My Newest K-drama Love: Healer Korean Drama Review

Sometimes I feel like becoming a K-drama reviewer has made me a jaded K-drama viewer. I have seen and critiqued so many shows that most dramas don't get past a "that was decently fun" or "meh, not the best I've seen." I sometimes wish I could capture that magical feeling when I first discovered dramas and everything was SO AWESOME, even if it had glaring plot holes or triple amnesia.

Well, I haven't built any time machines recently (YET!), but thanks to Healer, I was able to recapture that feeling of really, really loving a drama for the first time in way too long. I loved this show. 

There's a lot of hype over Healer, which definitely added to my personal enjoyment of the series. I don't always catch the biggest shows right at the height of their popularity, but this time, my personal fangirling happened to coincide with everyone else's fangirling, which only made me more excited.

No, seriously. I got waaaaaaay too excited. Like texting all of my non-K-drama-watching friends and family and telling them to watch Healer excited. I. can't. stop. gushing. over. this. show. 

So if you want an even-keeled review, I might not be able to help this time...

I guess mass obsession is great for the people caught up in the moment, but it does tend to put a damper on the viewing experience for people who come to the drama a bit later. It's easy to think "Wait, that's it? What was all the fuss about?"

So here's my disclaimer about Healer: It's an action romance. Nothing more. Nothing less. It isn't going to shatter your worldview or leave you thinking for months after the last episode. It's just an action romance.

Do you disapprove of people leaping off of buildings? Then this isn't the show for you.

But still. As an action romance, it's practically perfect in every way.

Healer knows exactly what kind of show it is, but it doesn't let a "fluff" genre like action romance get in the way of doing a good job. The writers, actors, and directors took a decently engaging plot and executed it with care, transforming it into an incredibly engaging viewer experience.

When I say that almost every element worked, I really mean it. The pacing was excellent, spacing out less-exciting scenes to avoid that dreaded "episode 15 slump." There was a nice balance of laugh-out-loud humor, heart-thumping romance, and nail-biting action throughout the series. The soundtrack was catchy and memorable. Perhaps best of all, no one caught amnesia!

Above all else, Healer had a well-rounded cast. Instead of focusing on the main leads with maybe one or two fun side characters surrounded by one-dimensional filler characters, the world of Healer was stuffed to the brim with people you couldn't help but love and care about. There really weren't any weak links. I can't even pinpoint who my favorite character is. It's clearly Min Ja—until Young Shin's dad makes me cry. Or mini Healer pops up to save the day. I mean, my favorite part of the entire show wasn't even a romantic moment—it was that stunning training sequence between Teacher and Healer in the abandoned building.

But seriously, Min Ja is obviously my real favorite.

Even the main villain was more nuanced than usual, and I caught myself feeling sorry for him from time to time. Aside from the Big Bad Elder and his sniveling sidekick, everyone had a story and some depth.

Okay, so I know I already just said "above all else" to explain the importance of the cast, but I'm going to "above all else" that "above all else" with this most most important factor in my Healer obsession:

Ji.

Chang.

Wook.

Wow. Just WOW. Look, if you want to see some handsome eye candy, you can head to pretty much any show out there, but if you want to see some actual acting, look no further. By virtue of their scripts, the vast majority of K-drama actors (including, I'm afraid, some favorite veterans) simply swing back and forth between stoic disdain and full-on shouting with very little in the middle. Ok, so some sob-crying usually makes the cut.

But Ji Chang Wook is one of those rare K-drama finds who doesn't over-act or under-act. Instead, everything he does feels incredibly natural, like I'm watching a real person living through these experiences, as out-of-the-ordinary as those experiences may be. 

As Healer/Jung Hoo/Bong Soo, he was able to convey more emotion with the slightest little twitch of a facial muscle than many actors and actresses do with a massive screaming fit. Not only that, but he acted with his entire body instead of just his face. Perhaps that's his theater background at work. Whatever it was, it worked, and now I'm completely mesmerized by him and may have to watch Bachelor's Vegetable Store to see more (words I never thought I would utter in a million years).

Of course, we can't talk about him without his leading lady. I haven't really had strong feelings either way about Park Min Young in the past, but I felt that she suited this role well, and the Jung Hoo/Young Shin couple was my favorite kind of OTP—one where I could see why they wanted to be together, and I believed the relationship development wholeheartedly.

Do I really need two screenshots to prove my point? Probably not, but are you gonna complain about it?

While we're at it, we should also mention the third member of our trio, Kim Moon Ho. Yoo Ji Tae could have disappeared next to our OTP pretty easily, but he held his own really well, keeping me absolutely invested in his side of the story.

Ok, so here's the part of the review where I talk about things I didn't like:

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Uh, I guess I didn't like it when Young Shin did obviously dangerous things like getting into the villain's car? I also didn't really like that "Eternal Love" song because it sounded like it came straight out of the 90s, but not in a good way.

Other than that, I really can't think of anything. I mean, the logical part of my brain knows there were probably problems with the show, but they don't come to mind at the moment, and I would really rather just bask in the glow of my enjoyment a little while longer. Don't rain on my Healer-obsessed parade, okay?

