I think there needs to be a middle ground. The point sometimes of the arrogant jerk character is that either A.…
A big yes to this! There seems to be only two types of of lead guys in dramaland: 1) The perfect guy that is not only dreamy in terms of looks but also on every thing he does. Mistake and imperfection is not just in his dictionary 2) The douchebag. The type of guy you should run away from in real life.
The closest middle ground that we get is a textbook tsundere - always misunderstood. But even those are borderline asses, to be honest. Their transformation from the bad guy to the sweet guy has always been stamped as 'character development'. But if not done right, I just see them as character inconsistency.
Rarely is there a lead that showcases a 'real' guy. At least for women, there are more variety (perhaps, because most rom com writers are women). Then again, I'd rather watch perfect guys do their things than assholes with their i-couldn't-care-less attitude, so I guess I'll take it. Better the former than the latter.
I was gonna try to add some Japanese ones, but I found myself wondering what exactly qualifies a show as a "melodrama".…
I was thinking that earlier, too. I've always considered drama as 'melo' when characters are surmounting tremendous problems but then what constitutes 'tremendous'? And what is the difference between a 'melodrama' and just a 'drama'?
Where are the Japanese tearjerkers? :(
Where's 1 Litre of Tears, Soredemo, Mother?
But then again melodrama is a tricky genre...
P.S. If anyone wants to try Jdoramas and is ok wasting a lot of tissues, please do check those three! I guarantee you, you'll never be the same again :P
If the acting career were so time and energy consuming that one can't go on doing it WHILE being a parent,…
Just leaving it here. I read this awhile back:
"Kim Ha-rin, a 19 year-old philosophy student who works part-time at McDonald’s, says that some of her colleagues are middle-aged women who were encouraged to quit their jobs after they got pregnant decades ago and now can only get low-wage work. "
"For many women, that means it’s a choice between having a career or getting married and starting a family—a worry for the Korean government at a time when boosting the birth rate is a national emergency."
censoring certain things, like with lit cigarettes, is silly because we all know what that is & blocking the…
Even hetero kissing is minimal. Any more than the lips smacking are considered vulgar. We almost only see deep kisses in cable dramas.
In that narrow scale of sexual responses, it almost is no surprise that they perceive homosexuality as something unacceptable and, as you say, "bad". I remember reading a Knetizens' response about a survey that says a small percentage of high school students feel attraction to the same sex and one of the well-liked replies compared the feelings to a cough and/or cold - it's common and it will go away eventually. It's sad.
I enjoyed her role in Age of Youth. I ignored her past and tried to look forward to her future projects but then…
Didn't she mention before that no bullying has happened? That was at the height of the scandal, I think? I always thought it was the public who made a victim out of her. Well, she did capitalise on it after but still, I think it's unfair to paint her as the evil one.
censoring certain things, like with lit cigarettes, is silly because we all know what that is & blocking the…
Yes to all of these! To be honest, I don't understand the purpose of censorship. They say it is to protect but protect from what and to whom? It only stigmatises things (i.e., tobacco, tattoo, sex, suicide) and demonises its users. What they're censoring is reality - denial of it only results to more bad than good.
P.S. It's such a shame that a prosperous country like S.Korea is still behind in social issues like lgbtq.
"Aside from a few acting lessons, and maybe an on-site coach, there is most likely not too much effort given…
That's true and I agree. It's just that, in comparison, Japan has more experience in the 'art' of producing idol-actors. From what I observed, Korean agencies do not train their idols from the get-go. Landing in dramas are not their priority; more like a fruit of the constant media exposure. On the other hand, Japanese train all idols in acting with the expectation that two or more will be offered to be the new face of a drama.
That being said, training is not a guarantee of success. One has to have that innate ability to immerse oneself in a character.
But then again, this is not the point of the article lol. I enjoyed reading it, btw.
"Aside from a few acting lessons, and maybe an on-site coach, there is most likely not too much effort given into training idols into actors."
- I am no Japanese entertainment expert but I thought it was well known that J-idols are extensively trained on many areas, including acting? Jpop idols, in contrast to their Korean counterpart, are not frowned upon by the industry. They're expected to excel in variety of talents and films and doramas is one venue to showcase it. I think it's because of this that Japan has produced so many successful idol-actors (e.g., Ninomiya, KimuTaku, Kazuya).
you admitted yourself. in Reason 6: Japan is not good at romance dramas. there are old ones (i havent seen ).…
I think the reason why Kromcoms are so successful is because of the larger than life characters. They're the fairy tales our parents read to us when we were kids.
On the other hand, Jdoramas, generally, has this slice-of-life feels. Sometimes, almost too ordinary. So, for Kromcom fans, I understand if you find Jdoramas dull. I hope you do try though. There are quite a number of nice romcoms in Japan. There's Love Shuffle, Pride, Hotaru no Hikari. And if you're up to serious romance dramas, there's Nagareboshi and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi.
And what's actually great in Jdoramas is it offers more genres than just romcoms. I personally prefer their crime/detective dramas because most of which are ingenuous.
