Musings of the Obsessive Kind

After watching ep 1 of Fugitive, I gave up on it - it was a boring, disjointed mess and I couldn't have cared if all the characters in it blew up at the same time (I can persevere with a drama if the first ep leaves me indifferent but not if I actively dislike it).

I was reading dramabeans' write-up on halfway point of this drama and decided to check it out again - her and my tastes are pretty much polar opposite but I was curious if my opinion improved at all from the horrifying premiere. Being me, I went for the scene which interested me most in her write-up. If you guess it involves manpain, you are correct.

Mainpain! Bruises! Offering to die in place of OTP! Indeed.



My opinion of Fugitive certainly rose about 1000% after watching this - it looks like, now, I will actually watch the entire drama, even if I will likely wait until it's all over and marathon with liberal fast-forwarding. But if I were to say I am madly in love with this drama after this clip, it would be lying. The vibe reminds me a lot of those somewhat wacky Japanese procedurals - think Tokyo Dogs. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not really something I go rabid for - I need my emotional investment as opposed to light interest, and it's not there.

My opinion on its lack of emotional connection holds - I enjoyed the scene quite a lot (why not, it's as if it was target-written for me) but I don't know - I could stay detached and enjoy the angst as opposed to writhe in vicarious agony the way I did in e.g. Rain's angst scenes in Sang-Do (time for a rewatch!) or A Love to Kill. Granted, I am not familiar with the characters here the way I was in those dramas, but a truly good visceral scene grabs you even if you don't know what is going on (what drew me to Bali, for example, was a scene of Jo In Sung breaking down. I had no idea who he was at the time but I felt that emotional punch in the gut and HAD to watch more. That hyper-reality is missing).

Also, I cannot believe this is done by the Chuno guys - the colors are so washed-out, the cinematography, so pedestrian.

What really strikes me the most, the strongest emotional reaction I get is regret. I am not fond of Lee Na Young (her looks do not appeal to me; she's never been in a drama I could tolerate) but she is no doubt a competent actress. The rest of the cast is competent too. And then there is Rain. There are kdrama stars I love better, but none who've imprinted on me quite so much. Full House was my first kdrama. A Love to Kill was the first kdrama which broke my heart. Sang Do completed breaking what was left. I love Rain. Let me modify this - I love Rain. I don't find him particularly good-looking (even if his body is a dream), but I don't even care because he can portray steely vulnerability (yes, I mean that contradictory term) so perfectly. He is a nuanced, underrated actor who is best at intense. When I think of his performances in A Love to Kill and Sang Do (and the more serious parts in Full House - yes, I know it's fashionable to rag on it, but it was my first and I loved it and I still love it and will defend it to the death or at least a light maiming), I can't help but look at Fugitive and get so angry at the total waste. It's his first drama in 6 years and what did they do? When I remember the plans for that angstorama melodrama by Sang Do/ALTK writer about a mercenary and a foreign correspondent with him and JJH and how it fell through and now we are stuck with this I want to cry and then to hit things. He is doing his best, but there isn't much there to do it with! And who knows when and if he ever comes back to doing a drama again.

So angry.

OK, this is turning into a downer post and it shouldn't be. Fugitive = much better than I initially thought. But still, sadly, not enough.

After watching ep 1 of Fugitive, I gave up on it - it was a boring, disjointed mess and I couldn't have cared if all the characters in it blew up at the same time (I can persevere with a drama if the first ep leaves me indifferent but not if I actively dislike it).

I was reading dramabeans' write-up on halfway point of this drama and decided to check it out again - her and my tastes are pretty much polar opposite but I was curious if my opinion improved at all from the horrifying premiere. Being me, I went for the scene which interested me most in her write-up. If you guess it involves manpain, you are correct.

Mainpain! Bruises! Offering to die in place of OTP! Indeed.



My opinion of Fugitive certainly rose about 1000% after watching this - it looks like, now, I will actually watch the entire drama, even if I will likely wait until it's all over and marathon with liberal fast-forwarding. But if I were to say I am madly in love with this drama after this clip, it would be lying. The vibe reminds me a lot of those somewhat wacky Japanese procedurals - think Tokyo Dogs. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not really something I go rabid for - I need my emotional investment as opposed to light interest, and it's not there.

