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KDRAMA_TRACING
May 17, 2018
May 9, 2019
A friend asked us which Korean
drama's we'd been watching-- She thought it was weird we
hadn't seen the Goblin yet--
Just then we'd been watching (a point quickly remedied).
"The Legend of the Blue Sea" (a mermaid
goes to Seoul)-- this is a show that I sometimes trace strange
works fairly well, though it has a paths through things, and in
definite fish-out-of-water problem. this case it was a long time
There aren't a lot of good locations in before it even occured to me
Seoul to transform into a mermaid, so as to consult any sort of fan
the show progresses that aspect has to pages or popularity stats.
fade, and her secondary power of memory
manipulation becomes more critical.
Series concept:
I got interested in checking this one an invasion of extraterrestrials
out because the screenwriter and armed with amnesia ray guns--
female lead were the same as on they generate kdrama plots
another show I'd seen "My Love From whereever they go.
Another Star".
written: Park Ji-Eun The male lead in "Legend"
actress: Gianna Jun was Lee Min-Ho, who
was also the lead in
And *that* show is okay, though it "The Heirs", playing
also has problems: the lead opposite Park Shin-hye.
characters aren't very sympathetic
and the fantastic premises involved "The Heirs" was, as I remember it
(a stranded alien dude with super watchable, though not too much was
powers, etc) were a bit of a mess. memorable about it: it's premise
involved a girl dealing with rich
Another one I liked quite a bit recently boy bullies, no doubt an echo of an
was "Oh My Ghost", about a pathologically earlier show that Lee Min-Ho was
shy girl who can see ghosts and who is also cast in, the Korean adaptation
possessed by a female ghost with a of the manga "Boys Over Flowers"
radically different personality. (which I've read, though I've so
The ghost immediately goes to work trying far passed on the video versions).
to seduce the boss at the restaurant where
she works: this is a *virgin ghost* who is For me, Park Shin-hye
convinced that she needs appropriate was one of the original
sexual experience before she can finally faces of Kdrama-land:
pass on. This show has some of the best
acting I've seen anywhere, in any "He's Beautiful" (2009)
context-- Park Bo Young plays two "Flower Boys Next Door" (2013)
radically different characters, and both "Goong S" (2006)
of them evolve as the story progresses. "The Heirs" (2013)
"Pinocchio" (2014)
OH_MY_GHOST
I found "Strong Girl do Bong
Song"-- also starring Park Bo In "He's Beautiful" a trainee nun
Young-- pretty remarkable, though has a twin brother with an
not *always* in good ways. She opportunity to join the famous
plays a young woman from a family boy-band "A.N. Gel"-- her brother
where the women are essentially is hung-up in the US with a minor
super-strong warriors of heaven. medical issue, so his sister is
This show is peculiar in it's drafted to temporarily take his
weirdly barbaric sense of humor: place, secretly cross-dressing to
Our heroine punches out a ganster pass for male. At which point,
dude early on and we *see* the every member of "A.N. Gel" starts
teeth flying out of his mouth, and falling in love with her.
then throughout the rest of the
series his mangled mouth is played BAD_GIRLS_FATE
for "laughs": he drools, can't
talk right, his false teeth drop WHERE_ANGELS_GO_NUN_FOLLOWS
out when he's surprised...
STRONG_GIRL_DO_BONG_SOON
Another show that comes to
mind is "My Girlfriend is a Both "He's
Nine-Tailed Fox" (2010) with Beautiful"
Shin Min-ah playing a and "Nine This cross-dressing plot was
Gumiho-- a super-strong Tailed" no doubt inspired by the very
"magical girlfriend" were written popular "Coffee Prince" (2007)
who is ignorant of the ways by the Hong where Yoon Eun-hye plays a
of the modern world, and Sisters young woman passes for male to
obsessed with eating beef. team. get a job as one of the coffee
princes of the title-- you'll
be surprised to hear her boss
finds himself falling in love
with him/her and feels very
confused about it.
