Musings of the Obsessive Kind

So, despite the fact that it's not yet entirely subbed, I started La Dolce Vita (the kdrama). LDV is a story of a 36-year-old housewife, trapped in an empty life and marriage, who finds out her husband has been unfaithful and it has turned into something more. She travels to Japan to kill herself (more out of impetus to do something, anything, in her life, than any jealousy or grief) and her paths cross with a young man ten years her junior, who is even more damaged than she is.

This drama reminds me of nothing else as much as a European art movie. It has a looping, non-linear structure (not only is the entire story told in flashback: the drama opens with apparent suicide of the young man, but there are flashbacks within flashbacks), a very subdued and washed-out palette, a cast of characters who are both intelligent and miserable (not to mention none of them are commendable individuals), the dialogue is full of allusions, and the whole world is sort of dreary.

I like it quite a lot so far (three eps in) but oh boy is it depressing.

Even the sex scene (yes, there is one) is not motivated by love or joy or even passion, but a certain desperation on the part of the heroine to feel something, anything, again, and to recapture a bit of her youth (it struck me so much that on seeing the mistress, she is not jealous her husband likes someone else, but is jealous of the girl's vitality and youth. It's made clear earlier her husband doesn't see her as sexual or feminine at all). (I am still not sure what motivates the young man to it: other than glimpses of some disturbing memories of his, we are still in the dark as to what motivates or moves him).

Also, like in a European art movie, they show things I don't normally associate with kdramas.

( Prurient prurient pics :P )

So, despite the fact that it's not yet entirely subbed, I started La Dolce Vita (the kdrama). LDV is a story of a 36-year-old housewife, trapped in an empty life and marriage, who finds out her husband has been unfaithful and it has turned into something more. She travels to Japan to kill herself (more out of impetus to do something, anything, in her life, than any jealousy or grief) and her paths cross with a young man ten years her junior, who is even more damaged than she is.

This drama reminds me of nothing else as much as a European art movie. It has a looping, non-linear structure (not only is the entire story told in flashback: the drama opens with apparent suicide of the young man, but there are flashbacks within flashbacks), a very subdued and washed-out palette, a cast of characters who are both intelligent and miserable (not to mention none of them are commendable individuals), the dialogue is full of allusions, and the whole world is sort of dreary.

I like it quite a lot so far (three eps in) but oh boy is it depressing.

Even the sex scene (yes, there is one) is not motivated by love or joy or even passion, but a certain desperation on the part of the heroine to feel something, anything, again, and to recapture a bit of her youth (it struck me so much that on seeing the mistress, she is not jealous her husband likes someone else, but is jealous of the girl's vitality and youth. It's made clear earlier her husband doesn't see her as sexual or feminine at all). (I am still not sure what motivates the young man to it: other than glimpses of some disturbing memories of his, we are still in the dark as to what motivates or moves him).

Also, like in a European art movie, they show things I don't normally associate with kdramas.

( Prurient prurient pics :P )

...what?

.....WHAT?

( Cut for one particular spoiler regarding La Dolce Vita. Am not sure if anyone on my flist is watching and a spoilerphobe but don't want to spoil )

Is it wrong that this makes me want to watch the drama even more now?

But word to the wise, Heroine. While normally, I'd certainly be all for an older housewife in an abusive marriage to get together with a younger, devoted man who looks like Lee Dong Wook, and who does things like this:



But in this case...run away! Seriously, this is a rare case where I think he is too messed up for ya. (Or anyone but a shrink).

I mean, yeah, needy in a young hottie might be good, but not that needy or for those types of reasons!

But then...he looks like Lee Dong Wook!

Dilemmas.

More caps of awesome dysfunctional shippiness!

( Prettiness here )

It's funny, I don't plan to watch LDV until all the subs are out but I am certaily haunting the soompi thread.

1. So, let me get this straight, by ep 12 of Iljimae,

( spoilers )

2. Something just occurred to me, in relation to Dr. Min's fastidiousness and picky standards in Thank You. Yeah, he is a difficult person at a horrible time of his life, and I am sure some of it is his natural crankiness as a result of that. But also, of course he will have a cleanliness fixation: he is a surgeon. And also, though the drama is never in your face about it, he is decidely very upper class, so yeah, used to things being just so.

3. This is HOT:



(from ep 16 of La Dolce Vita).

I didn't know you could show stuff like that in a kdrama!

1. So, let me get this straight, by ep 12 of Iljimae,

( spoilers )

2. Something just occurred to me, in relation to Dr. Min's fastidiousness and picky standards in Thank You. Yeah, he is a difficult person at a horrible time of his life, and I am sure some of it is his natural crankiness as a result of that. But also, of course he will have a cleanliness fixation: he is a surgeon. And also, though the drama is never in your face about it, he is decidely very upper class, so yeah, used to things being just so.

3. This is HOT:



(from ep 16 of La Dolce Vita).

I didn't know you could show stuff like that in a kdrama!

I am very interested in checking out La Dolce Vita, a currently airing kdrama starring Oh Yeon-Soo (Lady Yuhwa in Jumong) and Lee Dong-Wook (Gong-Chan in My Girl).

I am going to wait until it's all completed and subbed because I am bad with waiting and plus have tons of things to do, but it does seem fascinating.

The story revolves around an older woman (OYS) and a younger man (LDW) (there is a 10-year difference between them). Her husband is having an affair with his wife, and LDW decides to pursue OYS as some sort of nebulous revenge, but of course real feelings very quickly develop and the two desperate, messed-up individuals embark on a love story of their own.

It seems to be very good, and also dark and twisty. In fact, I am surprised by how 'grown-up' it is, being a kdrama: not only is adultery actually portrayed positively (OYS' husband is a vile vile person and LDW's wife a tramp) and the lead characters are screwed-up ambivalent individuals who are survivors of various forms of abuse, but they pull no punches in showing the poison of OYS' marriage (at one point there is marital rape, ugh).

And we also get scenes like this:





Oh, Gong-Chan, does Yu-Rin know what you've been up to in her absence? And Lady Yuhwa, we are not even going to address how the mother of a King can engage in such activities :P (I am not completely joking btw. My Girl is such a huge favorite of mine and I adore Gong-Chan so, it's hard for me to imagine him as anything or anyone else. And Lady Yuhwa is also so...Yuhwaish, to me. I know it's ridiculous).



And because I have a thing for men taking care of ladies' feet:



(caps from soompi)