So thank you, Healer, for reminding me how thoroughly enjoyable a K-drama can be. My feelings for you are genuine.

Where to watch Healer:

DramaFever

Viki (2-week delay for North America)

Drama Dilemmas

I'm winding down on a handful of dramas over the course of the next week or so, and I'm facing some major drama indecision. I know for sure that I want to watch You Are All Surrounded, but I like to have a backup drama going between episodes. I just can't decide, though!

So, friends of the internet, I'm turning to you for help. In order to narrow the options, I'm following that old wedding rhyme "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." If it works for a lifelong commitment, it should work for a 20-episode commitment, right?


Something old: Winter Sonata

Aren't they cold standing in a snowstorm without coats? NO. Because love. 

Pros: I'm slightly ashamed that I haven't ever seen this one. It's such a classic that I feel obligated to get around to it at some point just to enrich my drama understanding.

Cons: From what I hear, there is some serious melodrama going on here. Not my favorite, but I can let it slide for a drama staple.

Something new: Secret Love Affair

Boom chicka wow wow.

Pros: Ever since Sungkyunkwan Scandal, I have been dying to watch more Yoo Ah In dramas. Fashion King and Jang Ok Jung didn't quite make the cut, but this one has rave reviews from people I trust. It sounds like a drama with brains.

Cons: If I'm being totally honest, I have a really hard time watching adultery. I get frustrated that so many movies and shows represent the cuckolded spouse as a terrible person, thereby making the choice as uncomplicated as possible. (Something Borrowed, I'm looking at you. You steal your best friend's fiancee, but we're supposed to think it's fine because A. you best friend is a monster and B. you are Ginnifer Goodwin? Nice try.) For a subject that has the potential to cause such deep, lasting emotional pain, it feels like a cop-out.

Something borrowed: My Love from Another Star

He may be an alien, but that's no excuse not to wear the trendiest haircut in Korea.

Pros: I'm "borrowing" this suggestion from everyone who already watched this show. I feel left out that I'm the only one who didn't watch it, so maybe I should just jump on the bandwagon.

Cons: Kim Soo Hyun's face. There, I said it. I mean, it's a handsome face and all, but he never seems very expressive. What if I watch one episode and hate him, but then I'm stuck watching the whole thing?

Something blue: Heartless City/Cruel City (Blue because of the whole police theme, not because it makes me sad--I hope)

You can tell it's gritty based on the monochrome poster.

Pros: I don't know why I haven't watched more K-drama thrillers. I mean, I love movie thrillers. I'm currently mid-binge watch of the Infernal Affairs trilogy, so undercover cop stuff is right up my alley.

Cons: I'm already watching a cop show as my simulcast, so maybe it'll be overkill?

Well, what'll it be? Convince me in the comments! Or just vote. Because that's what I'm actually going to follow.

Which show should Vivi watch next?
	Winter Sonata
	Secret Love Affair
	My Love from Another Star
	Heartless City
pollcode.com free polls

Emergency Couple Korean Drama Review

Source

Warning: This review is pretty spoiler-y. We can't keep our mouths shut. You've been warned!

Vivi: I’m really glad that Coco and I both watched Emergency Couple because I was waaaaay more invested in it than I had any right to be, and I needed someone to text about it in the middle of the night.

Coco: And I needed someone to talk to about how cute baby Gook was! Seriously, was he not the CUTEST baby in the world?

Vivi: YES. But I thought you were going to say you needed to text someone about how cute Chief Gook was. Because that happened too.

Coco: I’m pretty sure that was YOU. Although I do agree that he was very cute, it was you who did most of the second male lead pining.

This happened every week. Multiple times a week.

Vivi: Yeah, I did. I don’t understand how you were able to watch it without rooting for the second male lead. Are you even human? 

I’m serious. Are you a robot?

Coco: A Choi Jin Hyuk-loving robot!!! I admit that I was on on the first male lead’s side the whole time. That largely had to do with the behind the scenes footage I saw of him laughing and joking with Ji Hyo. They were so freakin adorable together (as cute as the Monday Couple comprised of Ji Hyo and Kang Gary on Running Man, I dare say!) So I was patiently waiting for his character to grow up and act like a man and for her character to finally settle into her confident self.

Source

Vivi: And my love of Chief Gook was mostly tied to his scruff and the fact that he was socially awkward and emotionally constipated. In other words, if I had a Kdrama patronus, it would be him. You’re right about the character growth, though. A lot of people complained about the leads at first, but I appreciated that they had plenty of time for gradual growth.

Coco: Yes, I was pleased with the growth of these characters. It felt natural, and they all became legitimately awesome people.

Vivi: Yeah, everything felt pretty natural, except for the last few episodes. Song Ji Hyo suddenly baking fortune cookies from scratch and throwing herself at the man made me throw up in my mouth. (And if you run up multiple flights of stairs, of course your heart will be beating hard. You're a doctor! Pull it together!) Also, “I hate divorced people?” It’s like they suddenly realized they only had three episodes left and finally noticed that all sane people loved the second lead.

