Been lent three Korean television dramas by a neighbour. The first one I watched, Coffee House, felt like reading a the Taiwanese pop novelist Qiong Yao's romance - while none of the stories make sense, they grip you nevertheless and to your surprise, you suppress your disbelief and laughing along with it to the end.
I am still quite puzzled at the fact I was able to finish all eighteen 50 minute episodes within three days. The protagonist is a natural born sadist. Although he accepts to help out a total stranger, he lacks interest in carrying it through in a reasonable manner and marvels at thousands of tricks to 'torture' the poor secretary - who, despite her mature age of 25 and a degree in chemistry, is inexperienced and clueless to her surrounding world. Despite being an obvious laughing stock to her 'boss', she remains obedient, resilient, and accepts all the jokes played on her without queries. She appears dumb in front of a man in power.
I like the protagonist much. Though his given profession is a novelist, he behaves more like a spoilt superstar, lacking in depth and ingenuity, and after a little while, his facial expression become rather predicable.
But the story must have its charm - because not only I stayed till 2am to follow the story of romance, it is also the only one among the three dramas I was given that I felt inclined to watch.
I spent the following two nights trying to work out if I should respect my neighbour's wish and watch the other two, but I found them both far too slow in pace and the frequent use of close-repelling. Not only the stories did not seem to stand, the camera dwells on the face for far too long and it depends a lot on the exaggerating performance from all. If the two one hour per episode drama are to go by, Korea appears to a far cry from what might be called a modern society where fast-pace is the buzz word. And I am not sure if I like being the weaker sex there.
No comments:
Post a Comment