K-drama Article on Motherboard

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It's official: K-dramas are taking over the world. To prove it, here's an article that was posted today on Motherboard.

If you read to the second half, you'll see that the article quotes us!


*Pretentiously wipes dust specks off of shoulders*

Okay, it's just a few sentences. But still! It's nice to know that the K-drama community is growing all the time.

Why Jang Geun Suk is the Prince of Asia: Pretty Man (Bel Ami/Beautiful Man/Pretty Boy) Korean Drama Review

Pretty Man was one of those K-dramas that could have gone either way for me, pretty much until the very end when it all unexpectedly came together. There were parts of the plot that made no sense, and aspects of the characters that I loathed, but somehow by a little magic it kept me coming back for more, and even left me satisfied at the end. After short thought I contribute this largely to the mystery that is Jang Geun Suk's charm. I can't explain it, and never believed in it before, but this drama has undeniably led me to understand why it is that Jang Geun Suk is indeed the Prince of Asia.

But let me back up…

The main reason I was drawn to Pretty Man was because of IU's charming ability to make you want to be her, or to at least be her best friend. Her character, Kim Bo Tong, is this strange combination of awkward, adorable, whimsical, slightly perverted, very determined, and incorrigible in her determination to love the male lead.

IU portrays this child-like innocence and wonder like no other actress. Her big round eyes, porcelain skin, rosy lips, and cute little haircut all contribute to this ability, but beyond that she just exudes an excitement as if she's discovering the world for the first time and is in awe of all of it, especially of the male lead, Ma Te (Jang Geun Suk).

I just couldn't resist this female lead despite the fact that her type of one-sided love and obsession for the male lead always is a huge turn off for me (see my Playful Kiss review for another example of my hatred for puppy-like female leads). It still really bothered me to see her give and give relentlessly to Ma Te even though he snubbed her and used her so arrogantly, but in spite of this assault on my senses, I was able to overlook it. IU magic!

One reason I think I was able to get past that was that I LOVED the second male lead David Choi, played by Lee Jang Woo. Since he played such a big part in the drama, more so than most second male leads, I sometimes forgot entirely about Ma Te. He provided a great distraction from the parts I hated and I was sucked into his equally quirky, innocent, and loyal character. He definitely was the other half of IU and their interactions were hilarious and awww-inducing.

I knew he wasn't going to win, but I managed to live in denial completely for about 14 of the 16 episodes. Then it all went south when the male lead finally decided to do a complete, sudden 180 and fall in love with the female lead.

Oh my heart! I was so sad for him.

I want you by my side David!!!

I don't think the writers really thought the plot all the way through before they wrote it, or even until they were writing the second to last episode. The main story line of Ma Te having to seduce 10 women to steal their powers so he could become a worthy heir just didn't really solidify. They kept up the "a new girl to tame an episode" theme for the first few episodes, but then it was like they forgot about it entirely or ran out of ideas. It was as if in the last few episodes the writers were like, "I feel like we're forgetting something. Oh yeah! We never finished the PLOT!" So then they hurriedly threw in a couple more girls and assigned some random women that already existed in the story those roles.

Oh man, this moment when he was trying to seduce the electric fairy was when I first realized his charm.

Also the whole "secret code" thing was problematic to me. First, I don't understand what the point of the secret code was since he didn't actually need it to get anything since he wasn't actually an heir. Second, I don't really get what it means for IU to be his secret code. Secret code to what? His CEO father, who ended up not even being his father, didn't give him anything once he brought IU with him. It made no sense. I don't think that's what the writers originally set out to do. I guess they meant that IU was his secret code to happiness in life, but it just wasn't well thought out.

The biggest problem of all was the placement of the main couple in the plot. We all know that this genre of K-dramas are pretty much all alike in that there is a mean male lead, but then he falls in love with the poor, hard working female lead, so he's nice to her and they are blissful for a couple of episodes until they face one last major challenge to their love (usually involving an evil matriarch) and then they end up happily ever after.

Pretty Man succeeded in this, but the timing was all off. Ma Te was not nice and showed hardly any signs of love towards Bo Tong until the last two episodes. This should have happened by episode 8! It was too little too late. They totally missed the couple blissful episodes in the middle that they should have had, and the male lead never grew on me.

For every 10 arrogant faces he made, there was one irresistible smile. And let's not forget the myriad of hairstyles, mostly ugly!

And this is where the magic of Jang Geun Suk comes in. Somehow he made this work. He scowled and was arrogant for 90% of the show, but when he turned around and became loving and humble at the very last second, I actually bought it!

