ibisfeather

very cool, very classy

This is a great series. If you have waited to binge, you are in for a great ride. 2025, 12eps. at 1hr 10mims ea. Very cool, very classy. Makes M&A seem thrilling (evil, huh?). Really really good actors doing great work throughout. Even though Le Je Hoon is a genius, I want to list half-a-dozen others but I really cant without feeling guilty towards the rest of the cast.

Technically perfect. Everything contributes to the the enjoyment of the plot and of individual episodes, color and lighting choices, camerawork, sets -- nothing jars or distracts (unless you are completely addicted to ballad-based soundtracks, nice in their way but inappropriate here).

LJH emanates a deep sadness and careful balance. His character makes his way towards a difficult goal amidst the minefield of survival in SK corporate culture. Not unrealistically crazy corporate villains per comedy, but proper thriller villains.

The soundtrack, not meaning ballads or music but the sounds, is super interesting -- it makes you want to watch closely and quietly like a friend whispering discreetly in your ear. The opening song is fire and it gets better each time you start a new episode.

Dont miss out.

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one of a kind, romantic and melancholic

Script is a wonderful fusion. Extremely funny, romantic and melancholic. Canada never looked so lovely. Did I say extremely funny? You havent lived until you weep from laughing at a gorgeous Grim Reaper and blindingly handsome Goblin warrior struggle with learning to use cell phones.

Kim Go Eun is astounding -- watch this drama for her acting skills.
Her facial control and timing is incredible. You can see that she is a great film actress.
She doesnt overpower the charm of the others, but she rules the room in charisma.
She is absolutely enchanting as a 18 year old (k-reckoning 19) darting here and there -- very comical, unleashed innocence and knowledge all at once.
She is heartbreaking as a grown woman, as brilliant and shining as her Goblin often says she is.

Great physical attitude-visuals from the dashing duo of Lee Dong Wook and Gong Yoo. Yoo In Ah is in beautiful form here. Excellent and consistently funny supporting cast. A good year for fashion, the leads are very chic.

One of those great kdrama soundtracks that tells you with charming dominance what you must feel at every turn of the plot: squeezing out your tears, filling you with melancholy, calming your fears as only kdrama must, so that you will worry, watch so closely that you will drop snacks all over the couch and sigh with satisfaction and relief as lovely resolutions of the plot appear....

Guardian can be watched again and again without any loss of magic. And it is being watched right now, this very minute, by hundreds of viewers around the globe. So join their company and watch well!

A Studio Dragon Show with the composer Nam Hye Seung. Writer Kim Eun Sook.

first posted on viki oct 29th 2024

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Springtime in Seoul; the comedy of soft porn and the dictatorship

A soap-bubble of a story about the beginnings of the erotic film industry in Seoul. 2025, kdrama, 6eps x 50mins ea = 5 hrs watchtime.

A young director/scriptwriter (Jo Hyun Chul under a mop of hair) struggles to create a viable commercial script for an erotic movie in a country where erotica was suddenly possible. In 1981 a 20-yr dictatorship (by then) decided to lift a 37yr old curfew, midnight to 4 am, so showing adult-only movies became possible. Chun Doo Hwan, the surviving henchman of Park Chung Hee (assassinated in 1979) was promoting a bread-and-circuses program of sports, sex and the screen.

The process and consequences of producing and shooting the very real 1982 blockbuster movie Madame Aema are the scaffolding of the series. The actual film is refracted in this series rather than fully represented. The director channeling Emmanuelle (french novel and various films) originally lards the script with semi-solitary sex acts. The star actress Jung Hee-ran, played by Honey Lee, comically remarks that the lack of motivation for those acts presents an obstacle to an actress' interpretation. In Su, the director, after their conversation, eventually decides to go with a Japanese surrealism-concept instead (thus getting around the motivation problem) and to use simpler relationships.

Hee-ran's contractual feud with the producer has led to her being cast in only a supporting role. The story of the ingenue actress Shin Ju Ae (played by Bang Hyo Rin, who gets the part of Aema) is the backbone of the series. The central relationship is between these two women. Not director - actress, not producer - actress, but actress to actress. Hee-ran tries to warn off Ju-Ae from the profession, berating and belittling her. But when Ju Ae is nearly pimped out to the dictator, Here-ran has a revelatory moment. She sides with Ju Ae not out of kindness or feminine loyalty or friendship, but because she suddenly realizes how much of herself she has given away -- too much. The two eventually are creative and courageous.

Somehow I was reminded of Springtime for Hitler (Mel Brooks' The Producers) when puzzling over the tone of presenting the Chun Doo Hwan administration comically -- after all the Gwanjiu uprising was in May of 1980, only16 mos. before the successful Olympic bid for the 88 Olympics was announced on Sept 30, 1981, which is where the series' action begins. The regime's persecution didnt feel as funny for me as it should have, but that may be me. I read somewhere that under an oppressive regime cinema can only portray private life so politics becomes metaphor. There were/are plenty of metaphors available in this show. It is my feeling that it will merit a rewatch.

ps. in the comments some seemed not to understand that the regime arrested tortured and killed people at will during most of the 80's. Too young to know, I suppose. Well, sometimes things are so bad it is better to laugh than cry, and that doesn't require age to understand.

