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dangermousieWhere has this drama been all my life? I basically fell for it within the first two minutes.
Whoever worked on StH knew exactly what I want in me melodrama - true love of two pure-hearted protagonists who are each other's soulmates, evil stepsiblings, hints of sibcest, and blingy jewelry.
You got to admire a drama which tells you in its opening scene that the heroine dies. (And hero goes slightly bonkers - who brings a Baby Grand to the ocean?)
And the story proper. That is our future OTP - they are apparently best friends since childhood but now they are teens the feelings are turning into something more. I strongly suspect that the happy opening montage is 90% of all the happiness they are going to get in the entire 20-ep drama.
Trust me when I say that a dead parent is the least of their problems. But it's good they get to practice their crying because I foresee them doing a lot of it.
Jung Suh's future stepmother. Doesn't the whole ensemble scream 'hooker?' I think any man who marries a woman who looks like that deserves what he gets.
OK, that was seriously creepy and child-molestery. I have no idea where they were going with that.
Stepmonster has two grimy children (why are they grimy? I presume Seoul has running water, it's not 1500 AD). Let's call them Psycho Bitch and Sister Luster (tm![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lesbiassparrow). Stepmonster dumped them in a slum for 5 years while she was off entrapping suckers to marry her.
Sister Luster is messed up and angry (i.e. a typical teenage boy) but he has feelings. Psycho Bitch, alas, is Psycho Bitch (I see a lot of StH influence in Cinderella Unni btw, even some scenes, though there they twisted it to make the bad sister the heroine).
Ahhh, Psycho Bitch. She hates the thought of Jung Suh having anything good and, sadly, that includes her sweet-natured, filthy-rich best friend/boyfriend.
Did I mention that I really really ship those two teens? I basically was a goner for them two minutes into the first ep. I loooove first love stories, maybe because I married my first love.
Doesn't this scream Cinderella Unni?
Stepmonster shows her true colors. To nobody's surprise but poor Joon Suh.
Something tells me this scene and the promise are going to come back in a big way. Awwww, the cutest first kiss ever.
Fast-forward to present and the piano of doom.
First Love grew up to look like Kwon Sang Woo. Jackpot.
Sadly, Sister Luster wasn't as lucky and grew up into this unattractive dude (and as his young self is played by the gorgeous Lee Wan, one has to wonder what on earth went wrong).
Times StH madedangermousie cry so far: 1. This was the scene. Hero is leaving to study abroad and Psycho Bitch locked Joon Sun in her room so she can't go say good-bye so she is just banging on walls. But she manages to get out. I was genuinely freaking out she wouldn't make it on time.
When your stepbrother is fixating on this picture after looking at you, time to worry, my girl!
Psycho Bitch = devout Communist? All about redistribution.
During this sequence, Sister Luster earns his nickname and I rather hopelessly fall for them as an alterna-OTP. Nobody is going to convince me that Tree of Heaven wasn't made by Stairway to Heaven fangirls as some sort of AU - seeing that it cast the same actors (Park Shin Hye and Lee Wan), giving them their StH personalities and the same circumstances, and even some of the same scenes. Only this time they were the OTP. Did I mention Stepmonster pets Psycho Bitch but beats and locks up in the attic (after turning off the heat) poor Sister Luster on his birthday because he objected to her being evil.
It's just as well Jung Suh has Sister Luster in her corner because her father pays no attention to his new evil family, Stepmonster and Psycho Bitch are doing their best to make her life miserable (among other things, hiding letters from Hero and also telling him JD lost interest).
If this scene does not sum up the glory of this kdrama, nothing will.
Awww.
Something tells me this isn't going to go well.
So, to sum up - Heroine is living with no-attention-paying father, a monstrous Stepmother, a Psycho Bitch Stepsister, and a Stepbrother who fancies to get into her pants. Oh, and her boyfriend is far away and she can't keep in touch with him.
Never fear, apparently she will look back on these as the good days.
Whoever worked on StH knew exactly what I want in me melodrama - true love of two pure-hearted protagonists who are each other's soulmates, evil stepsiblings, hints of sibcest, and blingy jewelry.
You got to admire a drama which tells you in its opening scene that the heroine dies. (And hero goes slightly bonkers - who brings a Baby Grand to the ocean?)
And the story proper. That is our future OTP - they are apparently best friends since childhood but now they are teens the feelings are turning into something more. I strongly suspect that the happy opening montage is 90% of all the happiness they are going to get in the entire 20-ep drama.
Trust me when I say that a dead parent is the least of their problems. But it's good they get to practice their crying because I foresee them doing a lot of it.
Jung Suh's future stepmother. Doesn't the whole ensemble scream 'hooker?' I think any man who marries a woman who looks like that deserves what he gets.
OK, that was seriously creepy and child-molestery. I have no idea where they were going with that.
Stepmonster has two grimy children (why are they grimy? I presume Seoul has running water, it's not 1500 AD). Let's call them Psycho Bitch and Sister Luster (tm
lesbiassparrow). Stepmonster dumped them in a slum for 5 years while she was off entrapping suckers to marry her.Sister Luster is messed up and angry (i.e. a typical teenage boy) but he has feelings. Psycho Bitch, alas, is Psycho Bitch (I see a lot of StH influence in Cinderella Unni btw, even some scenes, though there they twisted it to make the bad sister the heroine).
Ahhh, Psycho Bitch. She hates the thought of Jung Suh having anything good and, sadly, that includes her sweet-natured, filthy-rich best friend/boyfriend.
