Done with Spring Waltz and desperately seeking more icy woobie dramas...

[dangermousie]

Finished Spring Waltz. What will I fixate on now?

I adored the first 18 and a half eps and loved the sweet ending, but the ep or so in-between I was meh about. It got too kdramaish not in an excellent way.

Still, the OTP was awesome, the design gorgeous etc etc etc...It's definitely going on my favorites list.



* The reunion on the island and their night together and playing in the ocean lovelovelovelovelove.

* I totally loathed his adoptive parents. WTF - when they tell his birth dad that the secret being out would harm Jae Ha so he has to conceal it. Sorry, it won't harm Jae Ha, they will just harm evil parents. Or when Daddy Evilest is all "it's your fault, you disappointed us" to Jae Ha. WTF? Did nobody point out to him they were the one who engaged in illegal, evil acts? Jae Ha didn't do a thing wrong. And then at the end we were supposed to buy them being happy and OK - nope. Want them to be eaten by bears.

* Too much forgiveness going around overall. Nope, still not buying Secondary Girl was not insane. Hell, it was her fault Jae Ha injured himself and can't play. Also, Phillip's comment about Jae Ha forgiving birth Daddy (i.e. he should, it's a good thing). BLEH.

* The bit where he was injured and yet insisted on playing with blood dripping on keys? I ate it up like emo candy.

* Why did Jae Ha not want Eun Young to know about his injury or went away for her sake? Huh? Was he worried she'd feel guilty? That was sort of a logic lapse. Oh well, he was a total mess by that point, I forgive him.

* GUH REUNION IN AUSTRIA ON BRIDGE SCARF SMILE RUNNING HUGGING DEAD AM DEAD AM DEAD

* I love that they ended up living on that island she is from, blissfully happy in their adorable house, cooking together, with his kid brother, and him teaching and just adorableness. Oddly, I don't think it was a tragedy that he can't be a professional pianist any more - he was excellent at it and I think on some level liked it, but not only can he still write music, it was forced on him and so tangled with his identity issues.

Now I need another icy woobie/spunky girl romance. Someone recommend? PLEASE?

Hmmm, maybe I'll just rewatch that ultimate bad boy/good gal kdrama All In. I mean, he is an ex-convict and she is an ex-nun. Mmmm, I love this MV:

I never really metaed about it properly because I gulped it down in 3 days on the way to Italy and at jet-lagged nights. But suffice it to say I love it and not just because of the insane leading couple chemistry.

Hmmm. I think I will rewatch. Or at least cap the sex scene :D

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the separation at the end is the low point of the series for me because it makes nothing resembling any kind of sense and is just there to add angst and then have a reunion.

ETA: Interestingly, I just finished a book about an icy assassin heroine with a nice, supportive guy, but it's (a) YA (though moderately dark for the genre) and (b) fantasy (though extremely light on the fantasy) so probably not your thing. And not a drama.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was all "oooh, we have eps left over, what shall we do?" type of stuff. All they needed was another 15 minutes to resolve everything after the island reunion not more stuff. I was glad evil birth daddy got hit by a car, though.

The book sounds nice, even if I prefer the trope to be gender reversed (i.e. icy male assassin, nice supportive guy). What is it called?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Graceling by Kristen Cashore. It's a first book and the prose is rather flat, but with indications that later books by the author will improve on that front, and the ideas of the characters and plot are strong enough to overcome it. The only real claim to magic in this book is that certain people are born with an ability to exceed normal human levels (the heroine's is killing and manifested when she accidentally killed someone she felt threatened by as a child, causing the king to raise her as his assassin).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Was that not the most ridiculously happy ending you've ever seen? They get married! They adopt a small ruffian child! They live in a picturesque house by the sea and he's a schoolteacher and she brings him lunch and their feuding families come together and everyone lives HAPPILY EVER AFTER! I kept expecting someone to get run over by a car in the last few seconds.

Also, watch this and tell me I'm crazy and didn't sleepwalk through 3:17?

