Myung Wol ep 2 liveblogging - Shiri as screwball

[dangermousie]

I didn't want to do liveblogging but as the ep went on, I kept getting the urge worse and worse and finally gave in.



Two episodes in, I am in love with Myung Wol the Spy. In fact, except for City Hunter which stands alone, MW is my favorite of all the currently airing dramas. When vert_gazon said that it reminds her of Capital Scandal, it's as if something clicked into place - I was trying to place my finger on the faint sense of familiarity I felt and yes, that's it! The stories themselves have nothing in common but the vibe is the same - the sharp screwball feel, finding the absurd and the funny in what would be a very dark situation (Japan-occupied Korea and the Underground in CS, the tyranny of North Korea and its penchant for murder and kidnapping in MW) and somehow making it work - being internally consistent despite driving a hisorical purist nuts. And one more thing unites them - characters that I somehow get very attached to - the causehead female lead and the care-less, arrogant, yet ultimately decent person male lead, kooky secondary characters. And while it's all zany hilarity for now, there is a delicious possibility for conflict and angst later on. Oh, and the chemistry. The chemistry! Every time Myung Wol and Kang Woo get within ten feet of each other, I start wondering why they are not ripping clothes off each other yet.



It's also a gorgeously shot drama. And you have no idea of the kind of relief it is to find a romcomish drama (though like CS it's a mishmash of genres) whose hero doesn't make me want to stab him in the face repeatedly. Sure, Kang Woo is arrogant about his popularity/appeal, but he's ultimately a nice person - despite his 'are you a chaebol's daughter?' comment to MW, he doesn't want to marry someone for money (Secondary Girl is uber-rich and wants to marry him and tells her to bug off), he rescues MW when she's in his house and when she fakes having a fit, he doesn't call the cops but goes looking for meds (when for all he knows she's a psycho stalker) etc. Basically, unlike Best Love's Dokko Jin, who was a similar character, he's not a cartoon. Oh, and I adore Myung Wol, and her fish-out-water reactions and her single-mindness, and her temper and her deadly skills and her certain charm.



This is here because I find Communist Officer Robot Guy pretty damn hot, even if he'd probably be reciting the principles of Juche in bed.




Not as hot as I find Eric though. Man, I think my hormones spike every time that man is on-screen. Take me, Kang Woo! You won't even have to relocate to North Korea! I had way too many caps of Eric being sexy (which was basically every time he was on screen). Way too many and had to cull which necessitated careful analysis.



I really wonder what is the connection btw Kang Woo and the Chairman, In A's grandpa. They both want the same book (and what is the book thing about?) and Chairman has been his sponsor for the last 5 yrs (which rules out charity/relatives because wouldn't he have then taken care of KW when he was a kid and not a fully-grown man. Hmmm. I wonder what sort of history is there).



How gorgeous is Myung Wol? Seriously. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.



I kinda found it hilarious that after Kang Woo was all "I don't care if she lives or dies" he ended up saving her life when he found her stalkerishly hanging off his roof. Bwahahahaha. Yeah, keep on saying things.







I gotta say, he's really nice, not to call the cops on this weird stalkery high schooler. Though the fact that anyone believes Myung Wol is high-school age is the most improbable thing in this drama about NK spies and Hallyu superstars.



The scene where he was explaining to her why any romance between them is impossible, thinking she was a besotted fangirl (taking a time-out to ask her hopefully if maybe she's from a chaebol family ROFL), and she was thinking best of how to snap his neck per her mission, was LOLtastic. And then she fakes a fit so he won't call the police after all, when he starts to think she's a total stalker for real (little does he know she really is - only it's not your sexiness she wants, but your head) and is about to call the cops, and that distracts him (awww, he looks for meds). Kang Woo is not all that bright, poor sexy thing, is he?




And then she makes her escape (she is not cut out for assassination, clearly) and our big-headed Hallyu star is totally thinking about her! My favorite bit when he calls the missing persons division and they ask how long she has been missing and he says the time in hours, minutes and seconds. Bwahahahahahhahahahahaa. And then he does find her later and she gets out a knife but he knocks it away without noticing what it is (ROFL) and is all "I've been looking for you!" and tells her that "In the future, you have to report everything to me". Someone is getting awfully posessive over a nutty highschooler, isn't he?




