In January, New York City broke it's 700-day no-snow streak and I encountered some real stellar dramas.
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Gyeongsang Creature
Gyeongseong Creature sets an incredible stage for how the Japanese occupation, Japanese military violence, and the people of Korea survived such atrocities. It then kind of sells out its own nuanced and careful character development for a "second season." I'm reserving some judgment on this until I see this future second season, but I didn't love the way the final episodes wrap-up. On the whole, this 10-episode first series gives a rare look at this time period and with it asks who are the real heroes when no one is free.
The stakes are so high in this setting where the Korean people are under the oppressive regime of the Japanese occupation. There is an underground movement for independence but Jang Tae-sang (Park Seo-joon) wants nothing to do with it. He is just out for his own survival. He runs a successful pawnshop, keeps the Japanese military mostly off of his back, and provides some safety for his small circle of colleagues. But when the Japanese chief of the police forces him to go looking for the officer's missing mistress, Tae-sang can no longer remain "neutral." He will lose everything he has built if he does not comply. During his search, he encounters a father/daughter duo who are also searching for a missing person. He is instantly struck by Yoon Chae-ok (Han So-hee) and he is forced to make choices that push him to ask what value does his survival have and what can he do for others.
The show layers this political backdrop over a horror story of the Japanese doing biological experiments on Korean people (which is a historic truth--they also conducted tests on Chinese people as well) which results in the creation of a killing-machine "creature." No one knows what is happening behind the locked doors of this hospital and once they find out it is hard to ignore it.
What makes the show so successful on first blush is this marriage of history and horror. This brutality of occupation is the first layer of horror and the abhorrent experiments the second. With this setting, the characters are pushed to the brink. For most of them, they have never known a moment's peace in their lives as they have always lived under this occupation. The narrative conflict is not just about immediate harm but about these YEARS of oppression rising to a level of violence no one had even contemplated.
Tae Sang has not lived a righteous path by the measure of many around him. Some see him as just an opportunist and a collaborator with the Japanese. This collaboration has allowed him to survive and thrive. But as the show reveals, many people who "collaborated' with the Japanese had no choice but to do so. Some may have been tortured or abused or threatened with death if they didn't. What they feel in their hearts versus what actions they take are somewhat divorced. And appearances can also be deceiving. For some, Tae Sang looks like he's only out for himself but he has quietly supported a community around him.
Tae-sang and Chae-ok have lost so much in their young lives so this brief moment where[ they open their hearts to each other feels risky, fleeting, and worth every minute of it.
I loved so much of this character work which is why it was frustrating to see some of that go out the window at the end of the series. I debated whether it was wise to also "show" the creature so much. I kind of wish they had taken the Jaws route and held back on us seeing so much of the creature. I also found the sped-up action scenes really cheap looking.
But I was deeply engaged in the story, the complicated questions around patriotism, opportunism, loyalty, betrayal, and hope when it seems like you will never be free.
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The Matchmakers
The Matchmakers might be the best slow-burn, longing romance in awhile. It took me a few episodes (and some initial confusion over who is who) but the interwoven characters, the mysteries, and the unique character goals all worked together well.
A widower, Prince Gyeongwoojae (Rowoon), is uptight and miserable. Known around town as The Resentful Man, it is rumored that he was forced to marry the princess rather than pursue his goal of becoming a state minister only to watch her die shortly after their wedding. Being a widower, he cannot marry again but also being a member of the royal family he cannot do anything else. Now he is stuck writing endless petitions to the King in the hopes of annulling his marriage.
Prince Gyeongwoojae, who is sometimes a little too smart for his own good, must solve a problem for the King so that the young Crown Prince can marry (against the wishes of his political enemies who want their prince to take the crown). Gyeongwoojae is tasked with marrying off three old maids.
In doing so, he encounters a widow matchmaker Yeojudaek (Cho Yi-hyun) who disguises her real identity. Unbeknownst to him, she is a member of a powerful political family-- the one trying to stop the Crown Prince from marrying. She believes she has a calling to matchmaking and connecting people who will truly be happy together. She deeply loved her husband who died young and wants this love for others. She sneaks out of her family compound, disguises herself as a peddler/matchmaker and sets out to work with the Prince to match these three impossible "old maids" to three "old bachelors" and in doing so they awaken their own feelings for each other.
One of the key elements of a superior drama is when the supporting characters, secondary love stories, and plot machinations are as tight as the central romance and story. Here, I was invested in all the characters. The three old maids are unique--one smart and calm, one quick-tempered and sweary, and one secretly writes smutty romance novels.
Even the "evil" Left State Minister and his scheming wife are not just the usual cookie-cutter power hungry duo here. She's all the brains behind his success and the one time he schemed on his own he really fucked up and is trying to keep what he did from her.
I didn't love that the Crown Prince is 14 and is being matched to an adult. Even if this might have been normal for Joseon times...it was a little icky. Though the relationship is kept very chaste here.
Prince Gyeongwoojae is oversensitive and annoying at first. But as he becomes overwhelmed by his crush he softens. He has his moments of being a sulky, cry-baby when things are not going his way. But I love how thunderstruck they are for each other, each knowing they cannot act on these feelings, and trying to figure out if there is a way forward together. So there's a lot of sparkling eyes of sadness as they gaze upon each other.
The final matchmaking and weddings has a delightful madcap feel. Usually, some aspect of all these tangled stories can be tortured or drawn-out but here we get an array of rich characters, proper romantic twists and turns, and threats of consequences.
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A Good Day to Be a Dog
A Good Day to Be a Dog is a quirky romance has an odd set-up which you kind of just have to accept and move on. Classic K-drama. But then then this light-hearted concept turns into yet another past lives- curse story and I think we have complete market saturation on these right now (see Destined With You, See You in My 19th Life, Heartbeat).
Schoolteacher Han Hae-na (Park Gyu-young) accidentally kisses her co-worker Jin Seo-won (Cha Eun-woo) while drunk. What could just be an embarrassing incident becomes a complete disaster for Hae-na because she suffers from a family curse.
If she kisses someone, she will turn into a dog every night. If after thirty days she is not kissed again, in dog form, she will be doomed to stay a dog. But Seo-won is actually terrified of dogs and getting him in a room with one, let alone kissing one, is a huge challenge.
Besides she does not even like him, not one bit, not at all...except maybe he's been harboring a crush on her for a while. She sets out to try to trick him into kissing her but the more time they spend together the closer they become. And this would all work out just fine if there was not also a meddling co-worker, Lee Bo-gyeom (Lee Hyun-woo) who seems really focused on keeping them apart.
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