Kimsamsoom
Seeds of Plot that Never Sprouted
As a personal creed, I never drop any drama as soon as I start to watch it. And so with at that in mind, I was not ready for what awaited me as I started watching Snowdrop. With each passing episode, it became clear to me that the writer had watched every hostage and spy movie produced in the 90's as her source of "Inspiration", only weakly tagging Romeo and Juliet later as her literary source. If Shakespeare had seen what is being considered adaptations of his best work, he would sooner rise from the grave and pelt us with Wilt's and Thou's. In fact, until now, many literary scholars and professors would debate the merits, messages and hidden meaning of Shakespeare's best work. These days, the only scholars and professors who pay attention to Yoo Hyun Mi's Snowdrop, are the ones looking to cancel it.
First off, before we can discuss Snowdrop the drama, we need to quickly touch on the OST. Initially, when I first watched the drama, I found the OST/Music quite distracting as there are so many jarring tonal and musical shifts in the first few episodes that essentially ushers you from one emotion to another, without a second thought to the emotional whiplash you may feel from such jarring tonal shift. From suspense, satire, romance, and slice of life, the music of the first few episodes felt so intrusive, that there was a fierce disconnect between the scenes being portrayed and the music being played. Thankfully the music/OST eventually finds the sweet spot in the back half of the episodes, where the beautiful music intensified what would normally be dull scenes of poor plotting and acting. In the back half, the music/OST are almost powerful enough to save the production. The beautiful tone of the music has a choir like quality which has an uplifting effect, much needed in the drama. But what I found weird was that, although there were a few scenes which seemed to have Christian undertones, the plot did nothing with it, other than to use it as a symbolism of blind faith. A symbolism that isn't presented often enough or given enough credence that the scenes of praying, feel very out of place. This is one of those scenes though, which needs further research to understand. You see, the original name of Snowdrop was supposed to be Ehwa University, a South Korean university that was started by a Boston Missionary Sister. And you know what? The plot does nothing with this information, it becomes just another unnecessary plot that does nothing for the story, but provide them a place to sit down and kneel.
Given the backdrop of 1988, I was half-expecting some amount of nostalgia to permeate its script to allow viewers to allow a reprieve on the dark tone the script intended to take, and appreciate some of the beauty and simplicity the historical refences would have. But instead, the whole drama is so stuck on the message it wanted to force, that there was nary a time to enjoy anything beautiful in the drama, which ironically included the romance between Young Ro and Soo Ho. And with little time given to enjoy anything in the dire situation they are in, the viewership started drowning in the watery plot, started getting lost in the labyrinth of plot holes, as the badly colorized plot started to mesh together, and started blurring lines, that were timid to begin with. In fact, without the buoyant properties of the stellar acting cast, the drama could easily have drowned in all the ludicrousness the plot was touting as realism.
Seeing as each episode boasted a staggering 90 minutes of drama, I patiently waited to see how the plot would grow as each episode passed. After the last minute of the 1,400 minute run time ticked, I was left with an empty feeling. The potentially beautiful garden that the writer had started was left in disarray as seeds of plot were left unwatered, many of the seeds the writer had sowed in the earlier episodes where neglected the necessary sustenance needed for development and thus withered away. Each episode, I waited to see the seedlings grow into the titular Snowdrop, and every episode, I am left disappointed to see the seedlings bereft of even the simplest of courtesies. The garden was riddled with potholes, partially created by the aggressively shouting dinosaurs that decried their existence with wails or shouts.
As the episodes rolled by, I wondered why the writer kept needlessly adding new plot points which she will have to cover up later. The quick answer is, that she didn't bother covering up the plot holes, or she hastily glossed them over in lieu of more new tragic plot points. In fact, after a certain point, it doesn't become a question of HOW the writer will make the FL/ML for tragic, but rather WHEN. As I kept writing theories, and kept predicting how the writer could write herself out of her predicament, the writer would surprise me, by denying these lifelines, and opting instead to martyr her plots over and over again, until there is nothing left but chaos and discontentment. Whenever I feel the writer had an opportunity to add complexity and creativity to her writing, she instead re-iterated some of the same old tired jokes she used earlier. She overused some plot lines and jokes so much, that seeing them rear their repetitive head over and over again worked against the writer as these jokes, which were not funny to begin with, became distractions. Much like the boy who cried wolf, after the 2nd or 3rd time, people will stop caring about these plot devices.
