too.

I liked it, but OMG the story arc involving Choi Jung Yoon almost drove me up the wall! She was sooooo bloody annoying here. In fact this is the role that pushed me over the edge as far as she's concerned. After this she got blacklisted for life. BUT, having said that Ojakgyo Brothers is still a cute little drama worth the watch.
Thankfully Choi's story arc takes up only about a 3rd of the show & then focus switches to the other brothers (they are 4 in total). I'd say, give it a go if ever you're in the mood for a long drama! :)

In the Mood for Love is ... exquisite. I won't say more. Just watch the film & see what sort of impression it leaves on you.

LOL, our relationship will be just fine ... as long as it's not MY film that's on your chopping block! Haha! No, critics are important to filmmakers. Some immature filmmakers are not aware of this; they throw hissy fits every time they get a bad review. While I commiserate (I've experienced the sting of negative criticism - 4 of my 6 shorts were cut down by the movie police! :), it's ridiculous to make enemies of critics. I mean, it's like shooting yourself in the foot because you're just giving that person more ammunition to butcher your work. Forever. Meanwhile if you try to be civil & hide your bitterness it can & will work to your benefit in the long run, as in the case of my 2 last films which have done fairly well at festivals. By the way, don't ask me to see them, those 2 are still out at festivals & I'll never show the previous 4 to anyone! LOL

Ha! I had to laugh at the cop falling & accidentally landing on his/her co-star's face! I mean whoever came up with that bright idea for a kiss needs be slapped. Really! LOL

How do I pick my shows? Trial & error mostly. lol
I mean in the 9 months I've inhabited dramaland I've become a lot better at finding the shows that are right for me, but stinkers still make an appearance from time to time. The only way to know if you like a show is to just watch it so I'll watch anything that sounds interesting to me whether it has low ratings or not. I don't trust the rating system here on MDL, anyway. There are a lot teenagers on this site who love to hype! :) Most of my favourite movies & dramas have low ratings.

I make (or try to make) the kind of films I like to watch. The shorts I've made so far in my career are all (life) dramas. But in the future I want to focus more on crime. It's one of my all time favourite genres. What genres do you prefer?