Am halfway through W-Two Worlds, and so far I think it is very fine. But man, am I sick of mind wipes. All the slow gradual work of building relationships and context and understanding goes out the window just like that. It had better be worth it.
Of course I now understand why Lee Jong-suk’s little cameo in Weightlifting Fairy was so funny, (quite aside from the 15 seconds of hilarious banter with Bok-Ju’s uncle…)
I really AM enjoying it. I’d only ever seen Lee Jung-suk in that little Weightlifting Fairy cameo and in the first part of Romance is a Bonus Book which didn’t really do it for me. I’m loving him in this, and I don’t suspect that taking Kang Chul’s free will away again (even if he volunteers to do it) is the way his story needs to go…
I once received a Facebook “like” from the US general who heads the joint US/Korea military command in Seoul. He liked a comment I made on use of the apostrophe, on a FB page dedicated to language…
Now the horse is talking. That horse knows his stuff! I note also that our Head Gangster, who I love to pieces, also has a lifesize horse in his house, which he has unsuccessfully tried to mount…
Done another rewatch of Legend of the Blue Sea and it has now become one of my favourite kdramas. It’s a wonderful layered re-telling of the story of a mermaid in love. Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun are adorable lovers who could make me both laugh and cry, and the show is richly populated with supporting characters who I learnt to love.
One who stood out for me was Park Hae-soo as the hilariously irritable Detective Hong, who finds himself reluctantly helping a bunch of conmen solve a whole lot of murders. I thought: this guy has presence, charisma, rugged good looks. I like him. I look him up.
Gosh, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. First leading role the next year in Prison Playbook, then the sky’s the limit in Squid Game. Good for him. Every drama I watch, I make new connections.
My brothers liked it (analytical, accounting shenanigans). Maybe your son would like that aspect, too. I also liked well enough. Mostly I was happy to watch it together!
Last night’s dream: My dream was set at a sports stadium during some big sporting event, and the TV commentators are scanning the crowd for celebs, and one of them says that they might have seen the captain of the Korean soccer team up in the back row.
The camera pans up to the back row in search of him, but instead finds… “Hey, isn’t that Gu Jun-pyo?!” someone in the studio calls out. Sure enough it is everyone’s favourite chaebol heir, but he’s looking slightly scruffy round the edges as if he hasn’t been home to be primped and polished for a few days….
There he is in the back row, getting cosy with some girl in school uniform – how scandalous! (Are they wagging school? Has he escaped his mother’s clutches for a day or two?) The TV camera has found them. Now both have seen their smoochy tete-a-tete is up on the big screen, and they are hugely embarrassed… he’s angrily trying to cover both her face and his…
End of dream. Damn.
They’re so gorgeous. I am watching Legend of the Blue Sea and loving it. Jun Ji-hyun is a mad delight and LMH a glorious pushover. But man, do I hate mind-wipes. All that beautiful progress undone.
It fits with the mermaid mythology, but I agree it feels like cheating. Though to give the show its credit, at this early stage (ep 5) LMH is rather obsessing over what he should be remembering. In fact he has just thrown the mermaid out of his house because she won’t tell him. I assume she wiped his mind to protect herself, but given she was already really attached to him at that stage and was planning to swim to Seoul to find him, wouldn’t she realise she’d need to build a whole new bond with him? Anyway, I wait to see how it unfolds… She’d better not bloody do it again!
She looks fabulous. It’s a wonderful combination of masculine and feminine style. And she wears something in ep 2 of the show that I have to screenshot and put up here because I like it so much.
1) Korean brothers are so BOSSY.
2) Please, lead actor, when you\’re driving, don\’t turn your head and have a long intense conversation with your passenger. Look where you\’re…… AAARGH
I always think of that scene in Amelie where she complains about movies where drivers don’t watch the road. I think the latest one that annoyed me was Destined With You
A teenage boy lecturing his sister, in her late 20s, about her behaviour… well, that’s when I start to think a smack up the side of the head is a GOOD thing….
Hmm. Am watching The King: Eternal Monarch, and the reveal where Lee Gon figures out who the masked person was who rescued him from the murderous hands of his uncle feels like a shoutout to Harry Potter. You know, in the Prisoner of Azkhaban, where Harry figures out who sent the stag patronus to save him from the Dementors….
Not criticising—I quite like the parallel. Am finding this drama a mixed bag… some parts wonderful and thrilling, and others a WTF or a FFS. I don’t find LMH the world’s best actor but he has enormous presence which suits the kingly role. The romance not so much. It is developed in an erratic and confusing manner.
The horse is rather fabulous. And I rather like Kim Kyung-nam.
Absolutely. I keep flicking back to watch bits of Boys over Flowers again, and honestly that lead romance is four ways to insane, and LMH is just this ridiculous big starry poor little rich boy stupid boyfriend adorable lug that you ever saw.
This is my first sight of him (and at first I thought he was Wi Ja-hoon!) and I like him a lot. I see he was in Prison Playbook, which I must pick up again.
Come And Hug Me : He had one one the best evolution as a character.
When Stars Land : His story with his colleague was the best part.
Special Labor Inspector Mr. Jo : It was a very different role and he had a romance too!
The One and Only : The story was really weird. But the couple had a great chemistry.
I dropped this one after a couple of episodes. There wasn’t enough brilliance in KES’s script to outshine the other (dumb) stuff. At least not for me. Glad you seem to be enjoying it.
Love a man with a decent nose who can sit a horse well. See how it goes. Am one and half episodes in.
(PS: Astonishing drop in ratings on this site for the vampire show! Haven’t watched it, but I guess people were unhappy with the ending…?)
It seems like I am among a few hear who think LMH is absolutely handsome, and even if his acting doesn’t wow me or anything, he has done a pretty good job for the roles given to him.
When a role calls for a handsome prince, he is the one.
Well he’s growing on me in Eternal Monarch. I didn’t really rate the acting of either lead for the first episode but they are developing nicely. I think he is very handsome and certainly has presence. She is growing on me too.
The only other show I’ve seen him in is Boys Over FLowers, which I tried watching for a second time last weekend but rapidly got annoyed. I can see LMH is the utter stereotype of the spoilt chaebol prince learning humanity from the spunky commoner. But he does it with such style! Trouble is I can’t bear the acting of the female lead, so much awkward grimacing, and physical hamminess, some of which I think is supposed to be comic, but it does nothing for me.
I agree. I enjoyed The King thoroughly. The visuals, cinematography, songs are stunning. The story is a fairy tale, so you have to relax and be wherever the show takes you in order to get the most rewarding experience.
I guess JCW isn’t bestowed with the gift for choosing scripts.
Until this day, HEALER remains the show with the highest number of comments per episode on DB. More than 11,000 comments for the finale, an unbeatable record, isn’t it?
I only discovered both Healer and JCW about three to 4 months ago (watched my first kdrama last year). I read all the recaps and a lot of the comments here, and it was exhilarating to follow the fans’ rising excitement about it. Tough I think for JCW and those following him, after Healer, because it strikes me a role that good in such a well-written allround fabulous show doesn’t come along very often. And so most things afterwards would be a bit of a comedown.
I’ve since watched some more of his stuff, thought he was fine in Empress Ki; could not get into K2, thought there was something lifeless about it despite all the frenetic action; enjoyed his seemingly effortless comic skills in Suspicious Partner and Backstreet Rookie. Haven’t gone anywhere near Melting, which I hear is bad. I wonder if the hospice one is worth me trying to track it down outside Netflix. The magical musical doesn’t look like my sort of thing. I was in two minds about Lovestruck in the City but liked it better on a second watch. He does angst, irritation, despondency, nerves, really convincingly. I’m not so convinced at his portrayal of ecstatic happiness. Seems a bit forced. He seems to do happiness better when it’s a more understated thing. I adore the scene in Healer when he and PMY have done their heist thing in police HQ, and are outside listing all the crimes she’s committed. She says this is what comes of having such a boyfriend and it’s so much fun, and races back inside. He rolls the word boyfriend round in his mouth and does a wry grin and looks up at the sky, and says, ah what a nice day it is. I lOVE that.
