dangermousie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dangermousie) wrote2008-03-17 07:30 pm
dangermousie) wrote2008-03-17 07:30 pm
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My drama WTF-points, and Jumong gets married...
Perhaps surprisingly for someone who enjoys stories about stepsiblings loving each other in the snow, I do have a WTF button when it comes to dramas. This is separate from not liking a drama because it's not good. There are plenty of wtf dramas that are excellently made and plenty of bad ones which do not even pinge my WTF meter. There have been a number of dramas I gave up on or never checked out because they broke the WTF-meter: Magicians of Love (Taiwan), Hana Kimi (Japan), Kimi Wa Petto (Japan), Jotei (Japan), Deer Man (Japan), RH Plus (Japan), Love Story in Harvard (Korea), Who Are You (Korea), etc etc etc. I am sure there are many more wtf-y dramas, but I tend to stay away from them.
What are sure signs that will send me running for the exit?
1. Hairdressers who are butch, manly, the envy of all and saviors of the country. Some are mafia heirs (See MoL).
2. Generally people who use their face like rubber masks. I don't require a great deal of subtlety in my acting, but am not keen on human cartoons.
3. Scrawny, starved boys with concave chests who are supposed to be tough fighters. (I shudder when I think of shirtless Matsuda Shota with his concave chest pretending to be a gangster in Jotei. No one will convince me even a Kame who's had a few meals can be any kind of a boxer etc etc).
3a. Any scrawny guy shirtless. Most of jdrama stars should keep their shirts on forever.
4. Talking animals. Just no. (Deer Man).
5. Gay teenage vampires who fight crime. (RH+)
6. Any drama which has a main character in drag for most of the duration (Queens, Princess Princess D)
Scratch that. Just remembered Coffee Prince and Hana Kimi-tw.
7. People as pets. (KwP)
8. Any drama a huge chunk of which is set at an English-speaking country and I have to listen to episodes and episodes of nearly incomprehensible English as everyon around them exclaims at their fluency and they are surrounded by horrid White non-actors (Love Story in Harvard by far the worst offender, as its hero is supposed to be an American lawyer for eps and eps and eps).
9. Prostitutes dressed like desk ladies at Holiday Inn (Jotei).
10. Bizarro sound effects.
What are yours?
In completely unrelated news, kdrama star Song Il-Gook got hitched last week in a very traditional ceremony. He married a lady judge. That is sort of like a drama :)
And apparently it was a private wedding (he doesn't want the pics/name of bride to circulate so she can stay private) but some authorized pics have been released. You can't see the bride well in them, on purpose, but the traditional stuff is fascinating (a duck?)
What are sure signs that will send me running for the exit?
1. Hairdressers who are butch, manly, the envy of all and saviors of the country. Some are mafia heirs (See MoL).
2. Generally people who use their face like rubber masks. I don't require a great deal of subtlety in my acting, but am not keen on human cartoons.
3. Scrawny, starved boys with concave chests who are supposed to be tough fighters. (I shudder when I think of shirtless Matsuda Shota with his concave chest pretending to be a gangster in Jotei. No one will convince me even a Kame who's had a few meals can be any kind of a boxer etc etc).
3a. Any scrawny guy shirtless. Most of jdrama stars should keep their shirts on forever.
4. Talking animals. Just no. (Deer Man).
5. Gay teenage vampires who fight crime. (RH+)
Scratch that. Just remembered Coffee Prince and Hana Kimi-tw.
7. People as pets. (KwP)
8. Any drama a huge chunk of which is set at an English-speaking country and I have to listen to episodes and episodes of nearly incomprehensible English as everyon around them exclaims at their fluency and they are surrounded by horrid White non-actors (Love Story in Harvard by far the worst offender, as its hero is supposed to be an American lawyer for eps and eps and eps).
9. Prostitutes dressed like desk ladies at Holiday Inn (Jotei).
10. Bizarro sound effects.
What are yours?
In completely unrelated news, kdrama star Song Il-Gook got hitched last week in a very traditional ceremony. He married a lady judge. That is sort of like a drama :)
And apparently it was a private wedding (he doesn't want the pics/name of bride to circulate so she can stay private) but some authorized pics have been released. You can't see the bride well in them, on purpose, but the traditional stuff is fascinating (a duck?)
