Prosecutor Princess = Love; Cinderella Unni = total adoration; Personal Taste = bleh

[dangermousie]

I am almost all caught up on all my four airing dramas (Cinderella Unni, Dong Yi, Oh My Lady, and Prosecutor Princess). I have also tried ep 3 of Personal Taste - and it's official, I give up. I gave that drama 3 eps and - just no. Leaving aside any problems with the characters, this drama is just boring. My attention keeps wandering. I am finding all the characters dull and their situations are only sporadically funny. Blah. Let me know if it improves though and I will check it out again.

I have also watched ep 4 of Prosecutor Princess and such total total love!





Bonus 1. I approve of any situation which gets both our leading men wounded and shirtless. Did I mention the part where In Woo is wounded but what he is freaking out about is that Hyeri was in danger? SQUEE. OTP.





Anyway, the sequence in question. Hyeri is about to head out when this woman approaches her. She was accused of assault and Hyeri believed the accuser. Woman was proven innocent and is pissed.









Fellow prosecutors are appalled even if they are not the biggest Hyeri fans.





In Woo sees the whole thing at a glance - shivering Hyeri, frozen prosecutors, passerby filming. And this is what happens.











Too bad, so sad, Prosecutor Yoon! You are too late to the rescue! I don't feel too bad for you - she confessed her love to you and you turned her down.







Plus, I ship you with Lady Prosecutor anyway.



I love them!











He takes her to his apartment, shows her the bathroom and lays out a change of clothes for her (said change of clothes - his clothes, of course, OMG). I took a few too many caps of Park Shi Hoo's gorgeousness here. I hope you don't mind :D





















Shall we repeat?















Hyeri cheers a bit until she gets a call that this whole incident has been uploaded on-line - she is a public laughingstock and people are posting horrible comments.







OMG, his face. That is certainly a guy madly in love and he totally cannot bear to watch her cry. Awwwww.











He drops her off home:



Bonus 2. End of ep. She is fed up with this whole thing and so she plans to run away but guess who stops her (and pulls her into a hug?). Guess? (Side note - considering how much time In Woo spends making sure she is OK, I am wondering, does he not need sleep ever or something? Where can I get a fairy godmother like that?)













In other news, have finally watched ep 3 of Cinderella Unni with subs.

Despite my love for both Oh My Lady and Prosecutor Princess, CU is definitely my drama of the season - it bypasses any logical centers of my brain (though it's well-written enough to please them too) and hits me in the emotional gut no drama has since IRIS.

After watching ep 3 with subs, I confess to liking, pitying, and understanding both Eun Jo and Hyo Sun. I can completely understand how with her unstable, abused backround Eun Jo keeps lashing out at Hyo Sun, pushing any possible affection past the breaking point - testing it to feel secure and/or to prove to herself that affection is safe. Someone older and much wiser (Ki Hoon, with his rather similar to Eun Jo background) could understand that Eun Jo is lashing out is a defense mechanism and adjust accordingly, but Hyo Sun (or to be fair, most people) couldn't deal with it.

But I also completely understand why Hyo Sun snaps. Frankly, Eun Jo is being a gigantic bitch to her and it's to HS's credit she put up with it as long as she could. I would have called her every name I could lay my tongue to and probably tried to hit her too, and I would have snapped a lot earlier than HS would have. I cannot possibly blame HS for anything she has done so far, including the infamous letter incident in ep 4.

Whatever Hyo Sun may or may not do in the future to put spokes in Eun Jo's wheels, Eun Jo has nobody but herself to blame.



And speaking of blame - can I blame Ki Hoon's horrific family for even existing? His brother is awful, his father is a selfish weakling, but his stepmother is horrifying - she is a waste of oxygen and the worst excuse for a human being I've seen in a while. Ep 3 makes explicit the parallels between Ki Hoon and Eun Jo's background minus the sexual abuse. (The way she reacted to the drunk exbf of her Mom crystallized her past abuse to me even further - the way she trembles in fear and loathing whenever he's in her space, the way she asks Ki Hoon to kill the ex for her (reminded me of the scene in Mars where Qi Luo wanted Ling to kill her abusive stepfather) - I loved the look on Ki Hoon's face at that - I want to call it compassion or understanding (never pity - there is a huge difference) but it's not just that. Those are selfless, a little detached feelings but whatever he is feeling is mixed with love).

