Dramas I watched on the trip...

[dangermousie]

Am back and totally exhausted so this will be very quick.

Watched 5 dramas on my trip (long flights and long train rides). Or more specifically, 4 and a quarter as I am still in process of watching the fifth one.

My thoughts? One very good, two not as good as they could have been, one very disappointing, and one giggly-giddy delight.

1. The very good one is All In, starring Lee Byung Hun and Song Hyo Kyo (who apparently temporarily hooked up after this drama. I can see why, they have psycho chemistry). All In will get its own write-up, caps, the works. Mmmm...

2. The giggly-giddy delight is the Chinese wuxia drama I am currently watching (am on ep 9), Big Shot (Da Ren Wu). It will also get its own write-up, but for now suffice it to say I adore the sword battles, the hero and the heroine, the secondary OTPs, the mysterious lost memories and the hint of huge angst to come.

3. One of the 'not as good as it could have been' dramas (the better one of the two) is Sister In Law is 19, which was pretty fun, actually. I am going to cap a bit, mainly because the premise of a girl in love with an idealized guy but ending up with the possibly less glamorous but always-has-her-back best friend (played by the scrumptuous Yoon Kye Sung), who will do anything for her happiness and is (to make me squeal in delight) a math geek is something tailored exclusively to me. Plus, I did not hate a single character. I wasn't that keen on the (happy, don't worry) ending, with some things not really addressed and no smoochies, but my biggest problem was that it never hit that big pay-off moment of drama for me. It didn't help that the lead actress, while charming and cute, didn't make me really love her and be in her skin the way some kdrama actresses do, and that this was YKS' first drama and while he is competent, the difference between this and e.g. Crazy for You is startling. Kim Jae Won, who played YKS' older brother is super-adorable btw.

4. The other 'not as good as it could have been' drama is Stained Glass which had some positives: Lee Dong Gun being absolutely marvelous (but when has he not been?), and playing a character which is very irresistable, the heroine who is not a dishrag, some swoonily romantic moments (including a kissing in the snow scene), and a lot of emo plot stuff I love. But it was too corny even for me (enough corn to feed the entire state of Michigan, in fact. When LDG referred to heroine as 'Rose of the Lord' I nearly choked), the secondary guy made me feel such blistering HATE I wanted to stab him in the face with a rusty screw-driver and the ending was...WHAAAAAAAT? 18 hours of stuff for this sort of ending? How? Why? Did they just run out of ideas and stop? The ending made the ending of Powerful Opponents look like a masterpiece of coherence.

5. The sheer disappoinment drama for me was Fantasy Couple. Before I started it, I would have never thought so. It's based on the charming 1980s movie Overboard which I like and it's written by the Hong Sisters, three other dramas of whose are all in my Top 10 kdramas (My Girl, Chun Hyang, and Hong Gil Dong). But perhaps Overboard should have stayed a movie: it was good enough and full of story enough for an under 2 hours flick but for a 16 hour drama? Yikes. Both the leads were adequate enough and I didn't hate their characters or anything but it all felt 'so what' and blah to me...the script really felt off and never gathered my interest, and I don't think that the director was good enough to elicit a performance to overcome that huge huge flaw out of Oh Ji Ho or Han Ye Seul (and neither of the leads, even if competent, strikes me as good enough to do an amazing performance without guidance). The most I got of this was mild boredom and I watched all of it through sheer stubborness, boredom of a train ride and a lot of very agressive fast-forwarding. Oh well, even the best have an off say, I suppose...

Comments

[wingstodust.livejournal.com]

looking forward to the All In caps!!! and wb from trip. XDD

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Mmmm, All In romancy caps will definitely be forthcoming. It made me melt in scary ways :)

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

I was not able to watch ALL IN when it was shown here. Apparently it's that good that a local channel has aired thrice already.

I did not like Fantasy Couple too. blah...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay, I am not alone on FC!

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

same here...haha! =)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

WELCOME HOME!