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Interestingly, 6 also applies for me usually in dramas, but not in manga(probably because in manga, it's easier to convince myself people would believe it.)
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You forgot Fujiki Naohito and Kimura Takuya. I guess it goes with liking the older ones instead of JE boys :P
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and i agree with more than half of your lists
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The English thing... Why do they do this? Whyyyy? Bad Love had a white actress playing an English teacher and she had this incredibly heavy Eastern European accent, so at least they don't care at all who is speaking bad English!
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No.
*shudder*
*scarred*
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Regarding skinny boys, you're right, Japan has a pretty good monopoly on them. At least with Kame they have the defense that he's supposed to be skinny-- since he's a flyweight. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by his physique in 1 Pound Gospel. But that could be because I had prepared myself for the worst :D.
As for mine... kind of like sound effects. I hate the little animations they sometimes put in Taiwanese dramas. I used to not care but for some reason I have no tolerance for them any more. I'm trying to think of an example, but I can't right now. They're extremely irritating though.
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Other than that... I love bizarre plot lines: Jotei, Kimi Wa Petto, and I even bought Kimutaku as a straight hairdresser.
You know I hate the older men in a position of power going after their female subordinates, but that's not really a WTF thing.
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I can handle a whole lot of wtf.
I did stop watching Nine-tailed Fox within about 2 minutes.
Oh, jdrama boys. Eat a sandwich!
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Oh, jdrama boys. Eat a sandwich!
More like a whole sandwich shop.
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True, true.
hate hot gentlemen falling for whiney, lame ladies
Stay away from Bull-Fighting then. It's the only one to break even my 'whiny ladies' meter :)
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Any drama a huge chunk of which is set at an English-speaking country and I have to listen to episodes and episodes of nearly incomprehensible English as everyon around them exclaims at their fluency and they are surrounded by horrid White non-actors (Love Story in Harvard by far the worst offender, as its hero is supposed to be an American lawyer for eps and eps and eps).
Eeeee! Does that mean that you won't like The Lobbyist? There was quite a bit of English in the beginning, but they are quite comprehensible, trust me. If it's any consolation, the best English I've heard (spoken in large chunks, anyway) in a k-drama, in fact ^^
I have Love Story in Harvard, and love looking at Kim Rae Won. But you're right. The English just put me off. I didn't end up watching (am putting it off for later) and sent it to my sister to watch first, LOL.
PS. I have the biggest crush on Lee Dong Gun at the moment. So freakin' hot in the movie Love Now (alongside Uhm Jung Hwa of Seducing Mr Perfect and Han Chae Young of Delightful Girl EH). Do you have any recs for his other dramas, in which he actually GETS the girl (in Sangdoo he didn't, I read that in Lovers in Paris he also didn't get the girl - heh)?
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I adore Lee Dong Gun with a scary level of adoration :)
He gets the girl in Smile Again, which is on my very very short list (I am taking it to watch on flight to Thailand later this week).
He gets the girl in Sweet 18, which is cute and super-fluffy.
He gets the girl in Stained Glass. And looks really good:
http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/847820.html
He also is the main male lead in If in love...like them, but it's one of those terminal illness dramas.
I don't mind bad English if the rest of the drama grabs me. LSiH didn't.
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Thanks so much for the recs! I have 'If in Love' (my copy is actually titled Perhaps Love) but haven't finished watching because I couldn't stand looking at him die >_>
I will be looking out for Stained Glass (though am not particularly excited that he plays opposite Kim Hae Nul there), Sweet 18 (his leading lady there was his ex-girlfriend Han Ji Hye, right?) and Smile Again :)
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S18: Yup.
I just started SA and it's awesome.
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You have to watch. Really :D
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Btw, the most explicit sex scenes in kcinema are in Chunhyang. Oh my.
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What freaks me out more than this is when they use White actors who also have English as their second language or third or fourth and it's just as incomprehensible and they're supposed to be North American or British or whatever. I mean, just because they're white doesn't mean they fit, people.
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Bollywood tends to do it too.
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...it's kind of just there for the eye-candy? :shrugs:
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...so the drama doesn't really have a point. x_x