My opinion on its lack of emotional connection holds - I enjoyed the scene quite a lot (why not, it's as if it was target-written for me) but I don't know - I could stay detached and enjoy the angst as opposed to writhe in vicarious agony the way I did in e.g. Rain's angst scenes in Sang-Do (time for a rewatch!) or A Love to Kill. Granted, I am not familiar with the characters here the way I was in those dramas, but a truly good visceral scene grabs you even if you don't know what is going on (what drew me to Bali, for example, was a scene of Jo In Sung breaking down. I had no idea who he was at the time but I felt that emotional punch in the gut and HAD to watch more. That hyper-reality is missing).

Also, I cannot believe this is done by the Chuno guys - the colors are so washed-out, the cinematography, so pedestrian.

What really strikes me the most, the strongest emotional reaction I get is regret. I am not fond of Lee Na Young (her looks do not appeal to me; she's never been in a drama I could tolerate) but she is no doubt a competent actress. The rest of the cast is competent too. And then there is Rain. There are kdrama stars I love better, but none who've imprinted on me quite so much. Full House was my first kdrama. A Love to Kill was the first kdrama which broke my heart. Sang Do completed breaking what was left. I love Rain. Let me modify this - I love Rain. I don't find him particularly good-looking (even if his body is a dream), but I don't even care because he can portray steely vulnerability (yes, I mean that contradictory term) so perfectly. He is a nuanced, underrated actor who is best at intense. When I think of his performances in A Love to Kill and Sang Do (and the more serious parts in Full House - yes, I know it's fashionable to rag on it, but it was my first and I loved it and I still love it and will defend it to the death or at least a light maiming), I can't help but look at Fugitive and get so angry at the total waste. It's his first drama in 6 years and what did they do? When I remember the plans for that angstorama melodrama by Sang Do/ALTK writer about a mercenary and a foreign correspondent with him and JJH and how it fell through and now we are stuck with this I want to cry and then to hit things. He is doing his best, but there isn't much there to do it with! And who knows when and if he ever comes back to doing a drama again.

So angry.

OK, this is turning into a downer post and it shouldn't be. Fugitive = much better than I initially thought. But still, sadly, not enough.

If this clip of Rain and others training for the upcoming Ninja Assassin doesn't get you going, I don't know what will.

asjkdirjfjdskfdjfhjfhhf

I hope this movie has no plot but is wall-to-wall two hours of fighting. PLEASE.

...and graced us with this:

...and graced us with this:

Today's picspam is courtesy of A Love to Kill, a 2005 Korean drama starring Rain and Shin Min Ah.

ALTK is a story of a man (Rain) who decides to get close to a rising young actress (Shin Min Ah) in order to be able to wreck her life to avenge his brother, who he believes has been jilted by her and, as a result, committed suicide.

ALTK wasn't my first Korean drama, and probably not my fifth. But it was a drama I fell madly in love with, the first Kdrama I truly went psychotic for: it remains one of the most beautifully filmed kdramas I've ever seen: clean, sharp, yet oddly muted cinematography, tilted camera angles, mirrors and reflections (reflecting the deception and traumas of the protagonists).

But what really drew me in was the story and the characters: their love and dysfunction extreme in equal measure. Because, no surprise, when Rain is hired as SMA's bodyguard, he begins to slowly fall in love with her, and the lines between his revenge and genuine feeling get more and more blurred. But (and that is part of why I love this drama so), falling in love doesn't make things better, it doesn't make it all magically OK. Neither does even the eventual realization by him of the truth of which we, the audience, were aware from the start: Shin Min Ah is innocent of all he blames her for. Nothing makes it better, and yet nothing can make it worse, either, because they become two individuals who are literally incapable of existing without each other, and equally incapable of allowing themselves to be together.

They are both dysfunctional, brutalized people: not just Rain, who was raised on the streets as the younger son of an abusive goon, and whose belief in the value of a repaid obligation is so extreme as to be a psychological millstone. But Shin Min Ah is equally off-kilter: a tough drinker who is psychologically fragile, who is caught in the traumas of her childhood and who latches onto love with unhealthy desperation. They are both so so screwed-up. Yet somehow, they work together...

Anyway, this drama has a lot of amazing scenes, and a lot of them are spoilery :) But here is one of my all-time favorite scenes from the drama, from episode 5. Shin Min Ah is completely drunk and her fiance (who she got coerced into accepting, long story) decides that nothing will make love of a disinterested woman blossom like a little date rape. So he has Rain (whom he hired to be SMA's bodyguard) drive them to his hotel and takes her inside. You would think this is a perfect opportunity for Rain to get a little revenge, isn't it? The woman responsible for his brother's ruin getting date raped. (And at the very least, he owes her nothing, the guy is rich etc etc). Well, click and find out what happens.

