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Sturm und Drang Makjang (A due) in the key of Bl minor
It’s so long since I’ve seen a contemporary full blown 막장, that for quite some time I failed to appreciate that was exactly what I was watching. Overall, it’s either a hackneyed mess of over the top cliché emotion with a slew of two dimensional supporting characters espousing grandiose, pompous opinions, or it’s a thumping good makjang, complete with a screaming mother who has just catapulted in from dramaland circa 2010. I can’t decide whether I loved it or hated it.
The objective reviewer in me acknowledges that the second half of it fulfilled the criteria of a makjang perfectly, but my subjective opinion is that a lot of it is over the top, hysterical (in both senses) and often cringeworthy with magnificent moments of pure sincerity and some cracking performances by the leads, especially Song Kang. I was tossed between these extremes for the whole 12 episodes.
1st Movement.
Allegretto: molto dolcissimo e affettuoso con occasionale sforzando
This section was quite long and the weakest part of the drama.
Let’s face it, this was a teenage drama confused about its sexuality that needed to present as straight. And the muddled result was weird. This is not how any teenage boys of my acquaintance behave, and I’ve known a few, gay and straight. In my opinion the result ended up as something nauseatingly sweet, that didn’t look like either attraction, friendship or bromance and I was confused as to what their relationship actually was. A girl was necessary to prove the no-no-we’re-actually-straight point, but for the duration of the drama Hong Jae In (Jang Gyu Ri) was never more than a cypher struggling to be noticed.
The dialogue in this part of the drama sounded fanciful, faux-profound, cringeworthy and often completely unnatural. It also felt like it didn’t want to get its hands dirty but was desperate to create street cred for itself. So it depicted what a comfortable existence thinks an uncomfortable existence looks like, and failed miserably in the process. It was devoid of the grit and rough edges that would have given it credibility. Even the colour palette and cinematography was bland, with pedestrian choices being made by the director too.
I have a beef. As a pianist myself I know a bit about practising, as does anybody who has ever picked up a musical instrument. And it doesn’t look like this even if you are a concert pianist. Practising is things like playing two or three tricky bars over and over and over again; experimenting with subtly different interpretations of a single phrase and trying out alternate fingering. It is not playing a piece all the way through like it’s a concert. Apparently, 임윤찬 (Yunchan Lim) never practised the pieces for the Cliburn competition by playing them all the way through and my concert pianist friend doesn’t either. Nor is it, perfectly sight reading and synching with another musician on the first attempt, whilst at the same time ignoring the score and looking sweetly into their eyes. It’s much more, fudging a bit you can’t read properly, missing a bar and catching up, playing a wrong note or twenty and hopefully collapsing into laughter at some point.
2nd Movement
Prestissimo: attacca subito, impetuoso, feroce e scatenato
Once the thriller element kicks in I feel that the production gains more confidence. The director has previous experience in suspense. It does come as a bit of a surprise and the plot (from here on in) often stretches credulity to twanging point, but that in itself suddenly embeds this makjang firmly in its genre and you realise this is where it was heading all along.
There is no mystery involved, so the tension is all created by the inner life of the main characters.
3rd Movement
Maestoso: con dissonanze, agitato e furioso, grandioso, col pugno finale.
We are now firmly in makjang territory and what a triumph it is. I’ve always thought Song Kang could bring out the essence of a character and here he does it very well. He manages to portray both the extremes and the subtleties of emotion without slipping into caricature, which can’t be said for his mother and grandfather. Neither of whom were served well with the overinflated hyperbole in the script. Song Kang held the emotional centre rock solid for the other characters to play out their somewhat limited dimension parts. And that includes his nemesis, Choi Jong Yo, played by Lee Jun Young, who was underdeveloped by comparison.
Coda
Larghetto: doloroso, con anima, ritardando e diminuendo
For me the ending worked, but would have worked even better if we had seen more of Choi Jong Yo’s (Lee Jun Young) journey and had more insight into how he survived and developed in those lost years. The involvement of religion was under-explained and therefore required a leap of faith by the viewer too.
Finally a note about the music. I really enjoyed the soundtrack. Whoever played the piano was good enough to articulate the different styles and interpretations that were such an important part in the script. The music was an integral element of the whole drama as it was often the connecting tissue between the characters and it played its part really well. The choice of music was also good. It had more than just really well known pieces
Ranking this is really hard. But I think it should be ranked as how successful it was as a makjang and not my own subjective likes and dislikes. The first half let it down but the second half excelled in its own genre. So it’s going to have to be a compromise.
