Ooh, I love this writer: Park Yeon-seon wrote a couple of stand-out dramas — the much-praised Alone In Love and the underappreciated gem Mixed-up Investigate Agency — and is coming back for another one, titled Wild Romance (where the “wild” connotes aggressive and physical).

She pairs with Women In the Sun PD Bae Kyung-soo, but this project will be less emotionally turbulent than that one, despite its title. It’s a romantic comedy about a baseball player hero and a judo athlete–turned–bodyguard heroine — ha, is she a huge fan of Park Min-young (Man of Honor meets City Hunter?), or is this just a huge coincidence of timing?

It’s probably the latter since writer Park tends to take her time preparing her dramas, and despite that easy joke, I have full confidence in her ability to deliver a strong, original drama. Alone In Love is likely to make it to my all-time-favorites shelf once I eventually get to finishing it (it’s the kind of drama you savor, except that savoring time is in short supply these days) — the smart, thoughtful series about a divorced couple finding love again starring Sohn Ye-jin and Kam Woo-sung won what seems like near-universal praise when it aired in 2006.

Her follow-up to Alone In Love IS on my shelf of keepers, because Mixed-up Investigative Agency is one of the best-plotted Korean dramas I’ve seen. It’s also quirky, funny, and unconventional with a cast of wonderful oddballs, led by Lee Min-ki, Yeh Ji-won, and Ryu Seung-soo. Mixed-up somehow manages to mix Indiana Jones-esque mystery-treasure hunt with eccentric comedy and heart-stirring moments of emotion, all while melding trufax of the late-Joseon era with its entirely fictional hunt for buried treasure. That kind of clever mythology and plotting is what Runaway Plan B shoulda done with its lost-gold storyline, but didn’t have time for because of its chase scene quota.

Park also penned the 2011 Drama Special miniseries White Christmas (initially titled Monster), which I hear was pretty solid. Wild Romance is currently in the casting process and will air on KBS after Man of Honor in January. It’s set for 16 episodes and has already completed its first four scripts.

Via TV Report

RELATED POSTS

• Baek Sung-hyun leads the boys in Monster
• The Year In Review, Part 1: The Best of 2007
• Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 1

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2011. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Wild Romance

First of all, I’d like to bow my head in deep gratitude to Javabeans, the highly esteemed writer of this blog, for inviting me to post a few thoughts here. I hope she won’t regret her decision after reading what I have to say, hehe.

2007 was an interesting year, at least for me, particularly when it comes to Korean dramas. I’ve watched dramas on a regular basis since I was old enough to walk and talk (I am, after all, Korean), but I’ve never undergone such a transformation in terms of how I approach dramas as I have in the past couple of years…although I suppose you could argue that it’s turned me into nothing but a picky bitch. (But weren’t you always a picky bitch, Dahee?)

Still, despite my pickiness, I managed to watch quite a handful of dramas this year, although I certainly didn’t manage to finish them all (blame school and the crappy work that some PDs and writers dish out, putting off viewers like me). In fact, I watched so many, I can’t possibly talk about them all here. So I’ll just pick a few notables and dish out some kudos, as well as one or two boos. Because boos are just as fun as kudos, if not as well-received.

DAHEE’S SONG OF THE DAY

Jo Kwan Woo – “천년애” (chun nyun ae), from the soundtrack of the drama The King & I. [ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of The Year in Review, Part 3: Dahee Fanel’s drama round-up (3,776 words)

© Dahee_Fanel for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 46 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coffee Prince, Dae Jang Geum, Dal Ja's Spring, Devil, Insoon Is Pretty, King and I, Legend, Madam Ah Hyun Dong, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, My Man's Woman, Surgeon Bong Dal Hee, Taereung National Village, Thank You, Time of Dog and Wolf, White Tower, year in review, Yi San

Has this happened to you? You’re reading a book on the bus or train and all of a sudden you burst out laughing. Everyone’s staring but you can’t stop grinning. And all because that line you just read was so unexpectedly funny.