COFFEE_PRINCE
I've haven't seen too much
else of Yoon Eun-hye, who's
The premise of the career has been a mess of
show "Goong S" management disputes, legal
involves an hassles and physical attacks
alternate history, from "antifans"-- but I
showing a modern thought she was good in the
Korea that still has oddly grim movie "Little Black
a royal family-- Dress" (2011). The year
this premise was before Coffee Prince she was
first used in "The in a show that was supposed to
Princess Hours". be a big deal, which I haven't
seen yet: "Princess Hours"
"Goong S" is about a young punk (2006).
who works doing Ramen delivery
and who turns out to secretly be (From "Princess Hours"
the son of a prince: he is to "Coffee Prince".
brought into a world of palace The rules of pop
intrigue, where Park Shin-hye is culture are the same
a "just a servant", and yet he everywhere.)
has more in common with her than
the royals
Then there's a Park Shin-hye show The male lead in "Coffee Prince"
that I liked quite a bit, where was Gong Yoo, who was also the
she plays a reclusive woman who lead actor in "The Goblin". The
happens to live next door to a main female lead was Kim Go-Eun,
manga artist, and a triangle though she's been somewhat
develops between him and a neglected because much of the
flamboyant young genius of video public buzz that I've heard
game design. Let's see, that one revolves around the Second Couple
was... Ah: "Flower Boys Next in that show, played by Lee Dong
Door". Wook and Yoo In-Na.
I had the title confused with a WOOKSTER
half-dozen other things-- the manga
"Boys Over Flowers" and more on topic But perhaps the key thing
"Shut Up Flower Boy Band", a show about the Goblin was the
about tough-guy teenagers who form a screenwriter, Kim Eun-Sook
band "Eye Candy" who's success is cut (aka KES) who working with
short by a number of problems of the director Lee Eung-Bok
varying degrees of plausibility. knocked out three major
hits in a row:
"Descendents of the Sun"
"Goblin" and "Mr. Sunshine"
And I almost forgot "Pinnochio" in which
Park Shin-hye plays a woman who wants to DESCENDANTS_OF_THE_SUN GOBLIN
become an investigative journalist but is
hampered by a bad case of the (fictional) The two of them have the
"Pinnochio Syndrome": whenever she tries budget clout to do anything
to lie, she begins hiccuping furiously. at this point ($28M on Mr.
Sunshine), but seem to be
There's an anti-fan or two I see on taking a break now (2019).
the net that always wants to argue
that Park Shin-hye isn't that great And before working with
an actress, but I refer you to this that director, KES had
show where she needs to be able to a number of other hits
do things like furiously hiccupping to her credit like
while she's crying. "The Heirs" and
"Secret Garden" (2010).
And in general there's something to
be said for understated, naturalistic "The Secret Garden" is a
comic acting -- "He's Beautiful" is body-swapper: the female lead,
way better than the more broadly played by Ha Ji-won, works as a
acted Japanese remake, if you ask me. very athletic stunt woman who
ends up getting involved with a
bratty rich boy-- they're handed
I'm far from caught up on the history some bottles of magic wine
of the Hallyu, but I am up to the that creates an odd condition
point where I often see new ones as where their personalities swap
they come out, such as: bodies if they're caught in the
rain.
"Because This Is My First Life" (2017)
SECRET_GARDEN
A beginning television script-writer
needs to find a place to live in From there I stepped back in
Seoul without much money to work time to an earlier Ha Ji-Won
with-- she gets taken on as a roomate show, "What Happened in Bali?"
by a man before either of them (2004) and was somewhat
realize that they're not the same suprised at it's rather bleak
gender. They eventually get married treatment of the Cinderella
in-name-only, just to provide a theme.
socially acceptable excuse for this
arrangement. There are other WHAT_HAPPENED_IN_BALI
pairs of couples on stage that
illustrate a number of different
attitudes to love and marriage.. The reddit kdrama group tends
to focus a lot on recent
I was initially enthusiastic about releases-- resisting that
this one, but it stumbles in the last influence, at one point I
few episodes. intentionally picked an older
one at random: "Star's Lovers".