I'm looking for another romance too. I've tried about six dramas in the past few days but I keep losing interest because they're not Spring Waltz.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

When the kid woke them up in bed it was ridiculously awesome.

I do not remember that bit in last ep at all. Argharghargh what happened? Where is it? I am sure you and I watched the fansubbed versions, i.e. the ones that aired in Korea. I doubt YA edition had more stuff - they cut things out, not put them in. So whaaaaaa? Maybe it's from deleted scenes or something? No idea! I am going crazy now.

I need a new drama to obsess about, a romance one. Btw, have you tried Snow Queen? I love it and it's angsty and romantic. She is a bitchy deathly ill rich girl who terrorizes everyone and he ends up being her driver...

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I know! I want it!!! Augh.

Snow Queen is actually one of the dramas I tried, but it failed to grab me. I think I'm in the mood for another angsty bastard/plucky heroine love story too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Icy bastard plucky heroine...hmmmm. Have you tried Something Happened in Bali (also known as What Happened in Bali/Memories of Bali). I love that one like whoa. The hero is way messed up and bastardy and heroine is poor and plucky. Also, worst kdrama parents ever.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Is that the one you called a grown-up HYD?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup. Only more deliciously messed-up.

If you are looking for something more cutesy, how about Who Are You - he is an icy ruthless businessman with ocd possessed occasionally by the body of her dead father. she is a plucky high school grad who thinks he is insane.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

possessed occasionally by the body of her dead father

It's the little things that catch my interest. XD XD

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOLOL. It's not really a romance drama though - more of a comedy/family drama with some romance in it. I enjoyed it though and it does have some cute romance.





Oh, and if you are interested in Bali, here is a rare unspoilery mv:

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

I am currently watching Who Are You and loving it! It won't become one of my favorite dramas of all time, but it's quite enjoyable over all :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah - that is my opinion of it in a nutshell. (Plus, I like Yoon Kye Sang so was easy to please to start with and Go Ara was adorable)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Also, maybe Beautiful Days if you can get past some secondary characters I wanted to strangle. He is an icy bastardy woobie running a music empire. She is a plucky orphan employee who wins his heart (despite his obnoxious stepbrother being her destined childhood love. I loled and loled at that - finally childhood love got the boot). Emo ensues. Here, a little glimpse from the middle of the drama to tempt ya:



it's total crack.

I've also heard promising things about Phoenix and Lovers Lovers in Paris but haven't seen either.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that looks delicious. Thanks for the rec!

Btw, have emailed youtube girl about those missing scenes, I'll let you know if she responds.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

BD has one of the most annoying othet guys ever - I call him "Ugly Brother." I love that the heroine never gives in to his idiocy though, even out of guilt, and that hero always deals with him in a satisfactorily common sense manner. I loved it UB ranted that he can treat the heroine better (debatable) so should be the one to get her and the hero pointed out to him that the issue in the love triangle not who can hypothetically treat her better but whom she actually wants.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

omg

i love the main guy's acting. he always has that lost expression on his face, like hes not sure what he's suppossed to do.. in a way its cute.

Sometimes I love youtube commenters.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

Oh...I love Snow Queen. I hope that you can finish it. :)

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I didn't really give it a fair shot since it wasn't suiting my mood. I'm sure I'll come back later and love it. *laughs*

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

I never could get through Snow Queen either. I wouldn't call it an angsty bastard/plucky heroine love story, however- I'd call it an icy bitch-queen/angsty plucky hero story. I just could never quite emotionally warm up to the female lead :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Awww, I really adored the heroine - normally I wouldn't but for some reason her loneliness and insecurities just pinged for me. Maybe it's because I love Sung Yuri a lot?

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

probably. I suspect that this is one of those cases where it's really the actress I don't like and not the character she plays. My brother LOVED it - you and he have eerily similar tastes;)

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

OMG

OMG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aFFyWnbIKg

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

*dead dead dead*

Why not include these in the drama, evil people? Instead cut out some of evil secondary girl's eyerolling or whatever.

