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dangermousieI know I am spamming and I apologize.
But come on! It's the last post for the night, I promise.
Heh. Oh, Korea! Even their music videos are incredibly depressing. Here is a MV for the song 'Why' which is...a work of art, in some respects. I mean, it's only a bit over five munutes long but it manages to cram all the angst of MISA + Autumn Tale + other angsty kdramas, into such a short running time! It's like the pure distillation of the kdrama/kmovie aesthetic (if you've ever been curious to find out what that is and don't want to spend time watching 15 hours of something, this is a good choice).
We have gorgeous cinematography, love quadrangles, impossible love, and oh yeah...the summary of it is really 'everybody dies.' I swear. The last shot is o_O.
The MV is set during the Korean War (but was made in 2001). Interestingly it stars a whole bunch of really famous kdrama actors: Kong Sang Woo, Lee Yo Won (the OTP of Bad Love!), Gong Yoo, and Ryu Shi Won.
Snark and prettiness aside, this really made me think: why does Korean drama have such a fascination with the idea of noble suffering and romantic death? I find this running so incredibly strongly through Korean dramas, movies, and music videos. Much, much more strongly than even in that other bastion of sad endings and angst-in-fiction, Japan.
I wonder what it is that makes it so? Why such a fascination with love that is painful and ends in death? Or illness? Or family tragedy? Grace in suffering? I wonder if it's some sort of reflection of Korea's incredibly troubled 20th century history. (Just as I've read that the prevalence of 'destruction of Tokyo' motifs in Japanese fiction is a remnant of the psychic wound of the firebombing of Tokyo as well as the nuclear bombs). After all, American fiction is probably the most fixated on the happy endings and status quo out there, and USA had a relatively peaceful last century...No idea, just thinking 'out loud.'
But come on! It's the last post for the night, I promise.
Heh. Oh, Korea! Even their music videos are incredibly depressing. Here is a MV for the song 'Why' which is...a work of art, in some respects. I mean, it's only a bit over five munutes long but it manages to cram all the angst of MISA + Autumn Tale + other angsty kdramas, into such a short running time! It's like the pure distillation of the kdrama/kmovie aesthetic (if you've ever been curious to find out what that is and don't want to spend time watching 15 hours of something, this is a good choice).
We have gorgeous cinematography, love quadrangles, impossible love, and oh yeah...the summary of it is really 'everybody dies.' I swear. The last shot is o_O.
The MV is set during the Korean War (but was made in 2001). Interestingly it stars a whole bunch of really famous kdrama actors: Kong Sang Woo, Lee Yo Won (the OTP of Bad Love!), Gong Yoo, and Ryu Shi Won.
Snark and prettiness aside, this really made me think: why does Korean drama have such a fascination with the idea of noble suffering and romantic death? I find this running so incredibly strongly through Korean dramas, movies, and music videos. Much, much more strongly than even in that other bastion of sad endings and angst-in-fiction, Japan.
I wonder what it is that makes it so? Why such a fascination with love that is painful and ends in death? Or illness? Or family tragedy? Grace in suffering? I wonder if it's some sort of reflection of Korea's incredibly troubled 20th century history. (Just as I've read that the prevalence of 'destruction of Tokyo' motifs in Japanese fiction is a remnant of the psychic wound of the firebombing of Tokyo as well as the nuclear bombs). After all, American fiction is probably the most fixated on the happy endings and status quo out there, and USA had a relatively peaceful last century...No idea, just thinking 'out loud.'
