Quiet, low-key perfection

I loathe & shun supernatural/fantasy & have a visceral (ha!) aversion to graphic violence, so finding Dramas that hit my sweet spot is tough. MLN was outside my usual fare, but it was intelligent, thoughtful, grounded and stayed true to itself. Matter-of-factly downbeat, It didn't glorify misery or pain as artistic or 'worthy', but more important, it nailed the landing by not tacking on a jarring fairytale happy ending.
In fact, because the Drama stayed so true to itself, the ending could be seen as far from happy, but it was tonally perfect for the Drama. "5 minutes a day" summed it up, and while I wouldn't rewatch it, I'm glad I strayed from my usual fare and savoured this delight.

Read More

Wobbly start, stunning finish

After watching Season One yesterday, we watched Season 2 today. The first couple of episodes were a bit meandering, lacking the tightness of Season 1. The final two episodes were very powerful, and for most of the final episode I was fighting back tears. Kawahara Eito delivered stunning lead performances across both series, but the final episode took his character to new emotional depths and he rose to the challenge magnificently. The first season had the edge in cohesion, and was much lighter viewing overall, but the emotional punch of the final 2 episodes of this series redeemed its wobbly start.

Read More

Less really is more

"Kotaro Lives Alone is an excellent example of all the reasons why #JDramas long ago became my favourites. Emotionally moving without sentimentality, addressing a difficult subject with unflinching directness and sensitivity, a lot of laughs and doing so in ten 23-minute episodes. Imagining a KDrama version is a frightening thought. The episodes, despite being short NEVER felt rushed, just complete and dvoid of bloat. The emotioal impact was real, but unlike so many K Dramas, it was delivered with subtlety and understatement - often greatly increasing it's impact. All the actors delivered, but Kawahara Eito was AMAZING.

Read More

Korea should take notes

This Drama was sheer perfection. EVERYTHING was right about it: The tone, the length, the story arcs, the character development, the music - everything.

The perfection of tone and length were closely related. Because the Drama was a perfect length, just 14 hours total runtime, the tone stayed sweet and positive throughout. I am a hardcore brony, who just LOVES a good romance Drama. In recent years, Korea has stopped producing any. Instead K Drama writers have decided that nothing says "romance" more than having a serial killer as a major part of every "romcom", or resorting to fantasy pairings like a girl with a demon, or a girl with Cupid, or a girl with a Reaper, etc. etc. etc.

What the writers of THIS Drama got write was in understanding that a simple, sweet, uncomplicated "girl meets boy and it's love at first sight" story is ALREADY pure fantasy, and doesn't need any other baggage thrown in. No need for dark scary psychopaths whose only real function is to pad out the overlong run time. No need for love triangles, stalker exes, or anything to spoil the short sweet fluff. Evefn the creepy, sleazy client was presented a brief a nod to reality and a setup for more OTP bonding.

This worked because the characters were well-written, and this leads me to the main reason why on my personal database, I scored this as 11/10. This Drama is very much in the model of Itazura Na Kiss and all its clones, but with one HUGE difference. From It Started With a Kiss to A Love So Beautiful and lots of similar Dramas in between, I have watched "cute ditzy girl falls for hunky brainiac" A LOT, and this is the VERY FIRST ONE EVER where the FL had an academic strength in which she excelled the ML and even taught him. That was ASTONISHING. My drop rate for C Dramas is high, more than 50% of the C Dramas I start I drop, and that's because of the toxic chauvinsitic misogyny rampant in modern C Dramasd especially. The heroes are good at EVERYTHING, the Fl good at nothing, except pehaps EQ. Not this one. To see an ML & FL tutoring each other and helping each other as true peers was beautiful.

This equality was openly expressed in the dialogue too. The scene where the ML defends the FL to her young cousin by telling him how good the FL is at English (sad we never hear her say a single word of it) was an example of the quality of the writing. Since I rely on subtitles, and since I know how VERY much is literally "lost in translation" whenever I see a Drama where I'm blown away by the quality of writing IN THE SEBS, I think about how awsome the actual dialog must be.

I loved the sensible, down to Earth forthrightness of the FL. She knew what she wanted and went for it, but she also grew as a person and was never passive or whiny. The ML was great too, a great example of a "damaged" ML who was NOT tsundere. His little speech at a product presentation he gave about the impact of the FL on his life was magnificent, as was his thoughtful, PRIVATE proposal.

Whenever I need a remider of why I fell in love with East Asian Dramas in the first place, and why when they get it right they are truly I magical, I will FLY TOWARDS this Drama for a rewatch

Read More

Not bad, but it got a bit "Lost"

There was a lot to like about this Drama. The physics references were surprisingly well thought out and on point, especially in the first 2/3 of the Drama. I smiled at seeing reference to Einstein's "God doesn't play dice with the cosmos" and the reotort that "he not only plays dice but sometimes hides them"

The two lead couples were also very enjoyable ESPECIALLY the "2nd" couple. Their repeated reunions were sweet and funny and touching, and provided a cohence the story needed.