*dling to keep*

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

Fine. I'll admit. After reading all of your posts, I am going to re-watch this.

Your posts can be really convincing most of the time,dear!

:D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

*blushes all flattered*

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

The all-important question: does All In have a happy ending? Because my life's too short to watch tragedies.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, happy ending. I was pleasantly surprised.

No idea if it's your thing - I found the non-romantic parts of the story dragged for me (but I've never been into either business or gambling) - but the romance was so awesome it more than made up for it (I don't know if you ff your dramas but this benefits from it immensely - the good parts are so very good).

Also, no evil secondary girl. There are three secondary girls and both are pure awesome. One likes the secondary guy, not main guy, and gives in with good grace when she realizes it's no go as opposed to clinging like a crazed tiger. One likes the hero briefly, then sees he is not interested and sorta switches to his friend, who is. The third (my favorite of the bunch) has hankered after the hero since they were kids, but wakes up and smells the cofee and actually falls for one of the bad guys because he loves her so very much while the hero never showed even a hint of interest (as she points out to hero's friends when they are upset at her for taking up with a guy who wants hero dead).

Plus I adore the heroine...

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

oooh!! super cool :D and as a matter of fact, I do ff my dramas - almost all of them. And evil secondary girls annoy me as much as they would any sensible person, so am super induced now. Will definitely watch this.

[joonni.livejournal.com]

I LOVED the reunion scene on the bridge! More so because the music fit so perfectly.

But I just saw the vid that darkeyedwolf posted and there were some scenes that were not in the broadcast version. Damn. And they were good scenes of longing and separation. I love those types of scenes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love them too, I wish they included them. Grrr, time constraints!

The bridge scene ---- *happy sigh*

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I just watched/loved a drama with angsty icy woobie that I loved = Fly High.

It goes like this:
She:
is married into Korean impoverished aristocracy. She has a little child, a boy. Her husband is in coma after a car accident (7 years already). Just before the accident the husband intended to divorce (because of the other woman), but the wife doesn't know about this. The wife finds out that he had divorce papers ready. The husband dies (naturally).

He:
An icy woobie with bad maternal problems (was abandoned as a child).

I am not sure if this is your thing 100% - they both are about 30 years old and not at school. I think the man is yonger but this isn't the main point of the story, the story is more about maternal angst, forbidden love and all such things. The main guy is great as ICY WOOBIE. The other guy is the older brother from "Kongdom of the Wind" and he is great too. He gets a nice OTP at the end. The main lady is quite feisty (but sort of cinderella in her husband's family), it all starts with the main girl slapping the main guy. GOOD START.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL, I don't always or even usually need school stories. I don't mind those set in high school or college but most of the ones I like have people at least in their late 20s (only two kdrama I've seen has both protagonists in highschool/uni - Goong which I loved and BOF and you know I hated that one).

This does sound good even if I am not familiar with anyone in the cast. I'll check it out.

Also, since you are the only one on my flist I remember watched Lovers in Paris - is the lead guy in that one icy?

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Also, since you are the only one on my flist I remember watched Lovers in Paris - is the lead guy in that one icy?

Very much so. :D Until he melts, that is. :D This one could be actually something you could like - OTP is very very strong. The drama lags at the end a bit but OTP is always great together.

"Fly High" is also very strong on OTP side. I need to post about this one. The only minus here are BAD subs.

Also - I remembered! "When it's at night" is fully out already! Yummmy kisses. "Loves in Paris" has good kisses too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. You have sold me on LiP. I will check out Fly High but after LiP. I adore the leading actress. Never watched PSY in anything but people like him so hopefully he is good (and he has glasses, eeee!)

I am excited for When it's at night!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I like PSY - he studied acting in Russia and I like this. :D

Oh, another advantage point of "Fly High" - they end up to be some kind of pseudo cousins. :D

[astrothsknot.livejournal.com]

Sex scenes are good for the soul

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee. True. Or at least the body :)