Miss Ripley - film noir reborn

[dangermousie]

I am about halfway into the first episode of Miss Ripley and to say I am blown away would be an understatement. The dark, seedy, desperate world and characters draw me in irresistibly. I cannot say whether this will be my favorite drama of the season but if it keeps up, it will certainly be the best in quality. What is it like? It's as if Bad Guy and Something Happened in Bali mated and had a baby and that baby was a wunderkind.



There is so much to talk about even in the first episode, but I want to concentrate on our protagonist, Jang Miri. It is really a role of a lifetime and Lee Da Hae bites into it with all the fierceness she possesses. Gone is the benevolent schemer of My Girl or the calm, dignified upperclass lady of Chuno. Miri is a hunted, haunted, hardened thing - I both feel great pity for her and am terrified of what she will do to survive in her "me against the world" mode. On the surface this can be viewed as another noirish drama with a dark protagonist, but while those occasionally exist in kdrama (though not too much) they never put a woman in this position. Kdrama heroes may be screwed up but kdrama heroines are almost always angels - damaged angels, childish angels, or womanly angels - but they are almost always the pure and sane ones. Yet here Miri is the heart of darkness of the story - the damaged scheming one, who brings about a downfall of other characters who love her too much. Maybe that is why it reminds me of Bali so.



In another reversal, it is the man he eventually will find love with who is the pure-hearted one, the naive one, the 'do-gooder.' I loved what I have seen of Yoochun so far - the role is miles different from his stern Lee Sun Joon in SKKS but somehow he manages portray shining goodness yet again. I know very little of Yutaka yet, but I am dying to know more.



Ah yes, if we are talking about the men who will love Miri, we cannot forget KSW's character. I find it interesting - the concept of masks the drama is going with. Because yes, this is most directly attributable to Miri, with her chameleon faces, but both our leading men are not really who they seem either - KSW's calmness and dispassionate demeanor is a mask but it's clear that Yutaka's kindness also masks some inner damage. I cannot wait to find out all their secrets!

Oh, and since there is no way in hell I am not watching Miss Ripley live, this means something gotta give. I am obsessed with City Hunter, CYHMH and Gisaeng, so I am very sorry but buh-bye Best Love. You were mildly amusing, but my emotional involvement was nil - AJ is not very interesting and Dokko Jin is actively annoying - in RL, any person like that should be on medication, and I am not making a snide comment but a statement of fact. It's like a drama starring Bugs Bunny - funny for five minutes, not sustainable for 20 hours, and I'd be damned if I believe Bugs Bunny is real. Plus, he has the maturity of a tissue (is it me or are Hong Sisters' protagonists actually aging backwards? Each one is less mature than the last. DJ makes Tae Kyung from YAB seem mature and he is almost 20 years older than TK). I cannot imagine these characters outside the confines of the drama - I cannot imagine their lives or inner workings or anything. I think it's time to accept that either I grew out of Hong Sisters' dramas or (more likely as I still love rewatching their old ones) their newer direction is just not for me.

Oh, and this was such a gorgeous scene. He's smitten with her at first sight. And seeing that the woman in question is Lee Da Hae, who can blame him?




Mmmmm. Of course, she's all sharp corners and he's such an adorable puppy who is puzzled by her bristling. (Side note - the daddy in Gisaeng, who objects his son's intended was a gisaeng should watch this drama - forget fancy-shmancy gisaeng who stayed a virgin. Miri's past involves being a hooker to pay off a mob debt! No wonder she's allergic to men.) I have to say, Yoochun and LDH have a gorgeous gorgeous chemistry together. When I first thought of that casting I found it a bit odd, but it 100% works. (But then I have yet to see Da Hae lack chemistry with any of her leading men and Yoochun had excellent chemistry with PMY in Sungkyunkwan Scandal).

Comments

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

Man hard cold woman and a sweet good guy? sounds like my kinda thing plus i've been watching nothing but rom coms lately so i figure i can do one dark drama but question when you say dark how dark are we talking? murder? rape? child molestation? I need to know some things really upset me so I either need to be prepared or know about it so i can stay away. Aside from that though this sounds like its just for me (I do wish the main guy was cuter though but oh well, he'll do)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think she was coerced into prostitution to pay off debts, and she got molested by a sicko executive in ep 1 (but she hit him etc) so not as dark as a jdrama can get (I mean, remember Byakuyakuyu? Eeeek). I think that's about the worst.

Re: male lead. I don't think Yoochun is good-looking in stills, but I swoon for him like mad in action (and unlike 95% of his fangirls, I know close to zip about DBSK/JYJ, so it's not recidual kpop fangirling).

