Musings of the Obsessive Kind

So, no surprise to anyone that this week's eps of Nice Guy were excellent.

( Thoughts and caps of two parallel scenes )

Ep 22 of Five Fingers was delicious.....

( A few caps and thoughts )

This post is brought to you by Mousie's ghost.

(This is what sheer perfection looks like) (   )

1. lb_klove has made a wonderful Faith MV here. Check it out!

2. I've watched the first episode of The Paradise and hmmmm. As a British period drama, it's good, as an adaptation of Zola's novel, I feel all the sharp edges and dark corners have been smoothed and lightened out. MMV. It suffered, though, from my watching it in such proximity to the sublime Parade's End.

3. I never did get around to doing a proper post on the last week's eps of Nice Guy, did I? Oops.



I loved the episodes - paradoxically, even with amnesia and hematomas, they felt like the lightest, happiest, most hopeful episodes so far - mainly because the memory loss (EG) and the impermanence (Maru) has, oddly, freed them to be together with no baggage. And oh, how wonderful it is to see that enormous capacity Maru has for caring turn towards a worthy recipient. The episodes reenforce over and over again how little he even thinks of Jae Hee other than as a threat to EG - he doesn't even hate her any more, he just doesn't care. I love that.

4. I have a whole batch of caps for ep 17 of Five Fingers (yes, I am a few eps behind). I continue to enjoy the drama - I see complaints about it but I think it's excellent, mainly because the excellent cast elevates the material.

( Caps caps caps )

I have to run (this week, between being busy at work, baby mousie's illness and Mr. Mousie recovering from being sick last week, has been pretty insane - at this rate, all proper posts will have to wait until the weekend and then you'll get ten each day. I am pretty sure I am not getting to my Faith recaps until the weekend - haven't even watched the eps properly because it takes me hours with capping etc) but I couldn't go before gushing about how amazing, emotionally perfect and oddly hopeful ep 11 of Nice Guy was.

Love love love.

Also, I am so spoiling myself for the end of Arang and the Magistrate because I want to be prepared if it ends badly.

1. One of the best things about Yoochun being cast in a drama is that his fangirls are a supremely dedicated bunch and thus you can be sure of a ton of MVs and other things. I mean, someone made a speculative trailer of I Miss You already, splicing Yoochun and Yoon Eun Hye's other dramas:

http://youtu.be/aPoVhOdQ4mY

It's utterly gorgeous. Mmmmm, I am super-excited for this drama - I love the leads and the writer to bits.

2. Speaking of fanworks, I am so lucky with Faith. The ratings for my obsession are mediocre, but the (English-language) fandom seems to have glommed on to it in a huge way. The soompi thread has over 600 pages (!!!!), we have a number of bloggers talking about it, and some very talented people are producing fanfics and vids. Compare it with May Queen, which has almost twice the ratings, yet the blogosphere is pretty dead about. This is all a long intro to a comment that I went hunting for MVs and found some gorgeous ones:



3. Apparently, Kim Bum has been confirmed for That Winter the Wind Blows. Noh Hee Kyung must have really liked him in her previous drama, Padam Padam (he WAS excellent). I've seen some fangirls upset that, once again, it's not the lead, but I really respect his choices - he keeps picking projects by a good writer which entail bouncing off some real heavyweights (in PP, it was Jung Woo Sung and here it will be Jo In Sung). I actually think these are great choices for him.

4. Last but not least, I keep wondering who will be the leading lady in Joo Won's upcoming drama. A lot of the likely candidates are busy. I think it would fun if it was Park Min Young - if I still like her after the horror that was Dr Jin, then clearly she can do no wrong in my eyes.

5. I am currently only following 4 airing kdramas - Five Fingers, Nice Guy, Faith, and Arang and the Magistrate. This is so much easier on my schedule (I dropped The Horse Healer and Oohlala Spouses, at the very least postponed The Great Seer, and I can't say I am watching Glass Mask in any consistent fashion).

1. One of the best things about Yoochun being cast in a drama is that his fangirls are a supremely dedicated bunch and thus you can be sure of a ton of MVs and other things. I mean, someone made a speculative trailer of I Miss You already, splicing Yoochun and Yoon Eun Hye's other dramas:

http://youtu.be/aPoVhOdQ4mY

It's utterly gorgeous. Mmmmm, I am super-excited for this drama - I love the leads and the writer to bits.

2. Speaking of fanworks, I am so lucky with Faith. The ratings for my obsession are mediocre, but the (English-language) fandom seems to have glommed on to it in a huge way. The soompi thread has over 600 pages (!!!!), we have a number of bloggers talking about it, and some very talented people are producing fanfics and vids. Compare it with May Queen, which has almost twice the ratings, yet the blogosphere is pretty dead about. This is all a long intro to a comment that I went hunting for MVs and found some gorgeous ones:



3. Apparently, Kim Bum has been confirmed for That Winter the Wind Blows. Noh Hee Kyung must have really liked him in her previous drama, Padam Padam (he WAS excellent). I've seen some fangirls upset that, once again, it's not the lead, but I really respect his choices - he keeps picking projects by a good writer which entail bouncing off some real heavyweights (in PP, it was Jung Woo Sung and here it will be Jo In Sung). I actually think these are great choices for him.