You know what else was a well-developed character? This cat poster. Behold its glory.

Coco: My complaint at the beginning of the drama was that the female lead was too passive and incompetent for me to love her, but she quickly proved herself and developed the self confidence that had been drained out of her after her terrible divorce. The male lead also gradually stood up for her and came to respect and admire her for real reasons, unlike many other Kdrama characters where I continually ask myself, “Why does he/she like him/her?” (Kim Tan and Eun Sang in Heirs, I’m talking to you).

Vivi: Completely agreed about the respect. I was thrilled that she didn’t stand for it when he tried to force himself onto her, and they included a few episodes where he had to learn to take the relationship on her terms. Unlike you, I liked her from the beginning. She wasn’t really incompetent. From the very beginning, she would do things right, but no one else took her seriously. I think the fact that the character was played by Song Ji Hyo also helped. She as a person doesn’t really strike me as a wilting flower, so I was willing to wait for plot development. I don’t watch Running Man, but I might start.

Coco: Running Man is the best btw. But yes, I love that he had to figure out how to have a mature relationship, and it was too bad that she went over the top in trying to convince him that she truly loved him back at the end. It is sad that they kind of threw the “I hate divorced people” at the Chief as a device to make him less of a good match, but I did really like him with Ji Hye. I just loved her from the beginning with her cool and collected demeanor. I was happy that they alluded to them ending up together, although I wish they would have done more with it than the awkward airport scene. I mean, if I were her I’d be like, “That’s it? A ‘come back sometime’ is the best you can muster during a dramatic airport scene?”

Vivi: I actually kind of loved that. It was so fitting to his entire personality. If the writers had done more with that relationship earlier, I might have expected more, but if he had run to the airport and suddenly started making out with her, it would have been weird. Like sexytimes CPR weird. Or clown music during a hostage scene weird.

Coco: Sexytimes CPR was one of the most awkward scenes of any Kdrama ever. Especially since it fell on a commercial break so it immediately repeated and made it twice as long. Eww.

Vivi: Seriously. It was like I couldn’t stand to watch it, but I couldn’t look away, either. MAKE IT STOP! Speaking of that scene, this show wins for most fakeouts ever. I’m not happy about it, show! If you show someone moving in for a kiss, you’d better mean it!

Coco: But wouldn’t it have been sadder if he actually did kiss her and then she rejected him? At least their relationship didn’t progress that far. But why did she go visit him at his cabin? That was kind of a mean trick when she already knew she wasn’t done with her ex-husband.

Vivi: That was a big complaint for me. It was like the show wanted to pretend that he never even confessed his feelings. Every time I thought they might let the relationship go, they just kept adding in something heartbreaking like that stupid cabin and stabbing me in the heart. And hello, letting him see them making out at the bus stop???? I hate them.

Coco: Ok, can we talk about the side characters for a minute? I totally love her sister and brother -in-law. Yes, she was a total pain in the butt at first, but the way they kept intervening with their relationship was really funny. And they spawned the cutest, funniest creation on God’s green earth, Gook.

Vivi: I wasn’t crazy about any of the parents, but I did enjoy the sister and her bumbling husband (Except for her terrible advice at the end. "Your body knew you were in love"? Nope. Your body was drunk.), and the other people in the hospital were fine. I mean, I can’t say that I was hanging on to every word Ah Reum said, but it was okay.

Coco: Yeah, I didn’t know what to do with Ah Reum. I hated her smug face so much at the beginning that even though she turned into a good person surprisingly quickly, I could never sincerely wish for her happiness. I’m glad that Yong Gyu ended up getting the girl because he was sooo adorable and sweet, but they’re kind of an odd match.

Vivi: They are a perfect match because Ah Reum’s only job was to look hot and smile, and Yong Gyu just wanted a hot girlfriend. Boom. Match made in heaven.

Coco: That’s true. Plus, she really did show that she was a good person many times over. What about the newly married couple and the pregnancy plotline? Something that did strike me over and over again in this drama was the theme of female empowerment. It was fantastic to see so many strong women in typically male positions in this drama.

Vivi: Absolutely. That storyline felt a little underdeveloped and thrown together, but between that, the double standard for divorce, and Ji Hye as a single working mother, it was a show that largely revolved around the problems women face. And at the end of the day, none of the women had ideal lives, and none of them were pushovers.

Coco: It’s so nice to see a Kdrama, or a show in general, that addresses those issues realistically and doesn’t primarily focus on the issues surrounding modern women and sex and romance like in I Need Romance and Sex and the City. Yes, sex and romance are struggles for modern women, but there’s much more than that in their struggle for equality.

Vivi: I Need Romance 3 also had an unwed pregnancy plotline, which was probably the most interesting part of the whole show (which I still need to review someday). I do like to see the emergence of more nuanced shows, though. Wait, did I just call Emergency Couple nuanced? Scratch that. There were definitely rough patches, too. Some of the tone was bizarre. Some of the plot elements jumped forward at the end. The mother drove me insane. But even with the stuff I didn’t like, I was waiting for each new episode, which is something that hasn’t happened in a while.