(And, naturally, the only one of the kdramas I could watch more than 15 minutes of was Fantasy Couple which is my favorite modern kdrama. Though it did need to be a few episodes shorter. But then, I've yet to see a kdrama-with the possible exceptions of Damo and Lovers-that couldn't stand to lose a few eps.)

And...err...I need your address again so I can finally get Farscape back to you before I forget again. (Granted, the only reason I'm remembering now is because I have a month's free trial for Netflix, and am rewatching some eps while I wait for S2 DVDs to get here.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I'll pm you the address.

The weird thing about FS for me was that usually if I don't like a drama or find it flawed, I can pinpoint why (e.g. Stained Glass: too corny and with irritating secondaries). But with FS there wasn't anything negative that jumped out at me...it just didn't click. Odd.

Btw, is it just me or is Anna the Korean Cordy? :P

Oh, and I think you'll like Da Ren Wu. It's a comedy wuxia so also has the benefit of no gigantic piles of bodies at the end :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Anna as the Korean Cordy works well enough. I know that part of it with me is that it's a female character type usually made out to be the Evil Other (making the work annoy me, as villifying non-lead females and glorifying most males is a problem I have with most romantic fiction) being made the lead. And Cordy being made cool and sympathetic and likable was one of the main reasons I got into the Buffyverse, despite my "die, vampire fiction oversaturation!"

FC, though, is largely a character piece about Anna with a romantic comedy veil over it, as opposed to a full out romsntic comedy or drama.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I liked the characters in FC well enough but I wasn't emotionally involved with them at all, and if I am not it only works for me when there is either OTT comedy or OTT melodrama where I enjoy the absurdity and not the people involved.

I have to say FC has to be the only comedy kdrama I've seen where the gal is 'superior' socially/money-wise to the guy. I've seen plenty of serious ones do that (from A Love to Kill and Snow Queen to the current East of Eden) but it was neat to see in a lighter setting.

[kikintae.livejournal.com]

welcome home.
you don't like fantasy couple, i like it alot. One of my favorite. Through you are right on oh ji ho, not a great actor. It was kind of long, but then that what i think of most kdrama. They tend to be too long for my taste.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True, most kdramas could stand to be trimmed.

[joonni.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!!!!!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!
I totally need to put Sister In Law is 19 on my list cos YKS is in it!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

He is very adorable (and shirtless) in it!

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I was recommended Fantasy Couple by a Korean friend here. Interesting that you didn't like it. She said it was really bouncy, and that if I liked Goong then FC would be another good one. I shall give it a try first perhaps :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

A lot of people like it so I might be in the minority :)

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, the Scompi EoE shippers have been doing my head in.

I got about half way with Da Ren Wu and never went back, although who knows I might one day. I liked the leads and the other couple but the plot dragged it down for me.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

What on earth have they been doing now? I am almost relieved it looks like YR will marry Mike (despite shipping YR/DC) because then there will be some peace maybe.

The other couple, do you mean the martial arts hero and that girl who sells material? They are so cute.

I confess to ffing past the villains. For once, they are way more boring than the good guys.

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

It's the HR/DC shippers who get to me. HR/DC have had like 3 scenes together but they act like they're the most epic of epic couples who ever epiced.

To be fair the EoE thread probably isn't any worse than normal, I've just had more time on my hands.

No the couple I meant, although I really liked the hero and his first rescue, was the drunken Master and the martial arts woman, they were so cute together. The vids was loading so slowly that I couldn't even ff so I gave up and Da Ren Wu went on my list of dramas to get back to.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I have checked out the soompi theread and yikes. Ugh. They are so annoying that even if the drama hooks HR/DC up I am going to hate it just because of the crazed shippers :)

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

Same here, they could turn out to have the best chemistry and be great together but I'll still hate them on principle.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

By now their 'fans' managed to ruin the thought of them as a couple for me entirely, which is surely not what they would want. Ugh.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

Sister In Law is 19's ending was disappointing. But at least we knew where it was going to go. The first few episodes were so difficult to watch considering I have a daughter about that age - ripped your heart out. YKS had such great potential, though - that's the only reason I originally watched Crazy for You - to see him actually get the girl.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really need to finish CfY!