Musings of the Obsessive Kind

My Gloria love cemented what I was earlier suspecting with dramas like Giant and Baker King - I really dig long kdramas and go for family ones in a big way.

So my next binge is likely to be Golden Bride - I saw and liked the first ep ages ago but was scared by the length and put it away. Well, the length doesn't bother me any more, so here we come.

I couldn't find any main otp mvs, so have a secondary otp one:



I also want to continue with Family Honor, where I was also scared off by the length before - but seeing how I loved the writer's Gloria and Pick the Stars, that it stars darling scene-stealer Park Shi Hoo, and that it's actually shorter than Gloria, here I come! I hear dramafever has it (dls don't have great visual quality because they are tv rips so I'd rather stream).

My Gloria love cemented what I was earlier suspecting with dramas like Giant and Baker King - I really dig long kdramas and go for family ones in a big way.

So my next binge is likely to be Golden Bride - I saw and liked the first ep ages ago but was scared by the length and put it away. Well, the length doesn't bother me any more, so here we come.

I couldn't find any main otp mvs, so have a secondary otp one:



I also want to continue with Family Honor, where I was also scared off by the length before - but seeing how I loved the writer's Gloria and Pick the Stars, that it stars darling scene-stealer Park Shi Hoo, and that it's actually shorter than Gloria, here I come! I hear dramafever has it (dls don't have great visual quality because they are tv rips so I'd rather stream).

When I saw these caps from 22, you have no idea how squeeful I was. Mob? Revenge? Corruption and politics?





Forget it. I am clearly watching East of Eden in hopes of Dong Chul and Grace smoochies.

Did I mention the part where he brought her to the beach he used to come with his Dad? And the part where she went to call her father and he freaked because he couldn't find her and ran around looking for her and yelling her name? Or pulling her into a fierce hug when he found her? (FIRST, eeeee!).

And they go on the run? SQUEE.

Now make out. Then you can go to revenge and wrist-slitting respectively, and I won't begrudge you.

Now on to a very different beast: Golden Bride which continues to be delightful. I told meganbmoore that one of the reasons I love dramas is because they are so often woman-centric, and GB is a good example. While it is full of other awesome characters, the heart and soul of the story is the indomitable, fun, and awesome Jin Joo, the 'bride' of the title:



( Some caps from first ep )

Drowning in the somber, historical dramas (I love them but it's nice to have a change), I finally decided to check out Golden Bride and so far (one ep in), it's every bit the sparkly delight I have been promised.

One word of warning: it's a pretty long drama. The original run was supposed to be 50 eps but it did really well and got extended to 64.

But if you don't mind that, then it's purely awesome.

( Look at this adorable clip of the OTP from some ep or other )

The protagonist is Nguyen Jin Joo (Lee Young Ah), a half-Korean, half-Vietnamese girl who lives in Vietnam with her mother, her Korean father having done a runner a long time ago. Jin Joo works as an interpreter in an agency which arranges marriages for Korean men with Vietnamese women (apparently an existing cultural phenomenon). Arranged marriages with Vietnamese brides are often a sort of a thing of a last resort for Korean men who might find it hard to find a bride in Korea for economic or personal reasons, as the Vietnamese ladies are more inclined to marry a problematic individual because of Korea's higher standard of living.

Jin Joo is money-fixated (she needs money because her mother's health is not good), charming, perky, cheerful, and delightful. Which is just as well because her future husband Kang Jun Woo (Song Chang Ui) is a total basketcase. Yes, Jin Joo decides to follow the steps of her clients and marry a Korean man of her own because she needs the money and because she is trying to locate her missing father. And through drama machinations, that Korean is Jun Woo.

Jun Woo is young, good-looking, and has his own hair. So why is he looking for a Vietnamese bride? Well, where do I start? Even though he was incredibly intelligent and graduated with honors from Seoul University, he's been unemployed since, for three years. Jun Woo's problem is that he is mentally ill. Oh, not insane or anything like that, but due a traumatic event in his past (his fiancee walking out on him and him receiving a pretty bad beat-down on the head during that event) he couldn't even leave the house for a long time, and even now if under stress, he will have fits and faint. Which, needless to say, precludes any form of gainful employment (there is a scene in ep 1 where he has a fit during an interview and awwwwww). Not only that, but since Korean society stigmatizes mental illness he is a pariah and no woman would ever want to marry him. So his mother, at her wits' end, arranges for him to go to Vietnam and find a bride who will be less picky. Enter Jin Joo, desperate to get to Korea...

And the story goes from there. There are a lot of other characters (this is a 64 ep story after all) and fun ensues.