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amazingly beautiful love story

A brilliant show, Cdrama modern, 2025, 24eps x 45mins ea. = 18hrs watchtime. The two leads, Zhao Jin Mai, as Cherry (Lin Qi Le), and Zhang Ling He, as her true love Jiang Qiao Xi, give the performances of their careers so far. I recommend this whole-heartedly for both its romance and for the nostalgia of its main backstory which mostly runs from '96 through 2000.

However you will be as immediately captivated as I was by the first episode in which the child actress who represents the young Cherry dominates the scene and the adult leads do not appear at all. No cutesy first-love-flashback, the anchor for the life-time love of Cherry and Qiao Xi is seen clearly. A perfectly and swiftly established full portrait of childhood, which should have felt sentimental, but stayed close enough to reality to be sincere yet still fun.

The cinematography, from the opening home village section, all the way through the high school scenes, the college scenes and the scenes in Hong Kong, is carefully tailored to each set of episodes; filters, spaces, perspectives all are unique and perfect. I dont know Hong Kong, but I have a sneaking feeling that the elephant in the room for the street scenes is that region's cinematic history/style. Michael Tone and Carmen Lee show up as family in Hong Kong and there are some cute meta-jokes

The soundtrack is full of songs that create a nostalgic feeling; their lyrics often run point-counter-point to the narrative, uplifting action-only sequences to poetry.

Zhao Min Lai comes into her own in this role. Her portrayal of Cherry's courageous fidelity circles back through puppy love to the steadfastness of childhood, as she (Cherry) becomes an adult right in front of our eyes. Working as an actress since the age of 10, ZML has accomplished what many child actors havent, to become an adult artist, flexible, sincere and skilled. May she never be restricted to costume dramas again!

Zhang Ling He also takes risks as he moves into less-stylized roles of moderns. As the youth Qiao Xi, ZLH's portrayal of hesitancy and fear will not surprise you, but his performance of the almost adult QX is powerful and meticulous. Great balance of vulnerability with strength. His work with Zhao is way beyond the Princess Royal (obviously!), they both are courageous with their talents.

To be honest, the saccharine opening credits almost put me off watching, but this drama is so wonderful that I even became fond of them in the end.

ps. Just some amazing things -- What is the gift for a boys maturity?, Cherry asks QiaoXi. A full kitchenware set, says he, in my dreams I cook you countless meals.

Cherry, as a child and the leader of her gang, being hastily pulled back to earth by her buddies when she stands on a high ridge and declares she can fly! There couldnt be a better metaphor (or more beautiful visually) for why her friends are an essential part of Cherry's groundedness.

pps. It is confusing to read reviews referring to Cherry/Lin Qi Le as Ying Tao. The reviewers are confusing a different heroine (Ying Tao) from the novel which is the basis for the drama, with the actual character (Qi Le) in the drama itself.

ppps. Maybe we should have a romance vs. true love label? The ability to accept the childlike part of your lover is a crucial basis for a long-term relationship and part of the fundamental trust that we label as true love.

Many people have expressed their dislike of this story, saying that it was not romantic enough for them. There is nothing wrong with a well-choreographed kiss with good music just before the trials and tribulations of a romance show, and hot interactions/glances/quarrels etc early on. I crave that sort of show as much as anyone else, just not all the time.

However, this is not that show, and it is still a wonderful depiction of true love, and I would place the difference squarely in its depiction of trust.

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You will only know when its over how good it really was

2025 romedy 10eps at 1hr ea. This is a wonderful show. Binge it or parcel it out, its a great classic romedy with cute tweaks on the basics and truly delicious acting. This show is so good and was so underappreciated by reviewers that it is sure to be a standard on hidden gem lists.

Slow food vs. corporate non-ethics. Even when a plot has been done many times before there is always a chance to do it better; in my opinion, this time, practically perfectly. Food, recipes, chefs -- all are treated with the respect they deserve. The soundtrack actually stops for the crunchy dishes and long camera takes wait for individual diners' reactions. Music, scenery and cinematography are high value, It does make you hungry, though -- I often had to take breaks and cook myself something.

The romance is sweet and unusually adult for kdrama; the OTP treat each other with casual familiarity from the getgo and it is oddly authentic. I imagine 30-yr olds (an average of the actors ages, ok) in Seoul or Jeonju tease each other, work together, stutter and stammer and laugh just as this main cast does.

Kang Ha Neul, as the ML, Han Beom Woo, has really great stage-trained comedic skills. He uses his entire body in pratfalls, double-takes, and his long and mid-range shots are just as gorgeous as his storied profile. T he latest trends is for girls with egos and guys with complications, and KHN eats complications for his actor's breakfast. He is shady, shameless, ashamed and embarassed but still spontaneous and sensitive.

Yoo Yeon Seok swoops in for one of his treasured moody 2ML roles (Mr Sunshine? the Gu Family book?) The director used YYS' film acting technique to great effect, contrasting it to KHN's ability to project all the way out and up into the peanut gallery -- YYS' character's falsity and attempts at manipulation are highlighted. YYS excells in the familiar kdrama close-up conversational pauses and glances, but at a distance is much less at ease.