It’s weird being a fan. You feel like you know them, when you really don’t. After Healer, it was hard not to be a bit in love with him, it was such an attractive performance in all senses. I loved what a slob he was as Healer in his abandoned warehouse, and how he wasn’t all perfection… you could even see his complexion wasn’t perfect under his makeup.
Now he’s so taut and glossy and perfect and thin, I kind of worry for him. I don’t envy that life. I wish him true love, and the best of scripts.
I just really liked these couple of relaxed photos of our Healer stars… I think it was a cast dinner to watch episode 2 or 3, and clearly they were reacting to a bit of comedy…
I think JCW’s performance in Empress Ki was excellent, it and Healer are his most outstanding works to date. Agreed, Suspicious Partner was watchable, I did enjoy it and even gave it a rewatch. But it didn’t make my list of all-time favourites.
I fast-forwarded K2, dropped Backstreet Rookie and Melty early on, finished Lovestruck and Sound of Magic but didn’t like either, and again dropped the hospice one.
After seeing JCW here and there, I realised that he’s quite the same in every role (painful for me to say it out loud). His way of speak, his speech pacing, his voice tone, his gaze, his body language… is still that of JCW we see in interviews. It’s not uncommon though, a lot of actors are like that, and actually it takes special talent for an actor to be a different person for each role he plays, and I think JCW is not there (yet). Healer is a show where all elements converge to make a (nearly) perfect whole and as you said, it’s hard to come by (again).
I mentioned JCW’s sense of choosing scripts because I think all of the above applies to all actors, not only him. A lot of actors I like have only one hit show, or even no hit show, but their other shows should be watchable. It’s a shame that JCW’s shows are very hard to stomach for me.
Anyway, I still have a soft spot for him and hopefully he’ll soon make my heart flutter again.
“ It’s weird being a fan. You feel like you know them, when you really don’t” 👈🏽 I’ve been thinking about this all day. I feel the same way too. It’s because the characters they play feel so close, the emotions those characters evoke in us feel palpable, isn’t it!
Am rewatching some of The Empress Ki and am struck again by one scene which I regard as the most erotic I’ve seen in a kdrama. The emperor stumbles on an injured and desperate Ki Yang in the palace grounds, and to help her evade her enemies, hides her with him in his bath-tub. But she runs out of breath and passes out and he sinks down and gives her the kiss of life underwater.
To me, this scene isn’t erotic because either of the participants are in that sort of mood – far from it. Both are desperate and frightened. Death is on her heels in the form of the Empress’s brothers who are chasing the trail of her blood through the palace grounds. What’s more, the two of them last saw each other months earlier and parted on miserable terms – the Emperor has lost her to her first love Wang Yu, and learns she despises him for his role in the death of her father.
It is the visual story-telling that is erotic. It is the striking contrast between the desperate situation in terms of the plot on the one hand, and on the other, the picture on our screen, the picture and the sound, the physical reality of their closeness and our knowledge of these two characters.
It’s an intensely erotic scenario, picture-wise. A man is desperately in love with a woman. He is naked in his bath-tub, and she is under the water with him. He sinks beneath the water to kiss her back to life. Red and gold light play on them under the water, and rose petals float past. The kiss is intense. The sound cuts out and then we hear a high choral keening. (The sound choices are key – some sort of sentimental “our love is destiny” ballad would have killed this scene dead.)
It’s an exceptional scene, where the sensuous visuals play against the life-and-death peril of this moment, and the conscious feelings and intentions of these two. It’s a beautiful piece of visual story-telling, which hints at their future while dramatically portraying their present.
Just to add also, I know some watchers of this show find the Emperor, as played by Ji Chang-wook, unbearably whiny and pathetic, and fast-forward through his scenes. That doesn’t worry me at all, as it just makes me think more carefully about why I think the opposite.
This drama is about brutal power struggles, where life is cheap. This is the sort of drama where everyone you liked or admired ends up as a corpse.
People at the bottom of the heap are treated like animals and those at the top must constantly watch their back for a knife, and their food for poison. To survive, you must be cunning and brutal yourself. The Emperor is a mild sort of character who has lived in fear for most of his life. This is not irrational fear. His father was poisoned, and the dominant political faction are out to kill him.
He’s not cut out for the toughness and brutality required. I can relate to that. The thought of trying to survive in such times… just makes me very glad I live now. Even though fearful characters who rise to heroism – and stay there — are emotionally satisfying to watch, there is something relatable about fear, weakness and pathos if it is compellingly portrayed.
In this drama, JCW is quite compelling in his portrayal of a gentle character quite out of place in his time. His desire for a quiet life with his woman and his child would be, in today’s terms, quite sane. (In fact he’d be lauded for being an antidote to so-called “toxic masculinity”.) In this drama, he is at the centre of a brutal maelstrom—it’s enough to drive a man to drink. JCW excels at playing quite naked vulnerability – particularly in relationships. I read one interview with him, which made me wince for him at how much this vulnerability might come from real life, and which made me admire him for having the guts to say what he did.
I don’t envy the lives of Korean celebrities – such intense pressure they live under. Relentless scrutiny from the fans and the media, to look perfect, to always say and do the right thing. Kowtowing to sponsors, putting themselves out there for fan events that seem to me to be pretty lame and embarrassing. Working themselves to exhaustion.
I am sure they are all flawed people, just like the rest of us, but generally speaking I wish for them true love and great scripts. Well some of them.
Just watched the penultimate episode of 19th Life. It really did the business, in a drama that I had felt was meandering… it was taut, tense, revealing, and setting up well for the finale.
Decided to watch something new rather than mindlessly rewatching things I\’ve already seen, so I started on Signal, which has been on my watchlist a while. About quarter of the way through the first episode I was feeling confused. Of course one often is at this point, and it wasn’t helping that I was watching it in bed on my phone and nodding off. The very good recaps here made me realise how much detail I hadn’t noticed and got me going on it again, and I think it’s great.
But I realised from the recaps that three different photographs that are shown by characters in the first 20 min of the show had (I imagine deliberately) been blurred beyond recognition in the Netflix version I am watching. The first two photos are of actors that our profiler hero is showing to the reporter to boast about what he has deduced about them. The third is the picture of Batman which he picks up from the detective’s desk in their argument about the dignity of cops’ work.
Why would Netflix do this? Some legal and/or copyright reason? It certainly doesn’t aid comprehension of the details of the show.
One or two more grumbles about Netflix:
1) The recaps here of Suspicious Partners include tasty little epilogues at the end of each double episode. NONE of these appear in SP in my Netflix feed.
2) Comparing the version of Weightlifting Fairy that Netflix shows me with the recaps here, it seems Netflix has cut two scenes, God knows why. One is of Jung Jun-hyung taking Kim Bok-ju to a nightclub to cheer her up and she dances hilariously badly; the other is the assistant weightlifting coach getting morosely drunk on her own at the weightlifting gym, which makes sense of a later comment by the lead coach that she shouldn’t drink on her own or she’ll become an alcoholic.
3) Subtitles. I don’t know if the different channels have different translators, but sometimes I wonder about their accuracy on Netflix. All I know is that the Italian journalist Chae Young-shin admires in Healer is Oriana Fallaci, not the name the Netflix subtitles came up with.
There’s actually a third Weightlifting Fairy scene Netflix has cut… the one where Bok-ju and her two buddies go out for some karaoke fun. Why would they cut this??
