entirely ruined her disposition with books

Alright, I've finished The Guest and loved it and now I need something new to watch. I've been out of the kdrama loop for several years now, so I don't know what's been good the past few years.

I'm looking for:

+ something serious. no comedies, please.

+ but not melodrama

+ really good relationships of any kind (romance, family, found family, whatever)

+ good female characters

+ contemporary

+ Sticks the landing at least decently

+ bonus points if it includes a prickly, difficult to love woman who nonetheless gets loved

Also somebody tell me if Save Me is any good; cults are definitely my thing but it looks too dude-heavy.

My favorite kdramas of this kind: White Christmas, Healer, The Guest, Shut Up! Flower Boy Band (look, I know, but it's serious enough to be on this list there is so much crying in that drama), Beyond Evil, Mawang, City Hunter

Other kdramas that aren't really of this kind but that are my faves: Age of Youth, Queen In-Hyun's Man, Coffee Prince, Replies 1997 and 1988, It's Okay Not to Be Okay, Flower Boy Next Door, Crash Landing on You

I finished Extraordinary Attorney Woo last night, and on the whole I very much enjoyed it, and Park Eun-bin is a wonder. But there is one thing about it that drove me absolutely batty and I need to rant about it.

Okay, so our main character Woo-young has been raised by a single dad. We find out later that her Biomom is not dead--she got pregnant when she was in law school and wanted to have an abortion, but her boyfriend begged her to have the baby, said he would raise it, and that he would never bother her again.

So Biomom gives birth to Woo-young and is not part of her daughter's life at all.

And...she's the villain of the show. She's now a powerful lawyer and is being considered for a high position in the government and the show tells us that she is bad and does not deserve it. Why is she bad? Well...I don't know? I mean, she's a high-powered attorney at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, which imo is why she is bad, but...our heroine is also at an extremely expensive law firm that defends a lot of corporations, so the show doesn't think that's the reason she's bad.

The head lawyer at Woo-young's law firm tells us she's bad and that she will do anything to keep Biomom from getting that ministerial position. But we know NOTHING about Head Lawyer, so why should we take her word for it?

Dad thinks that Biomom is a terrible person, but then, he would. It makes a lot of sense that he's got bitterness even if I think he's not being entirely fair.

Woo-young is very hurt by Biomom's existence, which makes total sense--she feels abandoned by this woman, which I think is a totally reasonable thing for a child to feel about a parent who does not want to be part of their life.

But other than that...we're just supposed to take the show's word for it that Biomom is bad, and I guess we're supposed to believe it because she "abandoned" Woo-young? Even though she did no such thing? She wanted an abortion, she was VERY clear about the fact that she would not be a part of this baby's life. I do, personally, think she should have just had the abortion instead of giving birth when she didn't want to, but she was very, very clear about her intentions.

And I really think the show just expects us to be so horrified that she abandoned this child that we're supposed to go, "Oh, of course she should never have a high role in government! That would be injustice!"

So that was annoying.

And then also: the show has Woo-young's morality clash with what she has to do as a lawyer at a fancy law firm; in general, these morality clashes are handled very well. It's a fairly consistent theme throughout the show. But what morally makes sense to me--Woo-young should take the job she is offered by an activist lawyer who fights for social justice--does not happen. The show basically just shrugs and says, "Sure, our heroine's principles conflict with what she's asked to do by her job a lot, but look at the found family she's got there!" And I love the found family! I love her mentor lawyer! I love her old school friend who has mixed feelings about her! I love her love interest! I even think the resentful co-rookie lawyer has the potential to be a good person! But a found family of coworkers does not make up for the fact that your job conflicts with your values! It just doesn't!

So I found that deeply unsatisfying, especially because the show had provided us with another option that she could have taken. The show has a moment where it's like, "Yeah, they defend corporations, but also sometimes they do pro-bono work so that all evens out!" And I'm like NO. It doesn't.


I think it bothers me so much precisely because the show has a wonderful sense of morality on many occasions and is really dedicated to seeing the humanity in most people (other than Biomom), even ones that normally don't get a good portrayal on Kdramas. But that makes it worse when it handwaves things at the end--if this was just one of those fantasy types of shows where we're all pretending that it's totally fine to be a corporate lawyer because this is just for fun, I would be far less annoyed.

I'm going to make periodic Healer posts as I rewatch and if any of y'all watch it later, you can come back here and yell at me about it!

I have a lot of thoughts for this first one, but some of these will probably just be quick and informal--maybe a bulleted list of things I noticed or feelings I'm having.

But not this one!

