[PREV - ANOTHER_OH_HAE_YOUNG]    [TOP]

FIRST_LIFE

                                             August 12, 2018

I was initially very enthusiastic about

   "Because This Is My First Life"

A Korean drama in 16 episodes, which seemed carefully
crafted to display every attitude toward love and
sex that the authors could think of.

The lead characters relationship had a remarkable
low heat, slowest boil possible character to it
that was really interesting-- they agree to marry
at first just because they want to be roomates
and they need to get both sets of parents off of
their backs.

    Though actually, the opening move of their
    relationship came earlier-- they were complete
    strangers, chatting at a bus-stop for a few
    minutes, and before leving to board her bus,
    she impulsively kisses him first.

There are other characters with more annoying relationships
than this, but in ways that seem familiar enough-- the
woman who wants her boyfriend to earn money to support her
(and buy a house, and raise the kids, and ...), but is
impatient about letting him get established in business.
The man really should just get her out of his life, but
he's stuck on her in a way that seems more weak than
loyal...

If that one sounds "anti-woman" there are other episodes in
this tale that made it seem more like "okay, clearly a
woman wrote this": the female lead is nearly raped by a
drunken colleague, and her other co-workers want her to
treat this as a "boys-will-be-boys" thing so she quits the
entire field and gets a low-end job in a cafe where her
co-worker there starts making vague rape-threats himself...

    Then there's an older female colleague of hers,
    who suggests that she will of course just
    quietly swallow her rage at the various kinds of
    sexual harrassment she has to endure in the
    business world.


                     Interestingly, "First Life" begins with a
                     satire of the world of writing Korean
                     dramas-- the young writers main job is doing
                     re-writes to insert product placements.

                     There's a great scene showing a show within
                     the show, where a young man in a suit runs off
                     screaming in anguish while riding a
                     "hoverboard" (almost as silly as a Segue)--

                     Then they cut to the little old ladies in the
                     audience and we see that they're all eating this
                     up: they're completely blind to the absurdity.


                            One might take this sort of thing as
                            a self-referential apology for the
                            ending of the show, which absolutely
                            must comply with the formula, no
                            matter how ridiculous the gyrations
                            are they need to engage in to do it.


                            I also take this as a worrying sign
                            that the genre is approaching
                            decadence: the people working on these
                            shows don't really believe in what
                            they're doing any more.



--------
[NEXT - PRIME_MINISTER_AND_I]