Did I mention that I really really ship those two teens? I basically was a goner for them two minutes into the first ep. I loooove first love stories, maybe because I married my first love.
Doesn't this scream Cinderella Unni?
Stepmonster shows her true colors. To nobody's surprise but poor Joon Suh.
Something tells me this scene and the promise are going to come back in a big way. Awwww, the cutest first kiss ever.
Fast-forward to present and the piano of doom.
First Love grew up to look like Kwon Sang Woo. Jackpot.
Sadly, Sister Luster wasn't as lucky and grew up into this unattractive dude (and as his young self is played by the gorgeous Lee Wan, one has to wonder what on earth went wrong).
Times StH made
dangermousie cry so far: 1. This was the scene. Hero is leaving to study abroad and Psycho Bitch locked Joon Sun in her room so she can't go say good-bye so she is just banging on walls. But she manages to get out. I was genuinely freaking out she wouldn't make it on time.When your stepbrother is fixating on this picture after looking at you, time to worry, my girl!
Psycho Bitch = devout Communist? All about redistribution.
During this sequence, Sister Luster earns his nickname and I rather hopelessly fall for them as an alterna-OTP. Nobody is going to convince me that Tree of Heaven wasn't made by Stairway to Heaven fangirls as some sort of AU - seeing that it cast the same actors (Park Shin Hye and Lee Wan), giving them their StH personalities and the same circumstances, and even some of the same scenes. Only this time they were the OTP. Did I mention Stepmonster pets Psycho Bitch but beats and locks up in the attic (after turning off the heat) poor Sister Luster on his birthday because he objected to her being evil.
It's just as well Jung Suh has Sister Luster in her corner because her father pays no attention to his new evil family, Stepmonster and Psycho Bitch are doing their best to make her life miserable (among other things, hiding letters from Hero and also telling him JD lost interest).
If this scene does not sum up the glory of this kdrama, nothing will.
Awww.
Something tells me this isn't going to go well.
So, to sum up - Heroine is living with no-attention-paying father, a monstrous Stepmother, a Psycho Bitch Stepsister, and a Stepbrother who fancies to get into her pants. Oh, and her boyfriend is far away and she can't keep in touch with him.
Never fear, apparently she will look back on these as the good days.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:39 pm (UTC)Evil Stepsister and Horrific Stepmother just get wonderfully more evil.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Also:
it's Lee Wan! and Park Shin Hye! and I knew Lee Wan was the lead of Tree of Heaven but I had no idea PSH was the female lead! and I'm pretty sure I've heard good things about it *bumps it up on list* how angsty it is though?
StH is the drama that I almost started watching because it was so famous...then read the wikipedia entry which details the entire story and decided that it was ridiculous and had the most(pointless) angst of any drama I'd ever seen...so didn't.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-07 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-07 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:50 pm (UTC)ToH - very very angsty. I sobbed. Love it to bits though.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:52 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, *I'm* not made of sterner stuff and will have to follow along by reading your recaps instead of actually watching the show. What can I say? I get wimpier and wimpier every year. I used to be able to watch insanely emo melodramas, now I can hardly bear it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 05:05 pm (UTC)Maybe I'll just follow your recaps and see if I can stand it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 05:24 pm (UTC)I think i'll be watching this again once I get home. I forgot that incident with Sister Luster in the attic. Family of crazies.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 07:56 pm (UTC)Doesn't this scream Cinderella Unni?
Hmm, they had bike scenes from the foundation of Kdrama, so it screams them all to me. However, PANTS!!!!! This (in conjunction with weird stepmother scene) is somewhat weird. It is the firts time I see something so bordering on weird in kdrama.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 10:14 pm (UTC)Mostly because the chances of me ever watching it are slim to none.
And they are childhood best friends OTP??? That's. . .that's like my favorite form of OTP!! There are very very few dramas that do best friends OTP.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 11:48 pm (UTC)And I definitely plan to continue to post about it - number of caps I have for this grows exponentially.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 06:56 am (UTC)I LOLed so hard!
Park Shin Hye = awesome!
Damn. I cried buckets of tears in this drama!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 06:03 pm (UTC)So yes, totally loving your recap. It's like watching it again for me, except without the need to throw stuff at the TV screen whenever Sister Luster and Psycho Bitch are on (best nicknames EVAR, btw LOLOL).
And I agree--Tree of Heaven is totally a wish fulfillment of this drama's fangirls. This is making me want to rewatch ToH. Mmmmm...angstfest!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 06:06 pm (UTC)ToH is totally fanfic wish-fulfillment. I don't think they managed as much angst though because they were limited by being half the length of StH. To their credit, they tried.
I spend half the time I am watching this contemplating painful ways for Psycho Bitch and Sister Luster to diiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeee. I write glorious AUs in my head where hero and heroine take them out and then run away somewhere exotic and apparently with better medicine than exists in Korea :)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-05 06:14 pm (UTC)In my dream scenario Psycho Bitch and Sister Luster are on a desert island and are forced to fight a battle to the death and end up wiping each other out of the drama all together. Having hero and heroine take them out would be more satisfying, though. I approve. ahah.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 02:00 am (UTC)I really want heroine to murder her whole evil family.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 01:22 pm (UTC)i don't know if i have the heart to watch everything (but i'm masochist and right now i'm downloading episode 1 *god save me*)
thanks for the summary!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 01:28 pm (UTC)This is really really a great drama.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-06 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 06:58 am (UTC)Though, I don't think I could handle watching "Stairway to Heaven" by the looks of it.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 05:39 pm (UTC)