I completely agree with you Dramabeans. Delightful Girl Chun-Hyang is the best drama ever!! It got my friends hooked on kdramas after I showed DGCH to them, and they were white americans.

Hehe, no place to go, so I am here. =)))

Watched the first seven episodes of Snow Queen....(I got Snow Queen from Netflix! Can you believe it? Netflix has a ton of korean dramas and movies!) I paused episode 8 to give some early thoughts to everyone.

1. As cool and awesome as Hyun Bin was in My Name is Kim Sam Soon, Hyun Bin is twice as cool and twice as awesome in Snow Queen. Jin jja ya. Doo-beh. And his acting is really good (better than he did in MNIKSS, if truth be known).

2. Sung Yu Ri is as good as ANY korean actress I've ever seen, in this particular drama. I can't imagine any actress playing the role of Bo Ra any better. Seriously, I can't say enough about her acting.

3. Even better than the acting, however, is the direction, editing and story. I've NEVER said that about a k-drama before, but I am not kidding, the direction, editing and story is truly great. The music / sound editing is a bit repetitive, like most k-dramas, and it isn't anything special, but who cares.

I have no idea how this will end, but whether it is a happy ending or a sad ending, I am having a great time watching this k-drama. If you are a bit tired of the contract / fake relationship with or without amnesia, and you want a small break to watching something different, with a great storyline and great acting in place of romantic comedies, I think Snow Queen is it.

I reserve the right to change my mind, but at this point, through the first 7 episodes, Snow Queen is as good as it gets. Highly, highly recommended.

-Samsooki

OMG. Episode 8 of Snow Queen was the best.

Can hardly breathe.... it was that good.

-Samsooki

@Samsooki,

My overall favorite Binnie performance either goes to Snow Queen or Ireland. I liked his clean-cut looks as Sam Shik, but then I saw Millionaire's First Love, where he featured the longer hair, I was like "OMGHE'SSOHAWTLOL" Major spazzing. Then in Snow Queen, when he completed the look with a little scruffy action, I just turned into a puddle of goo. Binnie and EMO just work in a spectacular way. :D

Okay, some notes on Snow Queen (mostly on Sung Yu Ri.)

1) Snow Queen was the PD's followup to 2004's I'm Sorry I Love You, and the scriptwriters had done Summer Scent and worked on Winter Sonata. The PD mentored under Yoon Suk Ho of the Endless Love series, and the show was produced by YSH's company. And so if you like the overall presentation (quiet pacing, scenes where the two people are isolated behind gorgeous location shots, strong attention to musical motifs), consider trying out Endless Love series or MiSa. I actually kinda view Snow Queen as the 5th Endless Love show, after Spring Waltz.

2) Sung Yu Ri was originally set to play Eun Chae in Spring Waltz (opposite Joo Ji Hoon.) Presumably, when that fell through, YSH's company (which produced Snow Queen) would later offer the Snow Queen project to her. SYR/JJH were also slated to do Hong Gil Dong, which of course also fell through.

3) Sung Yu Ri's performance of Bo Ra really, really divided the audience, to put it kindly. A lot of people absolutely hated Bo Ra. However, others felt that Sung Yu Ri's acting significantly improved for this show.

4) Some speculated that, in a very early draft of the story, Sung Yu Ri's character was to be based on a daughter from the Samsung Corp, who committed suicide. Obviously none of that made it into the final story.

5) Hyun Bin and Im Ju Hwan are rivals in Snow Queen. However, in Millionaire's First Love (Binnie's project before Snow Queen), they play best friends.

6) Tae Woong was characterized as a mathematical genius to fit the characterization of Snow Queen's Kay, who was the logical, rational one between him and Gerda. And of course, Binnie's emo heart is "frozen" in the show. Siiiiggghhhh :D While I don't think the show really adapts the Snow Queen fairy tale anymore than, say, Cain and Abel adapts Cain and Abel, it was always in the back of my mind that Gerda had to save Kay. And so you can kinda watch the 2nd half of the show as Bo Ra's journey to save Tae Woong. Hey it worked for me! :D

7) Snow Queen didn't do well, but it ended up being very popular internationally, and it sealed Hyun Bin's post-Sam Shik popularity in China.

@104, Belleza,

Heh. I don't know about the goo. It is hard for me to see guys in the same way, even if I try to be objective. Is Hyun Bin puddleofgoo hot in Snow Queen? Well, he's not bad looking, but I can't say I really know what you are talking about. Strictly from my most objective point of view, I might say that in Snow Queen, Im Ju Hwan was "better looking" (whatever that means) than Hyun Bin, but if you put both into a room, the center of attention would be Hyun Bin, not sure why that would be, but it would be the case.

And while Sung Yu Ri is certainly pretty, but I can't say that, if I were single, I would be interested in her, strictly from a physical beauty standpoint. Hard to quantify exactly. Yet the character of Bo Ra is extremely compelling due entirely to Sung Yu Ri's performance (at least, thus far, through Episode 8). You can dislike the character of Bo Ra and you can wonder at whether such a person can possibly exist, but I would find it difficult to argue that Sung Yu Ri's acting wasn't anything but spectacular. Her acting was almost like dream acting, I'm not sure what the technical term is, but basically you close your eyes, dream of a mindset and then let the dream take hold. A personality and person like Bo Ra is so unique and compelling, I think that for certain guys, they would be drawn to her like moths to a flame. Am I one of those guys? Again, hard to say. But, I identify with Hyun Bin's character and raison d'être vis-à-vis Bo Ra.

