Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Oh, Ji Oh, you utter utter idiot! I want to stab you in the face. And then hug and make it better. Have gone bipolar.

I have to say, this is the most realistic way I have ever seen a break-up (and reasons for it) handled in a drama. ( A bit of a spoiler for it )

But now, he is being a cold bastard and pretending it does not bother him at all even though he is still so very much in love. I do love that she fights him on it.




And just to spread the joy all around, my secondary OTP has also gone into break-up angst land for very different (but also realistic) reasons - Kyu-Ho has spent his whole life being the good son, and it can't be good for his father's political career to have a son involved with a rising actress and in gossip rags or whatever. And he did warn her, when they started the relationship. But guess what? I bet she will be able to deal with it, despite her heart-break and he won't.




I do love how 'intrinsic' and organic the reasons for break-ups are. These men are breaking up with women who they love and who love them. And it's making them wrecked, but it also totally makes sense for them to break up. Interestingly, it's the women in this drama who are the really fearless ones, the stronger ones. The men are just lucky that the gals realize even the men they love can be utter idiots and take them back after suitable grovelling. Not because the women are weak and need a man, but because they love these particular idiots.

Oh, and here, because I am mad at Ji Oh (even if I totally understand him), have a little Joon Young and assistant director necking. Hah! That look on your face is well-earned, boy!




Last note: I love how, just as in reality, work and family and other real life activities interfere with their fights or emotional scenes or whatever. In the middle of her heart-breaking conversation with Ji Oh, Joon Young has to stop because she has to go to work. Yes. That's how it usually is.

Oh, and watching WW has made me eager to watch more dramas about dramas, so I will start On Air, once I am done with WW. It won't be as good, but what is, and this also has Park Yon Ha...mmmmmmm. Plus the below MV is adorable. He is a director, she is a writer. Yay!

Oh, Ji Oh, you utter utter idiot! I want to stab you in the face. And then hug and make it better. Have gone bipolar.

I have to say, this is the most realistic way I have ever seen a break-up (and reasons for it) handled in a drama. ( A bit of a spoiler for it )

But now, he is being a cold bastard and pretending it does not bother him at all even though he is still so very much in love. I do love that she fights him on it.




And just to spread the joy all around, my secondary OTP has also gone into break-up angst land for very different (but also realistic) reasons - Kyu-Ho has spent his whole life being the good son, and it can't be good for his father's political career to have a son involved with a rising actress and in gossip rags or whatever. And he did warn her, when they started the relationship. But guess what? I bet she will be able to deal with it, despite her heart-break and he won't.




I do love how 'intrinsic' and organic the reasons for break-ups are. These men are breaking up with women who they love and who love them. And it's making them wrecked, but it also totally makes sense for them to break up. Interestingly, it's the women in this drama who are the really fearless ones, the stronger ones. The men are just lucky that the gals realize even the men they love can be utter idiots and take them back after suitable grovelling. Not because the women are weak and need a man, but because they love these particular idiots.

Oh, and here, because I am mad at Ji Oh (even if I totally understand him), have a little Joon Young and assistant director necking. Hah! That look on your face is well-earned, boy!




Last note: I love how, just as in reality, work and family and other real life activities interfere with their fights or emotional scenes or whatever. In the middle of her heart-breaking conversation with Ji Oh, Joon Young has to stop because she has to go to work. Yes. That's how it usually is.

Oh, and watching WW has made me eager to watch more dramas about dramas, so I will start On Air, once I am done with WW. It won't be as good, but what is, and this also has Park Yon Ha...mmmmmmm. Plus the below MV is adorable. He is a director, she is a writer. Yay!

(I promise to get to replies asap).

Look how upset Hyun Bin looks at the mere thought of you not clicking beneath the cut.



( I cut the seven pictures because I still have a teeny bit of sense left )

BRB, need to go hunt for a heart transplant donor as mine has been all used up...Why don't they have a mood theme for 'distraught?'