( General MV, main-ship-centric )

For one, I can't wait until the harpy who ditched poor hero comes back and tries to ensnare him back. Because I bet she will!

It also promises me multiple ships! Look at this adorable MV for Hero's younger sister and the younger brother of the guy who married the harpy who ditched the Hero.

( Cute MV here )

Drowning in the somber, historical dramas (I love them but it's nice to have a change), I finally decided to check out Golden Bride and so far (one ep in), it's every bit the sparkly delight I have been promised.

One word of warning: it's a pretty long drama. The original run was supposed to be 50 eps but it did really well and got extended to 64.

But if you don't mind that, then it's purely awesome.

( Look at this adorable clip of the OTP from some ep or other )

The protagonist is Nguyen Jin Joo (Lee Young Ah), a half-Korean, half-Vietnamese girl who lives in Vietnam with her mother, her Korean father having done a runner a long time ago. Jin Joo works as an interpreter in an agency which arranges marriages for Korean men with Vietnamese women (apparently an existing cultural phenomenon). Arranged marriages with Vietnamese brides are often a sort of a thing of a last resort for Korean men who might find it hard to find a bride in Korea for economic or personal reasons, as the Vietnamese ladies are more inclined to marry a problematic individual because of Korea's higher standard of living.

Jin Joo is money-fixated (she needs money because her mother's health is not good), charming, perky, cheerful, and delightful. Which is just as well because her future husband Kang Jun Woo (Song Chang Ui) is a total basketcase. Yes, Jin Joo decides to follow the steps of her clients and marry a Korean man of her own because she needs the money and because she is trying to locate her missing father. And through drama machinations, that Korean is Jun Woo.

Jun Woo is young, good-looking, and has his own hair. So why is he looking for a Vietnamese bride? Well, where do I start? Even though he was incredibly intelligent and graduated with honors from Seoul University, he's been unemployed since, for three years. Jun Woo's problem is that he is mentally ill. Oh, not insane or anything like that, but due a traumatic event in his past (his fiancee walking out on him and him receiving a pretty bad beat-down on the head during that event) he couldn't even leave the house for a long time, and even now if under stress, he will have fits and faint. Which, needless to say, precludes any form of gainful employment (there is a scene in ep 1 where he has a fit during an interview and awwwwww). Not only that, but since Korean society stigmatizes mental illness he is a pariah and no woman would ever want to marry him. So his mother, at her wits' end, arranges for him to go to Vietnam and find a bride who will be less picky. Enter Jin Joo, desperate to get to Korea...

And the story goes from there. There are a lot of other characters (this is a 64 ep story after all) and fun ensues.

( General MV, main-ship-centric )

For one, I can't wait until the harpy who ditched poor hero comes back and tries to ensnare him back. Because I bet she will!

It also promises me multiple ships! Look at this adorable MV for Hero's younger sister and the younger brother of the guy who married the harpy who ditched the Hero.

( Cute MV here )

I can't wait to watch more Hong Gil Dong tonight.

Also, did I mention my incredible squee and glee over Gil Dong/Yi Nok ship? It's so funny, and off-kilter and yet with his huge potential for angst just lurking there, thus it hits all my buttons.

( A bit rambly fangirling, with spoilers through ep 19 )

And here are some pics, from ep 19 and preview to ep 20.

( Caps here )

In other news, people, how come I was unaware of The Golden Bride before this? Yeah, yeah, it's 50+ episodes but whatever.

How can I resist when we have:



1. Upper left: she is a half-Vietnamese contract bride! Who agrees to get married because she needs the money to search for her father who abandoned her and Mom when she was little. Her Mom is also going blind!

2. Upper right: he suffers from OCD because his girlfriend (lady on bottom right) ditched him! To marry gent on lower-left who is from America. Oooooooh. So because nobody wants him because of DISEASE stigma, he gets a mail-order bride.

Shall they fall in lurve? What do you think?

If that is not enough for you (and if a mail-order bride with a blind mother married to an OCD pining for lost love hottie isn't, I don't know what's wrong with you), we also have:



1. Bottom left. Resident Girlyman. (Every drama has to have one). Member of same family as American, girlfriend-stealing gent in other picture. He falls in lurve with Girl on bottom right. Their families obviously hate each other so that cannot be. Well, actually seeing that it's a drama, yes it can. Yes it must. At one point, I think they "gasp* move in together. Rock on, Girlyman!

Upper half: comic relief couple. He used to like girl on lower left, but she smartly, preferred Girlyman to him. So I suppose being comic relief, he will settle for curly-haired girl. Or not. Not being posessed of either disability or Girlyman hotness, I don't care.