I literally started laughing so hard that I woke Mr. Mousie, when Sexy Communist told Myung Wol that her Motherland orders her to marry Kang Woo in three months and have him defect to North Korea, saying this with such a serious face, like some sort of deadly mission, and MW was all "No, I'd rather kill him." Bwahahahahaha. Oh, Sexy Communist totally has a thing for Myung Wol, I can tell. Awww, he probably wanted to make babies with her for the glory of the Dear Leader. But he tells her "if you fail, you go to jail." I really bet he wanted to add "yes. Jail. In my pants."




They got two other infiltrators to pose as her parents and give her fake identity. Please tell me they aren't still planning on keeping her as a high-schooler. Kang Woo is what - 30? I think getting him to marry a (fake) high-schooler would be kinda hard (talk about societal scandal! It would also wreck his career but seeing that he will be supposed to go to NK, that would be the least of his problems.)



And then the female spy is trying to teach Myung Wol feminine graces which are utterly lacking in the military-minded MW who has never had a relationship with a man because she was too busy training. LOL. I think they will be better just coshing the unfortunate Kang Woo and dragging him over the border feet-first.





Secondary Girl has a pretty insane obsession (my favorite kind of secondary psycho), basically offering to buy him for herself (lady, you should watch Que Sera Sera, those things never end well). And also telling him he'll never find someone as obsessed about him as she is, which seems more a grounds for a restraining order and not marriage, but what do I know? I am sensing Kang Woo's hostility isn't just due to her persistence in the face of his utter lack of interest, but because of the family thing - his thing with Chairman is utterly weird, whatever it is. Clearly, whatever his comment to MW, he's not really for sale on the marriage market, so In A is out of luck. Though seeing his other choice is a North Korean agent sent to seduce and marry him and then get him to defect to North Korea, Secondary Stalker is beginning to look pretty good!







The final scene! They made Myung Wol to make a romantic confession and Kang Woo decides to use her to get rid of In A. Smooooooch!










Preview shows MW, in yet another guise, becoming KW's bodyguard. I am beginning to worry about the man's vision and brain capacity if he can't tell this is the same person. :P

Someone made a cool MV for the first two eps. Have it!

Comments

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

JAIL IN MY PANTS! hahaha. you're great <3

(hey mousie I wonder, do you have MSN? I could always use more people to chat kdramas with :D)

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

oh but definitely my favorite part was when she is in his room and he is telling her all the reasons why he could never be with a random highschool girl (she doesnt remotely look like a HS girl so whatever) and she's thinking about how she wants to kill him. so great. and omg this drama IS like capital scandal! If this drama is even a fraction as good as CS was, then we are in for a treat.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, this was totally hilarious. If only he knew, he'd run out of the room screaming. :P

I hope it's even a little as awesome as CS! :) It totally has frivolous guy, overdedicated girl thing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You know he's thinking that! :)

I don't have msn but i am going to get one, chatting is fun.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

Sexy Communist is my favorite screen-candy in this show, so far (Eric's maybe-mustache keeps distracting me, but Sexy Communist is managing to rock the 5 o'clock shadow very well). Also, I love his uptightness. Such a great contrast to Kang-Woo's tendency to fly by the seat of his pants, and it's very fun to see Myung-Wol adjusting to behave differently with each of them.

Great antidote for the current City Hunter angst! I think I may end up saving this drama's weekly episodes to watch after City Hunter, at least for the next two weeks: zany hilarity might help bind up a broken heart.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

If you like Lee Jin Wook (Sexy Communist), may I take this opportunity to pimp Someday, a criminally-underrated drama in which he is the lead. It's in my top 10 kdramas of all time:

http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/2026080.html

(This is a nonspoilery pusher post I did for it).

I adore Eric's pirate look in this one but I always did love scruffy :P

Yes, I like that MW improvises and thinks on her feet.

The MW v. CH watching thing is a great idea and I may steal it!

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

That drama looks AMAZING. Straight up my alley--perhaps my favorite trope in kdramas (or media of any sort) is two very broken people coming together and learning to heal. And not-evil female second leads are ALWAYS a bonus. (I like to see the ladies be awesome, or at least be evil because they've got a better reason than being a Spurned Girlfriend). Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's available on Dramafever or Viki, though I see you mentioned in your post some ways to access it. Maybe this will be the encouragement I need to try Netflix...

