Premiere Watch: Bitch X Rich
by missvictrix
Time slot: Wednesday
Broadcaster: Wavve
Genre: Thriller, youth, mystery
Episode count: 10
Reasons to watch: Oh Wavve, you shouldn’t have! When the drama formerly known as Cheongdam International High School gets the English title of Bitch X Rich it tells you just what you need to know, amirite? Grabbing some fan attention due to Red Velvet’s Yeri in the lead, the high school drama pits the bitchy, rich, popular, beautiful, and powerful girl of a prestigious high school against the poor, shy, and decidedly more normal student played by Lee Eun-saem.
As a trade against keeping her mouth shut as a murder witness, our more innocent heroine is transferred to study at Cheongdam high school — and is it just me or does this sound like the terrible/terrifying remake of Boys Before Flowers where Jan-di has to deal with more than getting covered in flour, and her nemesis isn’t an immature chaebol heir who worships her, but a murder suspect who’s far more vicious. Either that, or it’s the alt universe backstory for The Glory that we didn’t know we wanted (or just didn’t want). Anyway. We’ll have to watch and find out.
TL;DR: Bitchy rich girl versus poor frightened girl at prestigious high school
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Tags: Bitch X Rich, Premiere Watch
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1 MikeyD signed up
May 30, 2023 at 11:31 PM
Heh heh, this is the sort of title that if it were to hit an American streaming service would be renamed something like 'Love Says It All' or something equally cheesy.
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Emperor
May 31, 2023 at 12:58 AM
"My High School life" LOL
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2 ys
May 30, 2023 at 11:50 PM
In the short ep zero on youtube, Lee Eunsaem described her character as different from the traditional poor and meek student and instead is strong and refuses to be bullied by anyone. That’s encouraging, though I’m watching this no matter what for Lee Jonghyuk.
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3 DancingEmma
May 31, 2023 at 3:43 AM
Unfortunately “bitch” is a misogynistic word and while its usage might appear to fit girls and women who are bullies and abusers, its wide usage harms and denigrates girls and women everywhere.
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hacja
May 31, 2023 at 7:15 AM
While I could be wrong, and the coarse, flashy title will turn out to be fronting a show that makes a profound comment on the place of young women in contemporary society, for some reason I'm feeling the title is a shallow attempt to show a younger viewing audience that this is a drama that will speak the language of the cool kids. It smacks of a desperate attempt to cover up a cliched, badly written plot whose main marketing point is casting an idol from a girl group of fading popularity. I would worry about the misogyny in the title if it was applied to a show that had anything else going for it.
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DancingEmma
May 31, 2023 at 7:37 PM
Oh, I understand that. I am just generally concerned about the normalisation of such odious terms. Unlike many other words which have been claimed and used by marginalised groups against their oppression (queer is a good example of this), this word is still very much part of the vocabulary of everyday misogyny.
And, I can’t so easily go past it on the basis of what its quality might be. There will still be viewers for it and this word in English is heavily freighted.
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Flix_Crusin
May 31, 2023 at 9:28 AM
Quick note here, the. Korean name if the show translate directly to "Cheongdam International High School" so while Rich X Bitch is unfortunate, it is mostly a translation issue.
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mindy
May 31, 2023 at 11:46 AM
Yeah personally I find it a little odd to shun an entire production because one person probably was tasked with deciding the title and came up with this.
I know people have this thought that every kdrama out there is putting all their resources in getting international appeal but I really think the truth is that most of the people involved don't care about what the English title is, especially for a WAVVE show. They don't seem particularly concerned about the international market and are much more geared towards Koreans.
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DancingEmma
May 31, 2023 at 7:38 PM
Thank you for noting that. I made no assumptions about the Korean title. My point was only about the English title.
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4 Chifu
May 31, 2023 at 6:39 AM
Is it gonna be a weekly thing or all episodes at once kinda show
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5 Islander north
May 31, 2023 at 9:13 AM
We were told forever this was going to be on Netflix, but only place I can find it is IQIYI...so? This is getting so tiresome with kdramas.
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6 ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
May 31, 2023 at 11:01 AM
The title reeks of desperately trying to attract a younger, gen z audience with shock value and trendier, cooler language. Even if the plot synopsis appealed to me, the choice of the English title alone turns me off. And I doubt they’ll be doing anything to actually condemn the use of casual misogynistic language to describe female bullies (yes it’s bad even if they supposedly “deserve it”.). Gen Z audiences are not as stupid as these marketing people think - most of us know when we’re being desperately catered to and we hate it.
It’s a shame, really. I rather like Lee Eun-saem as an actress and had hoped she’d get a boost in popularity post-Red Sleeve Cuff, but she’s stuck playing second fiddle to newcomer idol-actresses.
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mindy
May 31, 2023 at 11:39 AM
Lee Eun-saem is first billing in this show so I don't think she's "playing second fiddle" to Yeri here.
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ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
May 31, 2023 at 9:17 PM
Oh, I thought Yeri had first billing. Lee Eun-saem actually getting the higher billing is good to know.
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MikeyD signed up
May 31, 2023 at 8:45 PM
I have a relative well into retirement age who told me she's recently started cursing. Because at her age, she explained, what does it matter if people don't think she's a 'nice girl'. Admittedly, I've never actually heard her curse but if she ever has a mind to she reserves the right to do so.
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ladynightshade wants to be gazed at by namgoong min
May 31, 2023 at 9:23 PM
Good for your relative! If I'm being completely honest here, I have a bit of a bad habit in real life with cursing. It's something I do a lot in casual conversations with my friends and while I try my best to never use that sort of language in professional or educational settings, I have on occasion gotten in trouble for it lol. That said, my issue with the word 'bitch' being used in the title is different from casual swearing in conversations - I just don't find it to be a good English title derived the original Korean one and something about its usage just feels very try-hard to me. And, y'know, the generally misogynistic implications of calling a teenage girl character by a slur. It just feels unnecessary, that's all.
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7 Sifimoyo
May 31, 2023 at 1:11 PM
Bitch is an extremely ugly word by any standards. I would prefer to think that some marketing genius did a very shallow translation of the original title in a rather sad attempt to be topical, and I hope I'm right. Having struggled with the grossly graphic bullying scenes in Glory, I hope this isn't going to be more of the same. It would appear that bullying in schools is endemic in Korea, since the subject appears in so many dramas. I note also, with disgust, that accusations of bullying levelled against actors or actresses, however fake and unsubstantiated (and most of them are) are enough to ruin a promising career forever.
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8 DancingEmma
June 1, 2023 at 12:39 PM
@missvictrix: Hi. One of my replies in this thread has disappeared. I don’t understand why and find it surprising as well as rude. It was not inappropriate. You left the original comment yet removed my perfectly appropriate reply. Excellent moderation by the way.
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