( Picspam of awesomeness )

I love Rain, I do. But why is he starring in an upcoming Wachowski Brothers movie called Ninja Assassin as the lead who is, you guessed it, a ninja assassin? Aren't ninjas supposed to be...you know...Japanese?

I am sure the Hollywood makers can find a Japanese actor out there somewhere if they look hard enough...Clint Eastwood found a whole boatfull of them for Letters from Iwo Jima. Maybe they can ask him for tips.

Bleargh.

It's just as stupid as the whole thing with Memoirs of a Geisha where Chinese actresses played Japanese.

Weird.

It's not as if Japan doesn't have a well-established movie/tv industry.

The plot for the movie sounds fun, I must admit, however. ( plot here )

Though I do think Wachowskis might need to see someone about their vengeance fetish. Maybe they could get 'pay for one, treat the other one free' discount.

I love Rain, I do. But why is he starring in an upcoming Wachowski Brothers movie called Ninja Assassin as the lead who is, you guessed it, a ninja assassin? Aren't ninjas supposed to be...you know...Japanese?

I am sure the Hollywood makers can find a Japanese actor out there somewhere if they look hard enough...Clint Eastwood found a whole boatfull of them for Letters from Iwo Jima. Maybe they can ask him for tips.

Bleargh.

It's just as stupid as the whole thing with Memoirs of a Geisha where Chinese actresses played Japanese.

Weird.

It's not as if Japan doesn't have a well-established movie/tv industry.

The plot for the movie sounds fun, I must admit, however. ( plot here )

Though I do think Wachowskis might need to see someone about their vengeance fetish. Maybe they could get 'pay for one, treat the other one free' discount.

I've been bad about cross-posting in dorama_chat. Baaaaad.

Anyway, I GOT THE TICKETS TO THE RAIN CONCERT!!!!!!

They are floor tickets too *clutches heart at the ticket prices but oooo worth it* Rain better remove his shirt :D So me and smartylibrarian are going to have a blast. And probably be the only non-Asians in the audience (a familiar feeling from Bolly concerts). I am still bemused that I am travelling to a different city and paying for pricy tickets to go see someone sing in Korean, a language in which I know all of three words :P

Anyway,

RAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN.

In non-Rain related ramble, anyone know where I can get a copy of Bushi No Ichibun, the KimuTaku samurai movie? I want to get a nice legit DVD but I don't think there is one out yet, not with subs. So, any lovely dl sources?

*puppy eyes*

Oh, God. People at TWOP, just SHUT UP!

Yes, yes, JRM is not over six feet tall and Henry VIII was. OMG! Ohnoez. Horrors. OMG, not historically accurate. BLAH. I am one of ten people who didn’t love Rome (it was good but didn’t grab me) and am one of ten people loving The Tudors. Anyway, nothing wrong with thinking it’s boring, slow-moving, whatever. Lay off historical accuracy. The sainted movie Elizabeth (which I hate. Pretentious. Ugh. Hate pretension. Maybe that is why I don’t mind The Tudors, it doesn’t try to be ‘aaaaart’) was really inaccurate. So was Rome (which was also a bit on the pretentious side. The hilarious sex scenes, put in there just to show how edgy they were, turned me off because…LOL. No, not really edgy. This isn’t what sex looks like. Get it right, or even better, don’t try to be fake-explicit). The day I see a truly historically accurate movie/show, I’ll keel over in shock. There is a reason I prefer most of my history reading to be non-fiction.

Except for Richard III novels that is. GUUUH.

In other news, I finally bought Veronica Mars season 2 set. Despite my utter dislike of how S3 went down and complete annoyance at the waste, I adored S1 and liked S2 a lot, and will just prefer to think that the show ended in S2. I remember I started a rewatch/blogging about S1 but stopped somewhere around 1.16. I should restart.

In other news!!! EEEEE! Thank you booknerd714! Apparently Rain is coming to North America to do concerts in June!!!!! I am so going this time, even if I’ll be probably one of the few non-Asian girls. I got experience in that from Bollywood shows anyway and I am not missing my chance to see Rain rip off his shirt in person. smartylibrarian, I checked and he is coming to New York, so we are definitely on ;)

Oh, and speaking of events! Nathan Fillion’s upcoming romantic comedy Waitress is doing previews all over. Check out here for whether there are show times round you and (if interested) get free preview tickets from there.