4. Last but not least, I keep wondering who will be the leading lady in Joo Won's upcoming drama. A lot of the likely candidates are busy. I think it would fun if it was Park Min Young - if I still like her after the horror that was Dr Jin, then clearly she can do no wrong in my eyes.

5. I am currently only following 4 airing kdramas - Five Fingers, Nice Guy, Faith, and Arang and the Magistrate. This is so much easier on my schedule (I dropped The Horse Healer and Oohlala Spouses, at the very least postponed The Great Seer, and I can't say I am watching Glass Mask in any consistent fashion).

These are very much game-changers, but I shocked myself by loving them.


(Thoughts and caps) (   )

I find it interesting how the OTP of Nice Guy contrasts with the OTPs in the other three currently airing kdramas that I am following - Faith, Arang and the Magistrate and Five Fingers.

Because in the latter three, the OTP make each other better, they are functional together and their obstacles are external. It's most visible in Five Fingers, where Dami is Ji Ho's beacon of sanity, and that is why they must be forced to break up - otherwise he'd never descend into darkness necessary for revenge. You can watch only a few minutes of Eun Soo/Choi Young of Faith or Eun Oh/Arang of Arang to see how incredibly functional and functioning they are together. And the obstacles all the couples face, while huge (and possibly insurmountable) don't come from their intrinsic natures and flaws but outside forces. If these outside forces went away, you just know nothing would block their happiness - Eun Soo and Choi Young have the huge issue that she is a 21st-century woman and he is a 14th-century man and neither can live in the other's world. Not to mention an awful lot of people are trying to kill one or both of them. In Arang, the issue is that Arang has less than a month to stay in the world and, oh, a monster wants her body. In Five Fingers, in addition to Ji Ho's family being psychos out to get him, the issue is that Dami and Ji Ho come from enemy families (long story). But the thing is, if these were fixed, there would be nothing preventing OTP bliss - if the Jade Emperor waved a magic wand in Arang, got rid of the demon and restored Arang to permanent humanity, or Ji Ho's family in FF took nice pill and the family history issue was gotten around somehow, the couples would be happy together. If the bad guys in Faith were taken out and ES decided to stay (and CY allowed himself to allow her to stay), there would be little warrior babies asap. It doesn't mean that the characters do not change or grow - they do immensely. But it's a different relationship dynamic than between Maru and Eun Gi in Nice Guy where all the obstacles are really in their own head, in their emotions and baggage (OK, so this is more true for Maru than EG). There aren't really that many external obstacles. But the internal ones are almost insurmountable.

I don't think one form of narrative is better than the other. I just find the difference fascinating.

I find it interesting how the OTP of Nice Guy contrasts with the OTPs in the other three currently airing kdramas that I am following - Faith, Arang and the Magistrate and Five Fingers.

Because in the latter three, the OTP make each other better, they are functional together and their obstacles are external. It's most visible in Five Fingers, where Dami is Ji Ho's beacon of sanity, and that is why they must be forced to break up - otherwise he'd never descend into darkness necessary for revenge. You can watch only a few minutes of Eun Soo/Choi Young of Faith or Eun Oh/Arang of Arang to see how incredibly functional and functioning they are together. And the obstacles all the couples face, while huge (and possibly insurmountable) don't come from their intrinsic natures and flaws but outside forces. If these outside forces went away, you just know nothing would block their happiness - Eun Soo and Choi Young have the huge issue that she is a 21st-century woman and he is a 14th-century man and neither can live in the other's world. Not to mention an awful lot of people are trying to kill one or both of them. In Arang, the issue is that Arang has less than a month to stay in the world and, oh, a monster wants her body. In Five Fingers, in addition to Ji Ho's family being psychos out to get him, the issue is that Dami and Ji Ho come from enemy families (long story). But the thing is, if these were fixed, there would be nothing preventing OTP bliss - if the Jade Emperor waved a magic wand in Arang, got rid of the demon and restored Arang to permanent humanity, or Ji Ho's family in FF took nice pill and the family history issue was gotten around somehow, the couples would be happy together. If the bad guys in Faith were taken out and ES decided to stay (and CY allowed himself to allow her to stay), there would be little warrior babies asap. It doesn't mean that the characters do not change or grow - they do immensely. But it's a different relationship dynamic than between Maru and Eun Gi in Nice Guy where all the obstacles are really in their own head, in their emotions and baggage (OK, so this is more true for Maru than EG). There aren't really that many external obstacles. But the internal ones are almost insurmountable.

I don't think one form of narrative is better than the other. I just find the difference fascinating.