Not being able to play the music for IP reasons is often why. There’s a hilarious scene in Good Manager that I had been telling @indyfan that they should be waiting for in which Junho and Namgoong Min dance to a K-pop girlband song. Comedy gold. It’s there on Viki, but Netflix had apparently cut it…and Indyfan was a really good sport and went to find it!!
It’s here, should you want to see it, but if you’ve not yet seen Good Manager, I’d wait, and watch on Viki 😁: https://youtu.be/9GwAP2TnQFc
I also hear tell that there are sometimes cuts made to soothe American audiences as well, but I’ve never seen direct evidence of that. Perhaps you might have.
I still haven’t watched Good Manager! On the list for sure. It’s just KTL is three hours of Junho fan service. I never thought I’d say it, but I think that’s enough of a weekly Junho dose for me.
Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by “for IP reasons”? The scenes involved have a soundtrack that can’t be played to a particular audience or country?
Is Viki a better option than Netflix for kdramas? I wonder if I can sign up for it in NZ…
Anyway, despite the ridiculous blurred photos, I’m one and half episodes into Signal and it’s terrific.
Yeah, “intellectually property (IP).” I’ve definitely seen cases where Netflix can’t afford/doesn’t want to pay for the music rights for certain scenes, so, they replace the music or cut the scene. Viki has done it too, so they’re not exempt or anything…however they have a lot of dramas Netflix doesn’t!
It was me who noticed the absence of that scene in Good Manager.
Netflix and Viki both drive me up the wall when they do these things.
When Viki changes the songs/music (Shopping King Louis, The best hit), or when they take a complete scene off (if you watch Shining inheritance on Viki and even in the official YouTube Channel you miss a whole karaoke sequence).
Netflix doesnt really cut bc of copyrights. It cuts because the shorter the episodes, the more you need stuff to watch.
but blurring pictures might be bc it is a screenshot of the actor from a copyrighted movie
Well, Netflix is f**king ridiculous. Why cut 7 minutes out of a 16-hour drama. Unless there’s a lot more being cut we don’t know about…
I am reading up about Viki, which sounds very interesting.
The criticisms of Netflix are completely deserved, but Viki also didn’t have the Suspicious Partner epilogues. I found them on Youtube – without subtitles, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out what was happening with the help of recaps and the comments on the videos.
I wonder if the issue with the actor photos in Signal is that they’re stills from movies/TV shows for which Netflix doesn’t have a license? The similar case that’s been bothering me is Nine: Nine Time Travels, in which the movie “The Bodyguard” and songs from it are a touchstone throughout the show – but all photos, posters, and album covers are blurred and different songs are swapped in when the characters play or talk about those songs. It must be for copyright reasons, and it’s been consistent across Tubi and all unlicensed streaming sites on which I’ve found it. It’s kind of hilarious but also annoying.
That’s such a shame about the Bodyguard stuff as it is clearly quite meaningful to that show. And I can understand the desire of writers to reference other things going on in popular culture.
Been rewatching Backstreet Rookie, and I liked it lots more the second time round. This is a really entertaining and heartwarming story of family and class. My favourite scene of the lot is near the end where Dae-hyun tells his parents he likes the life they have shown him and doesn\’t aspire to more.
Wanting more and better for your kids seems to be the excuse/justification in kdramas for parents pushing and bullying their children into things they may not want. I love how Dae-hyun completely undercuts that in a couple of sentences, and his parents are so flummoxed by this that they’re laughing and crying and threatening to make another baby.
Dae-huyn’s family aren’t perfect, of course. This is not a complete romanticisation of the working class. His sister is just awful, an unrepentant thief and a user; and his parents’ bickering is exhausting, and often hard on both the ears and the stomach. But they redeem themselves by just providing the basics of family values – a roof over the family’s head, meal-times round the table, a warm welcome and staunch loyalty.
These things may seem pretty ordinary, but to our heroine Jung Saet-byul – who is homeless, parentless, and jobless when she is rescued by Dae-hyun’s mother – they are heaven. As played by the wonderful Kim Sun-young, this matriarch is loud, tetchy and pretty slap-happy, but also maternal in the best sense, and when she finds a lost duckling she takes her home. (This is a nice echo of the opening scene where her son rescues a kitten, with unhappy consequences for his love life.)
If Dae-hyun and his family are way too far down the social ladder for Yeon-joo’s snobbish clan, then Saet-byul is way off the bottom rung in social terms. She has no parents, dropped out of high school, and has a reputation for violence. Not only that, she is responsible for a snotty and ungrateful little sister.
I like it when different things about a character play against each other. Actress Kim Yoo-jung is very beautiful and her massive crush on Dae-hyun pretty gooey. But there is nothing pretty and sentimental about her life. The kind of grit and swagger she needs, and uses, just to get her through each day – to get a job, to keep the job, to keep her sister under control, to handle her enemies on the street – make her a character to sympathise with and root for.
I’m pretty fangirly about Ji Chang-wook so I try to think quite carefully about what I like and/or don’t like about his performances. And on the subject of his good looks, does every character who meets his character in every drama really HAVE to exclaim how handsome he is? Really? It gets on my nerves. Can’t someone just think it and not say it? Is it supposed to be a sign of moral or social superiority to be beautiful?
And given those good looks, it’s very clear I like him best when he’s playing AGAINST them. His performances appeal to me, and convince me most, when he’s playing tired, cranky, nervy, drunk, miserable and pissed off. I especially like it when he starts doing those nervous rants where he repeats himself and jabs his finger at people and trips over his words. He really has the comic touch, and this drama shows it off.
One of my favourite scenes in Backstreet Rookie is where he finally gets given the boot by Yeon-Joo, and goes to the beach to drink and mope. Saet-byul tracks him down to cheer him up, and they bicker. The ability to bicker well is a sure sign to me of romantic compatibility. (Just for the record, my favourite bickering is between Lee Sung-kyung and Nam Joo-hyuk in Weightlifting Fairy – they take it to a fine art.)
These two also, quite literally, work well together. One of the strengths of Backstreet Rookie, is its portrayal of the exhausting relentless work of the 24-hour service industry. A guy and a gal who can fancy the pants off each other, AND share enthusiasm for cleaning the coffee machine, front-facing all the product, and providing pleasing customer service all night long, will do just fine.
I don’t have this drama on my “plan to watch list” but after reading your comment I think I’ll add it. It could be nice.
And now I quote you:
“really HAVE to exclaim how handsome he is? Really? It gets on my nerves. Can’t someone just think it and not say it? Is it supposed to be a sign of moral or social superiority to be beautiful?”.
That happens in lots of dramas and I find it weird because it’s something that it’s not common in my country. Here people rarely compliments/flatters someone they have just met, but in k-dramas and c-dramas women and men are always talking about how good looking someone is, or they say it directly to them. I have seen it lots of times and still it seems weird from my Western perspective.
As I said in my review, it really took me two watches to appreciate this drama. It’s often the case with me. Things I find slow or irritating first time round can mean a lot more on the second.
The beauty thing is odd to me too, from my western perspective. In real life, I’m often slightly suspicious of people who are really good looking! It’s very clear to me too, how much kdramas are designed for the female gaze. It used to be, way back, particularly in western TV/movies, that women were the sex objects and often were stripped down to skin. Now it seems rare in a kdrama where you don’t see the male lead stripped to the waist and even in the shower, and showing off the most extraordinary physique — both very slim and amazingly ripped. They are undeniably attractive but I wonder at the pressure on them to look that perfect.
Ji Chang-wook’s good looks are legendary. But I must admit that his versatility, the ability he has to inject so much realism and subtle complexity into every emotion his character (all his characters) experiences deserves a lot more praise.
Don’t get me wrong, looks are great. But my brain struggle with the visual appeal in people’s appearances, gender being irrelevant. Instead, I find myself drawn to raw, believable emotions however small they may be. JCW is a fantastic messenger for any writer’s work and I am endlessly compelled by the intelligence of his acting.