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

I can handle that. and yes I DO remember byakuyako and it was the most fucked up thing i'd ever seen, well until I Saw zeni geba but even that was less disgusting.

Ahhh I know the kind, there are just some guys you have to see in motion to appreciate. I'll take your word then and I didnt even know he was in Dbsk. I know as much about korean pop idols as I do about ancient chinese manuscripts.

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

Hong sisters' male leads are aging backward. I noticed with Tae-kyung and it's even worse here. I was about ready to give up on them when they created one of the most dumb (literally) and dishrag heroines ever in YB, but it appears they've now switched to their heroes. *groan*

When I think that their earlier creations were Hong Gil Dong and that marvelous, rare, mature lead of My Girl...!

I don't like Lee Da Hae at all but I will say she is one of the most gorgeous women alive.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, hero of Gumiho was also not mature.

I don't get it - it's like it's all downhill after Hong Gil Dong. We get the well-adjusted, mature, wonderful hero of My Girl (one of the rare kdrama heroes I'd love to date in RL), we have the rebel-with-a-cause who bleeds awesomeness HGD (and he's a good proof you can have humor and even a bit of immaturity and still create an amazing, adult hero). We had Jae Hee's character in DGCH who grew up so wonderfully (but even at the start was about 10x more mature than their recent heroes, even if he was romantically dense). Abd OJH's character in FC wasn't my thing but he was obviously a functioning citizen.

And then, it's as if something broke. WTF!

[ambergold.livejournal.com]

Seriously :(

I don't get it.

But then, to be honest, I feel their plots have followed the same trajectory - DGCH wasn't super high stakes but it was very real and down-to-earth overall, FC same thing, My Girl was a serious drama with a straightforward emotional story like any good romance, and then they really upped the stakes with Hong Gil Dong...only to follow with YB, which is one of the silliest, most nonsensical kdramas I've ever seen (not that I didn't really enjoy it), then Gumiho which, ok, did have serious elements but again had that childman hero...and now we've got this. A childman in a ridiculous story, only unlike YB, none of the leads are 20-somethings who have the excuse of youth. It is so ODD to see 30 or 40-something adults behave in this way, and downright frustrating to see the luminary acting talents of Gong Hyo JIn and Cha Seung Won wasted.

I'm enjoying Best Love a lot the way I did YB, but that doesn't mean I'm not really frustrated at what this COULD be if the Hong sisters would just stop playing with the children and step into the big kids' game.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I wasn't thrilled at the maturity level in YAB but it was at least concievable that two barely-20 kids would be this way and would, hopefully, eventually grow up. Here, the leads are almost old enough to be YAB characters' parents and they are less mature. That is the opposite of appealing but also stretches the bounds of any credibility (AJ is less extreme of the two but the way she reacts to possibility of a kiss even is the way nobody her age should unless they just escaped from a period drama).

But immaturity is only part of the problem - e.g. Rain's character in Full House was immature (and sometimes drove me insane) but he always felt like he could be a real person. Here, neither of the leads seem like they could exist at all so I cannot get myself to care about them.

I remember crying my eyes out at the scene in My Girl where Gong Chan kneels by his grandfather's chair, begging the old man to reveal Yu Rin's whereabouts. It wasn't because objectively it was such an amazing tragic disaster - nobody died. It was because by that point I loved Gong Chan so and felt so much for him (and Yu Rin) that it was almost like watching a friend break down. Here - a building could collapse on the lead characters and I am not invested enough to care.

[mary (from livejournal.com)]

"Hong sisters' male leads are aging backward"

LOL... You are so right. Agree i would so not wish to date or wish to marry most of the male leads either except for the lead from My Girl or Dr. Pil Soo.

The Hong sisters need to step it up

[spazzy06.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit sick of the Hong sister dramas myself. They have been using the same plot devices for years now (noble idiots, forced separations, etc). I wish they'd take more chances(like they did with Hong Gil Dong- what an ending). I think their formula has become a little predictable. I don't think their "twists" can really be considered twists any more- you can see them coming a mile away.