Go Min Si, as the FL, Mo Yeon Joo, is the real shout-out of the show. She is a creative genius, a focused very very professional chef devoted to her practice. She knows what she wants, whether it be boyfriends or cuts of beef and gets the job done with a minimum of fuss.

I loved that Yeon Joo was a monastery orphan. I loved the cozy coats and scarves in wintry sophisticated Sapporo and the cute quilted guest suits on crispy mornings with the (female) monks.

Within the limitation of 10 episodes this is a really masterful use of the std tropes, . The director also did the Weak Hero 1 &2, and his choices and discipline are evident here too.

I really loved the minimum use of childhood flashbacks for backstories and for the 2ML relationship history. We have to actually listen to what the characters have to say.

The storylines are well-woven together. There is no confusion.There is a lack of heavy sentimentality, which may be due to the professional but unobtrusive soundtrack.

The supporting cast was excellent. The main villain, the CEO Mom was introduced early and remains consistent throughout the show. One admires her singlemindedness. The in-between villains show some development and the 'village' team gave solid comic performances. Park Ji hoon does two or three cameos as an idol actor favorite.

The 'village' was one of those preservation attractions, not a 'real' kdrama-hokey rural spot. Frequently but subtly, in this show standard kdrama expectations are set up, and then have the rug pulled out from under them . I list a few below but they are mostly spoilers. The plot is exciting and dramatic but not because of reversals in time line or yearning angst.
Just as the final credits roll, that twist-and-unlock trick of the heart that only kdrama can produce makes you realize how much you loved the show.

ps. Spoilers and a longer discussion below-- warning


Some examples of many economical renovations of std. tropes --
*the brother (Bae Na Ra) just edges towards a better relationshipbut remains his soulless self
*the mother does not have a last minute conversion
*the female lead makes the first move and then totally ignores the ML's silliness.
*she is totally absent for what would normally have been a climatic moment. Her team and the ML wing their way through it.
*Anxiety abt whether her career is in danger is combined with the essential fact that since she is the restaurant, she could always have picked up anf started elsewhere.





pps. Breaking 3 of my parameters here: no spoilers, no long analysis and no explication where short allusive enticement will serve. Why? Because TY is a close-to-perfect 10 episode new-formula pan-asian-romedy and a better than usual international food-romedy. Way too-much pearl-clutching orientalizing going on here in reviews. (i am not always innocent of the same..)
So.

THE PLOT is misunderstood --
1. it is within the food industry, not about heroic little outsiders.

2. it is a neo-classic new-formula romance with more realism and relaxation than the old longer form, but it retains some anxiety-causing ambiguity for the sake of dramatic tension.
(Tears and laughter are used with careful discipline so the operatic rhythm of the older formula is redefined.)

3. winning and losing are ironically also redefined yet within a very Korean horizon.

--- (1) All the characters involved have very good palates so the mdl summary is incorrect. The CEO/Mom villain, the ML, the ML's brother, Motto's chef; her sensei/the Sapporo chef and the villainous ex; the monks, the jeonju teammates, the food-influencers brought in for the cook-off and the Michelin-starred judges, they all recognize Chef Mo's talents immediately without reservation. She is never denigrated or denied her due within the storyline.

The battles between the various components of the food industry are not unusual in RL, but sparingly used in show -- in addition each type of niche establishment is represented and respected: the Seoul mom-and-pop seafood place in the beginning, the regional large gukbap place, the 2 flagship corporate owned fine-dining restaurants, the French-fusion chef-headed big restaurant (in Sapporo) and the exclusive little JungJae hidden gem (in Jeonju).

Chef Mo's personal struggle to find her own direction is a great and central theme -- her retreat to a small city, her solid focus due to her monastery upbringing combined with a super big-time professional training in the US and Sapporo all ground her practice. Even this conflict with the ML's mom brings him into her establishment and creates the context she needs. This all-important frame seems to be invisible to reviewers???? Why.

Also, a restaurant is more than a chef, especially in classical technique. JungJae in a simplified and cute form exemplifies this. The FL as the creator and the ML as the floor manager transform the "gukbap veteran" and the local bad boy heir into a skilled sous-chef and an attentive and expressive sommelier/waiter. When she needs to take time off (Sapporo heartbreak, ML-caused heartbreak) the restaurant temporarily functions well enough without her to actually win the cook-off! Did anybody notice this? Did anybody notice that the entrance of this man was what the restaurant needed...

The restitution of the seafood restaurant, the exit of the secretary and the chef from the corporate restaurant to a goofy food-truck are all the usual cute wrap-ups along this line. The restaurants are characters too. Who always needs babies for a satisfying end? (emphasis on always)

--- (2) The love arc. A psychologically realistic attraction. He is a divided soul and has not found his own integrity. She is centred but looking for her own path in practical terms. He has an educated palate and is almost immediately subdued by her undeniable, unstealable, culinary skill. She is the real thing -- classically trained in the french style 'en batterie ', but Korean to the core. Brave where he is cowardly, able to gently, inexorably, and courageously do battle with those in power. she has an authentic, quietly commanding presence.
She picks him. He immediately depends on her, wants her. They find each other in the midst of their struggles. Workplace attractions always have problems, especially if from opposite poles of the industry. One person must find the value in the other in order for them to move closer. This time it is the ML who sheds his previous life and enters her world. Everyone has their own taste, its all fantasy entertainment, but this is a younger, fresher take, in my opinion, than the tired old chaebol tradeoff.