The objective reviewer in me acknowledges that the second half of it fulfilled the criteria of a makjang perfectly, but my subjective opinion is that a lot of it is over the top, hysterical (in both senses) and often cringeworthy with magnificent moments of pure sincerity and some cracking performances by the leads, especially Song Kang. I was tossed between these extremes for the whole 12 episodes.
1st Movement.
Allegretto: molto dolcissimo e affettuoso con occasionale sforzando
This section was quite long and the weakest part of the drama.
Let’s face it, this was a teenage drama confused about its sexuality that needed to present as straight. And the muddled result was weird. This is not how any teenage boys of my acquaintance behave, and I’ve known a few, gay and straight. In my opinion the result ended up as something nauseatingly sweet, that didn’t look like either attraction, friendship or bromance and I was confused as to what their relationship actually was. A girl was necessary to prove the no-no-we’re-actually-straight point, but for the duration of the drama Hong Jae In (Jang Gyu Ri) was never more than a cypher struggling to be noticed.
The dialogue in this part of the drama sounded fanciful, faux-profound, cringeworthy and often completely unnatural. It also felt like it didn’t want to get its hands dirty but was desperate to create street cred for itself. So it depicted what a comfortable existence thinks an uncomfortable existence looks like, and failed miserably in the process. It was devoid of the grit and rough edges that would have given it credibility. Even the colour palette and cinematography was bland, with pedestrian choices being made by the director too.
I have a beef. As a pianist myself I know a bit about practising, as does anybody who has ever picked up a musical instrument. And it doesn’t look like this even if you are a concert pianist. Practising is things like playing two or three tricky bars over and over and over again; experimenting with subtly different interpretations of a single phrase and trying out alternate fingering. It is not playing a piece all the way through like it’s a concert. Apparently, 임윤찬 (Yunchan Lim) never practised the pieces for the Cliburn competition by playing them all the way through and my concert pianist friend doesn’t either. Nor is it, perfectly sight reading and synching with another musician on the first attempt, whilst at the same time ignoring the score and looking sweetly into their eyes. It’s much more, fudging a bit you can’t read properly, missing a bar and catching up, playing a wrong note or twenty and hopefully collapsing into laughter at some point.
2nd Movement
Prestissimo: attacca subito, impetuoso, feroce e scatenato
Once the thriller element kicks in I feel that the production gains more confidence. The director has previous experience in suspense. It does come as a bit of a surprise and the plot (from here on in) often stretches credulity to twanging point, but that in itself suddenly embeds this makjang firmly in its genre and you realise this is where it was heading all along.
There is no mystery involved, so the tension is all created by the inner life of the main characters.
3rd Movement
Maestoso: con dissonanze, agitato e furioso, grandioso, col pugno finale.
We are now firmly in makjang territory and what a triumph it is. I’ve always thought Song Kang could bring out the essence of a character and here he does it very well. He manages to portray both the extremes and the subtleties of emotion without slipping into caricature, which can’t be said for his mother and grandfather. Neither of whom were served well with the overinflated hyperbole in the script. Song Kang held the emotional centre rock solid for the other characters to play out their somewhat limited dimension parts. And that includes his nemesis, Choi Jong Yo, played by Lee Jun Young, who was underdeveloped by comparison.
Coda
Larghetto: doloroso, con anima, ritardando e diminuendo
For me the ending worked, but would have worked even better if we had seen more of Choi Jong Yo’s (Lee Jun Young) journey and had more insight into how he survived and developed in those lost years. The involvement of religion was under-explained and therefore required a leap of faith by the viewer too.
Finally a note about the music. I really enjoyed the soundtrack. Whoever played the piano was good enough to articulate the different styles and interpretations that were such an important part in the script. The music was an integral element of the whole drama as it was often the connecting tissue between the characters and it played its part really well. The choice of music was also good. It had more than just really well known pieces
Ranking this is really hard. But I think it should be ranked as how successful it was as a makjang and not my own subjective likes and dislikes. The first half let it down but the second half excelled in its own genre. So it’s going to have to be a compromise.
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