Hanah

I've never read/watched either but based on your article, The Handmaiden's Tale doesn't seem to be too different from the majority of Chinese imperial harem dramas

Like a lot of people, I kind of thought Min was a bit of a doormat or pathetic but it took me until the end of the drama to realize that she is actually just really mature, like an old soul (like, the opposite of naive).
She has very wise insight--especially if I look at it from the Thai culture perspective I've been exposed to watching lakorns. She is pretty perceptive, she admits her wrongs, she does not hold grudges and she has been forced to practice 100% of what she preaches. She also does not let the little things get to her. Her character may not have had a drastic development, but when I look back, she was very consistent throughout the whole drama.

About halfway through and wow, the male lead is what I would call a "smiling bastard" (not that I like him any less for it, shame on me).

Been personally waiting for a female lead like Ming Lan my entire drama watching career. Her intelligence aside, what I loved about her was that she was calm, patient and very thoughtful, able to both the intricate details and the over big picture. She really showed that being gentle and passive does NOT make one a doormat or "weak female lead"

**Saw your comment on Viki and don't have an account there, but luckily you are active on here too so I can rant/respond =D**

100% agree with both of your points, the second one so much I feel like you took the words right out my mouth. The "leave the female lead out of the loop to create unnecessary drama" trope one of my most hated plot devices--it personally ruined the satisfaction value of quite a few dramas for me. As you said, in this drama in particular, I felt like undermined the whole point of the series--the idea of ML and GTY working together (yeah, right's right, TOGETHER) to solve problems.

You know, I was so impressed with this series for it's meticulous attention to detail and it's logical plot sequence. Everything felt so organized and accounted that this was 1 of the 2 things that threw me for a loop. You're right --GTY (and the writers ahem) has no logical reason keep this from ML. In fact, logically he should have told her. One, for someone who spent half the series lamented how he doesn't want her to suffer anymore, this arc was when she suffered most--all thanks to his deception and needlessly too to boot. Papa Sheng couldn't have said it better during that last sense. Two, in her attempt for save GTY, she could have foiled the overall plan and very well made things worse.

Also, I just hate the idea that female leads need to become muddled to prove that they are really in love. It's perfectly acceptable to love someone and still have a good head on your shoulders. Just look at GTY--his love for ML made him smarter and even more careful, not the opposite. He even has a line during his proposal arc when he says he's never schemed so carefully before or something.

I really want to love this but the problem is that most of the characters are like Min Chae Rin's lipstick: over-the-top and somewhat unnatural.

The reason I have this drama forever on-hold at ep 3-4 is because I was sympathizing with Kim So Hyun's character and it was all leaving a bad taste in my mouth. It just seemed like Kim Yoo Jung's character had everything going for her (loving family, all the boys want her, cool older brother means approval from the girls) and poor Kim So Hyun's character was faced with no support and a family that was just using her to climb the ladder. It's a shame because this is supposed to be an epic romance but it's hard to root for the couple when the above is so distracting.

What I liked the most about this was that the leads, in general, made pretty well thought-out decisions and this translated to them being a very rock-solid couple. Although they had to face the big stuff (like Yul being the crown prince and all), there was very little self-made, unnecessary angst (except for a bit of bad writing at the end).

Surprisingly, the crown princess ended up being one of my favorite characters.

I actually really liked this, to the point that I got withdrawal effects afterwards. A huge chunk of that would be Lee Yoo Ri (what an amazing actress!) and her ability to bring her characters to life. Another are the Lee Na Yeon/Baek Do Hee characters themselves. My absolute favorite type of character is the cool, calm, classy female lead and Lee Yoo Ri embodied this perfectly (actually, so did Kim Hye Ri but that's a different story ahem).

Thoughts about the ending: my initial thought was dissatisfaction (thought a couple of the villains got off way too easy). But after calming down and reanalyzing it, I think if was sort of a what-if scenario. I didn't really hate certain villains at all in the beginning and I guess the ending revisits the idea that if they didn't have to go through the original circumstances they did, would they really end up so bad?

Interesting that you mention this. After watching and reading (in that order, thankfully) TPWY, I felt like novel-WY was more similar to Chang Ru than her own character. The original Chang Ru is a pretty minor character and a lot of drama-Chang Ru's characterizations you describe beautifully above (weed pretending to a flower, knows how to hide in the shadows, cunning) are actually part of novel-WY's character. The novel was a breath of fresh air for people who were sick of naive female leads preaching justice while never actually having to do the dirty work for it (much like drama-WY, actually...)