Yeah, I agree with all you say. He is a great actor, with a wonderful range, and I hope for his and our sakes that he gets lots of great scripts in his future career.
I also have some struggle with the very good looks, feeling simultaneously seduced by them and suspicious of them. I do know that I wouldn’t have much interest in JCW if he were just a pretty face. He makes characters come to life and makes them very human.
My knowledge of k-pop is a tiny smidgen above zero, so when I finished watching (and loving) Vincenzo a few months back, the scenery-chewing master villain rang no bells for me. It wasn’t till I read a few reviews and comments along the lines of “Taec is so great”, “love Taec” etc, that I decided to investigate further, and found the man has quite the career. And I found I rather liked this:
I love how the man has some meat on his bones, how his clothes bring to mind La Vegas era Elvis (though a LOT healthier!), and I get quite the fannish thrill when he whips off those ‘70s shades near the end…. It’s quite the duet, and the standard of dancing is awesome.
The first season was great but in a later season they messed with Billy (he acted out of character) and although later they confirmed the reason I had walked away gutted my favourite programme had been tampered with and I could not go back. I was the same with Carter from ER when he went from cute to having issues but I was obsessed with ER so couldn’t leave but I never forgave them for that storyline.
There were lots of those big American TV shows I never watched. I was a massive fan though of the three main Joss Whedon shows, Buffy, Angel and Firefly, and was deeply immersed in the fandom on Livejournal. I have to say it wasn’t always a healthy experience. I was angry for years about what I saw as the faults in the later seasons of Buffy. Whedon was a genius but also a prick and a hypocrite. Far too much unquestioning hero worship of him at the time. I also came to understand that actors may very well have nothing insightful or useful to say about the character they played.
Well, first of all, that was supposed to be “IN a truly caring way,” @kas61. I’ve been having a lot of “one-letter-typos” these days.
Second, I didn’t mean to be too opaque. I just meant, when joining online fandom communities (of which we’ve both clearly been a part, here and elsewhere), the folks around us can seem “saner” than the last time…and that can definitely be the case!!
But, if you’re the type to get swept up in the more, let’s say, intense (rather than insane) parts of these communities—and I’m letting you know that I have tended that way, myself—then it’s wise to watch out for how you’re responding first, and then look to others’ behavior.
I could sound a little patronizing here, I suppose. But, do know that I typed my first comment—and I’m typing this one—also to remind myself to stick to my own rules and boundaries.
Hahaha! This reminds me of when I started kdrama and was totally immersed to the point of thinking I heard OSTs playing at Target or the grocery store 🤦🏼♀️
Kas61
October 27, 2023 at 3:07 PM
Am halfway through W-Two Worlds, and so far I think it is very fine. But man, am I sick of mind wipes. All the slow gradual work of building relationships and context and understanding goes out the window just like that. It had better be worth it.
Of course I now understand why Lee Jong-suk’s little cameo in Weightlifting Fairy was so funny, (quite aside from the 15 seconds of hilarious banter with Bok-Ju’s uncle…)
Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
October 27, 2023 at 3:53 PM
Isn’t it fun? I’m on my fourth watch. I love this show – glad you’re enjoying it!
Yeon-joo definitely has something to say about mind wipes.
bong-soo
October 27, 2023 at 4:13 PM
NOOONAAAA!!! (said going backwards like back in Joseon days).
Kas61
October 27, 2023 at 4:20 PM
I really AM enjoying it. I’d only ever seen Lee Jung-suk in that little Weightlifting Fairy cameo and in the first part of Romance is a Bonus Book which didn’t really do it for me. I’m loving him in this, and I don’t suspect that taking Kang Chul’s free will away again (even if he volunteers to do it) is the way his story needs to go…
Kas61
October 19, 2023 at 5:47 PM
I once received a Facebook “like” from the US general who heads the joint US/Korea military command in Seoul. He liked a comment I made on use of the apostrophe, on a FB page dedicated to language…
owl 🦉 🫰
October 19, 2023 at 6:06 PM
That seems like an impressive “like.”
Kas61
October 19, 2023 at 6:15 PM
I was pretty impressed! General Paul leCamera… And you gotta love a man who’s keeping the free world safe AND knows his apostrophes.
owl 🦉 🫰
October 19, 2023 at 6:29 PM
Or, as the poor punctuation mark is often incorrectly placed, apostrophe’s.
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 1:29 PM
Have been promoted to water maid…. oh, my aching back!
Cecee
October 16, 2023 at 1:30 PM
Happy H20 day!
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
October 16, 2023 at 1:38 PM
Congrats on your level climb, hopefully you wont drop any jugs whilst on duty😊
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 7:14 PM
Bound to trip, and spill them all over the 3rd eunuch’s best robe…
bbstl 🧹
October 16, 2023 at 4:06 PM
Congratulations! 🪣🪣 here’s one for each hand!
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 7:14 PM
Why thank you!
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
October 16, 2023 at 6:44 PM
🚰 🚿 ♒
Happy watering!
Congratulations on leveling up.
owl 🦉 🫰
October 16, 2023 at 8:35 PM
🪣
korfan
October 18, 2023 at 4:22 PM
Congratulations!
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 1:30 AM
Just started watching Wok of Love, as part of my Junho experiment, and it is CRACKING ME UP.
Dorotka
October 16, 2023 at 2:33 AM
Have you reached the part with the talking horse? 😄
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 2:38 AM
No, still only on ep2, but it’s vastly enjoyable. There’s been a horse but no talking…🐴
Dorotka
October 16, 2023 at 2:59 AM
I enjoyed it as well!! 🐈⬛😎
Kas61
October 16, 2023 at 1:02 PM
Now the horse is talking. That horse knows his stuff! I note also that our Head Gangster, who I love to pieces, also has a lifesize horse in his house, which he has unsuccessfully tried to mount…
Dorotka
October 16, 2023 at 1:33 PM
😁
I loved the talking horse.
(Sadly, they dropped it later on.)
Midnight
October 16, 2023 at 3:25 AM
WoL is one of my top favorite shows ever!
Kas61
October 18, 2023 at 8:07 PM
It’s rapidly climbing up my “best of” list….
bbstl 🧹
October 16, 2023 at 8:44 AM
I loved that drama!
Kas61
October 8, 2023 at 5:06 PM
Done another rewatch of Legend of the Blue Sea and it has now become one of my favourite kdramas. It’s a wonderful layered re-telling of the story of a mermaid in love. Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun are adorable lovers who could make me both laugh and cry, and the show is richly populated with supporting characters who I learnt to love.
One who stood out for me was Park Hae-soo as the hilariously irritable Detective Hong, who finds himself reluctantly helping a bunch of conmen solve a whole lot of murders. I thought: this guy has presence, charisma, rugged good looks. I like him. I look him up.
Gosh, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. First leading role the next year in Prison Playbook, then the sky’s the limit in Squid Game. Good for him. Every drama I watch, I make new connections.
(Next week’s topic: I find out who Junho is!)
owl 🦉 🫰
October 9, 2023 at 3:58 AM
I have not been able to get my brothers to watch this with me. Maybe pointing out Park Hae Soo from PP is a back door entrance!
Kas61
October 9, 2023 at 12:59 PM
My sympathies. I tried to get my son to watch Vincenzo with me, no joy.
owl 🦉 🫰
October 9, 2023 at 1:54 PM
We all watched Numbers , that was the last group drama.
Kas61
October 9, 2023 at 3:41 PM
You recommend it?
owl 🦉 🫰
October 9, 2023 at 5:33 PM
My brothers liked it (analytical, accounting shenanigans). Maybe your son would like that aspect, too. I also liked well enough. Mostly I was happy to watch it together!