Coco: True, is had its struggles, and sometimes it seemed a little slow (mostly because I don’t love medical dramas so I would rather fast forward through those scenes), but I was also waiting for new episodes and sometimes got way too excited and then sad when I realized it was actually Thursday and not Friday like I thought. Overall, I highly recommend this drama for its talented and fun cast and their great chemistry, not only as couples but as an overall ensemble as well.

What did you guys think of this show? Did you stick with it past the rough start? Comment below!

Where to watch Emergency Couple

DramaFever

Viki

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: White Christmas Korean Drama Review

White Christmas crossed my drama radar several months ago, but at the time, I wasn't in the mood for anything really dark (I blame Breaking Bad).  Eventually, the combination of a few disappointing romcoms and the promise of more Kim Woo Bin convinced me to give this miniseries (8 episodes) a chance.

As it turns out, it was just what I needed to cleanse my kdrama palate.  White Christmas is anything but a traditional kdrama.  It isn't romantic.  It isn't funny.  It isn't melodramatic, either.  It's bleak, terrifying, heartbreaking, and disturbing all at once.  It's also fascinating and beautiful in its own dark way.

Overview

I'm going to keep my overview short because this is one drama that probably works best when you know little about it.  The basic plot is this: A handful of students at an elite, isolated high school all receive a mysterious note before Christmas and decide to stay behind with one teacher.  A terrible snowstorm cuts them off from the outside world, and bad things start to happen to them one by one.

If that sounds like the premise to an Agatha Christie novel, it kind of is.  The whole idea of a hodgepodge group of people trapped with one anonymous crazy person isn't exactly new, but, fortunately, that's not the focus of the drama.  The "whodunit" quickly takes a back seat to a much more interesting psychological study that spans the remainder of the series.  

There are two things that make this series work far more effectively than a lot of similar stories.  The first is the production itself.  Everything works together, from the claustrophobic setting of the all-glass school to the use of music (I will never hear this song again without thinking of Kim Woo Bin) to the cuts between characters and scenes.  It would have been easy to film this thing almost entirely zoomed in on people's faces (Les Miserables, I'm looking at you), but they resisted that temptation for a more measured approach that kept the story grounded in reality.

Anyone else feel like they were watching hamsters in a cage every time they ran back and forth?

The second thing that made this series work so well was the cast.  This drama possibly had the best cast I have seen on any kdrama--ever.  I don't say that lightly.  It was a cast of mostly teenagers, but each and every character (okay, with one exception) was layered and complex.  Even the villain of the series had interesting moments of depth that steered clear of caricature.  While I didn't like all of the characters, I grew to understand them.  The cast members were phenomenal at portraying characters who were so human that you hurt for them.  I wasn't worried so much about what the villain might do to them (though that threat was constantly present) so much as what they might do to each other.

I remember reading somewhere (Dramabeans, maybe?) that the director purposely chose young actors who were similar heights for the various roles.  Visually, it was an interesting trick.  There were some scenes where I really couldn't tell who was who, and yet, even though each student was so similar on the outside, they were all completely different on the inside.

Of course, every drama has its faults, and the faults here mostly stemmed from the plot structure.  Time after time, I thought "Why don't you just do X?  Problem solved!"  The last episode had some especially egregious plot holes that had me rolling my eyes. (Also, who on earth gave Kim Yohan his psychology license?)  The short answer here is that the characters never did any of those things because if they had, the conflict would have been gone.  Without that conflict, there was no impetus for the psychological study.  In a series that's much more about people than plot, I'm willing to let holes slide as a matter of narrative necessity.

Overall, I can't say that I would recommend White Christmas offhand to just anyone.  When I say that it's dark, I mean dark.  But if you're willing to brave a bleak drama to see some phenomenal acting, including Kim Woo Bin and Sung Joon in early roles, curl up under some warm blankets, stuff yourself with chocolate, and give this one a try.  It's well worth it.

And now the spoiler club for those who saw this drama and want to discuss the ending...

In the end, the drama seems to claim that the kids did, in fact, become monsters.  We know for a fact that the doctor feels this way--his dying words of "I won" and self-satisfied smile left no question of where he stood on the matter.  Combine that with Park Mu Yeol's chilling face as he lies to the detective (possibly the most upsetting moment of the whole thing for me) as well as the doctor's foreshadowing claim that once Park Mu Yeol turned, his monster would be much worse than anyone else's, and you have a pretty grim view of humanity on your hands. I think, however, that there's more to the story.

First of all, I think the central question of "Are monsters born, or are they made?" is inherently flawed.  How, exactly, are we distinguishing the categories of monster/not monster?  When you piece together the doctor's statements throughout the show, he seems to see it as a clear distinction.  One minute, you're not a monster, but once you flip that switch and do something monstrous, you can never go back to being "non-monster" again.  In his world, once the kids agree to take a life, they are monsters.  At one point in the series, he even points out that it should make no difference whose life it is.  A life is still a life.

