This reminded me a lot of Somewhere In Time, only in reverse (and I guess that's why the "surprise" didn't really surprise me. Good movie, though. So is Somewhere in Time!
Rofl. Sudden fevers requiring sponge baths or cold compresses are helpful, too...not to mention, be a total and complete jerk to the object of your affection (especially if you are a man). If you're female, try disguising yourself as a boy to attract the perfect mate!
I'm curious, is this the Korean remake of the Japanese drama "Last Cinderella"? Because the plot description…
Not a remake but the two stories are very similar. Ji Yeon in Witch's Romance is more the career woman who just doesn't have time for love (and experienced a serious heartbreak in the past so now she's gun-shy) whereas Sakura in Last Cindrella is more the type of person who just can't be bothered with makeup and nice clothing and basically has no clue how to go about attracting men. I honestly still prefer Last Cinderella - probably because I just adore Miura Haruma to pieces (that smile...but Park Seo Joon isn't far behind, I loved him in both Kill Me Heal Me and Witch's Romance!! watch him in She Was Pretty if you aren't already) and I honestly just like Sakura a little better than Ji Yeon. Love them both, but Sakura was just a little easier for me to empathize with. They're both really light, fun rom-coms, but Last Cinderella really is a little more of a fairy-tale than Witch's Romance which takes a slightly more realistic approach to the older woman/younger man relationship toward the end. Both couples have really good chemistry. There's a triangle in both - I've seen a lot of people say they prefer the second lead in Last Cinderella so take that under consideration.
I am tempted by the younger cast.... not a fan of the adult actors though dilemma :(
Same here. And I've generally lost patience with the long dramas I've tried to watch and just FF through a lot of it til I find scenes with the characters I like. Hmm...
Argh, I'm on ep 8 and I'm just frustrated with Aoi. Stop feeling sorry for yourself already, step up and SAY SOMETHING!!! As for Shota...uh-uh. I can understand his desire not to see Akari be hurt by her dad. But stealing the letter? Just...no. He basically stole 7 years of their lives. It wasn't just a note to a guy from a girl that had a crush. It was to her BEST FRIEND. That's not determination, it's thievery and selfishness. Hoping this ends up with Aoi, but he better do something to earn it before then. If it's Shota I'm afraid what I may do to my TV. His whole...I can make her happy speech...nope. You can't "make" someone else happy. That's just not how it works.
A good movie, but the ending is puzzling, hmmm, someone explain the ending?
The ministers staged a coup. Gong-gil and Jang-seng were about to die - there was no way the ministers would let them live after they had mocked them so openly, and after Gong-gil had "seduced" the king (from their point of view) - they were dangerous. They probably killed the rest of the minstrels, too. Their last hope was to be reborn and find each other again and be exactly what they were in the previous life - minstrels, because before they went to the palace, they were happy in that life. I think that last scene is exactly that...their next life, or the afterlife (because the minstrel that was killed earlier was there, and Jang Seng isn't blind).
I think you might get less flak if you changed the sentence about cutting one's hair forcibly and used the word violation instead of rape. I certainly understand where you're coming from - cutting or shaving a woman's head is done with the same intention as a rape - it's a display of power from the violator and used with the intent to humiliate and terrorize the victim. Head shaving/hair cutting has been used in the past to shame a woman in public for committing adultery, for collaborating with enemies (France, after WWII). There are verses in the bible that refer to a woman's hair as her glory, and that having her head uncovered while praying is the same as having it shaved - implying having her head shaved is a mark of disgrace. In Koizora, Hiro is ready to kill his ex-girlfriend (understandably so) for setting up Mika to be raped. Mika declines - and his sister can't stand to see to see Saki go unpunished so she grabs her and forcibly chops her hair off. At that moment, it's the worst thing she can think of to do to her. Not beating her up, but robbing her of her hair - something she was proud of, that she felt made her beautiful. Anyway - yes, one of the secondary definitions of rape is not necessarily sexual, but with the number of responses you're getting about it - I'd give the phrasing a second thought. Otherwise, I enjoyed the article very much and agree that the attitudes and violence towards women in dramas does make me uncomfortable in many cases. It's one of the reasons I find myself preferring romances where the lead is a good, gentle man and the conflicts arise from some other source.
I had to pass on "Sealed with a Kiss" because of the description. Just...no. And this is coming from someone who grew up reading bodice-rippers. One of my favorite romance novels 20 years ago includes a scene that I can now recognize as a rape - no if's, and's or but's about it. I'm not sure if the difference was my own immaturity at the time I read it, or if society as a whole is slowly changing, finally, and my own viewpoint has changed as a result.
One of the dramas you mentioned - Boys Over Flowers - is a favorite of mine, but not because of JunPyo, and I've never understood how women can find his actions romantic. He calls her stupid. He gets other classmates to harass her (and that one scene near the pool is sinister enough that it gave me the impression those boys intended to sexually violate her in some manner if not rape her outright - that scene gives me the creeps and always has), tries to forcibly kiss her because he's jealous after seeing her with JiHoo, has her kidnapped and dolled up to his specifications - she awakes naked with people touching her without her consent. When the pictures of JanDi surface of her in the hotel with a guy, he gets angry at JanDi for "cheating" on him, even though she hasn't consented to be his girlfriend - and declares open season on her once again so that she suffers physical abuse and humiliation from her classmates. Sure, he feels remorse when he finds out he was dead wrong - but the fact is, even if she had been with that guy - she never agreed to go out with JunPyo in the first place. I've seen so many people call JanDi a slut just for accepting JiHoo's kiss on the island, when, at that point, SHE STILL NEVER SAID "I LIKE YOU, LET'S GO OUT" to JunPyo. What's up with that??? Why demonize JanDi, who hasn't done anything wrong, instead of JunPyo, who has done many things wrong?
