This drama ending takes the cake!

[dangermousie]

I have just learned the ending of Lovers in Paris.

Bwahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I wonder if there was rioting in the streets?



So, the whole elaborate (and wildly ratings-successful) emo melodrama that went on for twenty episodes is actually a dream/fantasy that the heroine had? And didn't happen at all? Ahahahahaaaaa.

To give the viewers a sop, she (who is a maid) ends up meeting hero's look-a-like, who is a car saleman, and they might or might not eventually have something. Bwaaaaa! Way to dash the romantic fantasy. I love it.


That's one drama I am skipping.

Comments

[angelajewell.livejournal.com]

That... actually sounds kind of interesting, lol. I might actually watch that, now that I know I don't need any expectations going in. ;)

haha, and suddenly, the fandom's anger over the (surprise!) ending makes sense.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine how annoyed I'd get if I followed this drama :)

[main-hoon-emily.livejournal.com]

LOL! That's brilliant! Evil...but brilliant!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Very post-modern of them :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

So, the whole elaborate (and wildly ratings-successful) emo melodrama that went on for twenty episodes is actually a dream/fantasy that the heroine had? And didn't happen at all? Ahahahahaaaaa.

I totally understood the ending differently - it was a case of two parallel reality/lookalikes ladies IMHO. I am 100% certain about it. It is however one of strange endings where you must watch very carefully to understand what is going on (like in Legend case where everyone and their mother thought the main character died). In "Lovers in Paris" it all goes on about one couple and then at the end they show another lady (played by the same actress) who looks at their wedding article in a newspaper who writes a story about them and then she meets a man who is played by the main actor too. But the fact that their wedding is in the newspaper shows that the first couple is real too.

[pho50.livejournal.com]

Huh? I'm gonna have to watch that again, LOL!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

The ending is definitely not the usual direct type and one of the guys I discussed the ending with kept insisting that "the cinderella story repeats itself everywhere"/lookalike ending is WRONG too, but I kind of liked it.

[pho50.livejournal.com]

I'm so confoooosed! Definitely must re-watch. Actually, I like your interpretation 'cause it's just too exasperating to the invested audience to say, ah tricked ya, nothing you cared about really happened!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Sadly, in "War of Money" (I loved this drama too) the ending is PLAIN BAD. And I agree about "Painter of the Wind" - I would have preferred a different ending, though I don't see any realistic way out of the situation. Wel,l at least the ending is NOT THAT BAD.

[pho50.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. :)

[marspeach.livejournal.com]

Well, if what you say is true then I guess it's not that bad.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I got screencaps to prove :D

The first couple ends like this:

They meet again in Paris. Love. The girl says "What if we didn't meet that day?" The guy says: "but we would have met somewhere else Or we might have already met long long time ago"



Then it is back to the second girl who is a writer and a maid and she kind of writes a similar story:



In the newspaper she reads "Cinderella exists!Kijoo Han of GD Motors a happy ending ith his fiancee, Taeyoung Kang in Paris".



The second girl is happy for the first couple:
And at the end she meets HER guy:



I think this is all muddled up and TOO MUCH for a drama ending but I definitely understand that as "They are destined to meet, again and again" or something like this.

[marspeach.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, so it's not a dream! That's much better. From the screencaps it actually seems pretty clear but maybe the people saying that it was a dream couldn't read the Korean and it wasn't subbed or something?

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know where "the dream" thing came from. Take the newspaper article away, the ending shows a writer who works as a maid to keep her going and writes the story of the first couple and then she meets a man is the same way. Also not THAT BAD.

maybe the people saying that it was a dream couldn't read the Korean and it wasn't subbed or something?

I was thinking this could be something to do with different translations or the fact that the newspaper is shown so fast. I don't know Korean. My subs are done by a fan group called iCEDRAMA, they seem to be very decent.
I know that there are some questions of how not-fan subs are sometimes incomplete, may be this is the reason?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That sounds better but still really really bizarre :)

Is there a lot of angst and evil obstacles? I might check it out anyway...

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Yep, thie ending seems to be too big for a concept of drama. :D I am not surprised so many people misunderstood it (if also they didn't have subs).

There are stacks of angst and emo from everyone (especially the secondary guy who is played by your favourite actor angsts gorgeously). Evil families in abundance. The drama lags for me in the second half because of all the angst..

[pho50.livejournal.com]

HAHA! I watched that whole drama not knowing the ending beforehand. I was stunned, remote in hand, mouth-hanging-open-you-gotta-be-kidding-me stunned. Ah good times! You're bringing back good drama memories with Nine Tailed Fox and this keke.

Come to think of it the lead guy in this, Park Shin Yang, has been in a few dramas that have iffy/unsatisfying endings - Lovers in Paris, War of Money, and some might even include Painter of the Wind.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I have heard horrors about WoM ending...

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Hehe! Way to pull a Newhart kdrama!

I would totally watch it though... I like weird twist endings like that.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

WATCH IT!!!!!! I loved this drama. It lags in the last half but it has some most awesome drama parts. I also understood the ending totally differently -

" it was a case of "the cinderella story repeats itself everywhere" IMHO. I am 100% certain about it. It is however one of strange endings where you must watch very carefully to understand what is going on (like in Legend case where everyone and their mother thought the main character died). In "Lovers in Paris" it all goes on about one couple and then at the end they show another lady (played by the same actress) who looks at their wedding article in a newspaper who writes a story about them and then she meets a man who is played by the main actor too. But the fact that their wedding is in the newspaper shows that the first couple is real too."

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I think I will watch it now, actually! From the screencaps you posted, I think it's rather obvious that it's the start of a totally different story. Though it IS rather confusing, especially if they only briefly showed the newspaper.