A 10ep neo-classic formula which works efficiently enough that I hope it becomes standard:

1-4 the set-up...the restaurant coalesces around the FL and ML training the newbies and classic workplace attraction involving
a lot of tossing and turning on opposite sides of a cheap thin inn-wall. First kiss. (no problem here for most viewers)

5-7 The lovers need to resolve divided loyalties in the present stemming from past events.... Why did this seem to have broken most viewers minds? This is the place where Chef Mo finally gets respect from the male hierarchy and where she emotionally breaks free of the undeserved damage it caused her. This would be incomplete without the 2ML, who broods in the alleyway in his big car and secretly is in league with the chaebols to ruin her life.

The goofy jealousy antics of the ML are a std kdrama thing, so what? The 2ML has to be believably slick and our now honest ML needs to be cute and semi-baffled. He actually doesnt struggle much, quickly assesses the situation, finally steps up and saves the day. In the process he breaks free of his horrifying slavery as his mom's 'hunting dog'.

8-10 Crises threaten total annihilation. Trust problems caused by misunderstandings plus real problems. Joint retreats to family clarify things. The villain's machinations go poof. Happy hugs and kisses. What's not to like? These new rhythmns are different. Viewers will adjust eventually...

--- (3) Winners and losers.

*FL -- winner. Achieves a peaceful and calm resolution of her painful past. Stays true to herself and her Buddhist upbring. Her sincerity makes all obstacles in her path slowly fall away. Reconciles with her sensei. With the help of the ML, reveals her ex to be a creep.
Conquers her own trust issues and finds that her intuitive judgement of the ML as a dependable lover to be finally justified. Survives the assault of the CEO Mom using the-empress-has-no-clothes technique without public exposure. Mom has no real
power over a real chef. And over a real daughter-in-law.

*CEO/Mom -- loser but winner, in her own world. She loses the cook-off but shamelessly steals it back, which means she will lose her 3stars because Michelin will never grant that again. Her chef and second son,s secretary leave the corporation. However, she is a winner because she gets the publicity she wants for all her product lines. She keeps her oldest son under her thumb.

*ML -- wins his love's heart and gains the approbation of the monk/mom. Finally gets a real job as JungJae's manager.

*2ML ex -- doomed to work at Le Murir and suffer lots of guilt.

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about making movies and the crazy pressures of being a female celebrity.

A great watch, a good binge, lots of fun at 12 eps of 50mins ea. A workplace drama set in the film industry with an ensemble cast of 4 to 9 actresses (depending on where you are in the plot). Not a female-buddy show or a 9-to-5 show. Two main themes are that life is too short to hold grudges against friends or to reject sincere romantic love. As so often in shows placed in the entertainment world (perennial crowd-pleasers), those who work at creating illusions and dreams do not often have an easy time in their private lives.

A nuanced script creates 3-dimensional characters, imperfect, often funny, struggling as we all do to balance work and love, to live a human life. The estrangement and reconciliation of the friends who are the two main characters ties the show together. The plot's focus moves through the whole ensemble cast, starting with a coming-of-age story about the youngest actress and ending romantically for another. In between 2 women rescue fading careers, 3 people retire and 1 comes back from retirement, there are 2 or 3 divorces, 2 breakups, 2 affairs, 2 true love stories and, all the actresses learn and grow in their careers and as persons.

The frame is the the intense rhythm and stress of directing and producing two movies in sequence by a husband and wife team. The work ethic of these successful actresses means that their personal lives are put on hold during shooting and once the films wrap they have to deal with whatever problems have arisen meanwhile at home. The movies are plays-within-plays, their plots reflecting these women's lives superficially. The show concentrates on what happens behind the scenes.

My favourite out of these 9 equally talented actresses and their characters is Cheryl Yang as Chou Fan, living in semi-retirement in a filthy hotel room. She is brittle and difficult, unfiltered and vulnerable. She was the offender in the wedding debacle that caused the rift with her best friend, she is past-her-prime (maybe) and unknown to a younger generation. My favourite scene? Her, standing in a dumpster, receiving an impulsive confession from a younger guy standing in the adjacent dumpster. Of course.

I feel as if saying that women might enjoy this show more is like saying that The Hunt For Red October is best appreciated by men and enlisted personnel. However there is very little bromance (there is one cute scene though) in the show as opposed to the central group of female friends frequently letting off steam over snacks and drinks. Imagining being the lover of a fabulously beautiful actress but meeting up with a real person instead of the fantasy is an underlying theme which is easily accessible to men, and the mess an affair can make of one's life is of universal interest. In the end this is a very good show about friendship, about making movies, and about the crazy pressures of being a female celebrity. I predict it will be a future classic in this genre.

simultaneously posted on viki

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cool, soon-to-be classic

A gem. 10 episodes at 1hr ea. and the first really brilliant kdrama in the new international streaming formats. A black comedy.