It's not like I don't believe in love at first sight. But you see that isn't the direction the plot took. Young Ro, you see, is just a poorly disguised Deus Ex Machina, that existed solely to keep the Male Lead company during his eventual redemption arc. The writer was so focused on making sure that the Male Lead had a coherent characterization that she neglected to focus any effort on making the female lead's character relevant or real enough on her own merit. And even though the FL is seen as the sole reason for the ML's existence, we are given to many HOWs and never really any WHYs. In fact, it is not just the FL, a lot of the female characters in Snowdrop do not past the Bechdel test as most if not all of them let their lives revolve around the men in their lives. One of the characters in particular literally throws caution in the wind for her "Man", while obviously that man is shown to be cool as a cucumber throughout the show. In fact, ironically, the only women in the plot who has shown a certain duality in her character is also the most reviled one in the drama.
No review of Snowdrop is complete without at least quickly touching on the controversy that mired Snowdrop in lower than expected domestic ratings. After seeing Snowdrop to fruition, I can't help but ask myself the question of WHY? Why did the writer feel she needed to tell this story using this particular historical backdrop, especially if she is picking and choosing what she wanted to be a fiction and non-fiction anyway. When I first read the synopsis of the drama, I had assumed that the writer intended to tell a love story that grew in the tall weeds of political chaos. But instead, what we get is a drama that ironically felt more like a subliminal left wing propaganda ad that reared its ugly head at several times in the drama in obvious and distracting way. The only clear message that the Drama made sure not to miscommunicate to the audiences is how evil and corrupt the ANSP was. But unfortunately the writer wasn't nuanced enough, and instead of allowing the ANSP atrocities to exist as a backdrop for the story, it allowed the backdrop to become a distracting flower bush that continually blocked the intended story from being seen. In fact, as soon as you felt, you would catch a glimpse of the story, the drama would feel the need to remind you of the ineptness and corruption of the ANSP.
Very early on in the drama, it becomes painfully clear to me that the idea of cause and effect were being thrown out the window. The plot doesn't pay much attention to consequences and ramifications, and instead focused on shock tactics that loses its novelty the less tense the situation becomes. As the characters pointed phallic symbols at each other over and over again, the lack of anyone getting shot, made me wonder whether these weapons of non-destruction were nothing more than military grade paperweight. In fact, I should put the word thriller in air quotes, because I was severely bothered by the lack of it. By episode 5, after a lackluster first 4 episodes, it appeared that finally, the plot remembered it's base genre. But after an interesting Ep. 5 though, the plot decides to languish back in it staid writing as if by clockwork. Every supposedly tense situation is diffused by illogical reasoning, and nobody really is punished. The writing, and the plotting had so neutered the spy scenes, that the whole hostage situation felt more like breakfast club, rather than a hostage crisis. People inside the dorm are wondering more whether they would still be able to voted prom queen and king rather than walk the line between life and death.
Of course, if you dig deep enough you will eventually find the depth and complexity of what Yoon Hyun MI is trying to portray, but depending on where you live, you are more likely to hit water and drown in the innate stupidity than find any complex meaning in the writing. When reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, finding the depth and complexity isn't too difficult, and the emotions, although shrouded in Shakespeare own unique language, is relatable to us; the characters, minus all the killings, feel real. To fully enjoy Snowdrop, you really need to turn off certain parts of your mind as it is a struggle to find the realism in such cartoonish characters, whose portrayed more closely belong to a museum of stereotypical acting, than a supposedly complex plot.
With such a long run time, it would have made more sense for the writer to flesh out backgrounds of the main characters, or flesh out the characterization of the different characters. But as if she has an obsession's with huge ensemble cast, Snowdrop instead contained a huge cast of characters, who in the end didn't amount to much, except as weak plot devices to keep the plot plodding along. That is not to say there are no good moments in Snowdrop, there are a few moments that are worth watching, but you would need to slog through at least 10 episodes before you reach them, and by that time, if you are binge watching, your mind might already be turned to mush, and your emotions already numbed enough that when the impactful scenes may not be good enough to shake yo from your reverie. The truth of the matter is that proper world building would have made many things in the drama, including the tragic experience and romance shine much more.
