I am half way through this 16 episode Korean drama, and I was hooked from the first episode. It is fast paced, hilariously funny and, with an unlikely quirky pairing that works brilliantly! It feels great to come across such drama with such witty writing with depth, and it comes as no surprise at all that it is from the same writing team behind one of my all time favourites My Girl, which explains all the wittiness behind the writing.
Since it is also a behind-the-scene drama like The World They Lived in, it draws inevitable comparison to its slack and lukewarm predecessor, and I am most impressed that this one does a way better job in its efforts.
This was not the first time I watched a drama starring Gong Hyo-jin. I gave up Pasta half way through because I didn't like the story and could not understand the fuss made about the pairing. But I like her character in The Greatest Love immensely, and find her acting very solid indeed.
A 'surprise' find is Cha Seung-won. His over the top performance of a narcissistic yet lonesome celebrity is funny and poignant all at the same time. I am relieved that actors of his age and maturity is given a leading role in a popular Korean drama, the rate chasing industry that tends to put more importance on young looks (enhanced by plastic surgery) than talents.
This drama raises again my expectation of Korean drama.
November 28, 2011
November 14, 2011
Daytime drinking
If Lee Chang-dong's films are rough for you, then Daytime Drinking could be an even greater challenge to the viewers. If Lee's films are about the political, social and human conditions that drive its protagonists to a final end, then Daytime Drinking points to another direction: that of the empty life of a young drifter.
Following an alcohol-filled heated debates among four close friends whose setting resembles those of the French cinema, a young man finds himself the only fool to keep that promise by turning up in a supposedly holiday resort in the middle of the dreary, close-down season. The film then follows him when he awaits, in vain, for the arrival of his friend in a shoebox bare room in virtual isolation. The gaps between non-events are so long and the incidents seem so insignificant, that the viewer is rendered the only companion of the acne face drifter until he wakes up alone and shivering in his underpants by the snow-covered roadside. With its loose plots, wintry landscape, unglamorous protagonist and raw cinematograph, one would be excused for mistaking it as a remark of Jia Zhangke's directory debut Xiaoshan Going Home in which the camera follows the immigrant worker's fruitless efforts to find a ticket home, and to a certain degree, it was that comparison that had kept me staying tuned as if to see how it will differ from its 'predecessor'.
While Xiaoshan's hunt for a ticket home ends in vain, the drifter in Daytime Drinking is captured by the dilemma if he should follow another female stranger to a seashore town he has just left, at the risk of repeating the humiliating experience, or, get on a homebound bus. It is then we realise, once and for all, that the series of incidents that lead to his being stripped bare in deep winter is all of his own making; there is a sheer lack of will in the life of this aimless young man.
An insightful character portrait, the film also offers an interesting glimpse on the Korean drinking culture among the young people.
Following an alcohol-filled heated debates among four close friends whose setting resembles those of the French cinema, a young man finds himself the only fool to keep that promise by turning up in a supposedly holiday resort in the middle of the dreary, close-down season. The film then follows him when he awaits, in vain, for the arrival of his friend in a shoebox bare room in virtual isolation. The gaps between non-events are so long and the incidents seem so insignificant, that the viewer is rendered the only companion of the acne face drifter until he wakes up alone and shivering in his underpants by the snow-covered roadside. With its loose plots, wintry landscape, unglamorous protagonist and raw cinematograph, one would be excused for mistaking it as a remark of Jia Zhangke's directory debut Xiaoshan Going Home in which the camera follows the immigrant worker's fruitless efforts to find a ticket home, and to a certain degree, it was that comparison that had kept me staying tuned as if to see how it will differ from its 'predecessor'.
While Xiaoshan's hunt for a ticket home ends in vain, the drifter in Daytime Drinking is captured by the dilemma if he should follow another female stranger to a seashore town he has just left, at the risk of repeating the humiliating experience, or, get on a homebound bus. It is then we realise, once and for all, that the series of incidents that lead to his being stripped bare in deep winter is all of his own making; there is a sheer lack of will in the life of this aimless young man.
An insightful character portrait, the film also offers an interesting glimpse on the Korean drinking culture among the young people.
November 11, 2011
Can't lose
Despite a stable support team and the chemistry between the lead couple, I do not find this drama engaging enough for me to finish episode 4. For, unlike Wedding, which also sees a couple getting married without knowing each for long, the only thing they seem to do is but to argue with each other day in day out, on literarily everything. And unlike Wedding, there doesn't seem any emotional depth or self-reflection in either of the lawyer couple.