But honestly, the dream ending wouldn't have bothered me either. I've sat through worse (*cough Love Contract *cough*)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

But honestly, the dream ending wouldn't have bothered me either. I've sat through worse (*cough Love Contract *cough*)

I don't understand where the "dream ending" thing came from. Take the newspaper article way, the after-story shows a struggling writer who writes the first story and who in return finds a man in the same way. I would have been happy with this ending too.
But with the words of the first guy and the newspaper even this changes into "this has happened and will happen again" thing.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I can only figure it came out of a bad translation or something. If the newspaper wasn't shown for very long, it's unlikely most people would get the reference (I probably wouldn't).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, now I am going to think what other dramas have odd endings.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any offhand... I can think of surprisingly tragic ones (Love Contract, Summer Snow, Lavender, etc), but none that are really strange...

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

LOL! Maybe they can pull the same stunt for BOF. Jandi actually fell and hit her head chasing after Jun Pyo's plane, and everything afterwards was a terrible dream.

[angelajewell.livejournal.com]

Ooh, if that happened, I would be thrilled!! Any reason to pretend the second half never happened, sounds good to me! ^_^

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I would pay money for that.

[marspeach.livejournal.com]

Wow.... Yeah, if I ever watch this I might just skip the ending.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Does sound odd.

[4th-avenue-cafe.livejournal.com]

Like alexandral mentioned, there's a subtle hint in the end that showed the main couple did happen and it's much of a parallel just happen. I actually thought it was really clever, in that it brought closure and yet an open-ended romance for the couple.

Granted, it was very very confusing and it took me some recaps to figure the ending out, so I'm not sure if that's what the creators were intending there...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It still seems a bizarre thing to tack on the end...

[4th-avenue-cafe.livejournal.com]

I definitely wish they could have set it up better. I love the idea, but it did feel a little like they couldn't stretch out the "happily ever after" for the main OTP for an entire hour so they had to add on some extra stuff. It would have been great if the parallel or mentions of it was introduced through the beginning and throughout the drama...instead of just making it kind of random at the end. But otherwise I thought it was a pretty good drama with a pretty good resolution for the love triangle.

I have an odd like for open-ended endings, mostly because I have a tendency to ship the ships that are either with the other guy/main girl and/or doomed or in most cases I don't really ship anyone, so open-ended endings tend to work in my favor.

[kitkat-cat.livejournal.com]

I tried so so so hard to watch this years ago! but it was soooooo grating and soooooo painful i never made it past ep 1! yuck! it's just not for me at all! and i'm speaking as someone who watched all of Winter Sonata!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heee - that sounds scary indeed.

[jacganda.livejournal.com]

I've watched this drama too. When I've first watched this, I was totally fuming mad. But then I re-watched it again and again and had some outside help from who understood the ending and I was like "Oh, ok."

Reading all these posts makes me miss Park Shin Yang all the more. *sigh*

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Reading all these posts makes me miss Park Shin Yang all the more. *sigh*

Me too. But I am sure we'll see him again soon. He is great!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

So weird - I wonder what possessed them to have such an ending.

[joonni.livejournal.com]

But the rest of it is so good. Seriously, give it a try. I totally ignore the ending because there is so much room for interpretation for that ending.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

But the rest of it is so good. Seriously, give it a try.

I second this. The drama is very much of "unwavering OTP against the world" story that you usually like.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Maybe? Is there lots of otp angst?

[joonni.livejournal.com]

There is much OTP angst. :)

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

WHAT??? oh, Kdramas, you are sooo brilliantly evil at these. It's like sado-masochism in entertainment form. Thanks for posting this! Now I know to avoid.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Seriously - sounds bizarre.

[melonfusion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the ending is kind of ridiculous and hard to figure out (I agree with the other comments that it wasn't all just a fantasy). But, IDK, is a bad kdrama ending all that surprising? There are very few kdramas where I've been really satisfied with the ending.

But all of the other episodes? SO AMAZING! I can see why people see the ending as such a huge disappointment, because the storyline is great and the main couple is wonderful, and the ending didn't leave us with them it left us with strangers, and that sucks. But, yes. I would recommend this drama to anyone even WITH the ending.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Most dramas I watch have finished airing and so I know the ending going in so most of the ones I watch do have endings I like. Hmmm...

[melonfusion.livejournal.com]

For me, I have two standards for determining whether a drama has a good ending. One, is fairly general-does the OTP end up together? Does someone die? Is crazy angsty? Which is all about my tastes. I don't like ambiguous endings for my OTPs (Powerful Opponents, I'm looking at you!), I like happy endings over sad endings, etc. My second standard is about the drama specifically, is the ending true to the spirit of the series? Did I enjoy the episode? Does it make sense? Which is why a drama like Beautiful Life doesn't meet standard one, but absolutely has a fantastic ending.

And that second standard is what I mean about bad kdrama endings. Because they frequently seem to be really different from the rest of the series, or the attempts at maintaining the tension makes for a frustrating viewing experience up until the very last second. An example. Coffee Prince is probably my favorite drama, but I think the ending sucks. The OTP is apart for most of it! With no valid reason.

But, you know, that's just my selfishness talking. If it were up to me, every drama finale would be an hour of the OTP holding hands and going on dates and, like, a flash forward with them and their 2.5 children playing happy family.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But, you know, that's just my selfishness talking. If it were up to me, every drama finale would be an hour of the OTP holding hands and going on dates and, like, a flash forward with them and their 2.5 children playing happy family.

See, I find that totally not my thing - I didn't care for CP as much as I did at first because all the happiness got drawn out - eps and eps and eps :) I like an ending like My Girl, a minute or so is enough for me :)