Now for the good things. I already mentioned that I felt the OST/Music was vital in making the drama watchable, but the writer/director also lucked out with the casting. Quite a few of the actors I believe put in the performance of their lives, and their acting prowess acted as buoys to keep the drama floating. The power of emotion of Jung Hae In in particular was strong enough to uplift Jisoo's acting as well. And although, I don't think Jisoo's acting was that great, as a rookie actress, I cut her some slack, and she did what I expected a rookie to do; a lot of this also maybe because her character wasn't written that well. Kim Hye Yoon as well deserves a shout out, because at only 25 years old, she is proving to be one of the best actress in the Kdrama industry.
What may be the ultimately infuriating thing about the drama is that although most of the episodes were dull and lifeless, the last 4 episodes were actually written quite well. The writer's vision finally came to fruition in those last few episodes, in those episodes we finally see what the writer was intending in her drama. But unfortunately for me, it was too late, there was too many flaws in the first 10 episodes that became hard to overcome by a few good episodes. If the writer had kept the same tone, style, and plotting in the first 10 episodes, I may give Snowdrop a substantially higher rating. It seemed to be that the writer did not have many ideas to put on paper, and she kept her best plot points for the last 4 episodes, whilst keeping the first 10 episodes for repetitive filler scenes.
P.S.
Below is an excerpt from a deep dive analysis I made on Boon Ok's character, I hope for people to give the character a chance, and sympathize with her the way I did. The whole analysis can be found in the discussion portion of Snowdrop entitled "The Tragedy of Boon Ok".
"To further talk about Boon Ok, we need to quickly touch on the characterization of Young Ro. Are we surprised Disney is behind Snowdrop? Young Ro’s characterization literally screams Disney Princess. The romanticized fantasies, the prince charming, the evil stepmother, the heroic tendencies and the overly optimistic persona are all qualities most modern Disney princess encapsulates. But you know what? Disney princess are called that for a reason, most of the time, they are gilded in fantasy, they don’t often represent realistic portrayal of life. In many ways Young Ro represents the best side of humanity, the side is always optimistic, the hero in all of us. It’s the goodness in humanity we don’t see often. She’s the perfect Kdrama Mary Sue, the heroine, she allows us to stay entrenched in the escapism Kdrama offers."
First off, before we can discuss Snowdrop the drama, we need to quickly touch on the OST. Initially, when I first watched the drama, I found the OST/Music quite distracting as there are so many jarring tonal and musical shifts in the first few episodes that essentially ushers you from one emotion to another, without a second thought to the emotional whiplash you may feel from such jarring tonal shift. From suspense, satire, romance, and slice of life, the music of the first few episodes felt so intrusive, that there was a fierce disconnect between the scenes being portrayed and the music being played. Thankfully the music/OST eventually finds the sweet spot in the back half of the episodes, where the beautiful music intensified what would normally be dull scenes of poor plotting and acting. In the back half, the music/OST are almost powerful enough to save the production. The beautiful tone of the music has a choir like quality which has an uplifting effect, much needed in the drama. But what I found weird was that, although there were a few scenes which seemed to have Christian undertones, the plot did nothing with it, other than to use it as a symbolism of blind faith. A symbolism that isn't presented often enough or given enough credence that the scenes of praying, feel very out of place. This is one of those scenes though, which needs further research to understand. You see, the original name of Snowdrop was supposed to be Ehwa University, a South Korean university that was started by a Boston Missionary Sister. And you know what? The plot does nothing with this information, it becomes just another unnecessary plot that does nothing for the story, but provide them a place to sit down and kneel.
Given the backdrop of 1988, I was half-expecting some amount of nostalgia to permeate its script to allow viewers to allow a reprieve on the dark tone the script intended to take, and appreciate some of the beauty and simplicity the historical refences would have. But instead, the whole drama is so stuck on the message it wanted to force, that there was nary a time to enjoy anything beautiful in the drama, which ironically included the romance between Young Ro and Soo Ho. And with little time given to enjoy anything in the dire situation they are in, the viewership started drowning in the watery plot, started getting lost in the labyrinth of plot holes, as the badly colorized plot started to mesh together, and started blurring lines, that were timid to begin with. In fact, without the buoyant properties of the stellar acting cast, the drama could easily have drowned in all the ludicrousness the plot was touting as realism.
