“Snow Queen was a good example, because Sung Yu Ri got absolutely BLASTED by netizens over her performance. Netizens didn’t like the character, therefore SYR’s acting was “terrible.” Ironically, I thought it was easily her best performance before Hong Gil Dong.”

I really liked her in SQ – I thought she did a good job. I am not big on spoiled rich brats of whichever gender – it makes me think longingly of the French Revolution (if you are a rich person who works hard, that’s fine) but SQ is probably the only drama I liked such a character because she had plenty of excuses for it – dying and being in pain.

In Cinderella Man I completely rooted for the 2nd female lead.

thanks for the recap!

While at the topic of “wishful thinking” .Let me say that I am one of those “out of their minds” viewer who identifies with HY character. However, since I am rich, gorgeous, beautiful, well traveled, blah blah blah, I am more drawn to the rich, handsome, educated lawyer who disses his background for more down to earth endeavors. Now isn’t it more interesting for me (as HY) as he is doing completely the opposite of my expectations?

How can I be seduced by an elderly hooligan butler who is uncouth, loud and irreverent? Just because he literally carried me off my feet meant that he can change my attitude and be a good girl? NO WAY. NOT IN A LONG SHOT.

That’s how I would choose if HY is my stand in .

Sure, that’s what dramas are all about. However, in many of those dramas, it’s as much the female character’s fault as the men. In other words, the women have to change just like the men, and usually the alternative prospect is spinsterhood.

“In Bali, Ha Ji Won might be a golddigger but you can see her vulnerability and desperation and warmth. ”

Yeah, it still HAS to follow the Cinderella formula (and Ha Ji Won’s brilliant at poutseducing men.) But that’s part of the brilliance of Bali — she’s a classic poor girl with a tragic past . . . but she’s also greedy and ultimately wants money. The script challenges our exemption for characters based on their backstories, and also how our materialism qualifies the characters’ happiness. In other words, if she wasn’t so sad, would we let her selfishness go? And — see — we still do, because she is “poor” and she “deserves” to be “happy.” But what is “happy” if one character cannot possibly offer a healthy relationship and the other is financially insecure?

“The few times I’ve seen kdramas venture into making heroine rich and selfish about it, she’s either been presented as ultimately fragile and doomed in other ways (Snow Queen) or quickly placed in a situation where she loses that threatening power (Fantasy Couple).”

Snow Queen was a good example, because Sung Yu Ri got absolutely BLASTED by netizens over her performance. Netizens didn’t like the character, therefore SYR’s acting was “terrible.” Ironically, I thought it was easily her best performance before Hong Gil Dong.

belleza – that’s a great point. I think in Japanese office dramas, though, the heroines are also a stand-in for female audience members (notice how they almost always hook up with younger cute men – Anego, Sapuri, Brand etc anyone?) They are all a form of wish-fulfilment.

Amd I think part of the struggle MFL is having is that Haena is about the worst audience stand-in you can imagine – a gorgeous, rich, arrogant, supremely confident (even if some of it is put on), something that rhymes with witch. Most women tend not to see themselves this way. I think a lot of heroines are either the ones women can see themselves as being and others someone they wouldn’t mind being friends with. I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind wanting to be friends with Haena either.

It’s not about the off or unusual or whatnot situations either but about the woman’s basic character in these situations – whether she is relatable or warm or nice. In Bali, Ha Ji Won might be a golddigger but you can see her vulnerability and desperation and warmth. Women can sympathize with her, whether it’s by understanding where she comes from or “there but for the grace of God go I” attitude. (I also think Bali is incredibly better written and better acted but that’s a sperate matter – Bali was a heavy duty melodrama and this is a romcom).

But Haena is not like that – she is not weak in any relatable way and she is an unpleasant person to be around (can you imagine being her servant?) – she is more like your usual spoiled bad rich girl who is heroine’s rival – I am thinking of the other girl in Que Sera Sera or a less extreme version of the other girl in Bali, actually. The few times I’ve seen kdramas venture into making heroine rich and selfish about it, she’s either been presented as ultimately fragile and doomed in other ways (Snow Queen) or quickly placed in a situation where she loses that threatening power (Fantasy Couple).

You don’t want your heroine to come across as a ‘rival’ to a female audience member or a ‘threat’ – it’s fine for the hero to be super-rich and super-confident (but even he has to be desperate for love and weep scads of tears, see poor Lee Min Ho almost drowning in same in the second half of BOF) but women have to be somewhat on the “human scale” to be relatable. A “I have everything” woman falling for her social inferior is a lot harder sell than a Cinderella fantasy self-insert. It can be done but it needs much better writing than MFL possesses.

There is nothing wrong with having such a heroine but it makes it hard to have empathy for her, imo.

For once I actually prefer the secondary girl to the heroine. Nothing to do with Yoon Eun Hye, who I actually think is doing the best she can with such a character, but with the way the character is written and presented.