Yes, I apologize for the spamming but I can't help it. It's been YEARS since I fell this hard for a piece of fiction - you know that little 'fantasy drama' meme that was going around a bit back - what would a drama just for you be like - I have actually found it! I think WW speaks to me, in a viscerally personal way, more than *gasp* any other piece of fiction I have ever come across. Forget favorite drama, this might be my favorite piece of tv (or film) ever. If I knew how to write in Korean, I'd write a thank you letter to the writer of this. I am both obsessively watching it (I had little sleep tonight because I stayed up late and woke up early to watch it) and yet I am doing it very slowly (by my standards), only a couple of episodes per day. True, in part it's because of the baby and other rl activities and because I do not fast-forward at all, the way I do with most everything I watch, but it's also because I do not want it to ever end and because I rewatch bits and pieces of each episode immediately.

Another thing I love about WW? The sense of intimacy and joy. This scene, where they talk about Joon Young's family problems between kisses and whispered "I love you's" almost made me feel a voyeur - the private hidden space enveloping them, hiding close under Joon Young's blankets (Ji Oh snuck into the girls' dorm on the shoot and mustn't be caught) feels so very intimate and quiet and real.



Oh, and this scene made me so very giddy. It's Kyu-Ho and Hae-Jin walking in the rain, the irrepressible Hae-Jin making serious, grown-up Kyu-Ho behave like a kid. I have a huge thing for walking in the summer rain (when I was little, I'd run out into the yard as soon as it started raining) so I really really adored this part.

Yes, I apologize for the spamming but I can't help it. It's been YEARS since I fell this hard for a piece of fiction - you know that little 'fantasy drama' meme that was going around a bit back - what would a drama just for you be like - I have actually found it! I think WW speaks to me, in a viscerally personal way, more than *gasp* any other piece of fiction I have ever come across. Forget favorite drama, this might be my favorite piece of tv (or film) ever. If I knew how to write in Korean, I'd write a thank you letter to the writer of this. I am both obsessively watching it (I had little sleep tonight because I stayed up late and woke up early to watch it) and yet I am doing it very slowly (by my standards), only a couple of episodes per day. True, in part it's because of the baby and other rl activities and because I do not fast-forward at all, the way I do with most everything I watch, but it's also because I do not want it to ever end and because I rewatch bits and pieces of each episode immediately.

Another thing I love about WW? The sense of intimacy and joy. This scene, where they talk about Joon Young's family problems between kisses and whispered "I love you's" almost made me feel a voyeur - the private hidden space enveloping them, hiding close under Joon Young's blankets (Ji Oh snuck into the girls' dorm on the shoot and mustn't be caught) feels so very intimate and quiet and real.



Oh, and this scene made me so very giddy. It's Kyu-Ho and Hae-Jin walking in the rain, the irrepressible Hae-Jin making serious, grown-up Kyu-Ho behave like a kid. I have a huge thing for walking in the summer rain (when I was little, I'd run out into the yard as soon as it started raining) so I really really adored this part.

Am in the middle of episode 7 of Worlds Within - guuuuuh, how does it get more perfect with every episode. It's official, this is my favorite drama of all time. That's right, folks - it's better than Legend, better than Pride, better than Mars, better than...in my estimation.



One of the things I love so much is how any conflict feels real - Joon Young's Mom, e.g. is shallow and money-and-status obsessed but it's in a very realistic way (her warning not to date Ji Oh if he has no money, her interest if he has status) not a usual OTT drama way. Or take Ji Oh and Joon Young's building conflict about their different backgrounds - it's no BOF craziness but the fact that he feels somewhat inferior because she is clearly from such an upperclass wealthy family when he is nothing of the sort, but also because their different backgrounds lead to rather different takes on life - see their different attitudes toward money. It's all wonderfully relatable stuff.

And the OTP! Oh, the OTP! Their moments are so there and their chemistry is ridiculously insane. I think what kills me the most is the way he looks at her when she does not notice - he is utterly besotted. GUUUUH.

( Caps of sheer perfection )

(Baby is asleep and Mr. Mousie is working so I have more time for World Within.)

I literally screamed "what the hell, bitch!" when Jung Young's awful mother appeared just as Ji Oh and Jung Young went back to JY's apartment to enjoy a very rare free weekend (Momster used her daughter's apartment as a crash pad for gambling and drinking). Because it means their weekend is shot and they were so giddy about it (not to mention it introduces Ji Oh, who becomes adorably flustered) to JY's family when JY might not want that yet at this stage). I think I am ridiculously overinvested.

But look at them! They are so wonderful together!



If you prefer large stills and explanations ( Go behind the cut )

This is so good, you guys! I could just watch these people forever, them doing nothing but working and loving and fighting and living their lives.

