
My pick for Drama of the Year: City Hall.
I’ll start of with an admission. When javabeans asked me to give my thoughts on 2009, I was pretty excited, and agreed without much thought. After all, 2009 was the best year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had. But then it hit me: 2009 was also the only year of k-drama watching I’ve ever had. lol. And so, even given the number of dramas as I have seen this year (probably topping 50) I feel a bit out of my league. How can I be critique-ing with any legitimacy?
Nevertheless, I do think a newbie’s perspective on dramas is not necessarily a bad thing - since everything is new to me, it is tougher for me to be jaded. Like when I saw Save The Last Dance For Me (my third k-drama ever!), I spent days afterwords thinking about what it would be like to have amnesia and then a second round of amnesia where I would forget what I had promised to remember while being forgetful the first time time around…
So while I can’t do an expert review, since I’m not an expert, I can give a newbie opinion on what worked for me, and what didn’t. First though, a little background on me so that you know where I am coming from. Sample of pre-2009 dramas that I liked: My Love Patzzi, Who Are You, Full House, Save The Last Dance For Me, Two Outs In The Bottom of the Ninth, and Super Rookie. These dramas tend to mix cuteness and heart together in a way that Western television shows still haven’t figured out how to do consistently. I think it has something to do with the soundtrack songs that act as demi leit motifs and burrow the sentiment of the drama into your heart and mind. I mean would Full House have been as good, without “I Think I” by Byul? Or how good would Save The Last Dance For Me have been, without Edward Chun’s breath-y lyrics?
And taking it up a notch, here is a sample of pre-2009 dramas I loved: Goong, Coffee Prince, Bad Family, Dal Ja’s Spring, Hong Gil Dong and My Girl. Even more than the first group, these latter dramas did more than just create a nice balance of cuteness and heart; these dramas created a love story so palpable and real that, if you wanted to, you would need both hands to reach out and hold onto one. And lastly, my first and still favorite drama of all is My Name is Kim Sam Soon, which combined everything – the cuteness, heart, love story, wonderful acting and a kickass OST.
Enough with the old, however. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on 2009 (oh, btw, hit “play” for the mp3 so you get the full technicolor and sound effects of this review. if the song ends, and you’re not done reading, then just scroll back up and hit play again. hehehe!):
SONG OF THE DAY
City Hall OST – “웃어봐” (Laugh) by Chae Dong-ha [ Download ]
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Tags:
Accidental Couple,
Assorted Gems,
Cinderella Man,
City Hall,
Friend Our Legend,
guest bloggers,
IRIS,
Job Well Done,
Kyung Sook Kyung Sook's Father,
My Fair Lady,
Partner,
Queen Seon-deok,
Sons of Sol Pharmacy House,
Story of a Man,
Tamra the Island,
Temptation of Wife,
year in review,
You're Beautiful
Filed under: Drama Reactions & Reviews by samsooki - 149 Comments →