I know it seems like most of the attention for My Fair Lady is squarely focused on the three main leads, leaving out fourth wheel Moon Chae-won, but she’s not really being overlooked in the greater scheme of things. (I do think her presence in the story is markedly less important than the other three, however, which makes her more of a second-tier character thus far.) Here’s an interview with the rising star:
“I want to show my smile more often”
This is a golden time for Moon Chae-won — dramas, advertisements. She has to smile broadly at the feeling that she’s hitting one home run after another.
Following the popular SBS Brilliant Legacy, which drew in ratings surpassing 40%, her recent drama My Fair Lady also feels like it’s headed for success. Furthermore, she is pleased to be acting the character of “Yeo Eui-joo,” which is a role that suits her perfectly.
The K-drama world rolled into 2008 still riding the high that was 2007, a year in which a startling number of quality dramas were made, and enjoyed. Maybe it rolled in too fast. It ended up getting smothered by the waves of its previous success. In fact, you could say that it even got hit on the head by a stray surfboard, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
Depressing enough intro for ya?
But seriously, 2008 was a dark year for the K-entertainment industry, with not only dramas, but also movies suffering and generally showing poor quality. And not only that, but the economy went kablooie, and we suffered a sobering amount of tragic K-celebrity news.
Personally, this was a supremely frustrating year for a longtime and devoted K-drama fan like me. Before this year, I always gave dramas the benefit of the doubt, and would usually watch at least a certain number of episodes before I passed judgment on them, and decided to continue or discontinue watching. But this year, with every stomach-churning dud, I became more and more impatient, and started going through drama episodes like a vulture searching for roadkill. And boy, did I find a lot of roadkill.
I’m pretty sure 2008 was a record year for me in terms of abandoning dramas. And to think that I used to be the girl who would finish every drama she started, no matter how bad or how boring they were! But the older I get, the less patience I have, and the more critical I become. Besides, I’ve now realized just how precious my time really is. I don’t want to waste it on useless pap, thankyouverymuch.
Still, despite all that, there were a small handful of quality dramas this year. None of them quite matched the heights of some of the dramas of 2007, but still, any kind of quality was more than welcome in this gloomy year.
How should one convey bad news in writing? By creating a buffer first. Avoid traumatizing your audience with the bad news all at once, but instead cushion the blow so that you can maintain goodwill. That textbook approach (business communication, by the way) would be dandy if the crop of 2008 dramas I watched was anything like the stellar quality of 2007. But no, this was a harvest to make one downright grumpy.
This time last year, eight dramas vied to be in my Top 3. Even the ones that disappointed weren’t half bad and at least I finished them. Not this year. I picked up around twenty dramas and dropped at least fifteen. “Dropped” is putting it mildly. I ran from some of them like a kid fleeing an apparition: hands in the air and hair standing on end. As the year wore on, my patience wore thin and my grumpiness increased.
So, no, I can’t use the buffer approach when reviewing this year’s dramas. Hedging doesn’t work for this grumpy cookie. I will present to you the worst dramas first, followed by the so-so ones, and then the few gems of 2008. Even though the year was overcast and gloomy, the sun broke through the clouds occasionally and when it did the effect was glorious. Let’s get the bad news out of the way and we can enjoy the good stuff, shall we?
SONG OF THE DAY
Jin Yi-han – “This is the Moment” which he sang (live!) in Episode 3 of Who Are You. [ Download ]
[And thus begins the year-in-review series for 2008 dramas! This'll be a four-part series, and I'm honored to have three lovely bloggers -- Sevenses, thunderbolt, and Dahee_Fanel -- offering up their reviews in addition to mine. Hope you enjoy! --javabeans]
Year in Review – 2008
- In which I practiced my ?? face a lot.
Well, I’m but a wee babe in dramaland compared to Sarah, thundie and Dahee – I really started watching kdrama in earnest in late 2007. *pause while everyone picks their jaws up from the floor*
Caveat: I don’t have a huge base from which to compare, so this is all in my own humble opinion. You don’t have to agree, and you are definitely welcome to discuss. (No trolling, though, or I will start waving the Baton of Baleetion.) First of all, I’d like to say that my watching dramas is purely for the sake of relaxation – I have enough stress and overwork from school already, plskthx. Therefore it’s rather unlikely for me to take a huge tearjearker and run with it, if you know what I mean.
(And the concept of tearjerkers in general just baffle me a little. Why make yourself unhappy? I do love Atonement to the itty bitty pieces of my fairly battered heart, though that’s neither here nor there.)
So, looking over at the ones I watched this year, I’m actually fairly monogamous about my dramas. (Yay for having schoolwork?) The one thing that kind of stood out in my memory of this year, however, is that mostly all of them tended to have many ‘bleh’ moments – including the ones I’d loved and watched like an obsessed thing.
SONG OF THE DAY
Alanis Morissette – “Orchid,” as it is currently my favourite song ever and I wanted to share it.
[ Download ]
Kim Sang-kyung and Moon Geun-young are the newest recipients of the 2008 Grime Award (pronounced gree-may) for acting, presented by the Korean Television Directors of Photography Association. The honor goes to their roles in their sageuk dramas, Great King Sejong and Painter of the Wind, respectively.
All other awards went to directors; the Daesang, the top award, went to directors Ha Jae-young and Jung Seung-woo for their work on MBC’s East of Eden.
Upon receiving his acting award, Kim Sang-kyung said, “I’m particularly happy to be receiving this award from directors. The most important mood-setter on the set is the director of photography; I wish him good health.”
Moon Geun-young said, “The director of photography, the lighting director, and the staff are always the ones on set who enable me to act my utmost, and enjoy myself the utmost. That’s how I was able to live whole-heartedly as Shin Yoon-bok.”