Woo Do Hwan was born to play this role: a tragi-comic loner with a big heart and a mordant sensibility. No other current leading drama actor could have carried off this character's combination of sensuality and innocence in the squalid universe in which he lives. In the Korean context his theory of the life of a drifter as an essential micro-organism in the life of society is fundamentally radical. As a runaway from the psychologically unbearable life of a 'good son' in the Korean upper middle class he also has the chameleonic-like ability to insert himself into varying social strata which is necessary to a conman, but he uses these abilities to help others (for big bucks of course).

An original script which combines generic expectations from kdrama (romedy and crime) and from the common international cinematic universe (road movies, riches to rags sociological commentary). These serve to maintain dramatic interest and emotional involvement while still streamlining out some of the more baroque parts of lengthier classic kdrama.

As a road movie, relationships are developed and memories are dissected by two characters at a time, in the intimate space of the two front seats. Theatrically, the setting in the fluid life of the underclass in a time of extreme social stratification, has been an eternally fascinating subject, whether in the cinema of mid-century US and Europe or in 21st century Korean films and drama.

The farce-like stock characters of kdrama (and some less common ones) set up expectations in the viewer which are quietly subverted as their pasts and present are slowly revealed. And some of my favourite stock memes still remain: a funny love triangle, an end-episodes reintegration of the small band and bonds of the main characters, standard and wickedly funny gang involvement, fields of onggi and often a vaguely familiar mysterious character, here John Na, a sunglass-cool bodyguard.

In fact the development of the character arcs is the heart of the drama so I have to stop here to avoid spoilers. GO RIGHT NOW TO THE SHOWPAGE and start watching with a fresh and happy mind open to this wonderful tear-jerker of a romedy-action-road drama.

A Netflix original show, with the composer Kim Taesong. Writer -- Jo Young.

simultaneously posted on viki

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low key and absolutely charming

2025 kdrama sageuk fantasy, 16 eps at 1hr ea. Low-key romedy, absolutely charming; the grudges of ghosts, curses from the past, basic domestic problems and several instances of spirit possession are handled matter-of-factly. The basic work of the reluctant would-not-be-shamaness rests on the compassionate resolution of whatever feelings caused these phenomena in the first place.

The setting is divided more or less equally between the homes of the leads in their native village or a humble capital city neighborhood, and the palace of the title. The palace setting is mostly domestic -- the little family of the King, the Queen, the Dowager Queen, and their children is under assault by spirits wishing to wipe out the royal bloodline due to the crimes of past royals. All of us who love Kim Ji Hoon will not be surprised that even at this kind and gentle level of energy he owns every scene he is in.

Kim Ji Yun and Sook Jung Tae start off the show as companiable enemies. She plays Yeo Ri, a craftswoman for whom shamanry is a family business and he plays both her murdered first love Yoon Gap and Kang Cheol, a wonderfully emotional nature spirit of water and wind, an imugi-proto-dragon. Their hatreds arise from the usual misunderstandings and they are companions of a sort because they both perceive the spirit world within the everyday.

The imugi wants the the lenscrafter to accept him as her in-dwelling dominant spirit so as to help him become a dragon. Impulsively possessing the body of her just-murdered first love, he is fated to become her helpmate rather than the other way around, but the road is prickly, fun and happily long (16 eps, remember).

Absolutely amazing supporting actors of the quality without which kdrama would collapse are thick on the ground in this show. My favorite supporting characters, because I adore sweet and sentimental comedy , were the fabulous Kim In Kwon as the head eunuch, "Grilled Abalone", and the great Cha Chung Hwa , as the Mom of the FL's murdered first love.

My favorite things in addition to the above:

The spirit antagonist is a creature of fire and earth, worshipped in an underground cave by a blind sorcerer (!). Water and wind vs. fire and earth!

Kang Cheol's first experience of life in a human body involves the sense of taste -- he goes ecstatic over rice porridge (which look more like hominy grits). Next he discovers the pleasure of nice warm bedsheets. Of course his first kiss as a human is silly and wonderful.

I am not sure this would be a great binge because it was so low-key. Maybe it would be better spaced out for after work and a weekend.

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a dishonorable but admirably stoic heroine and great smalltime crooks

2024 film. A temple holding secrets, a grilled fish and soju by the sea, women drinking whiskey and Ji Chang Wook hopping around, crazed and pantless. with tattooed thighs. These are a few of my favourite things. JCW is still charming even as a "mad dog covered in perfume". He made a very very good villain and I hope he does more such roles. He has a range and energy which should not be confined only to romance.

An excellent movie, in the vein of many a british production, situated in the small-time underworld of characters with little compunction or shame who can be very entertaining nevertheless, without entering the world of slapstick
.

Jeon Do Yeon is an ultimate action star, here as Ha Su Young, a dishonorable ex-detective who was cheated out of her promised payoff while in jail. JDY plays her as an uncomplicated and unfussy woman who knows what she wants and what her limits are. Admirable for her restraint and focus, she is a tenacious, hardened and powerful fighter whom the villains underestimate.