Eh, I think I've sort of wandered off topic (I could rant for days about JunPyo), though I think the "slut shaming" of JanDi that I see so often (jeez...for a simple kiss) is a symptom of the issues your article is about - that these things are somehow still seen as acceptable in the media we watch, which will have the effect of desensitizing people to them, or even conditioning them to view them as normal. Thanks for a thought-provoking article.
To the Beautiful You is the first Kdrama I ever watched - I think Netflix recommended it because I had watched Vampire Knight. One evening I decided I was bored enough to give it a shot. 16 hours later I was suffering from a major sleep deprivation headache and a serious case of the feels, not to mention what I now know is second lead syndrome. I think I watch more Korean and Japanese dramas now than I do American television! I've been debating whether or not to watch any of the other versions (same goes for Boys Over Flowers) so based on this rec for Hana Kimi, I will - after I'm done with Gokusen. :) I"ll also add Great Teacher Onizuka to my watch list, too. I LOVED Nobuta Wo Produce - totally agree that one had something special!
Twins facing an identity crisis. How can Joseph and Miura not doubt their identity when the twins are confused…
At first I thought the same thing...and I'm sure that's what Ah Liang thought. But Rou Lan had also written him that she wanted to start living in the present - not 5 minutes in the past or future. If it was Ru Mei - how did she know to exchange the necklace for the watch? And why would she have bothered changing the time before returning it to Ah Liang? If it was Ruo Lan - why couldn't she swim? I'm not sure we're meant to know which one survived. Sure she reached for Tian's hand when she woke - but he reached for her first. She might have just been reaching to move his hand away - she never actually touched his hand, just grasped his arm. I think whichever one survived they are so filled with survivor's guilt that their own conscience won't let them move on so they're trying to be both so the dead sister can live, too. Good movie. I like things that have an ambiguous ending.
My only comment for this one..."OPPPPAAAAAAA!" Because that got old about 3 episodes in. Skimmed through a lot. Looked up spoilers. Was glad I skimmed. Not long ago I started watching Stairway to Heaven and thought...is same, is same (without the OPPPPAAAAA! every ten minutes). Looked up spoilers on that one, too. Similar ending. I think I've learned my lesson now and will stay away from melodramas. I like my happy endings better.
I could not finish this one. Story dragged. Characters do dumb things, and keep doing them. I finally had to look up spoilers to decide if it was worth slogging through the rest. Nope. I think the main thing I could not get over was why, even though the two mains love each other, the fact that he once loved her dead sister a long time ago, when he was still a kid, was an insurmountable obstacle, not just to them but to their parents, too. Just...no. This should have ended after about half as many episodes. I guess I just don't get the "horrible person is horrible and willing to do horrible things all for the sake of hanging onto $$$ even though the damn $$$ has never brought the horrible person(s) any true happiness whatsoever.
I had to pass on "Sealed with a Kiss" because of the description. Just...no. And this is coming from someone who grew up reading bodice-rippers. One of my favorite romance novels 20 years ago includes a scene that I can now recognize as a rape - no if's, and's or but's about it. I'm not sure if the difference was my own immaturity at the time I read it, or if society as a whole is slowly changing, finally, and my own viewpoint has changed as a result.
One of the dramas you mentioned - Boys Over Flowers - is a favorite of mine, but not because of JunPyo, and I've never understood how women can find his actions romantic. He calls her stupid. He gets other classmates to harass her (and that one scene near the pool is sinister enough that it gave me the impression those boys intended to sexually violate her in some manner if not rape her outright - that scene gives me the creeps and always has), tries to forcibly kiss her because he's jealous after seeing her with JiHoo, has her kidnapped and dolled up to his specifications - she awakes naked with people touching her without her consent. When the pictures of JanDi surface of her in the hotel with a guy, he gets angry at JanDi for "cheating" on him, even though she hasn't consented to be his girlfriend - and declares open season on her once again so that she suffers physical abuse and humiliation from her classmates. Sure, he feels remorse when he finds out he was dead wrong - but the fact is, even if she had been with that guy - she never agreed to go out with JunPyo in the first place. I've seen so many people call JanDi a slut just for accepting JiHoo's kiss on the island, when, at that point, SHE STILL NEVER SAID "I LIKE YOU, LET'S GO OUT" to JunPyo. What's up with that??? Why demonize JanDi, who hasn't done anything wrong, instead of JunPyo, who has done many things wrong?
Eh, I think I've sort of wandered off topic (I could rant for days about JunPyo), though I think the "slut shaming" of JanDi that I see so often (jeez...for a simple kiss) is a symptom of the issues your article is about - that these things are somehow still seen as acceptable in the media we watch, which will have the effect of desensitizing people to them, or even conditioning them to view them as normal. Thanks for a thought-provoking article.