But why does the psychotic serial killer get to make the rules?  That seems a little foolhardy, doesn't it?  I agree that the youths made a disturbing (and possibly "monstrous") choice, but that wasn't the only choice they made.  Yang Gang Mo chose to jeopardize his own safety to help the hostages.  Lee Jae Kyu used his power in the "game" to save the others while sacrificing his own life.  Even Mu Yeol overcame his hatred of Chi Hoon to help him.  It's overly simplistic to assume that life is some balancing sheet of "monster" choices versus "non-monster" choices, but to assume--as the doctor does--that one moment flips an irreversible switch undermines the complexity of the show.  

Instead, I see this drama not as a discussion of the monstrous, but rather as a study in understanding others.  Just like the doctor yearns to categorize the boys (and girl) into easy categories of monster or not to ease his own demons, the boys similarly categorize one another at the outset.  As the series progresses, they learn that their easy labels--while initially reassuring--were actually isolating them all.  By the end, the labels are gone, and so is the isolation.

So which image dominates the ending?  Is it Park My Yeol's cold gaze as the doctor whispers "I won"? Or is it the group walking into the light--together?

Where to watch White Christmas

It's a major travesty, but White Christmas isn't currently available on Viki OR Dramafever OR Netflix OR Hulu.  I had to do some digging to find it, but you can watch it here:

Gooddrama

I ended up streaming it because I don't trust random downloads, but even in somewhat grainy quality, it was still worth it.

Other opinions on White Christmas

1 2 3 4 5 6

Arang and the Magistrate Korean Drama Review

I have been working my way through some of the big dramas of 2012 that I originally missed because I was too busy watching older dramas.  Next up is Gaksital, which I convinced my husband to watch with me. Success!   The downside is that we're on a one-episode-a-week timetable over here, so I could probably teach myself to knit and then knit myself a snowsuit and trek to Alaska and back before I actually manage to review it.

 So far, I've been pretty pleased with the dramas that popped up on last year's "best of" lists, and Arang and the Magistrate holds its own against the pack.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who, like me, isn't really interested in anything set in the Joseon era. (Sungkyunkwan Scandal excepted, of course.  That thing could be set in space 40,000,000 years in the future, and I would still watch the whole thing with absolute glee.)

Overview

The very basic summary of this drama involves a grumpy rich kid who can see ghosts and the sassy ghost who won't leave him alone.  In other words, while there are the political power plays involving wealthy old men chuckling as they grind the faces of the poor that you might expect from any sageuk, there is enough other stuff going on to maintain interest.  Mystery, mysticism, and romance all take precedence over the political intrigue, and the drama is (in my opinion) the better for it.  

The advantage to placing this drama in a historical setting is that it takes full advantage of the sweeping scenes common to historical dramas.  Even mundane scenes have stunning wide-angle shots filled with vibrant colors that you almost never get in Seoul-based workplace dramas.

If you're gonna jog around being sad, you might as well jog through a gorgeous field of flowers.

The quality of the visuals goes downhill in the last few episodes of the drama (probably due to time and/or budgetary constraints), but with so much beauty frontloaded into the show, I can't complain.

Okay, okay, I will make one complaint.  I love the colorful costumes, but seriously, can someone please get Kim Eun Oh some sneakin'-around clothes that aren't bright teal and flowy?  Please.

The Romance

The leads? Love them.  I haven't seen Shin Min Ah in anything other than My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, but for what it's worth, she's fantastic at playing uppity mystical creatures.  She has an effervescence about her that just lights up the screen.  Even though you know she's just playing a role, you still want to become best friends so that you can invite her to parties and braid each other's hair and stuff.

I was already pretty much sold on Shin Min Ah before I watched this drama, but that wasn't the case for Lee Joon Ki.  In fact, I had only seen him in My Girl before this series, and, as we've already established, that didn't end so well.  In the few episodes that I managed to watch, he was probably my least favorite character, which is saying something.  I think it was the pointy shag haircut.  The mid-2000s weren't kind to imaginary Kpop idols, I guess.

It took me a few episodes to even realize that this was the same guy, which was probably for the best.  By the time I discovered who the actor was, it was too late for my previous prejudice to get in the way.  Sure, his role as a typical prickly kdrama lead basically required a bunch of shouting and/or gazing, but even if he had no lines and just sat in a corner, he would still get my vote for the way he whispers "Arang" with his stellar "I'm madly in love with you" face.

Yeah, that's the one.

Some of the dramas that I've been watching of late (*cough*Heirs*cough*) have been a little lazy in the chemistry department, so I think I appreciated the chemistry here even more than usual.  The scene in episode 2 where Eun Ho measures Arang for her new clothes?  Wow.  Just wow.  I mean, it was this totally chaste, practical activity, and yet it was filled with tenderness. 

I--I--woieuroiweurhskjhf.  That's how I feel just thinking about this scene.

The relationship itself was a little interesting to me.  There was a lot of shouting/wrist grabbing in this drama.  I kind of felt like there was a five second lag in every conversation between the time Arang said something and when Eun Ho heard it--just enough time for her to walk away so he would have to run after her and spin her around by the wrist.