Here’s another scenario. You’re watching one of the hit kdramas of 2006 and after being entertained for the first eighteen episodes or so, you’re down to the last few episodes. And though you had been warned that it was going to be draggy from here, you had no idea how draggy. So now you’re climbing the walls. Your mood’s so foul from the plot shenanigans you want to hurl two cartons of rotten tomatoes at your TV screen.

That was my 2007. A year where I laughed and cried my way through dramas so good they made me even more of an addict. A year where I watched stuff that people were raving about and I shook my head and said, “Something’s seriously amiss with me because I. JUST. DON’T. GET. THE. HYPE.” I raved, I ranted, and just like that, a year has gone by. Here’s my “hits and misses” (how original a title, right?^^) roundup for 2007.

THUNDERBOLT’S SONG OF THE DAY

Uhm Tae Woong – “사랑하지 말아줘” (Don’t love me) from the OST of Devil. Singing must run in the family. (Older sis is the “Korean Madonna” Uhm Jung Hwa.) [ zShare download ]

And it comes with a video! Live performance by actor/singer Uhm Tae Woong:

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Read the rest of The Year in Review, Part 2: Thunderbolt’s hits and misses (2,366 words)

© thunderbolt for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 58 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dal Ja's Spring, Devil, Legend, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Surgeon Bong Dal Hee, Thank You, Time of Dog and Wolf, White Tower, year in review

A month ago, I asked y’all, How was 2007 for you? I was thinking of the year-end wrap-up I would be writing, and wanted to see how you thought the dramas were this past year. I’ll be rolling out my year-in-review posts over the next few days (because one post just isn’t enough!).

I also am THRILLED to be presenting a couple guest bloggers, Thunderbolt and Dahee Fanel, whom I’ve asked to join me in this 2007 retrospective. (I’ll be putting up their reviews in the following posts.) Not only are these ladies extremely well-versed in the art of Ye Olde K-Drama, they’re both also chock-full of witty, interesting, opinionated insights about ‘em. We’re also not afraid to contradict each other and are perfectly fine with having dissonant opinions. I hope you’ll enjoy their thoughts as much as I do.

As an added plus, they’ve both seen a bunch of the dramas I missed, so we’ll be able to cover a wider breadth of material. As none of us could be accused of brevity, between the three of us, we’ve have got 2007 covered. Possibly a couple times over.

SONG OF THE DAY

Bubble Sisters – “사랑을 찾아서” (Looking for love) from the OST of Mixed-up Investigative Agency.
[ Download ]

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Read the rest of The Year in Review, Part 1: The Best of 2007 (3,995 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 59 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coffee Prince, Dal Ja's Spring, Flowers For My Life, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Que Sera Sera, Story of Hyang Dan, year in review

Last episode is here!

To be honest, I kinda dragged my feet on this one, not just because episode recaps take much more time than anything else, but because I didn’t want to face the blankness of having nothing to watch for the immediate future (and don’tcha know, avoidance always solves problems!). Plus, I feel that final episodes deserve a little more time and effort to give (good) series their proper send-offs. (Bad series can just suck it.)

SONG OF THE DAY

Oldfish – “Way to Home.” I LOVE Oldfish. [ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 16 (Final) (2,966 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

What an excellent episode. By far the best to date. Episode 15 had everything — adventure, mystery, suspense, emotion, depth, and yet another well-done cliffhanger ending.

In fact, it rather felt like a mini-movie more than an episode of television because of the way it skillfully brought the tension to a head; and yet, there were still those trademark Mixed-up small moments of goofiness and wit. It wasn’t till the episode finished that I realized I’d spent the hour all tensed up in anxiety. With just one more episode to go, do our fearless friends finally find the treasure??!?

SONG OF THE DAY

Rumble Fish – “그곳으로” (To That Place) [ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 15 (2,309 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

Seriously, just when I think there isn’t room for any more twists, Mixed-up Investigative Agency throws another one in. I’ve never seen such a tightly plotted series before, not even Veronica Mars. Here, it seems like not only are many clues peppered throughout all the episodes from the beginning, not one clue is wasted.