The last third went a bit soggy as it seems the writer threw in every bizarre, vaguely SF plot line they could think of, with more than a little nod to "LOST" - the whole ending on the island is where the show got a bit lost for me, sadly. But it was still a worthwhile watch and I'll be looking out for the leads again

Read More

Right Idea, Wrong First Pair

It's a testament to the strength of the core concept that I kind of stuck this one out. I don't watch historicals, but the 'bride swap' intrigued me so I gave it a go. By ep 3, the core problem was clear - the WRONG pair was primary lead. I kept hoping for more of Bingyan and her General, but by ep 10, they were bit players. So I skipped to episode 21, where I cracked up laughing at the amount of exposition. It was a totally random pick for where to start watching "the end" but it woked really well as the Old Grandmother helpfully had a conversation with TianLei and Yuhu that filled me in on the 11 eps I'd skipped. It also confirmed that I missed nothing except endless politicking and trickery from the villain and stupidity from the non-villains.

Overall not an awful watch, but definitely not worth sitting through all 24 episodes, when so many of them are "rinse and repeat" storylines. Had Bingyang and the General been the primary leads, it could have been a real treat.

Read More

Bitter, sweet, fun

Like most who watched this, I enjoyed it. I watched it with my wife, and we both laughed a lot throughout. We've been married nearly as long as the leads have have been alive, so the OTT rage was genuinely funny for us. Sveral have commented on the chemistry between Jeong So Min and Kang Ha Neul, and there's no question that was central to the movie's success. Both delivered very good performances, and Jeong So Min especially cemented my high opion of her as an actor. The first thing my wife said when Jeong So Min first appeared on screen in this movie was"she's really pretty". and obviously I can't disagree. But her range even in a light romcom like this was impressive. I highly recommend this for anyone wanting an uncomplicated and genuinely funny romance

Read More

Petite and perfect

My first Lee Na Young Drama was "Romance is a Bonus Book" I rated that 5.5/10, meaning that for me it was mehdiocre and at best underwhelming. THIS one could not have been more different. Everything about this Drama was outstanding, including Ms. Lee's great performance.

The episode lengths were perfect too. Any longer and they would have sagged, shorter and the opportunity to let the puases sink in would have been lost. The cast was ASTONISHING - getting Han Ye Ri was awesome, but then to see that tyhe Drama drew Shim Eun Kyung back to Korea after years of focusing on Japan was chef's kiss. That's a clear tribute to the writing too, which was exceptional. The clinching proof of that for me was the final episode when I was surprised to find my eyes actively leaking. BRAVA!

Read More

Not awful, but...

This was not what I expected. SO MANY reviews, and one of the tags, said "comedy" - This was a funny as DIY dentistry. THe base story was fine, and it was quite well told in 6 episodes, but a comedy it was not. OTOH, it was lovely to see Han Ji Hye back on screen. I hope this was her way of easing back into acting now her child is bit older. I actually started for this for Bae Da Bin, but her role was disappointing – for a former Marine, she was portrayed as pretty much weak and useless. Also, I was hoping to her speak English as she did in her last Drama, but no such luck with this one

Read More

A pleasant surprise

This Drama ended getting 8/10 from me for surprising me in positive ways more than once.

First, it COMPLETELY threw me as to who the killer was, I did not see that coming at all - excellent!

Second, the tone ended up being rather unexpected, another pleasant surprise

Third, it's handlnig of the characters showed intelligence. There was nuuance and context for the characters' behaviour, and the final end of some characters' arcs was balanced and realistic. Not implausibly rosy or even implausibly complete. A great example was the resolution of the ML's own mother issues, the end to that arc was note perfect.

Read More

NOT extraordinary, not awful

I hesitated about watching this drama for a long time, in the end it was neither as good as I hoped it would be nor as bad as it could have been.

One of the biggest problems I have with Extraordinary Attorney Woo is the way it infantilises and fantasises autism. I have no problem with the presentation of an autistic person who has an idiosyncratic speaking style, but the presentation of attorney Woo's speech is that it seems designed to be cutesy, and that was to be a problem with the entire presentation of her autism.

I cut the drama some slack for that because I know that Korea is an extremely ableist society. It demonises the different, and it may well be that the drama decided to present the attorney as a cute overgrown infant at least in part in order to overcome the deeply ingrained antipathy toward the different in Korea's extremely homogenous society. Nevertheless, it got very wearing. The intent may have been noble, but the effect it was, for me, counter-productive. Presenting her as “a genius fairy” was demeaning, and even her display of the characteristics of her autism was inconsistent.

Similarly I am fine with the idea that attorney Woo has cetaceans as her special interest. One of my best friends is on the spectrum and his special interest is Koine Greek grammar – his brother, further on the spectrum, has superhero comics as his special interest. Both display the same sort of devotion to their interest she does to cetaceans.