Kas61
October 1, 2023 at 3:14 PM
Last night’s dream: My dream was set at a sports stadium during some big sporting event, and the TV commentators are scanning the crowd for celebs, and one of them says that they might have seen the captain of the Korean soccer team up in the back row.
The camera pans up to the back row in search of him, but instead finds… “Hey, isn’t that Gu Jun-pyo?!” someone in the studio calls out. Sure enough it is everyone’s favourite chaebol heir, but he’s looking slightly scruffy round the edges as if he hasn’t been home to be primped and polished for a few days….
There he is in the back row, getting cosy with some girl in school uniform – how scandalous! (Are they wagging school? Has he escaped his mother’s clutches for a day or two?) The TV camera has found them. Now both have seen their smoochy tete-a-tete is up on the big screen, and they are hugely embarrassed… he’s angrily trying to cover both her face and his…
End of dream. Damn.
🌸 Cera (@Seeker) 🌸
October 2, 2023 at 8:29 AM
Gu Jun-pyo 💜
The first (secret) love of many girls worldwide.
No further explanations required … we know who the school girl was 😉 dear poster.
Kas61
October 2, 2023 at 4:29 PM
Gosh! That never occurred to me! I’m a canon-only girl…
Then again….
Kas61
September 27, 2023 at 1:37 PM
This is how to dress, guys. So cool.
Kas61
September 27, 2023 at 2:44 AM
They’re so gorgeous. I am watching Legend of the Blue Sea and loving it. Jun Ji-hyun is a mad delight and LMH a glorious pushover. But man, do I hate mind-wipes. All that beautiful progress undone.
owl 🦉 🫰
September 27, 2023 at 4:23 PM
mindwipes – seems like cheating
Kas61
September 27, 2023 at 4:31 PM
It fits with the mermaid mythology, but I agree it feels like cheating. Though to give the show its credit, at this early stage (ep 5) LMH is rather obsessing over what he should be remembering. In fact he has just thrown the mermaid out of his house because she won’t tell him. I assume she wiped his mind to protect herself, but given she was already really attached to him at that stage and was planning to swim to Seoul to find him, wouldn’t she realise she’d need to build a whole new bond with him? Anyway, I wait to see how it unfolds… She’d better not bloody do it again!
💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
September 28, 2023 at 10:48 PM
okay but I’ve ALWAYS loved this outfit of hers, it’s so cool. The tie and the jacket and the skirt combo? Immaculate.
Kas61
September 28, 2023 at 11:42 PM
She looks fabulous. It’s a wonderful combination of masculine and feminine style. And she wears something in ep 2 of the show that I have to screenshot and put up here because I like it so much.
Kas61
September 10, 2023 at 9:22 PM
1) Korean brothers are so BOSSY.
2) Please, lead actor, when you\’re driving, don\’t turn your head and have a long intense conversation with your passenger. Look where you\’re…… AAARGH
tabong
September 10, 2023 at 9:36 PM
Is my oppa Korean? 😂
vienibenmio
September 11, 2023 at 10:19 AM
I always think of that scene in Amelie where she complains about movies where drivers don’t watch the road. I think the latest one that annoyed me was Destined With You
Kas61
September 11, 2023 at 1:12 PM
A teenage boy lecturing his sister, in her late 20s, about her behaviour… well, that’s when I start to think a smack up the side of the head is a GOOD thing….
Kas61
August 27, 2023 at 10:48 PM
Hmm. Am watching The King: Eternal Monarch, and the reveal where Lee Gon figures out who the masked person was who rescued him from the murderous hands of his uncle feels like a shoutout to Harry Potter. You know, in the Prisoner of Azkhaban, where Harry figures out who sent the stag patronus to save him from the Dementors….
Not criticising—I quite like the parallel. Am finding this drama a mixed bag… some parts wonderful and thrilling, and others a WTF or a FFS. I don’t find LMH the world’s best actor but he has enormous presence which suits the kingly role. The romance not so much. It is developed in an erratic and confusing manner.
The horse is rather fabulous. And I rather like Kim Kyung-nam.
mmmmm
August 28, 2023 at 12:15 AM
I agree. LMH has that sort of Prince Charming charm to him that endears him to some viewers (me included).
Kas61
August 28, 2023 at 4:25 AM
Absolutely. I keep flicking back to watch bits of Boys over Flowers again, and honestly that lead romance is four ways to insane, and LMH is just this ridiculous big starry poor little rich boy stupid boyfriend adorable lug that you ever saw.
Kurama
August 29, 2023 at 12:36 AM
Kim Kyung-nam always is a good thing in a drama! He’s such a good actor.
Kas61
August 29, 2023 at 3:13 PM
This is my first sight of him (and at first I thought he was Wi Ja-hoon!) and I like him a lot. I see he was in Prison Playbook, which I must pick up again.
Kurama
August 29, 2023 at 10:26 PM
Come And Hug Me : He had one one the best evolution as a character.
When Stars Land : His story with his colleague was the best part.
Special Labor Inspector Mr. Jo : It was a very different role and he had a romance too!
The One and Only : The story was really weird. But the couple had a great chemistry.
Kas61
August 29, 2023 at 11:43 PM
Thanks! Lots to try…
Ghost of Tim (eccentric observations from a male perspective)
August 29, 2023 at 7:43 AM
I dropped this one after a couple of episodes. There wasn’t enough brilliance in KES’s script to outshine the other (dumb) stuff. At least not for me. Glad you seem to be enjoying it.
Kas61
August 29, 2023 at 2:50 PM
Yeah, there certainly is dumb stuff. I am picking it up and putting it down a bit, but I think I will get through to the end.
Kas61
August 19, 2023 at 9:09 PM
Love a man with a decent nose who can sit a horse well. See how it goes. Am one and half episodes in.
(PS: Astonishing drop in ratings on this site for the vampire show! Haven’t watched it, but I guess people were unhappy with the ending…?)
mmmmm
August 19, 2023 at 11:51 PM
It seems like I am among a few hear who think LMH is absolutely handsome, and even if his acting doesn’t wow me or anything, he has done a pretty good job for the roles given to him.
When a role calls for a handsome prince, he is the one.
Kas61
August 20, 2023 at 2:46 PM
Well he’s growing on me in Eternal Monarch. I didn’t really rate the acting of either lead for the first episode but they are developing nicely. I think he is very handsome and certainly has presence. She is growing on me too.
The only other show I’ve seen him in is Boys Over FLowers, which I tried watching for a second time last weekend but rapidly got annoyed. I can see LMH is the utter stereotype of the spoilt chaebol prince learning humanity from the spunky commoner. But he does it with such style! Trouble is I can’t bear the acting of the female lead, so much awkward grimacing, and physical hamminess, some of which I think is supposed to be comic, but it does nothing for me.
mmmmm
August 20, 2023 at 6:13 PM
I agree. I enjoyed The King thoroughly. The visuals, cinematography, songs are stunning. The story is a fairy tale, so you have to relax and be wherever the show takes you in order to get the most rewarding experience.
Kas61
August 18, 2023 at 7:13 PM
Just wanted to note how much I admire the high standard of floristry in kdramas. The bouquets are gorgeous.
Kas61
August 9, 2023 at 4:59 PM
…and this after Descendants of the Sun
Kas61
August 9, 2023 at 4:58 PM
Like seeing kdrama stars looking relaxed and like regular human beings!
Healer’s
August 9, 2023 at 4:59 PM
Oh the good old days…
Kas61
August 9, 2023 at 5:02 PM
So, tell me, what’s gone wrong since then? Are we talking JCW’s career moves?
Healer’s
August 9, 2023 at 9:41 PM
I guess JCW isn’t bestowed with the gift for choosing scripts.
