My Top 5 (sort of) drama ships, and my fantasy drama

[dangermousie]

Yes, I know, I am still working on my 5 favorites meme thing.



1. Muhyul/Yeon, Kingdom of the Winds:



He is a cursed son of a royal family, abandoned and turned slave who has no idea of his parentage. She is a Princess of an enemy Kingdom. They become deadly ninjas together, he is gorgeous and messed-up beyond repair and she is a sweet-natured healer whose family gets assassinated.

I did a whole post as to why they are such an OTP of mine. This ship hits every kink I ever had and some I didn't know I had - Princess/Slave, enemy Kingdoms, hurt/comfort, fighting together just everything.

But ultimately it boils down to the fact that he looks at her like this:




Here is a MV:

2. Domyouji/Makino, Hana Yori Dango 1/2; Meteor Garden

I loved the story of the messed-up jerk rich boy and a strong-willed girl who will not stand for his b.s. and wins his heart by punching him out in every incarnation. Plus, the scene of violent, impulsive Domyouji allowing goons to beat him to unconsciousness without resisting otherwise they'd hurt Makino is my favorite shippy thing ever.

Post on random ep of Hanadan2 which highlights there awesomeness.

MG mv:

Hanadan MV:

3. Wan/Yeo Kyung, Capital Scandal



He is a laid-back playboy in 1930s Seoul and she is a dedicated revolutionary bookseller. He makes a bet he can make her fashionable but she ends up turning him into a revolutionary instead. They are pitch-perfect together: funny, with chemistry to burn, melty tenderness, hurt/comfort, height difference. Everything. I adore them beyond words.

4. Yoon Suh/Hana, Tree of Heaven



They become stepsiblings in high school - the perky, well-adjusted Hana and the messed-up, almost mute Yoon Suh. They fall in love but she cannot act on it and when they meet again, he is a mob assassin and she a maid in a hotel and they still cannot let go of each other. This is the most 'hothouse' drama I have seen - I marathonned it basically in a day and the insane intensity and chemistry are crazy. The scene where he is on his knees, begging a rival mobster to stab him because otherwise that mobster will go for Hana? GUUUUUH!

See this ToH picspam for appeal.

Here is a wonderful MV I cannot embed.

5. Dong Chul/Grace, East of Eden



He is in the mob to protect his family and does not believe he is worthy of love. She is a mob princess who will show him he is wrong. They have insane chemistry and were my "hopeless" couple - I was desperate for them to be an OTP but was sure they would not be. And then the drama proved me wrong.

I did a whole summary on why they are so awesome/their relationship.

MV:

5. Tae-Woong/Bo-Ra, Snow Queen



He is a math genius and a gentle soul existing in self-loathing, blaming himself for the death of a friend, not allowing himself to be happy. She is a brittle rich bitch, acting out against the fact that she has always known she has only a little time in which to live. She heals him then breaks him then saves him, and he teaches her to love and laugh and feel.

Here are some pictures of them

MV:

5. Ling/Qi Luo, Mars



My first drama OTP and still one of the best - she is a traumatized, almost mute artist, and he is also traumatized if in a different way, outwardly confident racer. Together, they fight their demons and find healing. I love them so much!

MV:

5. (yes, I am cheating, what about it?) Ah Hao/Yu Yen, The Outsiders 1/2



About the most dysfunctional OTP on this list, not that this is surprising as the male half is a mob killer. She is a sheltered upperclass pianist and he is a boy from the rough part of town who fall in love and then he gets the bright idea to join the mob to protect her. And then it all goes to hell...

Clearly I like mobsters and other violent men as part of the OTP :P And yet, how could I leave out Gong Chan/Yu Ri, or Halu/Aki, or the OTP from Last Scandal? I could not, I love them just as much. Argh, evil question!!!!!!!!!!!!

While we are at it, I saw the 'fantasy drama' thing going around. Well, mine would be a period piece - it is during the period of time when there is more than one Kingdom in the area. One of them is run by an ambitious female ruler who wants to conquer the neighboring kingdom, so she sends in one of her specially trained spy/ninja type people to infiltrate - he is also a sort of 'favorite' of hers (whichever way you want to take it). To be played by Song Seung Heon.