While I generally dislike this kind of kdrama dynamic, the show established equality between the characters in other ways.  Visually, these two were partners.  I loved the number of level shots that framed the two lovers together.  Neither one was in charge--instead, they sat side by side on equal footing and worked together.  

Other positives: 

• Bang Wool and Dol Sue made an excellent romantic counterweight to Arang and Eun Ho. 
•  I thought I would hate how they resolved the Joo Wol thing, but it actually worked for me, which is always tricky with villains who develop a conscience. (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: not wanting to kill one person doesn't make up for trying to kill all the people.) 
• The fantastical heavenly scenes were a visual delight, and Han Jung Soo's casting as the death angel was absolute perfection.  
• As far as the main villain went, I appreciated how absolutely creepy she was with her crazy eyes.

The Bad

There was some infuriating "selflessness" that had me rolling my eyes towards the end.  I already talked about it here.  Let's just say that if you're trying to catch murderers and/or kill demons, you should probably tell your partner what's going on.  That goes for both leads.

Noble idiocy aside, there was just plain ole regular idiocy at times, as well.  Arang and Eun Ho seemed like decently smart people, and yet they never seemed to figure anything out until someone spelled it out for them.  There were a number of times when Eun Ho would make his shocked face and shout "What do you mean?!?!?" and all I could think was "Didn't you have this information three episodes ago?  How is it humanly possible that you didn't piece it together by now?"  I was genuinely baffled when the plot cycled back to "mysteries" that I thought had been resolved way earlier.

I was mostly swept up in this series until the ending, but the tail end of the series left me kind of deflated.  It wasn't bad and I can't really complain about how they chose to resolve the central conflicts, but I just felt like "Meh, well, I guess it's over." I think part of the problem may have been the fact that the entire last episode felt like it came straight out of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.  ("You approach the library, and a spirit guard blocks your path.  If you fight him, turn to page 47.  If you talk to him, turn to page 5.")  

Overall

I think this would be an excellent place to start if you're trying to break into historical dramas without actually having to deal with the historical part.  It's also an excellent place to start if you like romance.  Or funny things.  Or charismatic actors.  Or joy.  So just watch it, okay?

Places to watch Arang and the Magistrate:

Dramafever

Viki
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Partying It Up in the Palace: King 2 Hearts Korean Drama Review

I'm gradually working my way through all of the shows I should have watched back in 2012. After Nice Guy, I went back to something (at least initially) more lighthearted with King 2 Hearts. It seems like this series was somewhat polarizing.   People either loved it, or they kind of hated it.  My answer?  I agree!  With (almost) everyone!  With mad diplomacy skills like these, I deserve to be in the UN, right?  Because I could do a better job than most of the diplomats in this show, that's for sure.

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Loved It

The casting for this series was pretty spot-on.  I was kind of ambivalent about Lee Seung Gi after My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho, and hearing that he was supposed to pay a king in this series wasn't a very strong selling point for me.  I'm happy to admit that I shouldn't have been such a Judgy McJudgerson.  Unlike many drama leads (and what I expected from this character as well), Prince Lee Jae Ha isn't cold and cruel.  He's immature and a little thoughtless, but he's also fun and friendly.  Lee Seung Gi was the perfect pick to bring lightheartedness to the front end of the series.

Ha Ji Won was a natural choice for the character of Kim Hang Ah, a North Korean assassin who finds herself engaged to the South Korean prince.  If you liked Ha Ji Won in Secret Garden, you'll love her here.  If you hated Ha Ji Won in Secret Garden, you might actually like her here.

As far as smart, strong female leads go, Kim Hang Ah is a solid contender for the top of the list.  Let's start with the fact that she's an assassin.  As in, she knows how to kill people.  As a profession.  Every time I started to forget that she was awesome because they dolled her up and locked her in the palace for a few episodes, she would save everyone's lives just to remind us that she wasn't just some docile, pretty face.

When we made that list of smart, strong female leads, I remember having a discussion about how most dramas require the man to save even the strongest women from time to time just to put them in their place.  Not so with King 2 Hearts!  Kim Hang Ah easily did the lion's share of the saving, and Lee Jae Ha knew it.

Oh, you want to kidnap Hang Ah and use her as helpless damsel bait?

That's a cute plan.

  

You assign a few soldiers to babysit Hang Ah?

Did you miss the part where she killed people for a living?

You want Hang Ah to stay safely at home during an international crisis?

No, thanks.

I have to admit that while I liked the casting separately, the two didn't have the best chemistry I've ever seen in a drama. On the positive side, at least Lee Seung Gi has improved his kissing since MGIaG, though Ha Ji Won seems to have gotten worse since Secret Garden.

The chemistry might have been a little off at times, but I liked the overall relationship development in the series.  I appreciate those little scenes where we see these two having fun together or supporting each other through tough times.  You could see that this relationship eventually went beyond attraction and moved into deep friendship. 