But again the presentation of her special interest was infantile and fantasised. Not in the fact that she always wanted to talk about them, that would be normal, but the whole fantasy element of her "Eureka!" Moments involving various cetaceans floating through a field of vision was disappointing for me. Disappointing because it suggested again that she somehow lived in a fantasy world , not like a normal human being .

That fantasy world was also evident in many of the cases. One of the worst examples was in episode nine, involving the "kidnapping" of the children from the Academy bus. Like the kidnapper, I find the whole concept of forcing children to effectively spend 16 to 18 hours a day in some form of schoolwork repugnant. Nevertheless, it is legal in Korea and the extent to which that episode relied on "jury nullification" and sheer feel good fantasy was disappointing.

The wide range of cases covered was a positive highlight, bringing attention to lots of serious issues that are seldom featured in K Dramas. Much of the dialogue when serious was also well thought out, and if it does anything at all to prompt some to consider neurodivergent people in a new light, that’s great. Park Eun Bin did a good job of portraying the character she was given, even if that character was in the end profoundly unsatisfying for me.

So in the end, I give this 6.5/10 – 0 points for its depiction of autism, 6.5 for its highlighting the issue OF autism, and for the often quite exceptionally relevant and well thought-out social issues covered in the cases of each episode

Read More

Three episodes too long

This Drama started very strongly, with the central character Lee Ro Um especially interesting. Portrayed as a genuine sociopath, she was fascinating. The basic setup seemed like 70% Leverage, 10% Dark Angel, and the first 3/4 of the Drama set it up well.

The major flaw was that it was too long, and as a result, it went soft and soggy in eps 13&14. This was especially noticeable with Lee Ro Um, but the Drama also burdened us with the inevitable mother and child reunion for the ML character Han Moo Young. Yawn.

Another flaw caused by the Drama's excessive length was the mystery of the mystery. The Drama dragged out its central mystery, who the "Big Bad" was, until the end of episode 13. The whole team were supposed to be prodigies of various kinds but somehow they missed the fact that the Bib Bad was basically walking around with a tattooo on their forehead that said "I'm the Big Bad" from at least episode 6.

The final 2 epiodes tightened up a bit, and overall it was a much better K Drama spin on "Leverage" than the actual Korean Leverage was. But it could have been so much better with fewer episodes.

One other important point to note: Besides doing an excellent job of portraying her character, Chun Woo Hee is also "really, really, really ridiculously good-looking" ?

Read More

Very sweet, very funny, and VERY SMART

This Drama was superb. Laugh out loud in so many places, but with real heart too. Most importantly, it was intelligent. Everything that happened made sense in its world. Characters behaved in ways that were credible for them, noone said or did anything stupidly out of character and there were no facepalm moments when the Drama caved to tropes to the lasting detriment of the show.

The acting was as good as the writing. As much as I loved the leads, and the always excellent Park Jin Joo, I think the character/actor pairing that best encapsulated what made this such a remarkable show was Roh Jeong Eui's NJ. The character was fascinating, not at all a typical 2FL, and not a typical idol character either. Ms Roh delivered her part superbly, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her in future.

The intelligence of the writing was also shown by the way it kept me guessing about the ending right into the final episode. Not only was it not clear how it would end, what was even more remarkable was that HOWEVER it ended, the ending would have felt right. I would not have felt cheated, frustrated or disappointed by whatever end transpired. Bravissimo!

Read More

A Sentimental Journey

I started this film expecting a sweet, feel-good story of personal triumph. It was that, but it should also have carried a trigger warning: May induce brony bawling.

Another reviewer described it as uneven and illogical, and complained about the way it switched focus from a youth romance kind of story to one with much more pathos (the bawling bit). LIFE is uneven and illogical, and sudden shifts in the emotional tone of life are very, very real. I spent much of the last 30 minutes literally bawling out loud, thanks to the powerful performances from an old favourite, and an actor I've barely seen.

The old favourite is Lee Sung Min. I've loved him every since Miss Korea (best K Drama STP EVAH, if you haven't watched it, DO!) and he shone here as the self-repressed Dad. The actor I've barely seen before was Lee Soo Kyung. I absolutely lvoed her character and her performance and was watching to see how her story turned out. The answer was not the one I'd have hoped for. But I will be looking out for her from now on, hoping to see her shine in a brighter story,

I was also really impressed with Yoona. One reviewer said that the ML actor never looked like a high schooler while praising Yoona's eternal youth. That made me smile as she's only 3 years younger than the ML actor and she too NEVER looked like a high schooler in this film. But that didn't matter because both did well. I can't comment on the quality and authenticity of her satoori, but it sounded ok to me, and that she delivered real emotion in it shows how far she's come as an actor.

Overall, I'm very glad I watched this movie, and glad I did so alone, so that my loud crying didn't disturb anyone else ?

Read More