The neighboring kingdom is run by a rather inefficient brother-sister pair and SSH infiltrates the court easily due to his mad skills - let's say he is accepted as a mercenary-general. He is disciplined and a little bit inhuman and very focused on his goals but due to unexpected events in his own kingdom (the Queen is facing some unrest) the invasion doesn't happen really quickly but instead he is left at that court for a while and he actually starts enjoying a human life - before on these missions it was always very quick and he never had time to get attached, plus the missions were never this big or important - sneaking into an enemy castle for a day to learn the layout etc is pretty different. So he now actually starts seeing these people who he is supposed to betray as people and also it's the first time he's been respected and treated as a normal person - back home people either freak about him or the Queen treats him as some sort of an exotic dangerous pet.

Oh, and did I mention that a niece of the King of this Kingdom (or some other member of the royal family) is an outspoken, fun Princess played by Sung Yuri and they fall in love with each other and then the order comes from his own Queen to help the invasion. He actually fights on the side of the 'good' guys in earnest but the damage from him earlier conveying information has been done and the 'good' guys lose and due to some circumstances, the Queen has no idea he betrayed her - but she does know he is in love with Sung Yuri and wasn't as cooperative as he should have been.

So she decides to take him away and punish him but she also takes great pleasure of informing the entire court + Sung Yuri of the true state of affairs as she knows them (i.e. SSH is her infiltrator and played them all) as SSH has to watch her do it. Of course, since she is rather evil, she has a great deal of fun with it and also acts as of SSH is 'hers' in more ways than one just to twist the knife in more in Sung Yuri. And then she takes him away and tells him not to stray any more from what he is allowed or else (it's a kdrama, I am sure you can come up with some particularly gruesome punishment). But despite it all and despite the fact that SSH believes everyone at his host kingdom now hates him, he decides to work to liberate them and expiate his sin. Meanwhile, shockingly, Sung Yuri (who is held in confinement with the rest of the secondary royals) does NOT hate him - she can tell he fought for them in earnest and that he wanted to expiate and she also does not believe he does not love her. She manages escape and soon she is also raising hell...and it goes from there. I want a happy ending, but since this is a period Korean drama, it's dubious.

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

3 4 and 5 are definitely in my list too.

Have you tried "Crazy for you"? Every time I see "tree of Heaven" or ALTK mentioned "Crazy for you" comes to my mind. Also the main herouine is very strong, ambitious woman who manages her demanding job, family and friends after the death of her fiancee. I think she is your type.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I saw the first two eps of CfY and loved it but my discs had awful subs - I actually just got a dvd with good subs and it's my next drama.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I would love to send you my version (I think I have got your address somewhere) I dl-ed it with fansubs that were excellent.

Gosh, ignore this. I am trying to do 3 things at once and haven't read the last bit.

YAY!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Even the little bit of it that I saw I adored - and ooooh, poor Yoon Kye Sang!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I adore it too - this was a drama that I gulped in one go (two days). HE is so lovely and I FEEL HIS PAIN. It all ends well, though.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know - I only decided to check it out once I found out it was a happy ending. Otherwise I couldn't bear it.

[syrenstar.livejournal.com]

Tree of Heaven sounds fascinating, I'll have to scout around for subs.

I'm not a huge fan of Korean period dramas (English ones I gobble up sans spoon) the episode count puts me off but I love the sound of your plot.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ToH is awesome and only 10 eps.

If they ever made a drama with my plot, I'd die.

Actually, some of the plot (infiltrating and then falling for the girl and fighting on the losing side and being shown up) is from a novel I love - Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger, set in Renaissance Italy. Which only occurred to me after I typed the scenario up :P

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

What happened to Dam Duk and Sujini? :D

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL - I love them to bits but I dunno, they didn't come to mind for some reason - these lists are evil :)

[clairiere.livejournal.com]

Clearly I like mobsters and other violent men as part of the OTP :P And yet, how could I leave out Gong Chan/Yu Ri, or Halu/Aki, or the OTP from Last Scandal? I could not, I love them just as much. Argh, evil question!!!!!!!!!!!!


I think you just have an affinity for OTPs with heap of angst. I'm probably right there with you (albeit not in the 'your OTPs are my OTPs' sense), but Last Scandal is challenging that... I found a terrific Taiwanese fansite for LS, btw--can't understand a thing, but some of the fanarts are postcard-effective gorgeous.