Until this day, HEALER remains the show with the highest number of comments per episode on DB. More than 11,000 comments for the finale, an unbeatable record, isn’t it?
Kas61
August 11, 2023 at 5:13 PM
I only discovered both Healer and JCW about three to 4 months ago (watched my first kdrama last year). I read all the recaps and a lot of the comments here, and it was exhilarating to follow the fans’ rising excitement about it. Tough I think for JCW and those following him, after Healer, because it strikes me a role that good in such a well-written allround fabulous show doesn’t come along very often. And so most things afterwards would be a bit of a comedown.
I’ve since watched some more of his stuff, thought he was fine in Empress Ki; could not get into K2, thought there was something lifeless about it despite all the frenetic action; enjoyed his seemingly effortless comic skills in Suspicious Partner and Backstreet Rookie. Haven’t gone anywhere near Melting, which I hear is bad. I wonder if the hospice one is worth me trying to track it down outside Netflix. The magical musical doesn’t look like my sort of thing. I was in two minds about Lovestruck in the City but liked it better on a second watch. He does angst, irritation, despondency, nerves, really convincingly. I’m not so convinced at his portrayal of ecstatic happiness. Seems a bit forced. He seems to do happiness better when it’s a more understated thing. I adore the scene in Healer when he and PMY have done their heist thing in police HQ, and are outside listing all the crimes she’s committed. She says this is what comes of having such a boyfriend and it’s so much fun, and races back inside. He rolls the word boyfriend round in his mouth and does a wry grin and looks up at the sky, and says, ah what a nice day it is. I lOVE that.
It’s weird being a fan. You feel like you know them, when you really don’t. After Healer, it was hard not to be a bit in love with him, it was such an attractive performance in all senses. I loved what a slob he was as Healer in his abandoned warehouse, and how he wasn’t all perfection… you could even see his complexion wasn’t perfect under his makeup.
Now he’s so taut and glossy and perfect and thin, I kind of worry for him. I don’t envy that life. I wish him true love, and the best of scripts.
I just really liked these couple of relaxed photos of our Healer stars… I think it was a cast dinner to watch episode 2 or 3, and clearly they were reacting to a bit of comedy…
So, exactly as you say, the good old days….
Healer’s
August 12, 2023 at 12:16 AM
I think JCW’s performance in Empress Ki was excellent, it and Healer are his most outstanding works to date. Agreed, Suspicious Partner was watchable, I did enjoy it and even gave it a rewatch. But it didn’t make my list of all-time favourites.
I fast-forwarded K2, dropped Backstreet Rookie and Melty early on, finished Lovestruck and Sound of Magic but didn’t like either, and again dropped the hospice one.
After seeing JCW here and there, I realised that he’s quite the same in every role (painful for me to say it out loud). His way of speak, his speech pacing, his voice tone, his gaze, his body language… is still that of JCW we see in interviews. It’s not uncommon though, a lot of actors are like that, and actually it takes special talent for an actor to be a different person for each role he plays, and I think JCW is not there (yet). Healer is a show where all elements converge to make a (nearly) perfect whole and as you said, it’s hard to come by (again).
I mentioned JCW’s sense of choosing scripts because I think all of the above applies to all actors, not only him. A lot of actors I like have only one hit show, or even no hit show, but their other shows should be watchable. It’s a shame that JCW’s shows are very hard to stomach for me.
Anyway, I still have a soft spot for him and hopefully he’ll soon make my heart flutter again.
Healer’s
August 12, 2023 at 7:32 AM
“ It’s weird being a fan. You feel like you know them, when you really don’t” 👈🏽 I’ve been thinking about this all day. I feel the same way too. It’s because the characters they play feel so close, the emotions those characters evoke in us feel palpable, isn’t it!
Kas61
August 7, 2023 at 10:29 PM
Am rewatching some of The Empress Ki and am struck again by one scene which I regard as the most erotic I’ve seen in a kdrama. The emperor stumbles on an injured and desperate Ki Yang in the palace grounds, and to help her evade her enemies, hides her with him in his bath-tub. But she runs out of breath and passes out and he sinks down and gives her the kiss of life underwater.
To me, this scene isn’t erotic because either of the participants are in that sort of mood – far from it. Both are desperate and frightened. Death is on her heels in the form of the Empress’s brothers who are chasing the trail of her blood through the palace grounds. What’s more, the two of them last saw each other months earlier and parted on miserable terms – the Emperor has lost her to her first love Wang Yu, and learns she despises him for his role in the death of her father.
It is the visual story-telling that is erotic. It is the striking contrast between the desperate situation in terms of the plot on the one hand, and on the other, the picture on our screen, the picture and the sound, the physical reality of their closeness and our knowledge of these two characters.
It’s an intensely erotic scenario, picture-wise. A man is desperately in love with a woman. He is naked in his bath-tub, and she is under the water with him. He sinks beneath the water to kiss her back to life. Red and gold light play on them under the water, and rose petals float past. The kiss is intense. The sound cuts out and then we hear a high choral keening. (The sound choices are key – some sort of sentimental “our love is destiny” ballad would have killed this scene dead.)
It’s an exceptional scene, where the sensuous visuals play against the life-and-death peril of this moment, and the conscious feelings and intentions of these two. It’s a beautiful piece of visual story-telling, which hints at their future while dramatically portraying their present.
Just to add also, I know some watchers of this show find the Emperor, as played by Ji Chang-wook, unbearably whiny and pathetic, and fast-forward through his scenes. That doesn’t worry me at all, as it just makes me think more carefully about why I think the opposite.
This drama is about brutal power struggles, where life is cheap. This is the sort of drama where everyone you liked or admired ends up as a corpse.
People at the bottom of the heap are treated like animals and those at the top must constantly watch their back for a knife, and their food for poison. To survive, you must be cunning and brutal yourself. The Emperor is a mild sort of character who has lived in fear for most of his life. This is not irrational fear. His father was poisoned, and the dominant political faction are out to kill him.
He’s not cut out for the toughness and brutality required. I can relate to that. The thought of trying to survive in such times… just makes me very glad I live now. Even though fearful characters who rise to heroism – and stay there — are emotionally satisfying to watch, there is something relatable about fear, weakness and pathos if it is compellingly portrayed.
In this drama, JCW is quite compelling in his portrayal of a gentle character quite out of place in his time. His desire for a quiet life with his woman and his child would be, in today’s terms, quite sane. (In fact he’d be lauded for being an antidote to so-called “toxic masculinity”.) In this drama, he is at the centre of a brutal maelstrom—it’s enough to drive a man to drink. JCW excels at playing quite naked vulnerability – particularly in relationships. I read one interview with him, which made me wince for him at how much this vulnerability might come from real life, and which made me admire him for having the guts to say what he did.
I don’t envy the lives of Korean celebrities – such intense pressure they live under. Relentless scrutiny from the fans and the media, to look perfect, to always say and do the right thing. Kowtowing to sponsors, putting themselves out there for fan events that seem to me to be pretty lame and embarrassing. Working themselves to exhaustion.
I am sure they are all flawed people, just like the rest of us, but generally speaking I wish for them true love and great scripts. Well some of them.
Kas61
July 22, 2023 at 5:43 PM
Just watched the penultimate episode of 19th Life. It really did the business, in a drama that I had felt was meandering… it was taut, tense, revealing, and setting up well for the finale.
Kas61
July 10, 2023 at 8:16 PM
Decided to watch something new rather than mindlessly rewatching things I\’ve already seen, so I started on Signal, which has been on my watchlist a while. About quarter of the way through the first episode I was feeling confused. Of course one often is at this point, and it wasn’t helping that I was watching it in bed on my phone and nodding off. The very good recaps here made me realise how much detail I hadn’t noticed and got me going on it again, and I think it’s great.