Eric does look vaguely piratical, which totally fits in with his slightly off-the-wall air. Maybe he'll convert me to scruff after all. :)

Fortunately MW is getting subbed slower than CH, so it probably won't be that long a wait between availability and watchability...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Do you only stream? Because you can dl here (http://myasiancinema.com/k-drama-someday-2006) (you need to register to see the links). It's a wonderful wonderful drama I cannot recommend enough and everyone I know who's seen it loved it.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

I had not realized that downloading was an option! (So far I've been only streaming: my initial exposure was all through Hulu and Dramafever.) I take it you need to download both the video file and the sub file; any special software needed to get them to play nicely?

Thank you so much for the rec and the link!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I dl all of mine except for initial watching of CH because that's fastest.

Things you need:

1. Combined Community Codec Pack http://www.cccp-project.net/ will have both the player that you can use with these files and codecs that allow you to play them without any glitch. Just go there and install, following instructions.

2. Then download files at link - both vid file and sub file. In order for subs to play automatically on MPCPlayer that came with your CCCP, you need to make sure that sub and vid file have the identical name except, obviously, for extension, and are located in the same folder.

The end.

If you want a more detailed version, I did a tutorial here (you can ignore the part on split files, torrents and clubbox as none of these will be relevant for your purposes).

http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/792106.html

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

That would explain the screencaps. :)

Fantastic. Thank you so much! This drama sounds like an excellent way to celebrate being done with the bar exam in two weeks. :)

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

And it works perfectly. Thank you!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay, so glad!

Good luck with the exam!

[princesagr.livejournal.com]

I liked a lot the 2 first episodes. Although in my head doesn't remind me Capital Scandal (my all time favorite K-drama (addiction)), its very nice to watch.

Can't wait for more episodes, and I wan't a zoom in KW's past.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

CS was amazing - no idea if MW would ever get 1/10 as good but even making me think of it makes me predisposed to like it :)

Yeah, I am curious about KW. We pretty much know everything about MW's background and little about KW's (well, at least in this drama no chance they are fake siblings :P)

[princesagr.livejournal.com]

I am happy to see that I m not the only one that loved this underrated drama, Capital Scandal.
Anyway, I hope as well to be 1/10 as good as CS was.
Exactly, we know nothing for KW, and I am very interested to learn . Its about time.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup - the whole thing with secret book is majorly odd.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

asdkfjs Your recap = pure awesome.

So yes Myung Wol is an amazing lead right now. Love the acting which is the right balance of unworldliness with toughness. And in this drama it totally makes sense why she is so unaware of the world. In some dramas, you almost want to shake the heroine for being so naive to the point of being dumb.

I see the very hot chemistry between the leads but I can't exactly put into words as to why the character likes Myung Wol but just that he does. If you have any opinions on that I would love to hear it.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

Also watching Material Queen which is insanely gorgeously shot with good acting. I think you'll like it a lot.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I only watched the first ep of MQ and adored it but I am literally being buried by currently airing dramas.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

You are watching a ton! I actually haven't watched a jdrama since Love Shuffle and I miss the really good jdramas. Unfortunately, none in the past 2 years have captured my attention. Might start Buzzer Beat though for a fun summer drama.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no jdramas are on my list, sadly. But between kdramas and twdramas, I am kinda drowning :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes. I love that it makes sense that she doesn't know society and norms. But she is not cutesy over it or anything.

I think sometimes attraction is very hormonal and physical and raw and that is a lot of it - it's very sexual. Also, she is not like anyone he's met before because he had a bazillion fangirls/ladies who think he's hot/similar and she doesn't really act like one. And she did save his life.

[vert-gazon.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I think also the fact that she keeps running away from him instead of trying to extort money from him or something else makes him more interested. Probably most people in his life want something from him and this person who doesn't seem to ask for anything confuses him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes - it's true, she didn't want money or marry him or be around him even. That's got to be confusing.

Though I wonder how they are going to work in yet another incarnation of her as the bodyguard - he might not have paid attention to crazy autograph seeker in Singapore enough to remember what she looks like but he obviously looked at her 'high school' self plenty.