#3 makes me wonder how you'll react to Sandglass if/when you get to watch it, which plotwise is probably the closest (if not in execution). I doubt the OTP there would replace anyone on your list, partly because they don't share that much screentime all through the 25 eps. It's the strength of the characters and the limited time they share that make the relationship indelible, but the series is not geared towards active 'shipping. The life-long friendship between the two male leads (and how it complicates & eventually binds the three forever) is probably the other OTP of SG. It made the show richer & I think more mature, but shipper-heaven it is not.


re: #1--did you ever see any artwork from the original manhwa? (even if the only thing they share is the names of the characters, eg. Yeon dies pretty early in the manwha and the main thrust is Muhyul's ascent to power & how it dooms Hodong's life.) It's visually quite arresting & evocative. I never finished the manhwa (it hasn't been completed anyway) but it made enough impression that I never could warm up to the TV adaptation (despite Song Il-Gook's presence). 'shipper-wise, I favored the manhwa's secondary OTP btw Seryu & Goeyu (maybe it's the distinctive facial scar...), but the appeal, the resonance of the manhwa really lies with Muhyul's solitary status. But I guess they couldn't risk that on TV... (Bicheonmu is another tough-to-adapt manhwa, partly because the original works are so very solid & visually powerful, it's hard to see how TV/film adaptations could compete with, complement or re-invent it.)

PS. re: Capital Scandal

[clairiere.livejournal.com]

In the vein of 'affinity for OTPs with heap of angst'--I only caught bits & pieces of Capital Scandal when I was in Seoul on a visit, but I did like the scenes btw the secondary OTP very much w/o understanding any of the plot, just that they were doomed.

Re: PS. re: Capital Scandal

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - they are my favorite secondary couple of all time - so very doomed - both secret revolutionaries and haunted by their past and just - it was all so very tragic. They only had about one night of happiness and then death and regret and guilt.

Re: PS. re: Capital Scandal

[clairiere.livejournal.com]

I saw that scene in your icon, and w/o understanding a thing, got caught in the moment & the couple. Yeah, CS is also one of my 'ear-marked for later viewing, whenever that might be, need to get a job where I can watch TV for a living' dramas.

Re: PS. re: Capital Scandal

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hope the viewing (and not the job, though that would be pretty neat too :P) happen at some point :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think Last Scandal is very odd for me, in a sense of being included on my favorite OTPs list (which it should be) because you are right - there are no heaps of angst or OTT stuff which is what I normally love (and yet, when I am going to do my Top 5 shippy moments, as someone else asked me on that meme, his beating down her door in ep 14 will be included - it is such an amazing moment).

I'd love to check out KotW manhwa - I know the drama has little in common with it but as I have never read the manhwa, I enjoyed the drama tremendously - maybe because the main characters were rather dark compared to some other period dramas I've seen - I actually liked the first half of KotW better - when Muhyul was a dispossed tortured slave being used as a poison tester by evil ninjas - that story of him sliding into darkness and despair and the hopelessness of both his revenge and his love for Yeon are what really grabbed me. A sort of lack of agency despite his best tries. Once he became a Crown Prince, I still liked KotW (it did end up on my favorites list) but the drama lost that 'edge' that it had before, to me - parodoxically, it ended up being less pure tragedy. It does end with Muhyul isolated - his best friend is horrifically dead, his true love is dead in his arms, his brother and father are dead and even his nemesis/friend Dojin is dead. They try to end it on hopeful note - him being with Hodong, but it didn't really strike me as full of potential for happy life. So I could see the storyline of the manhwa taking off from that point in the drama but it would make an incredibly bleak story (not grandly tragic the way the drama was) so I could see why they refrained.

Princess Ja Myung Go had the potential of doing a good Hodong story but it got bogged down with secondary characters, an overlengthy prologue, and miscasting. Also, a rather odd plot.

But Seryu/Goeyu are also an OTP in KOTW drama and I loved it.

I know Bicheonmu was made into a drama but I haven't seen much of it. Hmmm - it does star Joo Ji Mo who I like. We'll see how it goes.

I've heard that East of Eden was Sandglass only not done nearly as well so it makes me very intrigued. I think either Sandglass or Eyes of Dawn are my next big drama.

[clairiere.livejournal.com]

I think Last Scandal is very odd for me, in a sense of being included on my favorite OTPs list (which it should be) because you are right - there are no heaps of angst or OTT stuff which is what I normally love (and yet, when I am going to do my Top 5 shippy moments, as someone else asked me on that meme, his beating down her door in ep 14 will be included - it is such an amazing moment).

I'm loosely translating, but I quite liked one of the fans describing it as 'Prince Charming tearing apart the fairytale to step out into the real world & have a chance at love.' We saw that with the press conference, but that was the final door to beat down. And I think that's what made it very special, the whole build-up to that final moment, as Prince Charming shed his fairytale persona one by one throughout the series (eg. forgetting he's Song JB when with SH, then finding it suffocating it stands in the way of pursuing her & reaching a decision--it's rather ironic the paternity reveal eventually served as the catalyst in that decision).


re: KotW etc.