How is that possible? And I wasn't even all that sad that she didn't end up with the second male lead, even though his sadness broke my heart and I wanted them together so bad. But beyond comprehension Jang Geun Suk flashed his hypnotizing smile and made me believe it was all going to be ok. I kind of hate him for it, but I can't deny he did it. He saved the show!

Overall, I enjoyed Pretty Man partly because I tricked my roommate into watching it with me so we bonded over it, partly because the whimsical feel of it was fun and light after watching so much crying in Heirs, partly because I love IU, partly because I wanted to marry the second male lead, and ultimately because Jang Geun Suk is the Prince of Asia and kind of the Prince of My Heart, just a little bit.

For all its plot holes and the obnoxious female lead's love for the male lead, I can recommend it as a fun, light hearted K-drama to watch when you just want to mindlessly sit back and relax. There wasn't too much excessive crying or longing, but it will give you the pleasant FEELS.

What did you think of Pretty Man? Did Jang Geun Suk steal your heart? Which of his hairstyles did you hate the most? Comment below!

Heirs Kdrama Review, or, Why Coco and Vivi Are So Hard on Kim Tan

So, we actually managed to cover most of our Heirs-related feelings in our finale commentary, but we figured we should probably give a more thorough (and serious) analysis of the show as a whole.  After all, it has consumed so much of the kdrama community for the past 2+ months that it deserves some parting words!

Here's the one-paragraph overview: Heirs started out kind of ridiculous.  Then it became a train wreck, but also the most boring train wreck I have ever seen. Then it somehow improved for the last handful of episodes.  Is it worth watching for people who skipped it while it was airing?  I give it a decided meh overall, bordering on "Is it over yet?  What about now?"



Let's start with the positives.  Many of he the secondary characters were interesting, funny, and charming.  It took a while to get invested in some of them (like Hyo Shin) just because we were jumping back and forth between so many people, but the side friendships and romances were often a welcome relief from the main couple.  The two superstar couples of this show were Chan Young/Bo Na and Ki Ae/Hee Nam (the two mothers).  In both cases, I didn't particularly like the characters at first, but they gradually grew on me until I smiled every time they entered the scene.

The second positive is Kim Woo Bin as Choi Young Do.  Wait, you already knew that Coco and I are completely and totally biased in favor of Young Do?  How ever did you figure it out?

I know I'm not the only one who started this show feeling a little guilty that I found Young Do more interesting than Kim Tan in pretty much every scene.  My theory is that Young Do had to be disturbingly cruel and violent at first to at least give people a fair shot at favoring the intended main couple.  Even then, the early episodes were a mental tug-of-war where one side said, "But VIVI, you should never favor bullies!  It's despicable!" while the other side said, "I can't help it!  He's so fascinating!  Plus, Kim Tan is about as interesting as watching cement dry!"  It also helped that we knew from episode 1 that this guy would never actually get the girl, so it's not like we were really advocating abusive bully boyfriends anyway.

Even when I couldn't really like Young Do because he was too scary, he was always interesting to watch, and full credit there goes to Kim Woo Bin for making every facial expression in every scene meaningful.  He has won a few new fans over here for sure.

And now...the bad.

Really, most of the problems in this show boiled down to the central couple. There was very little romantic scaffolding at the beginning of the show to indicate why Kim Tan would be so obsessive about Eun Sang, and there especially wasn't any strong reasoning for Eun Sang to return his affections.  The male lead was already asking "Do I like you?" in episode 2, which pushed the show into the "romantic obstacles abound" phase before it had time to develop the romance in the first place.  That's also probably why the middle of the show felt so draggy--we skipped ahead to freeze frame love triangle standoffs by episode 5.  What options did they have by episode 10 but to repeat this standoff for the twentieth time?  Oh, wait, they could always go for the sad drive-by ignore walk.  I counted five of those in one episode alone! FIVE!  Sure, there was some cute banter in the last few episodes, but it was a little late by then.

Without this romantic scaffolding in place, we just kind of had to trust the writer's word for it that this couple was madly in love.  I remember that I talked a little about internal versus external kdramas in my review of Nice Guy.  If that drama was internal, this one was a step beyond external.  These characters didn't even look like they were in love.  Eun Sang looked horrified every time Kim Tan invaded her personal space (over and over and over again), and yet, the words "I like you" suddenly came out of her mouth.  If the dialogue says it, it must be true!

He just confessed his feelings.  She's literally trembling with fear.

Doesn't that face say "I'm so happy you kissed me"?

Yup, suuuuuper happy right now.  Ah, young love!

"It only looks like you're hurting me against my will!  And this struggling is struggling for joy!"

