@ nycgrl

Spot on analogy, drama sister. Totally agree, the crying fest last night was invigorating and in a way, cleansing. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle CitC now, and will start after my return from BB.

@ bbm

Sorry (sheepish), didn't mean to start a mad dash for Damo. It was sitting on my to-watch pile for so long, and I kept starting online and stopping because the first scene convinced me that I wanted to watch it on TV (same reason I started Tamra so late), that I finally bit the bullet and bought the box set from YA. Then I realized that its a drama that has recently fallen under the radar, but I'm happy my own desire to watch it really brought up the discussion of the drama again.

Good dramas age well - great dramas are timeless.

I dare say, Damo was in 2003, it's been 6 years, and aside from some minor dated or shoddy special effects, the story of Damo is timeless.

@ epyc

Hehehe, my father is a shoe salesman. Really, a gloried shoe salesman (okay, he manufactures shoes - and I get free shoes all the time, my most recent freebie, Juicy Couture white snow boots). Wonder if I'd make a good one myself?

I know you mentioned you are not that into sagueks. I would suggest you start with Tamra - its more fusion and modern and really really sweet, touching and adorable. Tamra really takes off also after the 5th episode, the early eps are rather goofy fun in tone.

Damo is fusion in its action sequences, but adheres to the rigid structures and strictures of saguek dramas, so may seem more formal and perhaps less approachable than Tamra for someone who doesn't watch much sagueks.

Either way, you can't go wrong.

@ epyc

Forgot to add - you'll totally cry in Tamra. If you don't cry in Tamra, something is wrong with your tear ducts. I cried in Tamra, it's totally cry-worthy and so beautiful.

I bawled in Damo. That's the difference.

@271 langdon813

I know, this afternoon, I was walking down on a street in Sydney feeling like I'd lost something or... wired...

@302 ockoala

Oh boy, another recommendation/tamptation, I know it's not the first time you are mentioning Tamra, as a matter of fact, you've been raving about it all along... I feel that my life is getting to be so complicated. How do you guys manage to watch so many dramas with your work, home lives and whatever else is going on in your lives? I need 30 hours a day! Haven't yet started on my New year's greeting card. I'd better getting my @#$% together for getting together my accountant come next year... my website is not completed and so on...

Christmas party tonight and Christmas dinner tomorrow... Sigh. It's a good thing to celebrate...

Any OT-ers in Sydney on 26th? I'll have my afternoon free,

Anyway, Happy holidays everyone! Sending love to you all.

All OT-ers,
just now i am officially moved to other department in the office, the room is sooooo quiet, i can hear the keyboard when i type... the previous room is an open space i shared with some 20 loud people, all under 30... and now it's only the 2 of us (me and my new co-worker)... i'm excited to try new things, but i also gonna miss that ol' bunch of crazy people i left behind...

@nea:notoriousnoona,
don't take my crying-in-every-episodes-watching-STH as a clue about the drama at all, i was in the period that i would cry easily at the time. Heck, i'm still cry so easily, just give me some moving scene (not essentially sad, i have to be moved from that scene), you would find me wiping the tears from the corner of my eyes...

@Ockoala Unnie,
"Good dramas age well – great dramas are timeless."
it's okay, great dramas surely not the one to be missed, yes? kekeke
i'll just going to put Damo in the waiting list, and the list will not getting smaller :P

@234 cingdoc

How’s your marthoning Hwang Jin Yi? Are you emptying your Kleenex box rapidly?

I'm taking it extremely slowly... lol. I've been on episode 4 for a while now. Ha Ji Won is so pretty--I find her even more so (and also funny) after watching her appearance on Family Outing. :D And Jang Geun Suk is adorable!

It has already become XMAS Eve over here for over an hour already. Wanted to wish Happy Holidays~ to all the OTers out there! :)

Dear Javabean and all OT'ers

Best wishes to you all for a peaceful and restful holiday, and a great year ahead!

Just finished preparing some food for tomorrow's Christmas lunch. In case you don't know, we aussies do Christmas lunch, not dinner. My daughter has just returned from a holiday in Seoul with a pig rabbit - Iucky her and envious me.

Thanks, ockoala. "Juicy Couture white snow boots" - you surely are one fortunate girl. I guess I will start Tamra then. Damo has been sitting on my shelf for over three years now. It can wait and might serve its time during drama drought later on. Guess where I got my Damo DVD - in Xi Men Ding, Taipei.

I have a "watched list" of K- & J-dramas, with personal ratings. Now, ARGH!, I think I'm going to need a "must watch" list: CitC, WHiB, Tamra, Misa, now Damo. And I haven't even finished watching City Hall. *shakes fists*

No, seriously, it's great. I love OT recommendations and having a place to discuss what I'm watching. I think that was the main reason why I was so sucked up into YB, which I loved with insane passion in the moment, but which I don't have any strong feelings for now (no withdrawal, no rushing out to buy pig-rabbit or super-expensive director's cut DVD, nope) - it's the fun of the communal madness!

