Cinderella Unni releases a long preview

[dangermousie]

Thoughts after seeing this preview are mixed.

PROS

* I like the muted colors of this drama. It's an odd choice for a spring drama, but overly crisp or bright colors would not have suited this at all. (I am not saying no melodrama could employ them successfully - Snow Queen was breathtakingly vivid and crisp, but for this particular one it would seem off).

* Chun Jung Myung is back! And I love his intensity.

* That one brief scene with Moon Geun Young and CJM indicated they would have good chemistry. Oh, that gorgeous back-hug!

* Seo Woo is so different from Tamra - I know I am going to love her high-strung, high-maintenance character.

* Taec's acting didn't drive me up the wall - now, this is a short, carefully cut preview, but at least there is hope that he may be OK even though he's a newbie.

* Eyecandy!

CONS

* I am not so sure I am going to like Cinderella's Unni herself. At least in the preview she appears a sullen bag of misery. That is very much not a character type I like. A hard-working cheerful heroine or a steady capable one or a reserved ladylike one or a wounded tough girl or a silly dork? I love all of those. None of them involve sullenness. Unless we find out that she's been beaten every day since she was 5, nothing excuses that - most kdrama heroines have tough pasts but none of them mope their life away. Stop with your emo whiny teenage self. It may be realistic, but oh boy, is it irritating to watch. Makes me wonder why either of the guys will fall for her.

* SO O-V-E-R-T-H-E-T-O-P! Yes, it's a melodrama, I appreciate that. But there are two kinds of melodramas - one is an understated, surprisingly quiet way to grab you and leave you in this emotional hothouse where even whispers reverberate through you and you cry like a little girl. There is intensity but not too much noise. Not all at once. All my favorite melodramas (A Love to Kill, Tree of Heaven, Snow Queen, Winter Sonata, Will It Snow on Christmas, Robbers) have that in common. The other way is to go for full-blown makjang screaming from the start which just makes me exhausted. I am worried CU is shaping up to be the latter.

Ultimate Veridict: Wait-and-see. Can pleasantly surprise me but I don't have high expectations going in. I think ultimately my biggest problem is that I am not a fan of Moon Geun Young. I don't dislike her - she isn't one of those actors where their attachment to a project would mean my desire to skip it, but I am indifferent to her so seeing her in the leading role does nothing for me.