Even though I liked the leads for the aforementioned reasons, they weren't even the stars of the show for me.  All of the other people living in the palace were just as interesting to watch.  There was the queen mother, who might just be the most well-rounded matriarch in drama-dom, and then there was her daughter, who reminded me that Lee Yoon Ji really deserves to be the star of her own drama someday.

And then there was this guy:

At first, I was kind of meh about his character.  I figured he was just a boring pretty boy who would come in handy to create some jealousy.

I cannot overstate how fantastic Jo Jung Suk was as Eun Shi Kyung.  His character wasn't the flashiest one in the show, but it had a quiet depth that can't be ignored.  If You're the Best, Lee Soon Shin weren't eleventy zillion episodes long, I would be tempted to watch it just for him.  But seriously, ain't nobody got time for that!

The last thing that I really enjoyed about this drama was the political background.  Out of all of the imaginary South Korean monarchy dramas I've seen (and I've seen several), this was the first to consider what it would really mean to become the king of a small nation in our modern world. It was an interesting look at international concerns from a non-U.S. perspective.

Hated It

Okay, so with so much going for it, what could possibly go wrong?  Most of it boils down to John Mayer, the villainous magician/leader of the worldwide military-industrial complex. (I really, really wanted to tell a "Your Body Is a Wonderland" joke here, but I couldn't think of one, and then the moment was gone.  Curse you, John Mayer!) I get that the drama writers wanted to go for something new and fresh in their villain, but this just didn't work for me.  Most of his scenes just left me scratching my head and wondering how long it would take for him to finish his boring speech so that I could watch some more romance.  Blah blah I am king blah blah.  Seriously, man! Can't you make your evil plans in a more concise manner? 

Also, if you're going to be an eccentric billionaire magician, I expect some high-caliber tricks, not "Pick a card! Any card!"  You could tell that everyone was just clapping out of politeness.  Either that, or fear of his chocolate-eating sidekick. 

Releasing doves?  Really?  What is this--a 7-year-old's birthday party circa 1987?

This isn't really a huge complaint, but after watching some pretty painful American accents (Mr. Secretary of Defense, I'm looking at you!), I hereby volunteer to speak English in any future Korean dramas where they need American people.  You hear that, drama writers?  I volunteer! I can't help you with those awkward bilingual conversations where everyone magically understands everyone else, though.  I'm not a miracle worker, people!

(Spoilers) I felt like the last few episodes dragged onnnnnnnnnn and onnnnnnnn and onnnnnnnn. Considering that John Mayer confessed all of his crimes every five seconds (including in front of UN officers), I don't understand why it was so hard to put him in prison.  If I accept the show's claim that his power was keeping him safe (which is possible), then I'm pretty sure a wedding wouldn't have been enough to keep him in pinstripes (because apparently the ICJ  believes in dressing criminals like 1950s cartoon prisoners).  Maybe this was a case of using all of the good villain-thwarting ideas too early and having nothing left once they got into the episode extensions.

Conclusions

Overall, I think the good outweighed the bad for King 2 Hearts.  Sometimes it was a crazy mishmash of tone, and they probably could have cut a bunch of stuff towards the end, but when a show makes me laugh out loud AND sob like a little baby, I feel like I can recommend it.

Nice Guy (The Innocent Man) Korean Drama Review

My soundtrack for writing this review tonight is this song:

It felt strangely appropriate.  You'll find out why in a minute.

Anyway, I've been trying to step out of my kdrama comfort zone lately.  I am normally a solid rom com kind of girl, and revenge melodramas aren't really my cup of tea. Dying and crying? Blech. Give me lovesick hijinks any day.

After Sungkyunkwan Scandal, however, I really wanted to watch more from the best bromance in the world. After accidentally (completely on purpose) reading a spoiler for Yoo Ah In's Fashion King and realizing that I would really, really hate it, I was left no choice but to go with Song Joong Ki's Nice Guy (also known as Innocent Man). Unfortunately, Song Joong Ki is just leaving for military service, which means no more shows from him for a while. Why now? Just when I've developed a mild obsession!

The basic plot is this: In a case of seriously flawed logic, a guy goes to jail for a murder he doesn't commit.  Once he gets out, he becomes a gigolo (whaaaaaaat?) and then revengey stuff happens. And love stuff happens. And revengey-love stuff happens. Ridiculous.

This is from the intro credits. He's shedding a single tear! And he dropped his watch! Because--time! And feelings!

Bottom line? I loved every single absurd, glorious, melodramatic second of it. I'm not even embarrassed. Here's the breakdown:

The Plot

When a murder happens in the first 20 minutes of episode 1, you know you're in for a wild kdrama ride, and this show's plot was crazy with a capital CRAZY.  I mean, at one point in the show, one of the characters starts to recover from amnesia, and the shock of her recovery--wait for it--gives her more amnesia. Because according to kdrama logic, what's better than amnesia? DOUBLE AMNESIA! What's better than a head injury? DOUBLE HEAD INJURY! What's better than blackmailing? DOUBLE BLACKMAILING! You get the picture.

