 |
| Gratuitous pic of LA and a sunset at LACMA |
Back on my drama bullshit and feeling good. I have had a really good month of dramas I've enjoyed and I feel a bit renewed in my enthusiasm.
The King’s Affection
It’s been a while since I came across a romance I could
heartily recommend to others. But The King’s Affection is worth the time.
It involves a complicated and dangerous scheme, where a
court maid Da-mi (Choi Myung-bin as a child, Park Eun-bin as an adult) turns out to be a secret twin to the crown prince. She ends up
taking his place as prince when he is killed. She is forced into the role at great risk to herself
and those she cares about around her. She attempts to rise to the
occasion and become the male heir to the throne. She must forget her first love
and embrace being a member of a royal family (which tried to have her killed at birth). Her first
love, Jung Ji-woon (Rowoon) comes back into her life as an annoying tutor. Although she has always
kept people at arm’s length, he gets closer and closer to her not knowing her
secret.
It’s a great set-up which is helped by some strong performance
by the child actors. The wide-eyed terror from Choi Myung-bin as the young maid sets up the
tension well early on and we sense every thing she is risking in taking on this impossible task.
I was less enamored of Park Eun-bin as the adult Crown Prince. Her
character is supposed to be standoffish (for fear people will learn her secret) but that turned into a very one note performance
for much of the series. Eventually she starts to show some life, but it’s far
into the series when it happens. Even with that potential hindrance, Rowoon is charming, handsome, and intense enough for the both of them. He could convincingly romance a brick wall and apparently I would tune in.
As with a lot of these women-playing-men storylines, the
audience knows her real gender identity. I think that allows for a certain
amount of sly queer romance to slip by under these hetero pretenses—even if it
is literally the reverse (hetero romance, queer pretense). There was something about the tone and the
way the romance is handled that it felt more queer than other stories like
this. Eventually “gay rumors” start within the court because of the closeness
of the Prince and “his” tutor. So the story attempts to address this as well
within the context of the period.
This was one of the few series I have seen where the man
discovering he is in love with another man was handled with such tenderness and
care. He is not shocked or horrified by
his own attraction. He’s puzzled with this discovery and then embraces it
wholeheartedly. He engages in the romance completely thinking the Prince is a
man (including kissing her). Even upon the eventual reveal, his reaction is
delicately handled and to my mind did not erase his same-sex attraction. It wasn’t
played like a “phew I’m straight” sigh of relief. Rowoon made me believe Ji-woon could absolutely fall in love with another man at any time. It just so happens
the man he loves turns out to be a woman.
The writing is particularly strong here with the under-the-radar queerness of it and the quality of the romance. Every time Ji-woon confesses his feelings, the writing is beautiful, open-hearted, and honest. There are a lot of swoonworthy moments. And the writer balances this emotional engagement against the royal succession plotline well.
The themes of sacrifice, suffering for family, and suppressing
your desires felt new. Of course, there’s going to be an evil court minister
pulling the strings of the royals and murderous relatives looking to take the
throne. But both the Prince and the tutor are dealing with families who want
things for them they don’t want for themselves. This may be set in the past but
they made it feel reflective of contemporary issues of this ilk too.
The way the show deals with the fact of her gender and being
King (not a spoiler…the title is The King’s Affection and she was the Crown
Prince after all) also gets to dig at some of the misogyny within the contemporary
culture too. Sure it’s Joseon but also…it’s today’s misogyny too.
There’s another love interest, Lee Hyun (Nam Yoon-su), who plays a supportive cousin to the Prince. He has a bit of a Jung Jae-in vibe to him (that kind of gentle, softness). I would like to see him in more things.
A solid romance with some undercover social commentary to boot.
This supernatural, murder-mystery combines awe and respect for nature with the way humans mistreat each other and the earth. With the non-linear storytelling, I was not totally sure where it was headed for much of the series.
The mystical qualities and big budget nature photography were unique. But sometimes
it did feel like an advertisement for the Korean forest rangers. The mystery mostly
pays off but in one of those “the villain has to explain their motivations at
the end” kind of ways. But with a great cast, beautiful scenery, and an
unexpected format it was a solid action series.
Seo Ki-yang (Jun Ji-hyun) has grown up near Jirisan and suffered
a family tragedy that keeps her cut off from people. Kang Hyun-jo (Ju Ji-hoon)
has also lost people close to him but he’s a lot more tender hearted. They are
paired up as rangers on Jirisan and work to rescue people on the mountain. The
timeline moves back and forth, so we leap forward to see they have both been in
an accident and Ki-yang now uses a wheelchair whereas Hyun-jo is in a coma. She
is trying to get to the bottom of a series of murders on the mountain that they
were investigating together.
The series is focused more on action than romance. But the character are well-written enough that we care about their struggles and the issues motivating them beyond just solving a crime. So if you
enjoy chasing murderer stories, this is an unusual version of that genre.
Yumi’s Cells
I only got to about episode 11 of this series (based on a webtoon) before I gave up. It uses animated sequences to illustrate the emotional interiors of two characters who fall in love.
I found the
animation annoying and the voices of the “feelings” not very distinctive (except
the “horny” emotional cell was very clear), so I had a hard time telling the
feelings apart. But they were quite cutesy and cloying and I would have preferred to spend less time in the animated universe.
As for the humans, it’s not a bad premise. Yumi (Kim Go-eun)
falls for one of her co-workers (Choi Minho) whose friendly overtures she
misunderstands. He’s not attracted to her, but he sets her up with one of his
friends, Goo Woong (Ahn Bo-hyun) and they hit it off. They are both kind of a
mess in their own ways This is a romance where the two of them can grow and
mature through this relationship. The drama comes from their emotions getting
in the way of making them happy and I suppose sorting out those feelings. I
just didn’t get as far as that.
As the series went on, I was really bothered by the female
archetypes on display. There is Yumi’s co-worker Ruby who just gives endless pouty
aeygo. There is Goo Woong’s friend and co-worker Sae-yi who is a spiteful, jealous
meddler. Even Yumi becomes tiresomely annoying and needy.
There was one really smart conversation between Goo Woong
and Sae-yi that dug into the nature of friendship and how that changes over
time. I also liked seeing a well-known actor-idol playing a gay character (and I wish I could just gotten to the end to see how things turned out for that character...my hope was that the show dealt with the gay character in a positive way).
But I just could not engage in the stakes of this
couple at all.
It’s getting a second season apparently so clearly it found
an audience. But that audience was not me.
Comments
Post a Comment