But I realised from the recaps that three different photographs that are shown by characters in the first 20 min of the show had (I imagine deliberately) been blurred beyond recognition in the Netflix version I am watching. The first two photos are of actors that our profiler hero is showing to the reporter to boast about what he has deduced about them. The third is the picture of Batman which he picks up from the detective’s desk in their argument about the dignity of cops’ work.
Why would Netflix do this? Some legal and/or copyright reason? It certainly doesn’t aid comprehension of the details of the show.
One or two more grumbles about Netflix:
1) The recaps here of Suspicious Partners include tasty little epilogues at the end of each double episode. NONE of these appear in SP in my Netflix feed.
2) Comparing the version of Weightlifting Fairy that Netflix shows me with the recaps here, it seems Netflix has cut two scenes, God knows why. One is of Jung Jun-hyung taking Kim Bok-ju to a nightclub to cheer her up and she dances hilariously badly; the other is the assistant weightlifting coach getting morosely drunk on her own at the weightlifting gym, which makes sense of a later comment by the lead coach that she shouldn’t drink on her own or she’ll become an alcoholic.
3) Subtitles. I don’t know if the different channels have different translators, but sometimes I wonder about their accuracy on Netflix. All I know is that the Italian journalist Chae Young-shin admires in Healer is Oriana Fallaci, not the name the Netflix subtitles came up with.
Kas61
July 10, 2023 at 10:42 PM
There’s actually a third Weightlifting Fairy scene Netflix has cut… the one where Bok-ju and her two buddies go out for some karaoke fun. Why would they cut this??
Seon-ha
July 10, 2023 at 11:19 PM
Not being able to play the music for IP reasons is often why. There’s a hilarious scene in Good Manager that I had been telling @indyfan that they should be waiting for in which Junho and Namgoong Min dance to a K-pop girlband song. Comedy gold. It’s there on Viki, but Netflix had apparently cut it…and Indyfan was a really good sport and went to find it!!
It’s here, should you want to see it, but if you’ve not yet seen Good Manager, I’d wait, and watch on Viki 😁: https://youtu.be/9GwAP2TnQFc
I also hear tell that there are sometimes cuts made to soothe American audiences as well, but I’ve never seen direct evidence of that. Perhaps you might have.
indyfan
July 11, 2023 at 1:21 AM
I still haven’t watched Good Manager! On the list for sure. It’s just KTL is three hours of Junho fan service. I never thought I’d say it, but I think that’s enough of a weekly Junho dose for me.
Seon-ha
July 11, 2023 at 1:39 AM
Oh, sorry!!! That was a rude slip of my memory.
indyfan
July 11, 2023 at 1:57 AM
Not all. You did recommend Good Manager. And I can’t wait to see Junho in a better series (sorry KTL).
Kas61
July 11, 2023 at 2:41 AM
Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by “for IP reasons”? The scenes involved have a soundtrack that can’t be played to a particular audience or country?
Is Viki a better option than Netflix for kdramas? I wonder if I can sign up for it in NZ…
Anyway, despite the ridiculous blurred photos, I’m one and half episodes into Signal and it’s terrific.
Seon-ha
July 11, 2023 at 2:56 AM
Yeah, “intellectually property (IP).” I’ve definitely seen cases where Netflix can’t afford/doesn’t want to pay for the music rights for certain scenes, so, they replace the music or cut the scene. Viki has done it too, so they’re not exempt or anything…however they have a lot of dramas Netflix doesn’t!
Isa is always time travelling
July 11, 2023 at 10:44 AM
It was me who noticed the absence of that scene in Good Manager.
Netflix and Viki both drive me up the wall when they do these things.
When Viki changes the songs/music (Shopping King Louis, The best hit), or when they take a complete scene off (if you watch Shining inheritance on Viki and even in the official YouTube Channel you miss a whole karaoke sequence).
Seon-ha
July 11, 2023 at 10:49 AM
My stars…I am so sorry for my memory’s faultiness!!!!
redfox
July 11, 2023 at 12:04 AM
Netflix doesnt really cut bc of copyrights. It cuts because the shorter the episodes, the more you need stuff to watch.
but blurring pictures might be bc it is a screenshot of the actor from a copyrighted movie
Kas61
July 11, 2023 at 2:51 AM
Well, Netflix is f**king ridiculous. Why cut 7 minutes out of a 16-hour drama. Unless there’s a lot more being cut we don’t know about…
I am reading up about Viki, which sounds very interesting.
mindy
July 11, 2023 at 4:43 AM
That’s… not true.
It’s always because of copyright.
redfox
July 11, 2023 at 5:25 AM
then it wouldnt need to also cut out half of staff names. my friends movie was on it and they cut out all of the ending titles and all the names.
Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
July 11, 2023 at 11:01 AM
☹ That stinks for your friend – probably a run-time issue and Netflix’s basic lack of respect for creators.
Elinor is trapped in the timeslip
July 11, 2023 at 9:56 AM
The criticisms of Netflix are completely deserved, but Viki also didn’t have the Suspicious Partner epilogues. I found them on Youtube – without subtitles, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out what was happening with the help of recaps and the comments on the videos.
I wonder if the issue with the actor photos in Signal is that they’re stills from movies/TV shows for which Netflix doesn’t have a license? The similar case that’s been bothering me is Nine: Nine Time Travels, in which the movie “The Bodyguard” and songs from it are a touchstone throughout the show – but all photos, posters, and album covers are blurred and different songs are swapped in when the characters play or talk about those songs. It must be for copyright reasons, and it’s been consistent across Tubi and all unlicensed streaming sites on which I’ve found it. It’s kind of hilarious but also annoying.
Kas61
July 11, 2023 at 3:23 PM
That’s such a shame about the Bodyguard stuff as it is clearly quite meaningful to that show. And I can understand the desire of writers to reference other things going on in popular culture.
Kas61
July 11, 2023 at 3:27 PM
Thanks for everyone’s very helpful comments. I’m tempted to add Viki (Netflix is all I have) on the basis of a greater range of shows at least.
Kas61
July 4, 2023 at 2:18 AM
Been rewatching Backstreet Rookie, and I liked it lots more the second time round. This is a really entertaining and heartwarming story of family and class. My favourite scene of the lot is near the end where Dae-hyun tells his parents he likes the life they have shown him and doesn\’t aspire to more.
Wanting more and better for your kids seems to be the excuse/justification in kdramas for parents pushing and bullying their children into things they may not want. I love how Dae-hyun completely undercuts that in a couple of sentences, and his parents are so flummoxed by this that they’re laughing and crying and threatening to make another baby.
Dae-huyn’s family aren’t perfect, of course. This is not a complete romanticisation of the working class. His sister is just awful, an unrepentant thief and a user; and his parents’ bickering is exhausting, and often hard on both the ears and the stomach. But they redeem themselves by just providing the basics of family values – a roof over the family’s head, meal-times round the table, a warm welcome and staunch loyalty.
These things may seem pretty ordinary, but to our heroine Jung Saet-byul – who is homeless, parentless, and jobless when she is rescued by Dae-hyun’s mother – they are heaven. As played by the wonderful Kim Sun-young, this matriarch is loud, tetchy and pretty slap-happy, but also maternal in the best sense, and when she finds a lost duckling she takes her home. (This is a nice echo of the opening scene where her son rescues a kitten, with unhappy consequences for his love life.)
If Dae-hyun and his family are way too far down the social ladder for Yeon-joo’s snobbish clan, then Saet-byul is way off the bottom rung in social terms. She has no parents, dropped out of high school, and has a reputation for violence. Not only that, she is responsible for a snotty and ungrateful little sister.
I like it when different things about a character play against each other. Actress Kim Yoo-jung is very beautiful and her massive crush on Dae-hyun pretty gooey. But there is nothing pretty and sentimental about her life. The kind of grit and swagger she needs, and uses, just to get her through each day – to get a job, to keep the job, to keep her sister under control, to handle her enemies on the street – make her a character to sympathise with and root for.