Jung-hoo

I had forgotten how hard the show leans into "Jung-hoo is anti-social and not very likeable" in the first episode. Our first shots of him are him (essentially) sexually harassing the video game tennis player he's playing against. Which is just an interesting way to introduce your hero, but I think this actually works? Because when we meet Young-shin, she is the opposite of that kind of computer-generated woman--she's dressed down and a bit messy and just not at all glam or caring about her appearance. And Jung-hoo is immediately fascinated by her, even if he won't admit that to himself. Over the course of the show, we see him figure out how to relate to a woman, which he's clearly never, ever done before.

He isolates himself completely, and even though Ji Changwook is ADORABLE puttering around in his big empty warehouse apartment in his at-home clothes (also: COLLARBONES) he's just not all that likeable of a character at the beginning. Sure, he's a badass, as he proves in our first big action sequence. But there doesn't seem to be much to him at all beside his desire to save up enough money to buy his own private island. He explicitly tells us in episode 2 that he doesn't care about the morals of his clients or what they're up to--anything short of murder, he's up for. Other than the fact that he's hot and competent, he has nothing going for him as a character at the beginning.

Which could be off-putting, but I like it. It makes his transformation into an actual person so much more interesting.

Young-shin

Young-shin, on the other hand, is the opposite right off the bat. She's warm and goofy and has all the determination in the world. She's got relationships, specifically with her wonderful dad and her dad's partner Chul-Min. Her family life is teasing and fun and if you haven't already fallen in love with her in the first episode, you absolutely absolutely will in episode 2 when we see her goofing off and dancing with her dad in the coffee shop, totally uncaring of how she might appear to random customers (and Jung-hoo's immediate reaction of "This guy definitely never did anything but love this girl," is just so perfect). I love her more than life.

Tiny little Young-shin surrounded by ex-cons who are teaching her how to pick locks and open safes and pick pockets...is just the most glorious thing in the world. And it's so important to the world of the story that her dad is a defense attorney who is heavily invested in the lives of his clients after they leave jail, assisting them with finding jobs, etc. and also staying close enough to them that they hang around with his daughter. I just love this backstory more than I can ever say.

I had forgotten that she starts out as a celebrity "journalist" of a kind that was so specific to Korean pop culture at the time this show was made. It's an interesting choice--we know that she wants to be the kind of reporter than Moon-ho is, but here she is playing gotcha with a celebrity, trying to capture proof of a relationship for the scandal pages. And she's treating it with all the seriousness that she would a real scoop. I see this mostly as a kind of immaturity--she thinks this is just a step on the way to her real career and doesn't seem much interested in critiquing it.

But we see her fundamental goodness and compassion when she encounters the lady at the apartment building. Here is Young-shin's chance to get her scoop! She's so close! And yet she rushes up to the roof to make sure that a stranger is okay. Some things are more important.

We then get the heartbreaking scene where she tells us what happened to her before she was adopted. Park Min-young is really good in this scene--she starts out just trying anything she can to make a connection with this desperate woman, and then she gets pulled into her own heartbreaking memories. Of course it works. Her vulnerability and authenticity are probably the only thing that could have talked that woman down from the ledge. If someone who had broken ribs from abuse at the age of seven can tell you that things get better...you can believe it.

And of course she takes Sad Lady home to appa! This family clearly does this sort of thing all the time--they have toothbrushes and even new underwear tucked away just waiting for the needy. It says so much about who they are and the kind of lives they live. (Speaking of the kind of lives they live, I love appa's advice to do your second favorite thing for a living and keep your very favorite thing as a hobby. That's smart!)

I also want to touch on the scene in the bathroom with Jung-hoo. Young-shin comes across as a fearless person--she doesn't hesitate to chase down this guy who stole her bag. And she knows how to fight back! (Certainly a skill taught by one of the many criminal ahjussis in her life.) But when it becomes clear that she's outmatched, that even her hard-won skills aren't going to get her out of this, that she is physically vulnerable to this man, her terror is so real and relatable. That is a horrifying situation to be in. We as the audience know that Jung-hoo isn't going to actually hurt her, but she has no idea. Of course she thinks something terrible is going to happen! Especially when he freaking punches the mirror! I feel so much for her in that scene! (And there's some really, really interesting parallels to later, iconic scenes from this show that I will be sure to revisit then!)

I just think you have to give Young-shin your whole heart immediately. I can't imagine not falling in love with her as a character. She's the loveliest.

Moon-ho, Myung-hee and the flashbacks

And then we get to Moon-ho, long-suffering Min-jae (this woman deserves better) and LOVE OF MY LIFE MYUNG-HEE!!!!!!!!!!

Moon-ho feels opaque at this point in the narrative to me. We know he's a hot-shot journalist (I'm guessing he's kind of got Anderson Cooper level fame, but he's investigative), we know he's feeling kind of jaded about life, but we also know that he still fundamentally cares about using the power of journalism for good. The jadedness and the desire to help people are in interesting contrast--he's clearly at the point where he doesn't care about his career anymore--he'll do whatever the hell he wants, even violate direct orders. But at least he's doing it in order to tell the stories of the oppressed? Min-jae believes he's just in it for the fame at this point, but that's clearly not entirely true. It's complicated and we don't really know why he feels the way he does.