Re: The Hong sisters need to step it up

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I think they burned out their creativity with HGD and now it's same old same old.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

Best Love doesn't do it for me either and like you it's because of the characters. Ae Jung in particular, it's like her inner clock stopped working the minute her band/career fell apart and she's never gotten past it. That in itself could work in a romance if she was paired with someone who was on a level where he could break her out of it, but Jin is SO not that person. Moreover, I find the trials of "showbiz romance" so unbearably boring. I get that it could DESTROY THEIR CAREERS!!!!111 but to me it never seems like the stakes are high enough. Maybe if it would destroy FAMILIES or EMPIRES, yeah. I mean, I just don't care that much about the secret love lives of celebs :P

So... basically, I can't get past the third episode :/

[mary (from livejournal.com)]

Actually if you talked about SCANDALS in Korea Entertainment Circuit the stakes are pretty high. Its very conservative society and the fans are not very forgiving. We are not taking about Hollywood or Bollywood(in my side of the world, a place where a rape offender can still get a movie offer) where we are use to seeing our stars F*#k up their life. If you are following K Pop, you will be shock at the silly things that can rock a star career.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

That's true enough in reality but in a romcom it seems unlikely that someone will be ostracized by society and commit suicide in despair. I'm just not interested in whether or not a fictional celebrity career is destroyed or not. I might be more interested despite my dislike of showbiz settings if I cared about the characters but as it is I'm in the same boat as mousie - not emotionally invested in these characters at all.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes. Yeah, cry me a river on your giant pile of money you'll keep even if you never work again.

Plus, the leads' combined mental age is 5.

[uhmbrr.livejournal.com]

UHMAZING review. I agree about LDH's performance.

Some people may have biases against Lee Da Hae or may have presumptions about her or about her usual performances... but gone is that Lee Da Hae. It is not Lee Da Hae, it is Jang Miri. And she is just such a fascinating character... she will drag you to hell and back... kind of performance.


Lee Da Hae not only immerses herself in this role but completely DROWNS herself both in the sweetness and toxicity of a character like Jang Miri. She makes us believe that she can be a sexpot one minute and then turn into someone relating to a kid in a train, in the next.

She is effective when she is erratic but just as powerful when she is quiet and nuanced. There is a reason she is getting good reviews in this.


Seriously. Forget the Lee Da Hae you know... this is Jang Miri.


and to add on... Yutaka and Miri need to have a hot love scene.

[mary (from livejournal.com)]

Oh yeah!!!! i want a love scene and a hot kiss.

MISS Ripey......... I am in Love : )

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And yes, she's amazing. If it keeps up, I hope she wins a slew of awards.

[lightsjustright.livejournal.com]

It's as if Bad Guy and Something Happened in Bali mated and had a baby and that baby was a wunderkind.

Haha, this is a great selling point. But the endings!! :(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It can't possibly end as miserably as Bali. Nothing can!

[mookiehyun.livejournal.com]

It's better than I expected, and I have expectations of this to be solidly GOOD! YAY!!

I'm just relieved I can stop jabbing at LDH all over the place with her lazier habits of hamming it up when she's handed lazily written material. This is what I expected of her fr her nailing her role in Green Rose..like a wunderkind asked to do simple addition when she can tackle calculus all these years. This script is giving her meaty challenging stuff to play out. I still winced at her damsel grasps, but she nails her heavier scenes with gravitas.

I loved the gritty sexual harrassment scenes as well. It makes me the right amount of unease without oversensationalizing them like the music. I watched most of it mute because the music is what I thought hammering of nails on my coffin be like.

I'm also getting the WHIB vibe, I loved the toned down, unadorned cinematography, it makes it closer to RL and easier for me to relate even with the truckloads of histrionics. Anything more fanciful, it'll be too remote for me to feel for them.

I do wish Ripley is a bright offspring of WHIB and QSS instead of Bad Guy though.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, Bad Guy was good for about 2/3 until the writer started doing hard drugs, was kidnapped by aliens, etc etc. Maybe it's the portions in Japan that remind me :)

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

You recommended this to me and it looks good so far! I like the dark noir tone. Oh and I think you would like the documentary: The Great Happiness Space Tales of An Osaka Love Thief. It's a really fascinating look at male hostesses in Japan.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec, it sounds fascinating!

[iheartkleenex.livejournal.com]

It really hooked me from the first episode as well.

I really like her with KSW's character most because I am very shallow and I don't think the other guy is really handsome. XD

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like Yutaka more but KSW is certainly a distinguished older gentleman.

[iheartkleenex.livejournal.com]

Don't want to sound like a creepy stalker or anything but Yutaka seems like the type you would like more. What can I say, I am a sucker for distinguished gentlemen. :D

I can already feel that pairing breaking my heart. Yutaka is the male lead and unless the writer pulls a 'How to Meet a Perfect Neighbor' ending she will probably fall for Yutaka.

I don't know about you but the way they were talking about her in the beginning it seems as if it the in memoriam.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Neighbor would ironic since KSW was supposed to be main but lost the girl in that one.

Tbh, I agree with you about the 'in memoriam' thing - whoever she will love, I am pretty sure she's ending up with neither.

[village.livejournal.com]

OH! I thought Yoochun was the secondary male lead. He's her love interest?! Now, I really must watch this.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup, he's the one she ultimately falls for. (Yay, she isn't blind!)