OK, to get back to Ki Hoon's background - I thought back to his comment to Eun Jo in ep 1 that she shoudn't run away from home before she reaches the age of majority (20yrs) because otherwise nobody would hire her or if they do it will be for pittance and working night and day she'd barely make enough to stay alive - it became pretty clear that this is what Ki Hoon himself went through earlier (side note - any parent who forbids his son to call him father and kicks him out of the house when the kid is still a minor, after gifting him with a miserable childhood before that, deserves to rot in hell. I speak as a Mom. Seriously. A person who mistreats their (or anyone else's) child does not deserve to live).

I have already raved about Ki Hoon and Eun Jo's hug-not-hug - it is so huge for both of them - and Eun Jo is comfortable enough with Ki Hoon that even though he's a man she allows him so close, almost hugging - that is huge.

I loved Eun Jo's fierce desire to learn and Ki Hoon cramming in secret so he'd be able to teach her Spanish because he knows she is so smart and quick and if he doesn't keep up he will lose some of her reliance and respect.

I loved her stunned reaction to Ki Hoon calling her name, and not just her name but a diminutive form of it (just as alexandral, I also grew up in Russia with its diminutive forms for names where suffixes add all sorts of meanings - I tried to teach my husband those because calling me by my full name is very different from my diminutive with or without suffixes which indicate extra tenderness. Just as I never call Baby Mousie by her full name, but I always use a Russian version of her name's diminutive plus a suffix - 'ochka' or 'on'ka' or 'usya'. OK, that was a random digression.)

I cannot wait to watch more!

Comments

[village.livejournal.com]

I would have called her every name I could lay my tongue to and probably tried to hit her too, and I would have snapped a lot earlier than HS would have.

And the thing is, that's exactly what EJ wants (at least in her head). She wants HS's anger and dislike or at the very least her apathy. It's similar to the child reacting to a step-parent scenario you see sometimes. The more the parent attempts to please her, love her, spoil her, the more the child hates and wants to punish the step-parent. It's easy to forgive someone like HS because "oh, she's trying so hard!" but if she was even remotely self-aware, she would have realized that she was pushing too hard and too fast. She doesn't understand that everyone has boundaries and that's just as much a problem as EJ's coldness.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

if she was even remotely self-aware, she would have realized that she was pushing too hard and too fast

The viewers may realize because a. most of us are older/less sheltered than HS and b. we are privy to EJ's background and actions outside of her HS interactions. But not only is HS a rather sheltered and young 16, she knows nothing of EJ's background - I mean she can tell they were not well off (hence 'beggar!') but I severely doubt Mommy Dearest let even any hint about sordid past escape.

[homocoucho.livejournal.com]

"Eun Jo-ah" -- her breakdown scene in episode 4 was already hard to watch without knowing what she was saying, but with subs, it was heart-wrenching and poetic. I must admit I had several tears to shed for that part, and it still gets me quite choked up when I think about her monologue/narration.

Although I agree that EJ only has herself to blame for HS's ire, my main issue with HS is her inherent manipulative streak, which, without EJ, would still manage to surface later on in life.

OTOH, I checked out PP, and it's funny how I've always had this vision of KSY from "All About Eve", and she pretty much shattered all that in episode 1. I don't think I'd follow it though and will probably just marathon the series near the end.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree HS is no saint (i.e. a typical kdrama melodrama heroine :P) but that is one of the brilliant things about CU - both EJ and HS are flawed real human beings and I can understand them both.

In a way, their starkly different personalities bring out the worst in each other.

[shinystory.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen this week's episodes of "Cinderella Unni," but I already worry about all the characters: always a good sign. :)

I haven't even finished the second episode of "Personal Taste" and I get the same as you: bored. Lee Min-ho is very charming but I have a problem with the characters in general, and with Son Ye-jin's in particular. I also caught up with Dramabeans' summaries of the novel. Made me really sorry that they changed it up.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

My problem with PT isn't even the heroine (though the fact that she's my least favorite heroine type doesn't help) but the way the drama lacks this special spark - I have watched and enjoyed many a drama which in abstract had things I don't like but because it was well done I loved it. This drama is just so - pedestrian.

[mishane.livejournal.com]

Oh I can't wait for PP! His face looks so ridiculously adorable in those caps.

And you feel the same way about CU as me! Yay! I definitely agree with you on HS & EJ.