(Baby is asleep and Mr. Mousie is working so I have more time for World Within.)

I literally screamed "what the hell, bitch!" when Jung Young's awful mother appeared just as Ji Oh and Jung Young went back to JY's apartment to enjoy a very rare free weekend (Momster used her daughter's apartment as a crash pad for gambling and drinking). Because it means their weekend is shot and they were so giddy about it (not to mention it introduces Ji Oh, who becomes adorably flustered) to JY's family when JY might not want that yet at this stage). I think I am ridiculously overinvested.

But look at them! They are so wonderful together!



If you prefer large stills and explanations ( Go behind the cut )

This is so good, you guys! I could just watch these people forever, them doing nothing but working and loving and fighting and living their lives.

World Within continues to be pitch-perfect: there is one moment between Ji Oh and Jung Young in episode 5 which is so giddily romantic and in-love it makes me swoon but yet so normal and real I could easily see myself or people I know in it.



Another thing I find so interesting is how each episode sets out a theme, so to speak, with an opening narration by either Ji Oh or Jung Young but sort of modifies it by the end - e.g. in ep 5, Jung Young muses in the beginning that if there is one thing she could change about Korean drama limitations it's the concept of Sungyoung (i.e. 'self-sacrificing devotion') because it's unrealistic.

But the rest of the episode proves her wrong but in a very different way - people are capable of self-sacrificing devotion and unconditonal love, even if it's not necessarily going to be towards a partner - see e.g. that actress who goes through men like socks and who treated Kim Minchul so badly - she is capable of sungyoung, but not towards a partner but towards her mother. Or take Jung Young herself (or Ji Oh) - from the spoilers I have seen they are also capable of it in a relationship, even if it is on a human scale, not the crazy emotional hothouse of dramas, but even without that, she is capable of self-sacrificing devotion to her work, as is Ji Oh - they work at crazy pace for months with barely any sleep or food to produce the product which is as perfect as they can make it. And yet, this point is never hammered into our heads. You can think of it or not, as you choose.



This drama is so ridiculously good!

( Some gorgeous caps from ep 5 and thoughts on the same )

I cannot wait to watch more!

I need an icon of this:



It's funny, Worlds Within has taken over my life - I got barely any sleep and I am not watching any other drama. I just love every second of it and every character - I have not felt even the temptation to fast-forward once which almost never happens (I can count dramas like that on the fingers of one hand).

I really like Kyu Ho, the successful and rather veteran director who can always bring in huge ratings and thus demands to be treated accordingly - he is arrogant but deservedly so, and is very matter-of-fact blunt. I'd hate to work for him but I would respect him all the same. And the little substory with the young actress he cast because she wore him down is adorable - she is pretty clearly crushing on him but not in any clingy or hero-worshiping way - she couldn't care less if he reciprocates, she just finds him cool. And she is totally uncowed. They have a fun dynamic - he is both irritated and amused by her.

But then I love everyone else - the very senior, sort of bitchy actress, the leading lady almost on the verge of graduating to mother roles who is cynical about love and tough (and one of the staff who used to be involved with her), that friend of Hyun Bin's who is a walking disaster etc etc. They all come across as so very real, even if not necessarily likeable.

But above all I love Ji Oh and Jung Young, Hyun Bin and Song Hye Kyo's characters. I love that Jung Young has somewhat a lack of experience and it shows but she is still a very professional and fast learner, picky perfectionist and very tough - knowing she has to be, seeing that she is in a man's field. I love that Ji Oh, despite his sometime quick temper, is the ultimate good guy and really good at getting everyone to resolve their differences. I love their insane chemistry, fun banter, little moments of that relationship insecurity everyone experiences now and then. I love the fact that they are both a product of broken homes even though their parents are not divorced - it's clear Jung Young's parents' marriage is unhappy, with her mother gambling and cheating and putting on a facade in front of Jung Young's father and Ji Oh, who is very close to his mother, has to see his father denigrate her all day long. But none of this is dramaish bad families - just realistically dysfunctional ones.

ETA: I found this spoilery mv and wish I hadn't. Still it's really cool and angsty so if you don't mind spoilers check it out:



ARGH. If I didn't know it was a happy ending, I'd be freaking out. Since when did this turn into Itoshi Kimi E? Ooooh, evil makers :P