K-Drama Review: Master’s Sun

Written by Kidge.

I love this show. Enough said really, but where would the fun be in that? If you are looking for a fun, easy to watch rom-com with fantastic chemistry and acting, look no further, you have found what you were looking for.

Quick summary: 

A woman was in a coma for several years and woke up being able to see ghosts. Said woman meets a wealthy man with a troubled past, who makes the ghosts vanish every time she touches him. Best set-up for skinship ever.

Thoughts:

The casting of this show is brilliant. I am a big fan of So Ji-sub ever since I saw him in 'Always (Only You)'. He does melodrama quite well, but who knew he could be so darn funny? Joo Joong-won’s absolute sense of entitlement made for some hilarious interactions with Tae Gong-shil, played but the wonderful Gong Hyo-jin. Their chemistry and timing was fantastic. It’s one of those things that I’m sure directors would love to be able to predict, but really, the way that a relationship plays out on screen ends up being a bit of a lucky dip.

Their chemistry was aided by the fact that the whole premise of the show demanded frequent touching, and let’s be honest, who is going to complain about that? Yep. No one. I don’t know if it’s because the leads are slightly older than the average 20 something startlets, but their skinship was so much less awkward than the average K-drama, which involves many deer in the headlights moments of touching and kissing. Sigh. How I dislike you. But never fear, this drama, while being very tame (it is the Hong Sisters after all) provides you with many a squee moment and general wonderfulness that makes your heart melt into a puddle of mush. Particularly when Joo Joong-won becomes absolutely whipped: tries waiting 5 rings to pick up a call from Tae Gong-shil, only to cave after 1? Laughing my guts out. 

Although there were issues of pacing towards the end of the show (which was not aided by a short extension), overall the Hong Sisters managed to create something that was multi-layered and didn’t simply devolve into a monster, or in this case, ghost of the week formula. The ‘cases’ always served a purpose and helped move our characters along their love line. Aside from the amnesia episode, which was mercifully short (I hate amnesia in dramas – it always feels so lazy and circular) and an 11^th hour introduction of a character who had the potential to thwart my happy ending, I was a very happy camper.

Speaking of happy campers, thank you casting people, for giving me another opportunity to watch Seo In-guk. I lurve him. Sigh. Focus, Focus, Focus. Although in some ways his character was fairly minor, he was a great second lead and provided me with much amusement as he consistently turned down the not so charming Tae Yi-rung. May you continue to grace my screen with your presence.

Overall, I found myself laughing, melting and at surprisingly frequent intervals, yelling at the screen because I was so wrapped up in these loveable characters. Does it say something that while this show was airing, the days that it came online were my favourite days of the week?

Let me know what you thought, and happy viewing. :D

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K-Drama Review: Secret

Written by Kidge.

This show just recently finished airing, and had me on tenterhooks every week as I cried out for justice and secrets to be revealed. When I say cried out, I mean I was literally yelling at my screen as I bemoaned the evil deeds of characters and wailed that surely all the bad things couldn’t happen to just one person.

Needless to say, this show is seriously well worth the effort, with excellent acting and a story line that was intricately written and well executed.

Quick summary:
A woman goes to jail in place of her boyfriend, after a hit and run accident. A rich bad boy, who was in a relationship with the hit and run victim, seeks revenge on the woman he thinks ruined his life.

Thoughts:

So I don’t know about most people, but when I read the synopsis of this show, I was put off. I mean why would any sane person go to jail for a crime they didn’t commit, on purpose? But don’t let the summary dissuade you. When you begin watching, you will realise that it makes more sense that you thought it would. It’s still stupid, don’t get me wrong I haven’t misplaced my brain cells. But you will suddenly find yourself being swept up in these secrets that just seem to envelop these characters, and bind them to one another with the effect of quicksand - the deeper you get the harder it is to get out.

If you are looking for light hearted fun, happiness, or really your heart not to feel wrenched each episode, then you may want to look somewhere else. You will be waiting for a long time, for a train that ain’t never gonna come. However, if you want something with stellar performances and an actual storyline, then hop on my metaphorical train.

I don’t want to talk too much about the series in some ways, because I think that is part of what was so good about it - the incredibly slow (at times infuriatingly slow) reveal of secrets. The show is almost Shakespearean in nature, as you watch the impact of choices that tragically alter people’s lives. The rise and fall of Ahn Do-hoon (played brilliantly by Bae Soo-bin) is almost Macbeth-esque, particularly as he wasn’t always the way he becomes.

It isn’t a true tragedy though: everyone doesn’t die, and ultimately we are left with some happy kind of endings. But they are bittersweet, because we know things could have been so different. So be prepared. I warned you. But remember, it is worth your time and effort, because what we are left with is a reminder of the importance of our choices, and really that people deserve a second chance.

Let me know if your guts were similarly ripped out and replaced by this great show.

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K-Drama Review: Good Doctor

Written by Kidge with interruption by Aimes.

So I thought I would start reviewing some of the K-dramas that I have watched in the last year. Some are new and some are old.

I won’t be giving them a rating, because being a teacher, I have to do enough of that already, and really, feedback is the most important thing. So sorry if that’s what you came looking for, you will instead have to enjoy my reflections on the good, bad and ugly of each show.

Good Doctor

Quick summary:

A young savant with Asperger’s syndrome, becomes a paediatric surgery resident. The show follows the trials and tribulations he faces to become accepted at the hospital, and create relationships with those around him. 