[cleobulle.livejournal.com]

Ah, I love Myung Wol. I think it will be a great drama. The only nitpick I have with it is that they made MY a bit too incompetent for my tastes. She wouldn't have gone as far as she has in the military if she could be so easily distracted and put off gard by a pretty face. But the results are pretty darn funny so it's not a big problem.

Did you read about the theory floating about on soompi that KW might actually be a spy himself? I didn't think so when watching the first two episodes but I'll keep an eye out for little things that don't add up. He has a shady past that's for sure.

And Sexy Communist totally has a huge thing for MY. She's probably his only weakness. And I'm pretty sure he didn't want her to join the Secret OPS division because it would put her in too much danger. I'm afraid I'm already shipping those two. I like the KW/MW pairing and ship them as well but there's something about cold, robot like characters in love that get to me every time.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I dunno, it makes sense to me about MW - I don't think it's about Kang Woo's pretty face (her not being able to kill) but about the fact that she's not cut out to be a cut-throat operative murdering people, hot or not. After all, she's not in secret service - her job was in the division that cracks down on smuggled entertainment - that's peanuts. While I am sure that gets violent sometimes, it's a whole other level from a sharpshooter assassin like KSH's character in IRIS. I doubt she got to kill in the military either - NK is not in active war after all. So she's pretty much out of her depth with this assignment, either to assassinate someone OR to seduce them. I am sure if NK top brass REALLY wanted to assassinate KW or to seduce him, they'd send someone else, but it's her random excuse to save herself and then that general trying to cover up for his unpatriotic daughter and that excursion that landed her like this. She might have the physical stamina to do all this stuff but mentally, I agree with Sexy Comrade, she's not cut out for it.

I can't imagine KW is a spy but there is something weird going on there.

Re: Communist. He's super-hot but after growing up in a Communist country, I find hard-core idealogue communists sort of a turn-off. But I ship him with Kang Woo's stalker costar.

[cleobulle.livejournal.com]

I wasn't talking about the killing stuff but mostly what happens in the first episode when she's after KW's autograph: chasing him ineffectively, ending up with her shoe laces tied together etc...It doesn't mesh with the kick ass opening scene (when she fails the test to become a secret agent).

The not cut out to kill I understand and agree with. She looks like a gentle and whimsical soul underneath the hard soldier shell she tries to put on.

Re:Sexy Communist. Gosh yes, I understand you. It's only because the NK part are so cartoonish they don't seem real that I can root for his character. Growing up in a communist country like you did, it must be harder to make abstraction of it all.

So you totally secret ship him with KW's psycho co-star? lol! I admit I can't stand her so far. I hope she'll get some character development and doesn't remain a spoiled bitch.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, the thing in the beginning with the autograph? Yeah. If I was going to fanwank it, I'd say that it's because her goal is an autograph, something that is pretty alien to her, as opposed to beating someone up (2) she is disoriented by the new and alien world so is confused. But tbh, I am sure they put that in just because it was funny.

Yeah, I had to firmly put this into fantasy-land territory AU to be able to deal with the way they portray NK, especially in light of what I consistently read about the place. Funnily, growing up, my best friend was a girl who lived in NK for a while because her father was working there, sent by USSR government to help them. Not sure what he did, and seeing I grew up in a closed city (i.e. city closed to foreigners because we made rocket parts) not sure I want to know. NK has always been fascinating for me because even growing up in the USSR, we thought they were nuts. That's saying a lot. I really rec Andrei Lankov's "Beyond the DMZ" - it's on every-day life in NK and is beyond fascinating (it also helps me that Lankov is also a former Soviet person, who actually studied back in Pyongyang, and so his attitude is not just "gosh darn communism is weird" but getting past that into peculiarities of NK itself and not it being communist, as it really isn't). Anyway, massive digression.

Yup, I just think it would be hilarious to hook up rich/spoiler with Mr "Juche is my life."

[cleobulle.livejournal.com]

The book you're talking about sounds extremely interesting. I'm going to write down the title and author and see if I can find it. We get 0 info about NK in France and even searching the net, it's difficult or you don't know if it's reliable.

I'm starting to learn Korean (I've always wanted to learn a third language and had to choose between German and Korean) and I'm interested in the history as well. I'm doing it on my own so it's a slow process. I'm just at the learning the alphabet stage :o)