This kind of forced feeling plays into a bigger theme on Heirs, and that theme is that it's all about Kim Tan.  I finally realized that Kim Tan's obsession was never even about Eun Sang as a person--it was always about Eun Sang as his personal symbol.  He chased her down obsessively, but that relationship was still very self-focused.  Here are some examples:

• Kim Tan's dialogue often focuses on himself rather than Eun Sang: "Do I like you?" "Why don't you ever listen to me?" (Uhhh, because you've been ignoring everything she says?) "I'm going crazy because I want to hug you." (Followed by a hug.  Against her protests.) "But I like you!" "Just do as I say!"  
• He instigates violence against Young Do time after time after time, and he almost always uses Eun Sang as an excuse. (Fun fact: In four out of five fights, Tan gets physical first.  Young Do only hits Tan first when he's trying to sober him up.)                                                                                                                                                                                         But if you look at the most troubling of these scenes (where he kicks down the door while shouting "I'm gonna kill you!"), his first thought isn't to take care of Eun Sang's safety (while "bad guy" Young Do does manage to shield her).  Instead, his first thought is to punch Young Do and hit him with a chair.  It's not so much about protecting Eun Sang as it is about his own rage against Young Do.
• I was happy that Kim Tan finally realized the impact his rampaging tactics had on Eun Sang's life, and I guess his decision to stop chasing after her was some twisted kind of selflessness, but he followed it up by going on that absurd bender of violence and pouty tears.  Was he only sad about Eun Sang, or was his inability to "protect" Eun Sang mostly emblematic of his powerlessness against dear old daddy-o?

I saw Kim Tan progressing in some ways (like self-confidence and less family neediness), but for the most part, he wasn't much better at the end of the show than he was at the beginning.  While Young Do apologized to the kid he bullied, I wasn't convinced that Kim Tan wouldn't just punch someone else in the face if they got in the way of what he wanted.  Is that kid who broke down the door and grabbed the chair gone, or was he pacified because everyone changed around him?  His brother supported him, his dad had a stroke and caved, and even his mommy troubles came to an end.  What bad habits did Kim Tan abandon in all of this?

In the end, though, I'm glad I watched Heirs.  Even the painful music and the ridiculous styling were fun to mock!  Love is the moment, guys.  Never forget.  Or is love my pain?  Or is the moment my pain?

One more terrible styling choice for the road, okay?
The caked on face makeup in this scene kind of makes it look like his face is melting, like a Barbie that got left in the sun too long.

Better Subtitles for Heirs

Guys, I have a confession to make.  Please don't e-punch me to the face or revoke our eternal kdrama-watching friendship, okay?  But I am having a reeeeeeeeally hard time getting through Heirs these days.

I love a good love triangle as much as the next gal, but seriously, this scared-face standoff has happened about forty times.  WE GET IT. 

So, you know how the full title for Heirs is actually Heirs: He Who Wears the Crown Must Endure Its Weight (or one of about forty variations on the same theme)?  Well, to stave off some of the boredom, Coco and I started to brainstorm some more apt subtitles for the show.  Here's what we have so far:

• Heirs: Rich People Are the WORST
• Heirs: He Who Wears the Crown Probably Has Daddy Issues
• Heirs: First World Problems 
• Heirs: He Who Wishes to Get the Girl Must Lurk the Most
• Heirs: Love Is the Moment. And the Moment Is Usually Uncomfortable
• Heirs: No Event Is Too Small for Dramatic Music
• Heirs: There's No Such Thing As an Ugly Sweater
• Heirs: "I Don't Love You" Means "Hug Me Extra Hard"
• Heirs: Poor People with Awesome Phones

And finally, my personal favorite:

• H.E.I.R.S.: Hoping Everything Isn't Repeatedly Sucky

On an unrelated note, this is why I roll my eyes quite a bit less when I watch Marry Him If You Dare:

What alternate titles would you give Heirs?  Am I a crazy person, or is anyone else having a hard time sticking with this drama?  If I AM a crazy person, can we still be kdrama friends?

Told You Kdramas Were The New Twilight!: Interview With Justin Chon

Remember how my very first post on our blog was about how Korean drama is the new Twilight? Well, what's really funny about that is that I was just able to interview Justin Chon, the Korean American actor who played Eric in the Twilight series, yesterday for DramaFever! I feel like my life is finally coming full circle!

Justin is a truly genuine, fun guy, and it was a pleasure to interview him about his upcoming film roles, his experience acting in Twilight, the challenges of being an Asian American actor, and what else? Kdramas!

Isn't he a cutie?

Check out my full interview on DramaFever:
Justin Chon talks Kdramas, Twilight, and being a Korean American actor with DramaFever

And the best part of the interview? He gave me a sneak attack back hug when he left, Kdrama style!