Seeing as each episode boasted a staggering 90 minutes of drama, I patiently waited to see how the plot would grow as each episode passed. After the last minute of the 1,400 minute run time ticked, I was left with an empty feeling. The potentially beautiful garden that the writer had started was left in disarray as seeds of plot were left unwatered, many of the seeds the writer had sowed in the earlier episodes where neglected the necessary sustenance needed for development and thus withered away. Each episode, I waited to see the seedlings grow into the titular Snowdrop, and every episode, I am left disappointed to see the seedlings bereft of even the simplest of courtesies. The garden was riddled with potholes, partially created by the aggressively shouting dinosaurs that decried their existence with wails or shouts.
As the episodes rolled by, I wondered why the writer kept needlessly adding new plot points which she will have to cover up later. The quick answer is, that she didn't bother covering up the plot holes, or she hastily glossed them over in lieu of more new tragic plot points. In fact, after a certain point, it doesn't become a question of HOW the writer will make the FL/ML for tragic, but rather WHEN. As I kept writing theories, and kept predicting how the writer could write herself out of her predicament, the writer would surprise me, by denying these lifelines, and opting instead to martyr her plots over and over again, until there is nothing left but chaos and discontentment. Whenever I feel the writer had an opportunity to add complexity and creativity to her writing, she instead re-iterated some of the same old tired jokes she used earlier. She overused some plot lines and jokes so much, that seeing them rear their repetitive head over and over again worked against the writer as these jokes, which were not funny to begin with, became distractions. Much like the boy who cried wolf, after the 2nd or 3rd time, people will stop caring about these plot devices.
It's not like I don't believe in love at first sight. But you see that isn't the direction the plot took. Young Ro, you see, is just a poorly disguised Deus Ex Machina, that existed solely to keep the Male Lead company during his eventual redemption arc. The writer was so focused on making sure that the Male Lead had a coherent characterization that she neglected to focus any effort on making the female lead's character relevant or real enough on her own merit. And even though the FL is seen as the sole reason for the ML's existence, we are given to many HOWs and never really any WHYs. In fact, it is not just the FL, a lot of the female characters in Snowdrop do not past the Bechdel test as most if not all of them let their lives revolve around the men in their lives. One of the characters in particular literally throws caution in the wind for her "Man", while obviously that man is shown to be cool as a cucumber throughout the show. In fact, ironically, the only women in the plot who has shown a certain duality in her character is also the most reviled one in the drama.
No review of Snowdrop is complete without at least quickly touching on the controversy that mired Snowdrop in lower than expected domestic ratings. After seeing Snowdrop to fruition, I can't help but ask myself the question of WHY? Why did the writer feel she needed to tell this story using this particular historical backdrop, especially if she is picking and choosing what she wanted to be a fiction and non-fiction anyway. When I first read the synopsis of the drama, I had assumed that the writer intended to tell a love story that grew in the tall weeds of political chaos. But instead, what we get is a drama that ironically felt more like a subliminal left wing propaganda ad that reared its ugly head at several times in the drama in obvious and distracting way. The only clear message that the Drama made sure not to miscommunicate to the audiences is how evil and corrupt the ANSP was. But unfortunately the writer wasn't nuanced enough, and instead of allowing the ANSP atrocities to exist as a backdrop for the story, it allowed the backdrop to become a distracting flower bush that continually blocked the intended story from being seen. In fact, as soon as you felt, you would catch a glimpse of the story, the drama would feel the need to remind you of the ineptness and corruption of the ANSP.