FIRST_LIFE The male lead is a serious
writer and academic, but he
gets roped in to doing a
"Beauty Inside" (2018) ghost-writing job for a famous
actress. This gradually
This was something like the third remake leads to them getting involved
of this premise (I've seen none of the together in a way that doesn't
predecessors): feel *too* forced.
The female lead is a Famous Actress, but You've got some serious nerd
she has a strange mystical affliction: fantasy here: famous actress
periodically her body transforms and she barges into your rooftop
looks completely different-- she has to apartment because she needs
go into hiding for a week or so until she to hide out somewhere, and
gets over it and returns to her usual she wants to lie around on
state. your bed reading books.
Whenever she wakes and discovers she has This has a few good episodes,
someone else's form, she records a short but hits a wall where people
video of herself, reciting: sit around looking morose for
a half-dozen episodes.
"I am Han Se Gye-- and this is *it*."
One of it's main assets is
The female lead Seo Hyun-Jin played the elfin smile of the
opposite Lee Min-Ki, who played a female lead: Choi Ji-woo,
somewhat similar character in the who I later realized had
aforementioned "First Life", a guy been the lead in the
with some Aspberger's-like issues. legendary "Winter Sonata"
(and it's interesting seeing him in (2002):
something like "Spellbound"-- aka
"My Curse At Girlfriend" (?)-- WINTER_SONATA
where he plays an effusive, smiling
fellow.
"Suits" (2018)
A Korean re-make of a US production, about a It's pretty typical of
genius-level kid without a law degree who ends me to have only seen
up passing as an entry-level lawyer at a slick dy the Korean version of
firm. This is very much a male-buddy story something.
about the relationship between this kid and the
older lawyer who takes him on in spite of the BEL_AMI
irregular background. Some decent schtick here
and there, and sometimes it's not *always* so (If they ever do a
nonsensical that it's distracting. re-make of "Game of
Thrones", maybe I'll
sit through it--
"You're All Surrounded" (2014) they'd probably
tighten it up.)
A cop show with occasional moments, but too few.
The male lead is so dismissive of the female
lead it's grating (he calls her "bird brain!").
In only one of the many interrogation scenes the
cops behavior *isn't* remarkably stupid-- they
plan ahead, consult a psychologist, and so on.
A more typical interrogation move for them is:
"You did it didn't you! Why don't you confess!"
It was good stumbling across Ahn Jae-Hyeon,
here playing a character almost identical
to his later role in the show "Beauty Inside".
And then there's one of the best...
"Avengers Social Club" (2017)
This is a personal favorite that holds up well
on re-viewing... but I'm not at all sure how
I found this one. I must've just thought the
name looked interesting.
AVENGERS_SOCIAL_CLUB
So that was a game attempt at
trying to talk about every
Kdrama I've seen... I skipped
a few, though:
"Signal" (2016)
"The Good WItch" (2018)
"Blade Man"
"Touch Your Heart" (2019)
"Little Black Dress" (2011)
"Love Alert" aka
"Fluttering Warning" (2018)
"Cinderella
and the Four Princes" (2016)
"I am Not a Robot"
"Good Chicken"
"Let's Fight Ghost"
"Life On Mars"
"Scent of a Woman"
"Queen In Hyun's Man" (2012)
"Sky Castle" (2018)
"He is Psychometric" (2019)
"Her Private Life" (2019)
"Abyss" (2019)
Tracing lines through the body of work:
OTA_SPACE
Actresses, actors, writers, directors,
thematic keywords, popularity stats...
And where do these lines lead?
What might one build with such a network?
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