Though I have watched CJW in Everybody Has Secrets in a role different from her earlier television ones that shot her to international stardom, I was still taken aback by her in Can't Lose. To extend one's range is a constant challenge but to make a right choice isn't always an easy task.
On the other hand, although I wasn't impressed by Yoon Sang-hyon in Secret Garden, I find him a rather different actor in this charitable lawyer.
Though I have watched CJW in Everybody Has Secrets in a role different from her earlier television ones that shot her to international stardom, I was still taken aback by her in Can't Lose. To extend one's range is a constant challenge but to make a right choice isn't always an easy task.
On the other hand, although I wasn't impressed by Yoon Sang-hyon in Secret Garden, I find him a rather different actor in this charitable lawyer.
November 08, 2011
My Princess
If I hadn't started watching Scent of Woman yesterday afternoon, this would have been my latest favourite Korean drama after Beethoven's Virus.
The last five minutes is very relevant to the modern day dilemma of an educated woman: what comes first, career or family? After the build-up, the angst and the conflicts, the ending seems rather conventional and a little bit of a let-down. That said, given the personality of the princess and the actual choice in the society, it is probably the most realistic one.
Song Seung-heon is repeating what he has done best in East of Eden but with a face like that, one just never minds.
Before watching this one, I had tried very hard indeed to convince myself that if I stay tuned, Mary Stayed Out All Night and Dream High might grow on me. I am glad that I had chosen to look elsewhere for works of better quality.
The last five minutes is very relevant to the modern day dilemma of an educated woman: what comes first, career or family? After the build-up, the angst and the conflicts, the ending seems rather conventional and a little bit of a let-down. That said, given the personality of the princess and the actual choice in the society, it is probably the most realistic one.
Song Seung-heon is repeating what he has done best in East of Eden but with a face like that, one just never minds.
Before watching this one, I had tried very hard indeed to convince myself that if I stay tuned, Mary Stayed Out All Night and Dream High might grow on me. I am glad that I had chosen to look elsewhere for works of better quality.
Scent of Woman
The tango sequence in episode 8 is probably the most sexually-charged one of all Korean dramas. Executed with sublime brevity and confidence, it finds Lee Dong-wook's rejuvenated yet still restrained character charges into the dim but warmly lit practice ballroom and, in the blink of an eye, gets his secret love interest dancing. The male-led nature of tango and the physical intimacy it demands on the dancers provides them ideally discreet cover for their pent-up longing for each other, especially in an Asian society where physical contacts are predominately reserved for private space between intimate relationships. And just as the touch and dance starts like a spark, it ends abruptly without the much anticipated kiss, an emotional climax which the camerawork leads us anticipate. The chemistry between the pair has been great throughout but it is here that it reaches its ultimate height in silence. The intensity of that moment of passion is such, it felt as if it had never seen before in Korean drama or cinema. It is a defining sequence for the drama itself and also a moment of revelation for an outsiders; it proves that not only Korean directors understand how to handle such scenes, but that its family audience are ready for such direct expression of passion in their living room as well.
Though I had made a point to switch off for beauty sleep at 23:00, I stayed up till 3am. There aren't many that can keep me going like that, despite its faults in the script.
Now I can see why Lee Dong-wook is in such high demand. There is a boy-man touch in him which endears him to women.
PS: now that I have finished watching the series, I am slighted disappointed to find that there are a number of lost opportunities where it could have continued to build on the passion between the protagonists, especially in the last few episodes when they are finally reunited following a forced separation.
Though I had made a point to switch off for beauty sleep at 23:00, I stayed up till 3am. There aren't many that can keep me going like that, despite its faults in the script.
Now I can see why Lee Dong-wook is in such high demand. There is a boy-man touch in him which endears him to women.
PS: now that I have finished watching the series, I am slighted disappointed to find that there are a number of lost opportunities where it could have continued to build on the passion between the protagonists, especially in the last few episodes when they are finally reunited following a forced separation.
November 03, 2011
Everybody has secrets
A remake of an Irish film About Adam, it reminds me of a Chinese remake of What Woman Wants starring the most unlikely couple Gong Li and Andy Lau: while a story might work in the Western context, their Asian remakes might feel rather awkward. While the lack of chemistry is the main culprit for the remake of What Woman Wants, Everybody Has Secrets suffers from the fact the cultural nuances has not taken into account in the re-scripting process, resulting from a rather fluffy depiction of the different love affairs, and an ending extremely unsettling. I also find the casting to be disastrous, especially with Lee Hyung-bee being the playboy and Choi Ji-woo the bookworm middle sister. The fact that they are both trying too hard makes the viewing too painful an experience.
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