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| No thoughts on K-dramas from these two |
I hate when the balance is off between leads in K-dramas. Even when female characters are centered, if the writing and the performance isn't there then the whole thing kind of falls apart.
At least one show this month benefitted from a terrific leading lady.
This is a situational romance between two in-laws who must raise their orphaned nephew together. But what enriches the storytelling is the development of the characters who were not raised by their own parents and having to navigate the concept of family. Uneven performances and some meagre character development did stand in the way of this overly short 12-episode series.
Here's what I watched in March.
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To My Beloved Thief
Nam Ji-hyun is the smart, swashbuckling Robin Hood of Joseon in this cross-class romance which maybe ends too easily but is mostly a pleasure of a ride to get there.
She plays Hong Eun-jo who is the daughter of a noble scholar and a concubine. Her father fell out of favor with the King and the family has depended on the "kindness" of the minister Im Sa-hyeong (Choi Won-young) to survive. Hong Eun-jo also brings in money as a physician at the local clinic.
But unbenkwownst to her family, she sneaks out at night and steals from the wealthy nobles and redistributes their goods to the poor and ill. Prince Dowol (Moon Sang-min) has been moonlighting at the investigative bureau and tracks down this masked thief known to all as Gil-dong. But he lets the thief go not knowing it is Hong Eun-jo.
At the same time, he encounters Hong Eun-jo, unmasked, and through a series of misunderstandings finds himself fascinated by her. But he finds out she is betrothed to the family of Im Sa-hyeong. He assumes she is engaged to the brusque son Im Jae-yi (Hong Min-gi) but Hong Eun-jo wants to keep it secret that actually she is to marry the elderly father of Im Sa-hyeong to take care of him. It's a dreadful dead end to her life but she takes it on willingly because she thinks it will help save her family.
In classic K-drama fashion, there is an unexpected body switch between the Prince and Eun-jo. When they are threatened with danger their spirits change bodies. When in the body of Eun-jo, the Prince learns about her real status and her marriage. When in the body of the Prince, Eun-jo learns that the King is ill and that the Prince keeps his distance from the palace.
While I found the body-switching in Moon River, between a prince and commoner, hokey and done to more of a comedic effect, here it is quite serious and helps unfold the plot.
The secrets they want to keep from each other are learned. There are also things they might not have understood about each other until they walked in the others shoes. They are each trapped in their respective status--as a slave for her and a prince for him--in roles they cannot escape. The series does a nice job of establishing real consequences for their decisions and how these roles lock them in in various ways.
The body swapping doesn’t cheapen the risks they are taking. The tone is careful and each character blossoms through what they learn about the world while walking in the footsteps of the other.
Though there are some plot points that seem easily pushed aside too.
The tension between Eun-jo and Jae-yi becomes really interesting. He's not just a rich jerk looking down on this slave who his father has control over. He is in fact an illegitimate son of the minister being forced by his father to act like a legitimate heir.
He sees Eun-jo's love for and pride in her family and acceptance of her status as somehow mocking him and he reacts with anger. Only to realize his resentment is really for himself.
He becomes a romantic rival to Prince Dowol (though truly they should have kissed each other). And there is a begruding respect and admiration between them.
The major political plot is one of the story arcs that gets wrapped up a little too neatly. But on the whole it is a solid drama with some exciting push and pull between a couple who seem impossibly matched. Nam Ji-hyun carried the character and made for a strong leading lady in this drama.
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Our Universe
This is a situational romance between two in-laws who must raise their orphaned nephew together. But what enriches the storytelling is the development of the characters who were not raised by their own parents and having to navigate the concept of family. Uneven performances and some meagre character development did stand in the way of this overly short 12-episode series.
Woo Hyun-jin (Roh Jeong-eui) has been trying to get hired by a big corporation for years. Her older sister Woo Hyun-ju (Park Ji-hyun), who raised her, has always supported her through her struggles. With Hyun-ju's fiancé Seon Woo-jin (Ha Jun), they have formed a family of sorts. It's a lot of "we have struggled but we are happy."