The Characters

To be honest, the plot wasn't what really won me over because it wasn't that great. If you want to know why I temporarily stopped sleeping or showering and had some intense marathons with this show, here's the answer:

He's disappointed you even had to ask.

In my experience, most kdramas tend to be external.  What I mean by that is that exterior events incite change in the characters, and that change is manifested in outward action.  For example, a girl gets slightly cold and then--in a crazy twist of fate--faints. We then know that the man has developed feelings for her because he carries her home and watches over her all night long. 

As I just said, Nice Guy has a lot of external stuff happening, but at its core, it's actually an intensely internal show.  Even when Kang Ma Roo makes the outward gestures typical in drama romances, we can never be sure if it's sincere or not--because he doesn't even know if he's being sincere. His character goes beyond the usual  "I love you, but I'm also conflicted because I'm angry/guilty" conflict into something more complex, and Song Joong Ki does an incredible job portraying the character. Half of the time, I wasn't sure if I should be swooning or swearing at the computer because Joong Ki's Ma Roo is so flawed and messy and confused. That internal tension is what made this drama so engaging.    

Tormented sad Quasimodo face! Who wouldn't be intrigued?

For the first five episodes or so, Moon Chae Won also holds her own as Seo Eun Gi.  Sure, she's a little bit abrasive, but she's also sassy and powerful.  We all know how much I love that in a female lead!  Unfortunately, Moon Chae Won doesn't get much to do for the second half of the series once her character gets turned into an amnesiac plot device.  The show is really all about Kang Ma Roo, but I saw just enough of Moon Chae Won's abilities as an actress to make me wish they had used her a little bit better here.

I wish we got more of this "stop messing with me, or I will eat your internal organs raw" face.

And then we come to the character who made me angrier than any other kdrama villain has ever made me in my entire life: Han Jae Hee (Park Si Yeon).  I think what made her so upsetting was that she wasn't just horrible for the sake of being a terrible person.  She was an exaggerated version of someone you could meet in real life.  She was manipulative and selfish, but not out of some unreasonable desire to ruin other people's lives.  Instead, she's a Daisy Buchanan: beautiful and alluring, but completely self-absorbed.  She wants everything, but she doesn't want to sacrifice anything. (And now you know why that Great Gatsby song got stuck in my head. Any excuse for a nerdy lit reference!)  She's so self-absorbed, in fact, that every time she talks about Kang Ma Roo, she says something to the effect of "that man who I loved more than my own life" without realizing that he's exactly the opposite. She didn't love him more than her own life; she didn't even love him more than her own job!  Really? You need to commit suicide if you can't be a journalist? There are no other careers out there that you could do so that your boyfriend doesn't have to go to prison and become a gigolo?

Wearing glittery blazers is also a pretty surefire way to make me hate you as a character.

I want to talk about ALL of the characters because that's how engrossing this show was, but I'll stop here.

Other Things about This Show

Is it just me, or were the music choices for this show a little off sometimes?  I almost stopped halfway through episode 1 because, while I can handle dramatic murders and cover-ups, the over-the-top soap opera tango music was just too much.  You shouldn't be busting out the murder accordions (murdercordions?) until at least episode four!  I also recall one scene where two people were blackmailing each other at a cafe (I can't remember who it was because basically everyone blackmailed everyone else during the course of the show), and Jason Mraz was playing.  How are you supposed to drive fear into your opponent's heart with "I Won't Give Up"--possibly the most mellow song on the entire planet--playing in the background?

(Spoilers) Can we have a little heart-to heart about episode 20 for a second? I know that a lot of people just hated it outright, but I'm kind of torn.  Sure, it was tonally inconsistent with the rest of the show.  It was also kind of confusing and didn't mention anything about what happened to Tae San.  I mean, I didn't really care for most of the office politics throughout the show, but after 20 episodes of shouting OMO WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO TAE SAN???????, the writers should have included something about it!

The one thing that saved that ending for me was the relationship between Ma Roo and Eun Gi.  Throughout the show, Kang Ma Roo's obsession was his need to save the women in his life. His love for Jae Hee, Choco, and Eun Gi all grows out of his ability to protect them when they are vulnerable or helpless.  Because Eun Gi is a helpless amnesiac for over half of the show (Can you tell I'm a little miffed about this?), I wasn't ever entirely sure if Ma Roo could love her once she no longer relied on him. Even at the end of episode 19, he gets stabbed, and his primary concern is sending her off before she can notice. (Wait, how did she not notice that gigantic blood stain on his stomach?) 

Episode 20 resolved that issue for me.  Even if it was inconsistent with the rest of the show, I needed to see that he could love her without always having to save her.  They built a relationship on friendship and respect, not on an attraction that grew out of pity or guilt.

Am I suddenly converted to revenge melos?  Probably not.  Could I even handle watching this one all the way through again?  Probably not.  But it's still definitely worth a watch.

The Twitter Version of this Review

Song Joong Ki is awesome. Watch this show immediately. Don't let the murdercordions deter you. #...something clever. Aw, forget it. I don't understand how to use hashtags. Just watch this show.

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