So, yes, drama-Chang Ru does seem to steal the show, but really, it's because they took the best parts of novel-WYs characters and transplanted it into drama-Chang Ru's.

I had to login to say that those quotes you chose were extremely accurate for dramas. Although we all complain about the repetitiveness of drama plot lines, we become quite leery when a drama tries to do something do too different, to the point of becoming confused and indignant if it is not following the usual course. And I can say personally that, baffling as it sounds, quality is not always the secret of success when it comes to Asian dramas.

I really like this. Funny enough, I was searching for a really middle-class setting type of drama and this hit the mark. Nice break from all the overly dramatic conflicts.

It was an excellent decision to make this short and sweet because it cut out a lot of the unnecessary drama that would otherwise bog down such a simple plot.

Other than that, what I really loved about this was that they seemed to take the relationship seriously even though it was a contract ship. There wasn't that underlying "we're not really dating" or "this is fake, we're just pretending" mentality that other contract-relationship dramas have. They behaved like a real bf-gf and it made everything seem more natural.

YES. I feel exactly the same way.

MAJOR SPOILERS:










Okay, first things first, Alice is a BOSS. I love her tough-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside characterization too--I think Yaya is good at portraying those type of roles. I think it was a good balance on the premise. On paper, the female is literally a damsel-in-distress but her elegance, poise, confidence and no-nonsense attitude make her a strong female lead. To me, it's much better than other plots where the female lead sounds strong--like she's a female bodyguard, spy or whatever--but ends up doing illogical things that make her come off as dumb or have the male lead saving her all the time anyway.

Next, somehow, I never ended up disliking Kate. Even at her worse, I just saw the lost little girl begging for attention. Idk if that's good acting on Sara Legge's part or my twisted morals lol.

In fact, that last scene when she's yelling about always being the unwanted child and everyone'e claiming they loved her all along, I kind of wanted to call bullshit on it. If you really did "worry about her the most" as Grandpa claimed, why did you let her suffer for all of those years? That scene where Grandpa hugs Alice and Alan and tells them "now you two are the only ones I have left" while Kate is sitting right there with tears in her eyes just breaks my heart.

And Alan, oh my god. I basically hate him. Not only did he do NOTHING as he grew up watching his mom cruelly bully Kate, but he took part on it too (did the show conveniently forget when he stands there smirking because his parents are making HER beg forgiveness to him for something HE did wrong?). Ugh smh. I just hated how he did nothing good throughout the show--he was partying, trying to take the easy way out or running away--and he ended up getting everything all the same: his parent's love and support, everyone's attention and the succession.

It's cute. Both the leading couple and secondary couple are pretty adorable. The villains were really cartoon-y and annoying though, especially Ausor--I don't know if it's the character or the actor himself but the acting was downright awful.

I also like it because the heroine knew her own mind. Sometimes I get really irritated with dramas where everyone-including the heroine's friends and family--seems to side with the male lead and looks down on the heroine. It was nice to see a reversal, where all the friends/family were proven wrong.

Echoing all of the comments below, highly recommend! The chemistry of the leads is on fire, whether they are delivering comedy, drama or romance. I also loved how they showed complex female relationships. Oh, and honestly, I felt like Sina's maid Neung low-key had the most common sense among all of the characters.

OMG yes to all of the above. There really is a tendency to mix up poorly written characters with bad acting. Another example that really bothers me is Han Hyo Joo in W-Two Worlds.

Go Ara was in Reply 1994 and You're All Surrounded. I have not watched either myself, but I heard she was really praised for her acting ability on both dramas.

And yes, I've noticed (even with myself I'm ashamed to say) that female leads have a very thin line to walk. Yeah, I guess you can say the whole ' you can't please everybody' or 'everyone has different tastes' but the 'likability' criteria really is not as strict for male leads, isn't it?

Wow. The whole bash-the-female-praise-the-male trend has bothered me for a long time, so it's so nice to see someone expressing so well what I feel in my heart.

The funny thing about Go Ara is (from what I have been noticing at least) is that the "bad actress" label only started after Hwarang. Before that, I believe she was praised as a very talented actress . Go figure.

This is one of those rare dramas that manages to be very romantic while keeping the female lead strong and independent.