I also hate Ki Hoon's family with the fire of a thousand burning suns, lol. Seriously. What a horrible horrible family.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think Ki Hoon is the real Cinderella in the story - he is the good stepsibling in an evil family who abuse him :)

I keep seeing this hatred for HS all over the web and I honestly don't get it. I understand identifying with EJ (my emotional attachment is to EJ as well) but while normally I love jumping all over 'hating heroine's rival' bandwagon, I just don't see it with Hyo Sun. Sure she is self-absorbed occasionally and immature but Eun Jo is cruel and rude. They both have plenty of flaws and actually both bring out the worst in each other.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

But I also completely understand why Hyo Sun snaps. Frankly, Eun Jo is being a gigantic bitch to her and it's to HS's credit she put up with it as long as she could.

I had a good think on this, and I think that EJ just had a good feel for people and she felt that HS wasn't sincere from the beginning. At first I thought that HS changes from a nice girl to no-so-nice one , but now I think that HS was always like this and that the hidden things just surfaced.

For me, the main indication of HS's character was what HS said when she snapped - "You are a beggar", etc.etc. HS obviously would have thought all these cruel thoughts before and they just came rushing out. Another indication was that HS always tried to usurp everyone's attention - usually this attention-seeking come from something lacking inside. But the thing that angered me the most wasn't the "beggar" thing and wasn't the letter thing, but something HS said to KH - "you forget who you belong too"!

[walkwithheroes.livejournal.com]

HS always tried to usurp everyone's attention

I think that too. In episode four, she didn't win any awards at school, so she started to cry. Because of that, the parents let her put on a mini dance thing at the house/business. I've noticed that whenever things aren't going HS's way - or they are in danger of not going her way - she starts pouting and crying. HS likes attention and she knows how to manipulate it so people around her give her the attention she wants.

As for EJ- I have this idea about her - I honestly think she's either indifferent or mean to people, because she doesn't want to like them and doesn't want them to like her. She told her mother in episode one, that she knew the "new guy" would only be for three-four months. That makes me think that EJ and her mom have been in hundreds of homes during the last seventeen years. It's easier to leave someone if they hate you - that way no one feels badly and they can forget you in a couple of weeks.

EJ is an angry woman, but she also has a softer side. It's that whole 'cruel to be kind' thing. She'll be a bitch to you, but it's only so you don't like her; that way you don't care when she disappears or maybe even dies.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Re: beggar. Honestly, if it came to me and I had a fight with someone who rejected every overture I made and went out of her way to hurt me, I'd try to think of most hurtful thing to say too (I remember having some horrible fights with my parents as a teen and I remember being so mad I'd pick the most hurtful, cruel thing I could think of - and they were pretty bad indeed).

Re: attention. I don't think the amount of attention she sought or received was out of line for an only child of a widower who dotes on her, who is well-off and has an outgoing likeable personality. She is used to a lot of attention by default. It's to her credit she tried to be nice to EJ - many only children would not.

Perhaps the reason the attention seeking doesn't bother me in the least is because I (an only child as well :P) am, as Mr Mousie teases, "center of attention girl." I am a major extravert and the one thing I crave is attention - I am pretty low maintenance in most ways (self-supporting, don't care what my husband wears, whether he does stuff in the house, don't make him go shopping with me, entertain myself etc) but I require a certain doze of consentrated attention per day.

I think it's an extravert v. introvert difference. EJ is very much an introvert - happiest when alone or in a one-on-one interaction with someone very close to her. HS strikes me as an extravert. Extraverts both give and seek attention a lot. I am a lot closer to HS's personality type and I understand her better than I do EJ, in many ways - I am hyper, cheerful, attention-seeking, and (without due modesty) have been told I come across as very nice (part of that niceness comes from extravert's desire to be liked but I don't see that as a problem).

I don't think HS is a Mother Teresa, but she is a nice person - a little self-absorved and maybe she's nice not because she's saintly but in part because she wants to be liked back. There are worst things to be.

[thinking-lotus.livejournal.com]

I am loving CU also. LOVING. I even read the soompi thread, a sure indication of devotion.

I did try Personal Taste but could not make it through the 1st ep. Ugh. Although I am mildly curious as to how they get Lee Min Ho to WANT to move in with that horrid woman, and my interest was piqued by all her power tools. I love furniture making (not that I do it, but I like to watch it).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

PT is my big disappointment of the year so far. Such a cast and interesting idea, all wasted.