The lovely and duplicitous Jung Yoon Seon, played by Im Ji Yeon, an ex-lover of HSY's now deceased detective partnerand a peripheral part of the group of gangsters, becomes HSY's fan. When she hops out of the car to do an impromptu victory dance in the middle of a battle royal deep in the forests of Sokcho, you will want to dance in your seat too. When the shady detective sidekick exasperatedly asks JYS what she likes about Ha Su Young, she widens her eyes, laughs a little and says, "Everything!". Me too.

Wait for the monk who claps his hands when Mommy Dearest appears.

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absurd, wonderful and heartbreaking

The Korean Odyssey/Hwayugi is the 11th script of the Hong sisters. 2018; 20 eps at 1hr20 mins ea. Hwayugi (HW) was one of the first few kdramas I ever watched. It is absurd, wonderful and heartbreaking; an indelible memory. The comedy/romance/supernatural fusion combined with sophisticated filmmaking and an absurdist/surreal panache was enchanting but difficult to ease into; it made me an instant fan, obsessive and curious about the Korean industry and its history.

And yes, I bawled buckets the first time... and the second....and...
Please, please give it a try and become a Hong Sisters fan too!

I was amazed at this remake of/take on the chinese buddhist novel Journey to the West (one of the six classic pre-modern chinese novels), whose characters permeate pan-asian cultural products of all kinds.

That premise is essentially a comic set-up. The 3 companions from the novel, the monkey King, the pig, and the fish king are like Homer Simpson -- they are driven by human appetites to constantly get into trouble. It is the job of this motley crew to protect the Monk, Sam Jang (Tang Zang/Xuansang), on his journey to the West, but even he cannot save them from their own idiocy.

But in Hwayugi, Son Oh Gong (SOG) tricks a little girl who sees spirits into releasing him from heaven's punishment of imprisonment. So heaven punishes her by forcing her to take on the dharma of the Monk in modern times. Is this fair, no. Is this a tale of the supernatural, yes, so fairness does not pertain.

The monk in the novel is looking for texts, but in Hwayugi she/he has become a sort of "sin-eater" who has to bear the burden of human evil. Her flesh still has the monk's fragrance of lotus flowers and even a tiny bite of it grants immortality. Meanwhile she grows up plucky and resourceful and turns her spirit-seeing ability to good commercial use as a real estate agent.

The Bull (Demon) King, Ma Wang (MW), who had sent her on the original errand and gotten her into the situation with the Monkey King, ends up remorseful when they all meet later on, He is no longer the novel's villain, but a more ambiguous figure, a media mogul, a celebrity show host. The group moves into his house, SOG (the monkey king), PK (the pig) and the elusive CEO (the fish king). They all pity her but also cannot stay away from her fragrance. Thus the comedy.

Even SOG is uneasy at what they have done; he refuses to admit it but has probably kept an eye on her all along eve,r since she was a child when he tricked her and lied to her. Deities are fundamentally different from us -- but the Monkey King is a demideity; in an ambiguous position, he can fall in love and he does so unwillingly.

There are some cool props: the slave-love bracelet the Geumgango; the Onggi of prophecy in the little shop--as soon as the FL lifts the lid out of curiousity, a pandora's box situation occurs; the Doom Bell and the Love Bell. Spoiler alert, there is no HEA.

ps. The scriptwriting duo of the Hong sisters set the bar if not the entire tone for the kdrama industry renaissance overseas -- not primarily in the West, mind you, but across South, East and West Asia. They are famous for being consistently commercially successful.

Each HS drama stands on its own, rarely repeating genres. The HS use literary tropes and texts with abandon, reinventing them, combining them, with a mastery that is hard to describe. Not only do they always catch the wave of audience interest with their creative wildness, but they also appeal to all different sorts of viewers who can tune into the dramas at differing levels of meaning and complexity.

A Studio Dragon Show with the composer unknown. Writers -- the Hong Sisters.

first posted july 31st 2024 on Viki

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Watch it for Chani in hanbok

Funny, sad, sweet and short. 2021, 8eps at 30mins ea. A timeslip and an entire tangled reincarnation grouping. I originally watched to see Lee Seung Hyub doing the idol actor again. while waiting for the next episode of Spring of Youth.

LSH is pretty sweet in this show but I was really blown away by Chani (the SF9 maknae, b. 2000). He has a grownup face, so he easily plays a very good older winsome nobleman. What is much harder to pull off, he does a completely convincing job playing a full-blown masculine ML true lover, despite being so young.

When in need of music, watch a show about musicians. When in need of true love, well, it shows up in unexpected places...

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beautiful

A great, delicate movie. 2019. Gong Yoo as a very worried husband trying to do his best for his wife and daughter. A very beautiful Jung Yu Mi, made up to not look as if she were made-up, as a woman worn out from the wild 24 hr effort it takes to be a baby's main caretaker and the main housecleaner.