Very early on in the drama, it becomes painfully clear to me that the idea of cause and effect were being thrown out the window. The plot doesn't pay much attention to consequences and ramifications, and instead focused on shock tactics that loses its novelty the less tense the situation becomes. As the characters pointed phallic symbols at each other over and over again, the lack of anyone getting shot, made me wonder whether these weapons of non-destruction were nothing more than military grade paperweight. In fact, I should put the word thriller in air quotes, because I was severely bothered by the lack of it. By episode 5, after a lackluster first 4 episodes, it appeared that finally, the plot remembered it's base genre. But after an interesting Ep. 5 though, the plot decides to languish back in it staid writing as if by clockwork. Every supposedly tense situation is diffused by illogical reasoning, and nobody really is punished. The writing, and the plotting had so neutered the spy scenes, that the whole hostage situation felt more like breakfast club, rather than a hostage crisis. People inside the dorm are wondering more whether they would still be able to voted prom queen and king rather than walk the line between life and death.
Of course, if you dig deep enough you will eventually find the depth and complexity of what Yoon Hyun MI is trying to portray, but depending on where you live, you are more likely to hit water and drown in the innate stupidity than find any complex meaning in the writing. When reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, finding the depth and complexity isn't too difficult, and the emotions, although shrouded in Shakespeare own unique language, is relatable to us; the characters, minus all the killings, feel real. To fully enjoy Snowdrop, you really need to turn off certain parts of your mind as it is a struggle to find the realism in such cartoonish characters, whose portrayed more closely belong to a museum of stereotypical acting, than a supposedly complex plot.
With such a long run time, it would have made more sense for the writer to flesh out backgrounds of the main characters, or flesh out the characterization of the different characters. But as if she has an obsession's with huge ensemble cast, Snowdrop instead contained a huge cast of characters, who in the end didn't amount to much, except as weak plot devices to keep the plot plodding along. That is not to say there are no good moments in Snowdrop, there are a few moments that are worth watching, but you would need to slog through at least 10 episodes before you reach them, and by that time, if you are binge watching, your mind might already be turned to mush, and your emotions already numbed enough that when the impactful scenes may not be good enough to shake yo from your reverie. The truth of the matter is that proper world building would have made many things in the drama, including the tragic experience and romance shine much more.
Now for the good things. I already mentioned that I felt the OST/Music was vital in making the drama watchable, but the writer/director also lucked out with the casting. Quite a few of the actors I believe put in the performance of their lives, and their acting prowess acted as buoys to keep the drama floating. The power of emotion of Jung Hae In in particular was strong enough to uplift Jisoo's acting as well. And although, I don't think Jisoo's acting was that great, as a rookie actress, I cut her some slack, and she did what I expected a rookie to do; a lot of this also maybe because her character wasn't written that well. Kim Hye Yoon as well deserves a shout out, because at only 25 years old, she is proving to be one of the best actress in the Kdrama industry.
What may be the ultimately infuriating thing about the drama is that although most of the episodes were dull and lifeless, the last 4 episodes were actually written quite well. The writer's vision finally came to fruition in those last few episodes, in those episodes we finally see what the writer was intending in her drama. But unfortunately for me, it was too late, there was too many flaws in the first 10 episodes that became hard to overcome by a few good episodes. If the writer had kept the same tone, style, and plotting in the first 10 episodes, I may give Snowdrop a substantially higher rating. It seemed to be that the writer did not have many ideas to put on paper, and she kept her best plot points for the last 4 episodes, whilst keeping the first 10 episodes for repetitive filler scenes.
P.S.
Below is an excerpt from a deep dive analysis I made on Boon Ok's character, I hope for people to give the character a chance, and sympathize with her the way I did. The whole analysis can be found in the discussion portion of Snowdrop entitled "The Tragedy of Boon Ok".
"To further talk about Boon Ok, we need to quickly touch on the characterization of Young Ro. Are we surprised Disney is behind Snowdrop? Young Ro’s characterization literally screams Disney Princess. The romanticized fantasies, the prince charming, the evil stepmother, the heroic tendencies and the overly optimistic persona are all qualities most modern Disney princess encapsulates. But you know what? Disney princess are called that for a reason, most of the time, they are gilded in fantasy, they don’t often represent realistic portrayal of life. In many ways Young Ro represents the best side of humanity, the side is always optimistic, the hero in all of us. It’s the goodness in humanity we don’t see often. She’s the perfect Kdrama Mary Sue, the heroine, she allows us to stay entrenched in the escapism Kdrama offers."
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