Thoughts:

So I’m not going to lie, I did skip over certain sections of this drama. Namely, the office politics. I’m sorry, but I really do not care about who is going to become the Director of the hospital, or the next Chief of Staff, or even where they are going to get their funding from. All of these things I may have cared about, if the show had done a better job of making me like the characters who were particularly involved in these shenanigans, but…they didn’t.

On a more positive note, this series did an amazing job of making me care a whole lot about the main characters. Joo Won did an amazing job as Park Shi-On, getting many of the characteristics of people with Asperger’s down to a T. I remember watching a kind of dream sequence later in the series, where Cha Yoon-seo (played fantastically by Moon Chae-Won) imagined what they would be like if he didn’t have Asperger’s, and it just demonstrated the subtle ways in which Joo Won had managed to completely change himself to become this character. (On a fangirl note, I re-watched that scene a  few too many times). The chemistry between Park Shi-On and Moon Chae-Won is great, and helped me overcome my reservations about the reality of any possible romance for these characters.

The supporting cast contains some great characters with weird and wonderful quirks. I guarantee you will fall in love with Ko Chang-Seok and Jin Kyung who play the senior nurse and head nurse respectively. They are a riot. Shout out to Kim Hyun-soo who is freakin talented and at the age of 13 pretty much stole every scene she was in. (The picture is from episode 7. Watch and you'll understand why I chose it). 

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What I like about K-drama Episode 3: The Tropes

Written by Kidge.

So this could be a book. As an English teacher, I feel myself noticing certain patterns and character archetypes which turn up in many of the dramas that I have watched. Admittedly, this pertains perhaps most to rom-coms as it is the genre I watch most commonly. Here are a few examples that I love/love to laugh at because they are so overused they have become clichés.

Number 1: the Candy. I don’t know who came up with this name, but it describes the girl who is from a poor background, who is plucky, works fifteen jobs and likes to tell the hero where to get off. This is because the Candy, in my experience, is almost exclusively loved by handsome boys with an excess of wealth and a dearth of politeness/common human decency. But through her plucky downtrodden ways and willingness to tell said hero that he is in fact a selfish human being, she manages to capture his heart, overcome an evil mother/a world that says they shouldn’t be together, and basically live happily ever after. If you think this sounds like a better version of Cinderella, you would be right. It doesn’t matter how many times I see this character, I still end up wanting her to triumph over the odds, and hope that one day, my life might be the same.

Number 2: the Chaebol/AKA the wealthy jerkface. This is really not a harsh descriptor. Chaebol’s are sons of extremely wealthy businessmen who own corporations which they will one day inherit. These boys are almost universally tall, handsome and completely self-obsessed. Their money has brought them a world of privilege, so when they encounter a poor Candy, they are simultaneously horrified and bizarrely attracted to an individual who actually has to work for their salary. The arc of the Chaebol is completely predictable. They begin as awful human beings who only care about those who are in a similar social class to themselves. They then proceed to fall in love with a Candy, stalk said Candy until they give in to the pestering infant, and then magically change into a nicer, more well-rounded individual who might benefit the world he lives in. Harsh? Maybe. Do I end up loving them anyway? You betcha baby. Long live the Chaebol.

Number 3: the Evil Parents. This one is a little vaguer, in that there is more variation. However, the following points are exceptionally common. For one reason or another, there is only one parent around, which has left said parent slightly bitter and twisted, or exceptionally protective of their child. This results in the parent feeling like the love interest in the story is not good enough for their child. Sigh. How deluded. Evil Parents are often also linked to Chaebol families. The parents of Chaebol children cannot stand Candy’s because they are of such a dissimilar social circumstance, and therefore will not assist in building a respectful family tree. Come to think of it, Evil Parents are normally a result of wealth and an over inflated need to control the lives of their children. I’m sure some of you can relate.

Number 4: the Second Lead Male/AKA the guy who should get the girl, but somehow doesn’t. This poor individual has a special place in my heart. He is almost always an intelligent, emotionally available, attractive male, who somehow gets sidelined into the friend zone within the first couple of episodes of a drama. To add to the list of traits that scream DATE ME, the SLM is also invariably self-sacrificing, humble and generally a great friend to the love interest and his best buddy who ends up getting the girl. Talk about raw end of the stick. Girls, be nice to the SLM, they will be around when the hero packs his bags and bails for Macau.

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Weird and wonderful things that Aussies eat: Vegemite

To those who have not encountered this wonderful condiment, all we can say is, you are missing out. Vegemite is a salty, black spread that most Australians grow up eating, and find it hard to live without when overseas. If you have ever met an Aussie backpacker, you probably saw them whip out a little yellow tube with strange black stuff inside at breakfast time. Ahh, the joys of travel containers.

Vegemite was developed by a chemist in 1922, from the yeast at the bottom of beer barrels. We are nothing, if not thrifty. It sounds disgusting, and it’s true that it is an acquired taste, but we don’t have the phrase ‘Happy Little Vegemites’ for nothing.

Vegemite normally goes on toast with butter, and is spread with a similar kind of thickness. Don’t let anyone make you try a spoonful. Even Australians don’t eat it that way.

To those of you who have grown up on Marmite, a vastly inferior product that many New Zealanders and Englishmen, like to palm off as similar, can we assure you that they are nothing alike. Marmite has a bizarre sweetness that makes you want to gag. Or maybe that was just our reaction.

Anyway, if you come here, you should really try this National food, if only so that we can watch your face as you try to quell your desire to spit it out.

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