But what Hyun-jin did not know was that Woo-jin had a younger brother he was estranged from, Seon Tae-hyung (Bae In-hyuk). Through a chance encounter, Hyun-jin meets Tae-hyung and Tae-hyung finds out about his older brother's new life and happiness. Tae-hyung is anything but happy. Abandoned by Woo-jin at an orphanage, he has grown up entirely alone and struggles to even know how to form attachments. He is deeply resentful of Woo-jin moving on and finding a new family.
Then suddenly, Hyun-ju and Woo-jin are killed in a car accident. Hyun-jin is supposed to raise their son Woo-joo (Park Yu-ho). For reasons, Seon Tae-hyung ends up helping out and they all move in together to take care of Woo-joo.
What I really liked about this show is Tae-hyung's journey to get comfortable with the idea of love and family. Since he has never had anyone he could rely on, he has always just done things himself. But here Hyun-jin needs his help. Woo-joo needs his help. And he's never been needed before. And he turns out he's quite competent and caring with Woo-joo.
Hyun-jin frankly is not great at juggling work and baby. She works long hours and she was not going to pull off this parenting stuff without the help of Tae-hyung, her neighbors, and a daycare center. Truly what did she think she was going to do? She sort of has a kind of "it will all work out" attitude that bothered me. It only works out because a shit ton of other people help. The community that forms around her and Woo-joo is lovely and she truly would not have survived without it.
Hyun-jin's boss, Park Yoon-seong (Park Seo-ham) who is her old seonbae from college, has had a crush on her forever. And he swoops in to show affection to her and Woo-joo, pushing Tae-hyung to the side. But Hyun-jin is torn between the two men.
I've seen Roh Jeong-eui in a couple of shows and I feel like 97% of her performance is just supposed to be her smiling wide-eyed. I find her so blah. Maybe no one is giving her anything to do.
Park Seo-ham, who was great in Semantic Error, is just a boring tall guy with broad shoulders and no personality here. He's not even a mildly worthy romantic rival in the scheme of the storytelling.
Bae In-hyuk is always good in these quiet, suffering roles. And I think the script really just favors his character who comes out of his shell and learns to trust people around him. Though I hated the choice the script makes in framing his character's abandonment as a sacrifice by others.
But then the series felt a little abrupt wrapping up at 12 episodes.
All in all, there is a cute baby, some personal growth, and an expansive view of what makes family family. But it could have been better.
Netflix strikes again with its high-concept but empty K-drama formula. Someone please stop them.
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Boyfriend On Demand
Netflix strikes again with its high-concept but empty K-drama formula. Someone please stop them.
Here Jisoo is web producer Seo Mi-rae who ends up trying out a virtual reality subscription service where she can "date" different characters from books/webtoons. These virtual fates star K-drama leads. These virtual over-the-top date episodes poke fun at K-drama tropes and are boosted by appearances from Seo Kang-joon, Lee Soo-hyuk, Lee Jae-wook, Kim Young-dae, and for no explainable reason Jay Park.
While Mi-rae is living out her virtual romance fantasies, she is also fighting with her co-worker and office enemy, Park Kyeong-nam (Seo In-guk). But things get confusing for her when her virtual boyfriend that the game creates, Gu Yeong-il, looks like Seo In-guk. Her fake love life and a real relationship start to come into conflict.
But on the whole, there is not much to Mi-rae's character or the romantic conflict with Park Kyeong-nam. The character development is nil. Rather it feels like they decided to focus on these virtual scenarios which are kind of fun but not THAT fun.
Seo In-guk also just feels far too mature and wrong for this kind of low-key, "nerdy" role. Jisoo is just kind of meh. Though she isn't given much to work with.
Also Choi Si-won shows up. So fuck Netflix for giving that right-wing trash person work. It threw me out of the show immediately and it's like Netflix does not care.
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