The character Kim Ji Young, whom JYM plays, begins occasionally when very tired or stressed to speak in the voices of other women in her family, articulating the lives they have led as they connected to hers. Her memories in her dreams and while she is awake slide into these dissociative states, which are realistically seen from the outside by her confused husband and/or family. The beauty of the film is that KJY makes a powerful unconscious connection with that community via familial memories. What she cannot articulate for herself consciously is communicated as she enacts the perspectives of others.

She is not alone -- she sees friends occasionally and slowly begins to wonder if she can return to work. Everything seems to conspire to make it so hard for her, for mothers, to work, to take leave, to come back to work. Everywhere all over the world this is a long slow hard change to make, and it is individual people in every family who slowly one by one make those incremental steps happen.

There is nothing, nothing like the masterful way emotion is handled in Korean cinema. She suffers from postpartum depression, but the focus of the film is not clinical, but on the delicate shifts of relationships. I wept when her brother turned and said, next time I will bring you cream buns. You will know why if you watch the film.

I often say that what I love about SK cinema is its absurdist edge, but the surrealistic european heritage which is drawn on was never just about absurdity, it was always about art's journey through the subconscious of society to rescue the strengths of dreams and nightmares. The sheaves of our daily life are always interleaved with our dreams and only the very best cinema can come this close to depicting that.

The MDL list has everyone there, for once, from the cinematographer to the writer. So, take a look; the director is Kim Do Yung, the composer is Kim Tae Seong, and the writer is Yoo Young Ah.

Dont be afraid to watch this film. There was a lot of interesting fuss in Korea about it and about the book it was made from, but the film stands on its own.

ps. I try hard not to say this sort of thing but SK is no better or worse objectively in the treatment of women than the west or anywhere else in asia; its just a shock to see men so entitled as to publically try to shame women back into the Stone Age. In SK women fight and dream just as we all do; everywhere it's 2 steps forward,1 back.

Cinema has the power to shock simply by the enactment of fact. Because This Is My First Life was very first show where I had ever seen the fact that women are given less to eat as children enacted. I knew it was real, a fact, an historical fact, perhaps in the past for developed societies but definitely part of demographic data about childhood mortality, but it was a still a silent shock to see it on screen in front of me. I dont know why. Anyway, just saying...

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Unique, edgy and brilliant

One of my top ten favourite kdramas from the past few years. Unforgettably sad, unforgettably funny. A fusion fantasy/scifi/healing drama about an understaffed, experimental and not very gentle team of Grim Reapers tasked with easing the pressure that Korea's high suicide rate is putting on an overcrowded Hell.

A Korean Hell just for Koreans, by the way -- one of my favourite scenes has the head of the Grim Reaper Escort Team, Park Joong Gil (played by Lee Soo Hyuk), rescuing a group of Korean souls during WWII who were being stolen off to a Japanese Hell by a pair of Japanese Reapers!

The Team Manager of the euphemistically named Risk Management Team of the Jumadeung Corporation is a parolee from Hell. Koo Ryeon (played by Kim Hee Sun) has a tough love approach to her work. For example, scaring silly a van full of would-be suicides who are using online instructions, by driving the wrong way through traffic. They beg to be allowed to live. In other cases she uses her supernatural powers when scare tactics dont work.

Her only employee is Lim Ryung Gu (played by Yun Ji On) who refuses to work more than his 8 hr shift (so rebellious in SK context!). The Jade Emperor(ess), the CEO of the squeakily antiseptic white-walled corporate Jumadeung skyscraper, decides to add a recently comatose soul wandering freely as a temporary worker to the team. Choi Jun Woong (played by Kim Seok Woo a.k.a. Rowoon) had just begged the heavens to give him an employee ID card by any means, when he fell off a Han River bridge trying to stop a suicide jumper.

The Team is alerted to each case by a 'negative energy' alert monitor app and they use a variety of scifi methods to investigate each one: entering the subject's dreams or their memories (with very Matrix-like FX), observations of their work environments along with persuasion on a personal level.

Jun Woong slowly transforms Koo Ryeon's approach to suicide prevention as he matures from a bumbling and irrepressible newbie into a hugely compassionate and effective intervention agent. The absolute and pure warmth of Rowoon's performance elevates what would have been a grittily comic Reaper story into something only Korea could have produced, a full length (16 eps at 1hr ea.) clear-eyed depiction of the cascade of forces which drive a person to fear tomorrow more than death.

I stopped at over two dozen listing all of the misfortunes woven into the stories of the dozen or so individual cases the Team handles, Each crisis is developed in original ways, often with an interesting point of view. An excellent compilation of the pressures of life in Korea, some of which are universal but some of which are unique to the history and sociological culture of the peninsula.

One woman feels so guilty over not believing the stories of the suffering of the Korean 'comfort women' enslaved into prostitution by the Japanese Army of WWII because her best friend was taken by them, that she contemplates taking her life. The Team asks her to meet with another sufferer who wanted to see someone who had known their mutual friend before she passed away, and so their pain is sweetly dissolved through tears.