SONG OF THE DAY

Kite – “Insomnia for the Cake.” Kite is a modern-rock band that I haven’t quite made up my mind about yet. Their first album is half meh average rock, but there are a few tracks I quite like. This is one of them, for its interesting melody and laid-back rhythm. [ Download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 14 (2,021 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

(Another) one of the things I like about Mixed-up Investigative Agency is that the band of treasure-hunting misfit friends has some good ideas, but so often, they’re just plain WRONG. One tricky thing in making a mystery come alive is in making each step believable and yet keep the viewers guessing. The difficulty, many times, is in allowing the heroes to gain their objective, but not TOO easily (or there’s no suspense or fun), and yet also not too much by coincidence, otherwise it’ll seem like they didn’t earn their victory.

The friends mess up quite often, but their mess-ups often lead to insights they wouldn’t have gained otherwise. Which also means that other, smarter people might not have figured out these clues, because they would’ve thought of different, more clever ideas. In this way, this really is a “mixed-up” agency — a bumbling, awkward, clumsy, but lovable group of heroes who may just be the only people capable of finding the treasure. Not in spite of their flaws but because of them.

SONG OF THE DAY

J – “Ghost” from her newest (sixth) album. [ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 13 (2,115 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

Two things have occurred to me while watching Mixed-up Investigative Agency, ideas that solidified in Episode 12. I’ll get to the second item later in the recap, but first is that nobody’s really a bad guy. Certainly, you have people who do more good than bad, and others who do more bad than good, but it’s like a sliding scale of morality and not a definitive, black-white, heaven-hell dichotomy.

The good way of looking at that is that everybody is capable of ceding to their good side. The dumb gangster subordinates, for instance, are aligned with criminals and career violence-doers — but really, they spend most of their time waiting around and filling their hours by bickering or, more hilariously, dancing. I found it pretty touching to see 007 given more depth in recent episodes, and showing remorse for his actions. And it’s not just that he was nervous at the thought that Hee-kyung was seeing Junsu’s ghost — his admission that he’s seen Junsu’s face in his dreams shows that he’s actually been haunted by his complicity in Junsu’s death (even if he didn’t kill him directly) for years. And who’d've thunk all-around badass Baek Min-chul’s Achilles heel was love?

Maybe by that corollary, you must also concede that nobody’s entirely good, either. Our “good guys” are the traditional good guys merely by dint of being the protagonists in this story — but are they necessarily good? Does not being bad make someone good? They’re caring friends and loyal allies (good) but so far they’re mostly acting upon their own interests (bad? morally neutral?). In any case, this good-bad duality is something we see in striking contrast in this episode.

SONG OF THE DAY

Casker – “말할 수 없는 이야기” (A story I can’t tell)
[ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 12 (2,328 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won

One thing I find striking about Mixed-up Investigative Agency is how it’s able to convey such emotional intensity in its expressions of love — but not heart-fluttery romance, or in-the-moment passion. Rather, the deep-seated, time-worn bond between long-bygone (but no-less-remembered) loved ones and their survivors. The person may be gone but the memory of their love is just as strong and able to provide comfort — and pain — now as much as ever.

The first such instance came early in the drama — Jo Man Gi’s bitter son in Episode 2 (or was it 3?) — but has really come out in full force in recent episodes. Eun-jae, for instance, may seem calm and stoic on the outside but harbors deep, internalized pain from losing her father at such a young age. The depth of her father’s love is all the more painful for its loss, but ironically it’s also what gives her the strength to endure that very pain. We first met Yong-su as the World’s Laziest Slacker, seemingly with no ambitions and no motivation, but now we see that the scars of losing his brother were so deep that they in essence stunted his life’s development.

Even (the other) Kim Junsu encounters issues of loneliness and abandonment. Major baddie Baek Min-chul is still hurt by the memories of a childhood of ostracism. And Hee-kyung shares his experience of being deprived of friendly (and familial) affection. What this series has done, then, is provide an impressive study on the memory of love (and its repercussions).

SONG OF THE DAY

BAY – “Misery” [ zShare download ]

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Read the rest of Mixed-up Investigative Agency: Case 11 (2,045 words)

© javabeans for Dramabeans, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lee Eun-sung, Lee Min-ki, Mixed-up Investigative Agency, Ryu Seung-soo, Yeh Ji-won