I'm not unhappy with the adaptations per se, at least not the fact that it's been attempted in the first place. And it says something about the richness of the original source (and the actual legend) that it inspired three in recent years (KotW, Princess JMG, Legend). They've all had problems, and received a fair amount of criticisms for this & that, but I'm not opposed to the efforts, even if I can't quite warm up to the results. It raises the profile of these works, and the very talented authors behind them (there are very, very few female manhwa authors who can do/have done epic stories). And I wouldn't mind seeing some translation efforts down the road, though a work like KotW is tough to follow in Korean as it is. (I remember some of the scenes very vividly b/c they're so visually arresting, but couldn't tell you/summarise what the storylines are in each volume.)


I know Bicheonmu was made into a drama but I haven't seen much of it. Hmmm - it does star Joo Ji Mo who I like. We'll see how it goes.

I haven't seen it either (though I find JJM rather appealing--I've sort of earmarked Fashion 70s for 'later viewing' whenever that might be, after your recommendations). But the manhwa author (Kim Hye-Rin) is my all-time favorite--she's not only a gifted epic storyteller, she can humanize any character with the smallest of details, and her OTPs are just right up my/our alleys. But they'd need a Peter Jackson to do her works justice.


I've heard that East of Eden was Sandglass only not done nearly as well so it makes me very intrigued. I think either Sandglass or Eyes of Dawn are my next big drama.

I favor angst, yet even I can't quite bring myself to watch EoD yet. I'll probably get some ideas from your reactions (whenever/if you feel like watching, so no need to hurry up). I've seen capsule summaries on YouTube though, and although the production values may look dated compared to what Korea's capable now, I'd say both SG & EoD do a very good job of placing the viewers right there in the moment--you get a 'real' sense of the historical backdrop, which I think makes some of the intimate scenes more powerful.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

'Prince Charming tearing apart the fairytale to step out into the real world & have a chance at love.' We saw that with the press conference, but that was the final door to beat down. And I think that's what made it very special, the whole build-up to that final moment, as Prince Charming shed his fairytale persona one by one throughout the series

Oh yes - because that image that he build sustained his career but also trapped him - he never could be himself, even in something as basic as his age or dating. And I love that by willing to give up everything he actually gained everything instead - doing the right thing got rewarded.

Re: Eyes of Dawn. I only saw the first 10 minutes to check my dvds and it was brutal - the heroine was horrifically raped and beaten within the first 5 minutes. It's interesting to me because from what I know, both EoD and Sandglass were huge successes but they seem to deal with much grittier topics than modern dramas do.

[clairiere.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the dramas in the 1990s were grittier than what you'd find today (at least the ratings-grabbers that I recall) because if life wasn't as hard, memories of harder times were still very vivid. The decade strikes me as the Korean TV equivalent to what the 1970s were for U.S. films, when they dealt with 'social issues' that resonated a lot with the viewers because they remained very 'real' issues for them & the society as a whole. E.g., one of the hit dramas called Sons & Daughters was about the parallel lives of twin siblings through the 1970s & 80s, with the focus on the more talented daughter who had to overcome the gender discrimination in the family (esp. her mother's open favoritism of her brother vs. verbal abuses towards her) to get a chance at education & carve out her own life. That just wouldn't get made today because the sense of urgency, the resonance is no longer there. I'm not complaining (TV should/would be a reflection of our times), and I appreciate the range, the variety of what can be done today. But sometimes I miss the 'grit' & lucidity when I see some of the fat & excesses of current productions.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's interesting because Japanese dramas from the 90s also appear a lot more "adult" to me than their current equivalent and certainly more realistically low-key. Much as I like the glam and glitter I do often prefer the grittier ones. But I suppose it all goes in cycles - in the US one can contrast the multitude of shiny glossy unreal mid-late 1930s moves and the rathe realistic ones that came out in the late 1940s and then the cycle swung back to glossy and then back again.

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

Hooray for Dong Chul and Guk Ja!

Me wonders why DamSU ain't there? hehehe...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love them to bits so I have no idea why they didn't come to mind. These lists are haaaard :(

[your-insomnia.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh that Capital Scandal MV is awesome. I think I need to pick it up again asap.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I love CS beyond measure - it's in my top 3 kdramas, so I am all for it :)

[prettierdanpink.livejournal.com]

YAY for Chen Ling and Qi Luo~! ♥ I love them so much too! You always have the awesome-est lists :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *blushes* I love them so very much! I know it's impossible, but I'd love for Vic and Barbie to make another drama together!