Half of the fun in watching dramas is finding gems among rocks. :)
I understand that the manga fans might be disappointed by this adaptation but it's hard to compress 10 volumes into a 2-hr movie. And since self-discovery is the theme of this film, the direction and solemn tone it took, overall, is good.
Thank you for this review. It urged me to watch the movie again (it's one of my favorites). While I agree there were lots of things unexplored in the movie, I thought the plot wasn't one of it. It was Uta's journey to self-discovery.
Many would argue that the main character of this movie is both Wao and Uta but truth is the story revolves around Uta only. Hence, the approach. The movie shows what Uta only knows.
She knows Wao is her person (the movie didn't bother to define the relationship but it is undeniable that Wao is important to her and she to him);
she knows something is wrong with her ear because it kept ringing and she has a number of dizzy spells (but what exactly is wrong she doesn't know);
she knows that her father might have taken his life due to his impending disability and grapples with the possibility that she might end up like him, loving music too much that you couldn't bear life without it (her line, "I understand because it's me. It was painful for him to live with music");
and she knows she likes playing the piano and knows that if she continues to do so, it might break her heart (like it did to her dad) hence why at the same time she couldn't stand it.
But then again it could only be me putting too much meaning into it lol. Thanks again for this review and sorry for the long-winded comment. :)
The closest middle ground that we get is a textbook tsundere - always misunderstood. But even those are borderline asses, to be honest. Their transformation from the bad guy to the sweet guy has always been stamped as 'character development'. But if not done right, I just see them as character inconsistency.
Rarely is there a lead that showcases a 'real' guy. At least for women, there are more variety (perhaps, because most rom com writers are women). Then again, I'd rather watch perfect guys do their things than assholes with their i-couldn't-care-less attitude, so I guess I'll take it. Better the former than the latter.
Where's 1 Litre of Tears, Soredemo, Mother?
But then again melodrama is a tricky genre...
P.S. If anyone wants to try Jdoramas and is ok wasting a lot of tissues, please do check those three! I guarantee you, you'll never be the same again :P
"Kim Ha-rin, a 19 year-old philosophy student who works part-time at McDonald’s, says that some of her colleagues are middle-aged women who were encouraged to quit their jobs after they got pregnant decades ago and now can only get low-wage work. "
"For many women, that means it’s a choice between having a career or getting married and starting a family—a worry for the Korean government at a time when boosting the birth rate is a national emergency."
https://qz.com/801067/an-epic-battle-between-feminism-and-deep-seated-misogyny-is-under-way-in-south-korea/
In that narrow scale of sexual responses, it almost is no surprise that they perceive homosexuality as something unacceptable and, as you say, "bad". I remember reading a Knetizens' response about a survey that says a small percentage of high school students feel attraction to the same sex and one of the well-liked replies compared the feelings to a cough and/or cold - it's common and it will go away eventually. It's sad.
Homosexuality is not and will never be a phase.
P.S. It's such a shame that a prosperous country like S.Korea is still behind in social issues like lgbtq.
That being said, training is not a guarantee of success. One has to have that innate ability to immerse oneself in a character.
But then again, this is not the point of the article lol. I enjoyed reading it, btw.
- I am no Japanese entertainment expert but I thought it was well known that J-idols are extensively trained on many areas, including acting? Jpop idols, in contrast to their Korean counterpart, are not frowned upon by the industry. They're expected to excel in variety of talents and films and doramas is one venue to showcase it. I think it's because of this that Japan has produced so many successful idol-actors (e.g., Ninomiya, KimuTaku, Kazuya).
And better subs here:
https://ytssubtitles.com/if-cats-disappeared-from-the-world/tt4042994/528317
On the other hand, Jdoramas, generally, has this slice-of-life feels. Sometimes, almost too ordinary. So, for Kromcom fans, I understand if you find Jdoramas dull. I hope you do try though. There are quite a number of nice romcoms in Japan. There's Love Shuffle, Pride, Hotaru no Hikari. And if you're up to serious romance dramas, there's Nagareboshi and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi.
And what's actually great in Jdoramas is it offers more genres than just romcoms. I personally prefer their crime/detective dramas because most of which are ingenuous.
Half of the fun in watching dramas is finding gems among rocks. :)
Many would argue that the main character of this movie is both Wao and Uta but truth is the story revolves around Uta only. Hence, the approach. The movie shows what Uta only knows.
She knows Wao is her person (the movie didn't bother to define the relationship but it is undeniable that Wao is important to her and she to him);
she knows something is wrong with her ear because it kept ringing and she has a number of dizzy spells (but what exactly is wrong she doesn't know);
she knows that her father might have taken his life due to his impending disability and grapples with the possibility that she might end up like him, loving music too much that you couldn't bear life without it (her line, "I understand because it's me. It was painful for him to live with music");
and she knows she likes playing the piano and knows that if she continues to do so, it might break her heart (like it did to her dad) hence why at the same time she couldn't stand it.
But then again it could only be me putting too much meaning into it lol. Thanks again for this review and sorry for the long-winded comment. :)