It's been particularly fun to learn about how others first got hooked. My understanding of the K-drama world was limited to weepies like Winter Sonata and for the longest time I swore I would not touch them with a ten-foot barge pole. Oh, the weeping and wailing emanating from the goggle box when I went to my parents', my mother sitting before it transfixed. I resented how these Korean soap operas seemed to invade my mother's brain and turn her from a moderately sensible woman to a quivering mess of sentiment and addiction.

Then one fateful day, two years ago, I was idly channel-surfing when I chanced upon, of all things, Witch Amusement. I was fascinated by Han Ga In's face, so didn't immediately switch channels. And it was dubbed into Mandarin, so by the time I realised it was Korean, I thought Hey this isn't so bad! No weeping, no wailing, no dying, rather fun, actually! So I watched to the end. Looked up the internet (including Dramabeans) and watched Delightful Girl Choon Hyang next, for the Jae Hee. Which I totally loved. I knew nothing about Korean pop culture or K-drama conventions, and was sucked into the DGCH story, swept along by the pace, captivated by the soundtrack (the theme love song from DGCH is STILL the most played track on my ipod, from way back when I was obsessing), fascinated by the way the men were dressed in pink (and it worked!), and piqued by the glimpses into Korean culture. When I was done, I went back to the beginning and watched it all again! If I watched it again today I think I would still like it, because it's fun and zippy, but I probably wouldn't be blown away in the same way.

@nycgrl

I'm home too! Back to the torpid tropics. No Heathrow disaster, thank the stars. I did go back to the National Gallery to check out the Kienholz (also, I was heading for St Martin's for a lunchtime recital), and you are right, it is worth a look. It took me a while to "get" it, but the video and a second walkabout helped.

So, Resurrection trumps Devil for you, eh? That's interesting. Because while I adore Devil and forked out for the original boxed set, I didn't really connect with Resurrection and barely remember the finer plot details. Which did you watch first? I watched Devil first and thought it was fabulous. I was relatively new to K-drama, and while I realised by then that K-drama was more than Winter Sonata, I hadn't expected to be so thoroughly swept along. It was so gripping, I felt real fear and dread for the screen characters. By mid-point I had, of course, no idea who was supposed to be good and who was supposed to be evil anymore, and was basically rooting for *both* to live happily ever after, which you *know* ain't gonna happen. I loved both lead actors, of course. And I loved Shin Min Ah and her character's beauty, physical and in soul. When I watched Resurrection after, I felt it was more black-and-white, less suspenseful and less well-paced. And I didn't get on with the love interest - thought the adoptive sister was a wet cypher. Perhaps it is, as this thread has been saying, a matter of time and space, of where we are when we watch something. Perhaps I was in some way "spoilt" by Devil. Or perhaps I was missing something in Resurrection. But I'm really interested to know what makes Resurrection your all-time favourite.

Oh, and cheers, everyone, and Happy Holidays!!

@ockoala
It's been fun to read your comments on Damo -- I am glad I saw your Twitter feed and then checked out your thoughts here.

Like de-lurked Anon earlier, I also have wondered why you all never talked about Damo! I figured that I was the only person on the planet to have loved-loved-loved it. It is one of those true love triangles in that both men are totally viable choices, and you invest in both, and your heart aches for all three.

I am surprised to see it referred to as a fusion sageuk. It's like straight-up sageuk to me. But then I watched it a few years ago, and before Hong gil Dong, which I can totally see is fusion, and maybe I am just not as well-versed in various of sageuks...

Ha Ji Won is the most beautiful woman on this planet. I even watched the awful movie Phone recently just because of my (now years of) fan-crush on her. She doesn't seem to generate the kind of veneration other established A-list actresses like Choi Ji Woo or song hye kyo or Yoon Hye or yoon eun hye do. Maybe I am just not picking up on it, but she really doesn't seem to generate much fandom craziness, which has baffled me over the years. Either way, she was fantastic in Damo.

About Damo's ending and the commentary on the fate/connections between the characters...I have strong feelings on it, not all positive. But overall, damn, this drama gets an absolutely solid A.

To all my friends here in Dramabean OT

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays :)

Keep warm and be safe...

@310 was me....internet is acting up, again :(

This is just a joke, but who does this video remind you guys of:

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4438098&l=100022574

sorry, I couldn't help it ;)

@ cingdoc

LOL!
Baby Ji Hoon probably has to endure worse tortures than that. ;)

Well over here in Germany "Heiligabend" just ended, but we have the 1st and the 2nd Christmas day still ahead. That means there will be relatives, food and gifts galore.

Merry Christmas to you all!

@315 Samsooki
Head bowing realllly low, BUT actually hiding a smirking smile....
Sorry, buddy....Merry Christmas ;)

#316 is me....I think JB is trying to kick me out of OT??? or my internet is acting up, again