What's awesome about this drama is that the characters are so rich, so filled with meaning. I've only watched maybe 15 k-dramas and maybe a dozen korean movies so far, but in terms of richness of the main characters, can there be a deeper movie than Snow Queen? Consider:

Bo Ra, a child frozen in times long since past, cannot forget the love she has held for a stranger boy (Han Tae Woong) who for a brief few days, gave Bo Ra the reason to live, she cannot be assuaged from the pain of the incomprehensible suicide by her older brother, cannot forget the betrayal by her own mother to the family, and has been mentally drained and physically tortured for 15 years of endless medical procedures.... then she meets with the stranger boy again, a person she knows only as Han Doo Koo, and not as Han Tae Woong...

Han Tae-Woong, the stranger boy, frozen in time as well, cannot lift the weight of responsibility for the suicide death of his best friend, his strongest rival, the one person in the entire world who might be able to understand him, sits in an endless spiral of regret for the pain he caused due to his choosing to run away and abandon his mother to be all alone and destitute for 8 years while drowning in his own sorrow.... he has changed his name to Han Doo Koo, after the Korean fighter who died at the hands of another boxer, and is only beginning to come to grips with his own life, when he meets a girl named Bo-Ra, not knowing it was he who, 8 years previous, had given Bo Ra a love that has kept her going through the years...

And Tae-Woong doesn't know that Bo Ra's brother was his best friend who threw himself in front of a bus, for whose death Tae-Woong cannot forgive himself. And Bo Ra doesn't know that Tae-Woong was the one who "killed" Bo Ra's brother...And like the lines of oon-myung, fate, coincide, Bo Ra and Tae Woong are tied together as strongly as any knot. And surely, the truth of all things will become known.......

well, that's as much as I know. I'm through Episode 8, and even just writing a synopsis, my heart beats faster and my breath gets caught in my throat.

-Samsooki

"Am I one of those guys? Again, hard to say. "

What does Samsooki's wife say? :D

"but in terms of richness of the main characters, can there be a deeper movie than Snow Queen? "

You'll really like Winter Sonata! ^_^ Are you sure you're not a melodrama fiend like me? :D

Cheekiness aside, onto the show . . .

"Her acting was almost like dream acting, I’m not sure what the technical term is, but basically you close your eyes, dream of a mindset and then let the dream take hold."

Part of that is the PD's way with melodrama. The advantage of slower, quieter pacing gives enough space for ghosts to haunt. And also, Snow Queen kinda reverses the melo-gender roles between Tae Woong and Bo Ra. Bo Ra is the "arrogant guy" in the story; Tae Woong is the "haunted pure girl" in the story. When she learns each piece of the truth, it is her dilemna and her will that will determine the outcome of the story. Can she protect him? Can she save him? She has to really want this, because she has to be stronger than him.

That informs Sung Yu Ri's performance. That dreamy look you speak of is often done by male protagonist (i.e. the part where K-drama actor stares off into space for 15 minutes. :D ) But because Bo Ra is the more proactive character (i.e. the "guy"), much of the first half of the story is her discovery and working through the dilemnas of whether to act or not act. She is the one who falls in love first and again. Even though his past is deeply tragic, it is her love that will be tested most. Sung Yu Ri has to perform the character as such. She gets to stare into space a lot . . . and then she has to make choices.

"Han Tae-Woong, the stranger boy, frozen in time as well, cannot lift the weight of responsibility for the suicide death of his best friend"

Yeah, his character is a male variation of the "pure, innocent girl" in melodrama. Usually in melos, the female character suffers a great, great fall whereby they come into the present emotionally and socially scarred (i.e. she is "poor" and "struggling.") However, this suffering also baptizes them as the fairer, purer, etc. In this story, Tae Woong is almost saintly, and Hyun Bin plays every syllable in the dialogue with melancholy and wistful notes, as if everything said was pained or a process of great thought. And Binnie is great at this, because he's very good with weighing down his line deliveries, at conveying inward solemnity, inward hurt, both, etc. The more dialogue you give him, the better he gets.

If, by the end of Snow Queen, you love the Tae Woong character, then I'd recommend giving MiSa (I'm Sorry I Love You) a shot. Maybe not the happiest show, but the Cha Moo Hyuk Experience is nearly a rite for passage for the K-drama fan. Even if, as Kobe says, it's So Ji Sup staring out into space for like half of the show :)

I just saw Episode 9. Wow.

It's enough to make my gasum tteoh jeoh, you know what I'm saying?

As for your question, I can't ask my wife if she thinks that I am the kind of guy that would be drawn to a girl like Bo Ra, are you kidding me? =P Still, to answer you question, I am that kind of guy. But not because I would fall for Bo Ra, but because if I saw her, and if I knew that I was the guy that could help, then I would.