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

YAY!! you just TOTALLY spoiled me for all the best bits of PP but I guess that's ok, now I can go watch! (I keep not having time to post about how awesome it is but I am loving it). Also Park Shi Hoo=yummy and I love the bits of angst we're getting. And I must say, she looks quite adorable in his clothes - if I were a guy and a woman came out looking like that I'd be shooting her certain looks too.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

There is some delicious angst already and more coming (preview for ep 5 had him watch from the car as she and Serious Prosecutor were flirting).

She does looks adorable (and a bit drowning) in his clothes.

I keep thinking that there must be more than 'we were childhood friends, and now you are hot and awesome, so I am going to combine gratitude and attraction and be really nice to you' to his chasing Hyeri. It just seems so weird to involve Jenny and have these plans. I hope whatever it is involves angst.

[sodahands.livejournal.com]

BEST PICSPAM EVER.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

AREN'T THEY SO AWESOME TOGETHER?

Btw, have you checked out Oh My Lady? It's the other spring kdrama comedy I am in love with atm.

I want new eps of PP now! It was so awesome to switch from Taste to a drama that not only has a heroine who is not a retard but which is also well-written and paced the way it should.

I am going crazy trying to figure out what In Woo's deal is - he can totally be ruthless (the way he was with tabloid guy) and what was he doing faking being a reporter and investigating - they never explained it. I just don't think a childhood friendship+new crush is enough to explain his almost stalkerish attention to Hyeri - I mean why would anyone involve a fellow lawyer in wooing plans the way he does with Jenny? OK, let's start with who has elaborate scheming wooing plans to start with? Why not walk up to her and tell her 'remember me, I am your childhood friend, how have you been, want to get some coffee?'

It just strikes me as nefarious. But then he is clearly genuinely in love with her and not conflicted about it. But then they had a discussion about a person one absolutely must not love. I am going crazy. Maybe I am just paranoid and it's really 'you gave me cupcakes worth $2, let me give you shoes worth $2000'. In which case I should have handed out more cupcakes when I was a kid.

[darkeyedwolf.livejournal.com]

I have already raved about Ki Hoon and Eun Jo's hug-not-hug - it is so huge for both of them - and Eun Jo is comfortable enough with Ki Hoon that even though he's a man she allows him so close, almost hugging - that is huge.

AND THE SOCK! Oh man, I was giggling like a fiend. I love how such a deep, personal relationship full of emotional scars and crumbling boundaries still manages to be FRIGGING ADORABLE. I need icons!

Re: Hyo Sun, I'm pleased as punch your feelings have found a middle ground -- not even for story reasons, I just like when we agree. :p

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

alexandral made an icon of the sock scene :)

not even for story reasons, I just like when we agree. :p

Awwww.

I've seen both rampant EJ and HS bashing on line and I don't get it - I feel sympathy and pity for both girls.

[(Anonymous)]

Dangermousie you are a girl ? Ew stupid question when I read how much you drool on sexy actors ? Are you korean ? Sorry offtopic

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL, yes, I am female. Nope, not Korean, if I were I wouldn't be so desperate for subs :)

[(Anonymous)]

About HS future, through what I saw in the preview of episode 5 I think her character will be more complex. I even heard she will be the narrator in the drama in the future episodes.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That would be great. I love both women in their different ways - they are both wounded and neither one is in the right or in the wrong. Can't wait!

[eraeos.livejournal.com]

I've read recaps for Cinderella's Sister on dramabeans and now I feel like watching CS too. So, now, midst of work, I'll be watching PP AND CS.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hehehehehehehehe

[ren-squared.livejournal.com]

ughh i love your thoughts on all the currently airing kdramas. you're going to make me start cinderella unni and prosecutor princess while they're still airing lol already sucked into personal taste and oh my lady

and yes diminutives always make me go awwwww and have a warm feeling cause my grandmother was czech and she added 'ka' to our names.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heee, the more the merrier!

Love for Si Hoo & So Yeon

[(Anonymous)]

Just want to know the latest news from Si Hoo & So Yeon .... I hope they really have a special relationship in real life after their "Prosecutor Princess" drama, really "Sweet Couple".....

Re: Love for Si Hoo & So Yeon

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

:)
True