I’m pretty fangirly about Ji Chang-wook so I try to think quite carefully about what I like and/or don’t like about his performances. And on the subject of his good looks, does every character who meets his character in every drama really HAVE to exclaim how handsome he is? Really? It gets on my nerves. Can’t someone just think it and not say it? Is it supposed to be a sign of moral or social superiority to be beautiful?
And given those good looks, it’s very clear I like him best when he’s playing AGAINST them. His performances appeal to me, and convince me most, when he’s playing tired, cranky, nervy, drunk, miserable and pissed off. I especially like it when he starts doing those nervous rants where he repeats himself and jabs his finger at people and trips over his words. He really has the comic touch, and this drama shows it off.
One of my favourite scenes in Backstreet Rookie is where he finally gets given the boot by Yeon-Joo, and goes to the beach to drink and mope. Saet-byul tracks him down to cheer him up, and they bicker. The ability to bicker well is a sure sign to me of romantic compatibility. (Just for the record, my favourite bickering is between Lee Sung-kyung and Nam Joo-hyuk in Weightlifting Fairy – they take it to a fine art.)
These two also, quite literally, work well together. One of the strengths of Backstreet Rookie, is its portrayal of the exhausting relentless work of the 24-hour service industry. A guy and a gal who can fancy the pants off each other, AND share enthusiasm for cleaning the coffee machine, front-facing all the product, and providing pleasing customer service all night long, will do just fine.
Isa is always time travelling
July 4, 2023 at 4:23 AM
I don’t have this drama on my “plan to watch list” but after reading your comment I think I’ll add it. It could be nice.
And now I quote you:
“really HAVE to exclaim how handsome he is? Really? It gets on my nerves. Can’t someone just think it and not say it? Is it supposed to be a sign of moral or social superiority to be beautiful?”.
That happens in lots of dramas and I find it weird because it’s something that it’s not common in my country. Here people rarely compliments/flatters someone they have just met, but in k-dramas and c-dramas women and men are always talking about how good looking someone is, or they say it directly to them. I have seen it lots of times and still it seems weird from my Western perspective.
Kas61
July 6, 2023 at 4:38 PM
As I said in my review, it really took me two watches to appreciate this drama. It’s often the case with me. Things I find slow or irritating first time round can mean a lot more on the second.
The beauty thing is odd to me too, from my western perspective. In real life, I’m often slightly suspicious of people who are really good looking! It’s very clear to me too, how much kdramas are designed for the female gaze. It used to be, way back, particularly in western TV/movies, that women were the sex objects and often were stripped down to skin. Now it seems rare in a kdrama where you don’t see the male lead stripped to the waist and even in the shower, and showing off the most extraordinary physique — both very slim and amazingly ripped. They are undeniably attractive but I wonder at the pressure on them to look that perfect.
HopefulRomantic 🦋 Tigermoth 🦆❤️🦆
July 4, 2023 at 4:51 AM
Thank you for sharing your thoughtful review! I agree with IsaGC – I’m going to bump this up my watch list!
Kas61
July 6, 2023 at 4:39 PM
Thanks for the kind words and hope you enjoy! (Can’t guarantee of course that you’ll agree with my take…)
Cecee
July 4, 2023 at 12:07 PM
Ji Chang-wook’s good looks are legendary. But I must admit that his versatility, the ability he has to inject so much realism and subtle complexity into every emotion his character (all his characters) experiences deserves a lot more praise.
Don’t get me wrong, looks are great. But my brain struggle with the visual appeal in people’s appearances, gender being irrelevant. Instead, I find myself drawn to raw, believable emotions however small they may be. JCW is a fantastic messenger for any writer’s work and I am endlessly compelled by the intelligence of his acting.
Kas61
July 6, 2023 at 4:50 PM
Yeah, I agree with all you say. He is a great actor, with a wonderful range, and I hope for his and our sakes that he gets lots of great scripts in his future career.
I also have some struggle with the very good looks, feeling simultaneously seduced by them and suspicious of them. I do know that I wouldn’t have much interest in JCW if he were just a pretty face. He makes characters come to life and makes them very human.
Kas61
June 24, 2023 at 6:39 PM
My knowledge of k-pop is a tiny smidgen above zero, so when I finished watching (and loving) Vincenzo a few months back, the scenery-chewing master villain rang no bells for me. It wasn’t till I read a few reviews and comments along the lines of “Taec is so great”, “love Taec” etc, that I decided to investigate further, and found the man has quite the career. And I found I rather liked this:
I love how the man has some meat on his bones, how his clothes bring to mind La Vegas era Elvis (though a LOT healthier!), and I get quite the fannish thrill when he whips off those ‘70s shades near the end…. It’s quite the duet, and the standard of dancing is awesome.
Kas61
June 23, 2023 at 10:17 PM
Tribute to a good OST.
Anne, the Cheating Girlfriend
June 23, 2023 at 10:24 PM
🤣😂 Hilarious but true! It is so hard to understand the ‘tone’ of real life.
Kas61
June 23, 2023 at 10:53 PM
…is it a comedy, is it a tragedy…
Or a farce….
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
June 23, 2023 at 10:43 PM
I love that. It took me straight back to Ally McBeal and her therapist telling her to get a theme song to help shift her mood.
Kas61
June 23, 2023 at 10:54 PM
Haha, I never did watch Ally McBeal.
Reply1988 -❣️Mother Bean❣️
June 23, 2023 at 11:05 PM
The first season was great but in a later season they messed with Billy (he acted out of character) and although later they confirmed the reason I had walked away gutted my favourite programme had been tampered with and I could not go back. I was the same with Carter from ER when he went from cute to having issues but I was obsessed with ER so couldn’t leave but I never forgave them for that storyline.
Kas61
June 23, 2023 at 11:15 PM
There were lots of those big American TV shows I never watched. I was a massive fan though of the three main Joss Whedon shows, Buffy, Angel and Firefly, and was deeply immersed in the fandom on Livejournal. I have to say it wasn’t always a healthy experience. I was angry for years about what I saw as the faults in the later seasons of Buffy. Whedon was a genius but also a prick and a hypocrite. Far too much unquestioning hero worship of him at the time. I also came to understand that actors may very well have nothing insightful or useful to say about the character they played.
Things seem a lot saner here. 🙂
Seon-ha
June 24, 2023 at 8:20 AM
Ah, yes, saner perhaps, but—and I mean this is a truly caring way—everywhere you go there you are. I need keep this in mind frequently.
Kas61
June 24, 2023 at 10:39 AM
Seon-ha, I think I get your meaning…. possibly.
Seon-ha
June 25, 2023 at 5:40 AM
Well, first of all, that was supposed to be “IN a truly caring way,” @kas61. I’ve been having a lot of “one-letter-typos” these days.
Second, I didn’t mean to be too opaque. I just meant, when joining online fandom communities (of which we’ve both clearly been a part, here and elsewhere), the folks around us can seem “saner” than the last time…and that can definitely be the case!!
But, if you’re the type to get swept up in the more, let’s say, intense (rather than insane) parts of these communities—and I’m letting you know that I have tended that way, myself—then it’s wise to watch out for how you’re responding first, and then look to others’ behavior.
I could sound a little patronizing here, I suppose. But, do know that I typed my first comment—and I’m typing this one—also to remind myself to stick to my own rules and boundaries.
mmmmm
June 24, 2023 at 12:12 AM
I think it where was something like that, mine right now is Day and Night from Start-Up.
bbstl 🧹
June 24, 2023 at 9:17 AM
Hahaha! This reminds me of when I started kdrama and was totally immersed to the point of thinking I heard OSTs playing at Target or the grocery store 🤦🏼♀️