Btw, I paused this post to watch Episode 10. And jeeeez, Episode 10 was just great. LOL. I am so addicted.

(honestly, though, I am scared for the ending of Snow Queen, and I don't think I can take MiSa for that reason).

-Samsooki

Episodes 11 and 12.... I cannot stop..... LOL.

-Samsooki

"Episodes 11 and 12…. I cannot stop….. LOL"

Hurry up and get to episode 16, so we can talk about the ending! Sleep is overrated when you got K-drama to watch! :D

"and I don’t think I can take MiSa for that reason)"

It's not light (though the show is very funny in places.) But, for me, it's the only convincing portrayal of falling in love that I've seen in d(o)rama.

Belleza,

I've watched 12 episodes of Snow Queen in two days, and I spent the better part of last night thinking about it. Sort of like what Hyun Bin says to Ryeo Won in Ryeo Won's apartment in MNIKSS when he confesses that he likes Sam Soon: "hang sang... seng. gak. nah." The problem with an obsessive personality is that once you get something inside of you, you cannot stop. I've never watched a series so quickly before.

And so I had to read the spoiler episode caps. I still have four episodes to go, but now I can watch in peace, because it was too uncomfortable to watch without knowing.

I think after I finish Snow Queen though, I will not try to watch MiSa, even though I know what happens in that. One far-reaching emotional journey is quite enough for me, for now anyway.

-Samsooki

Wow.... Episode 13.... one of the coolest couplets ever.

"Oh-ren manida, ggo ma ya..."

"Oppa-dooo.."

I can't remember a cooler line, or a cooler rejoinder. Even in my wildest dreams, when I am cooler than I could ever be in real life, even inside my ggoom, I am not as mut-jaeng as Hyun Bin is here...

Episode 14.... fun, happy.

****

but ...Episode 15.... just wow... I have nothing to say.

Episode 16.... with the beeper message....

-Samsooki.

@Samsooki,

The Snow Queen PD had two different endings conceived for the last episode, and I think there were rumors that both endings were shot. The ending was decided on between the staff and leads. For me, it was the rare one that actually felt "good" or uplifting, and I loved the very last image in the show.

Snow Queen had to go up against Jumong, which was doing mid-40s. Its ratings were mostly single digits, and it re-emphasized that South Korea was really tired of old-fashioned tearjerkers. However, internationally, Snow Queen was a big hit, and it sealed Hyun Bin as a next generation Hallyu star. Sam Soon made him popular, but his scruffy, boxing saintly Tae Woong *really* made the teen population of the mainland go crazy for him. And it cemented his popularity in Japan as well.

I actually think Snow Queen hurt Sung Yu Ri's career. She was never considered a great actress, but the hate against Bo Ra was unusually pointed. And, so, at the end of 2006, a poll of producers and writers had Sung Yu Ri at the bottom of idol/singer-turned-actors. Of course, that changed after she did Hong Gil Dong.

@Belleza,

There are a number of actresses who have done a commendable job in k-dramas that I have seen. For instance, Han Chae Young in DGCH did a very good job, not as great as her counterpart Jae Hee, but enough so that she didn't get swallowed up entirely. And, Han Ga In did a good job in Super Rookie, against the acting of Eric Mun and Oh Ji Ho. Similarly, Jang Nara in My Love Patzzi and Nam Sang Mi in Bad Family / Gourmet were worthy of their casting, and kept things interesting and fun (both playing off of Kim Rae Won!). And while a little less great perhaps, I thought that Kim Haneul did a decent job for her role in Bimil, along with Eugene in Save The Last Dance For Me, and Song Hye Gyo in Full House.

I liked some of these roles better than others, I liked some of these actresses (not necessarily the characters) better than others, but overall, each did a good job. I wouldn't give any of them additional plaudits than that, however, even if I did like them a lot.

BUT, then sometimes you get an actress who just does an outstanding job.

1. Kim Sunah in MNIKSS. If there was a role that epitomizes so much of k-dramas and the bittersweet life that is internalized by Koreans, her role was it. Literally dozens of miniseries, across many countries (and even the United States, coming this fall), have sought to duplicate what Kim Sunah created in her title role, and none have come close. Even Kim Sunah herself might not be able to output another effort like that again.

2. Yoon Eun Hye in Coffee Prince. Give me a break. That was completely unexpected, and I doubt if ANY dramabeans readers could have guessed that Yoon Eun Hye could have done what she did in Coffee Prince.

3. Lee Da Hae in My Girl. Comedic timing, brilliant heart-wrenching moments, and everything in between, LDH took a challenging role and average script writing and then exceeded every expectation.

And now, right up there with these three, I think, I have to put Sung Yu Ri. Sung Yu Ri's acting was better than Hyun Bin, no question in my mind. Sung Yu Ri was just brilliant in her role, and I am not sure if any of the above actresses could have done as good of a job as she did. I'm not even sure if it was acting, or whether Sung Yu Ri was just born with that role inside of her.

I am sorry that Sung Yu Ri did not get the accolades she richly deserves for her role in Snow Queen, but I am grateful that she did the role, because she really made it something special.

-Samsooki