Bad Guy of My Heart - an unlikely ode

[dangermousie]

I am in the middle of working on my ginormous "2010 drama year in review" post (it will take me weeks and only in part because a few dramas have yet to premier) and, to my shock, I realized that Bad Guy has ended up a winner in a number of 'favorites' categories for me.

So, have a post.

I don't think I have such a complicated relationship with any other drama this year (or any other year, for that matter). Usually it's a pretty straightforward love/like/meh/dislike categorization for me. Even with dramas which evoke different feelings in the beginning and the end (Boys Over Flowers, Powerful Opponents) my ultimate overall feeling for them is fairly uniform. But not so with Bad Guy which refuses to submit to categorization.

I realized that I would have no problem recommending BG to others even though the last third drove me insane (I am still not sure whether it went into tailspin because of Kim Nam Gil's unexpected enlistment, the episode number cut, or the writers doing crack in the writers' room - my bet is on all three - given more time to flesh it out, even what the drama started doing could have been more palatable, if KNG could stay, they wouldn't have to rush, and the writers were certainly on something). Because what BG is, to me, is a grand, fascinating, magnetic failure - not the masterpiece that could have been, but even with all its flaws still miles above the usual inoffensive mediocre stuff kdrama world churns out by the dozen every year.

There is the story - it's as if someone threw Mawang, Bali, Resurrection, Que Sera Sera and La Dolce Vita in a blender and made it work for 2/3 of its run. When this drama was good, it was amazing, better than anything else on this year with its almost claustrophobic intensity. When it was bad...oh well.

Then there is the acting. Bad Guy had literally the strongest acting ensemble I have seen in years. Kim Nam Gil made a cypher not just interesting but someone you actually cared for. Kim Jae Wook stole the drama (and my heart) - I have seen him before but I never knew he could be like this. His tortured, spoiled, fragile, hurtful, abused Hwang Tae Sung is, hands down, my favorite kdrama character this year (I saw so many shades of Jo In Sung's character in Bali in him). I never knew Han Ga In could act before this drama but her good-at-heart golddigger really won me over. Oh Yeon Soo was her amazing self as a tightly-wound, neurotic, love-starved woman. Etc etc etc - everyone in the cast was uniformly excellent. Even when the script went, they maintained how good they were.

It was also, hands down, the most beautifully shot kdrama I have ever seen. And the direction, soundtrack, pacing, design - they were all out of this world.

So, yes, ultimately a failure. But still, even its lack, better than 90% of dramas out there.

Have an unspoilery MV:

Comments

[bluviolet.livejournal.com]

I... still haven't finished this. First I got distracted with other things, and then I heard how horrible the ending was. I'm half tempted to pick it up again just to say that I finished it.

I can't say that I was very interested in KNG's character and I blame that on the writing. While I think the actor did a good job at emoting, there wasn't enough substance behind his character to make me root for him (Perhaps it'd be better to say "care about"? Since I don't think anyone really wanted him to succeed in destroying the Hong family)

I liked Han Ga In well enough. Her gold digging tendencies amused me. I liked how she had faults, and not all of them were of the stereotypical kdrama heroine sort. And her sister was awesome.

Kim Jae Wook was amazing. So so so amazing. I have no words to describe how awesome he was. Bad Guy is worth watching just for him. I am eagerly awaiting the point in time when he finally gets a lead role in a project--and pleeeeaaaase, kdrama gods--make it something other than a romcon. This guy does so well with the angsty dramatic stuff. I think I stopped breathing when his character went through all those emotional scenes in Bad Guy. I couldn't look away from him. To be honest, Bad Guy should have been about him and his emotional scars. His character was way more interesting than the whole revenge arc.

And the scenes with Kim Nam Gil and that Tae Ra woman were hot. *fans self*

The end.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like mysterious/cypher characters but they have to unravel by the end - see Mawang - JJH started as a cypher every time as much as KNG, but by the end you knew him so well. One of my huge problems with last 1/3 was that they never carried through unravelling KNG - he remained just as ungettable by the end.

KJW blew me away. I wanted to drama to be about him - by far the best part of the drama.