The IMF crisis which deprived so many families of their livelihoods is seen through the eyes of a little child who only remembers a miraculous birthday, and the fried chicken event staged by the team helps to save him as an adult struggling with exam failure. The threads connecting the past with the present have seldom been so delicately indicated,

The show balances the unchanged penalty for suicide in the afterworld as a crime, with deeply moving episodes portraying individual suffering which elicits compassion from the viewer. The joy of Tomorrow is two-fold; it is exhilarating to watch Koo Ryeon stomping the bejeezus out of all the cruel and thoughtless people who torment others to make themselves feel better, and Rowoon's unique ability to project sincere love and care is as always a pleasure. Compassion is the true message of this beautiful show.

A StudioN/MBC show, with the composers Jo Seung Woo and Won Ho Kyung. The creators of the show, the writers,-- Park Ran, Park Ja Kyung and Kim Yu Jin, and the directors, Kim Tae Yoon and Sung Chi Wook, deserve enormous credit. Hoping to see more of their work.

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trembling brilliantly between realism and romance

Wonderful and recommended although frequently difficult to watch. Something new. Possibly a milestone in the new romance formats.
32eps at 45mins ea. = 24 hrs watch-time. Set in fabulous Chongqing and Hong Kong, written and directed by the Taiwanese director Chu Yu Ning.

3 warnings:
1/ Fastforwarders, you will miss the point entirely if you cannot endure with Sang Yan and Yi Fan thru difficult times. The story shuttles back and forth via flashbacks from before the lovers' six years of separation, then through it - even though this is clearly marked by an endless timeline superimposed on cable cars crossing that crazy city, you cant possibly keep up.
2/ As a binge it is dangerously heroic -- many stayed up all night to see it all this month, lots of sick days ensuing.
3/ It does NOT EVEN REMOTELY resemble Hidden Love, altho based on the same novel and sharing some characters with HL.

If HL is like Switzerland, all clarity and public spaces and teen angst, then FF is like Rome, darkness punctuated by light and vision, a story of lovers well-past their college days. Yi Fan and Sang Yan emerge as timeless characters that you will never forget.

At the edge of realism and romance drama. A thoughtful and intelligent piece following the reconciliation of highschool sweethearts separated for six years due to hidden trauma. From their first interaction in the apartment they 'accidentally' share, it is clear that the FL is a survivor of SA -- every time the ML awkwardly and often bitterly tries to provoke an emotional reaction from her, triggered, she hastily shutters herself and quietly flees while saying something empty of meaning. This is still a classic romance story in that the beautiful and woebegone Yi Fan (played by Zhang Ruo Nan) still instinctively wants to trust her prince Sang Yan (played by Bai Jing Ting) -- but with certain reservations. He wants to protect her, she wants to be independent and strong.

In the first few episodes, both actors were so startlingly powerful without being able to make any connection with each other that at first I thought they might have been miscast or misdirected. Although BJT's repertoire of mannerisms hasnt changed, his voicing, his timing and his physical work expand his range enormously. He is broken and awkward, proud and needy. ZRN acts almost entirely with her eyes, her emotions so close to the surface that it was excruciating to watch her tight self-control. The character Yi Fan uses almost all her emotional energy for what is most important to her, to live well with a bright public face at her job, so ZRN's portrayal is of a walking absence in intimate situations.

With almost no kdrama voiceovers, interior monologues, or revelatory conversations between best friends, the emotions of the main leads are enacted bit by bit onscreen. There is a classic kdrama second couple for the welcome counterpoint of comic relief, who have a funny romance with some family troubles which they solve so that a heartwarming corporate family resolution occurs. On the other hand, the FL's family criminally abused her, neglected her and abandoned her and in the present are still gaslighting her. You, I, and she will never forgive them, ever. Cdrama's moral clarity is such a relief.

Later in the drama we realize that Sang Yan, while waiting for Yi Fan to speak, has grown up enough to try to understand for himself what she has experienced. The series' ambiguous exposition of romantic love doesnt hide its obsessive side -- he had constantly stalked her by traveling to the cities where she had moved, to secretly look at her from afar. In the present tense when she disappears for six months he uses that knowledge as a guide to find out about what had happened back then in Yi Fan's world.

Sang Zhi, the heroine of HL, most importantly appears as her younger self at a new year's dinner. In conversation with Yi Fan she reveals the hinge of Sang Yan's story -- in true love the hero or heroine never gives up, they cross rivers and climb mountains, even if this geography occurs only in the heart. Sang Zhi says that only then did she realize that Sang Yan was a "character" she could relate to (!!). I felt the same way at the end...that I had slowly, struggling a bit, come to understand both of them, but the last one to finally make sense to me was Sang Yan.

Is this a cdrama in kdrama clothes? Is it a combination of the two? Is it about romantic love as obsession or as the healer of all trauma? What do you think?

Watch and see.

ps. i suffered a little whiplash from the contrast of camera styles between the opening kdrama arty shots through glass or around corners and the style of the later street scenes, especially the chases in Nanmu and the cafe scenes in Hong Kong,, where random strangers could even standstill within a static frame but bear no connection with the plot. Kdrama is so tightly patterned that it manages all yr expectations for you. The more realistic cinematography gained traction in the end and I came to see it as something more transparent, where various levels of understanding can be backgrounded if necessary.
I adored the distant night shots of both cities where the lights of cars or trains look like little gems on the necklace of bridges.

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