But we know he is bent on finding someone and we know that he loves his sister-in-law Myung-hee. And how could he not? Myung-hee is sunshine incarnate. I love her so much in both the present and the past. She's just so lovely and kind and warm. We really feel that Moon-ho must be a person worth loving since she loves him so much and he appreciates her completely. I love that he just calls her noona instead of addressing her as his sister-in-law.

It's heartbreaking to see her mourning her dead daughter and begging her dead husband to look after her. I am so sad already!!!!

I adore the flashbacks. These reckless and idealistic young people in the back of a van outrunning the police so that they can promote democracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the best! I don't have much to say about it except that Moon-sik bringing his baby brother along but making sure he's got his seatbelt on tells you so much about these characters' backgrounds--they clearly don't have real adults looking out for them.

Random other things

+ Min-ja is fun from the first episode but her true awesomeness will only be revealed later. I find her hilarious and wonderful and a kind of older female character you never, ever, ever see on television. <3<3<3<3 Min-ja!!!

+ LET DAE-YONG DO SOMETHING MORE THAN DELIVERY!!!! Gee, hyung, it's not that hard!

+ The action scenes are the least interesting of the show for me but they're still pretty fun. This first one sets up the players pretty well.

+ Jung-hoo has been able to ignore the moral ramifications of his job so far, but the murder of the train guy makes that impossible. We see from his reaction that, for all his protestations of not caring about anything, he genuinely feels regret at dismissing the warnings. And of course with Detective Dong-won showing up, things are about to get real.

+ Jung-hoo's wig. I will say no more.

by corvidology 

There are so many canons I love, but I want to focus on the ones that don't get enough love. Once again we're visiting one that I love enough that I've written fic for it without even the boost of an exchange behind me.



x

White Christmas is an 8-episode kdrama that aired on KBS in 2011. For those of you for whom this means something: it was written by Park Yeon-seon who also wrote another of my favorite kdramas Age of Youth (streaming on Netflix as Hello, My Twenties).


Here's a fanmade trailer that doesn't give too much away

But this show is tonally nothing like Age of Youth. It's a psychological thriller, and it's basically about the power of psychology. (Though if you're a psychologist, you should not watch this show.)

The premise: It's Christmas break for Susin High, an elite private school--so elite, in fact, that only the top 1% of students in the country can get in. Susin is already a place of cut-throat competition and a bad environment for anyone who cares about mental health. But things are about to get a lot worse.

In the days leading up to Christmas break, seven students receive black envelopes containing a threatening and ominous message, asking them to stay behind at the school over break.

You tainted me, made me pitiful.
You made me a monster in the corner.
You silenced me.
You ridiculed my false hope.
You took the only thing I had and put it around your neck.
I held out my hand and you let go.
You deleted me from your eyes.
Finally, you overtook me.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
After 8 days, walk up the path by the zelkova tree.
Under the clock tower you will see someone dead.
The night that Jesus was born, I curse you.

So when everyone else packs up and leaves for the holiday, those seven students and one teacher/chaperone are left in this glass labyrinth of building in the mountains, miles away from the nearest town. A stranded stranger survives a car wreck nearby and stumbles to the school to ask for shelter.

And then, of course, there's a snowfall, trapping them there until New Year's Day.

And people start dying...

The appeal: It's really hard to describe what it is that works about this show because it's so different than any other kdrama I've ever seen.

The characters are (almost) all damaged teenagers who have tons of baggage--the school bully, the school prankster, the model student, the school sweetheart who's turned into a bad girl, the neurodivergent kid, etc. All of them are interesting and compelling and all of them are really hurting. They're smart, smart enough that sometimes you forget how young they're supposed to be, and then they'll do or say something that reminds you, "Oh, yeah, these are just kids." I love to make jokes about my murder babies, but I sincerely love all of them Me earlier that day: I never cared for Mooyul.

And the modus operandi of the villain (if this show can be said to have something as conventional as a villain) is to use each kid's trauma against them. They're trapped in this labyrinth with their own pain and with the question that hangs over everything: are monsters born or made?

The plot is twisty, in a "look what human beings will do" kind of way. The suspense comes mostly from asking what people are willing to do to survive. It's an ensemble and each character gets a moment to shine, but it's got the benefit of being short, especially for a kdrama.

There's also the appeal of the cast. For reasons I'm not quite clear on, they cast a bunch of models, so almost everyone is very good-looking and very tall. And a bunch of them--Kim Woobin, my boy Sung Joon, my girl Esom, Lee Soohyuk, Kim Youngkwang, etc.--went on to have really interesting careers as actors in addition to modeling. They aren't all the most seasoned thespians in this particular drama, but I think all of them inhabit their characters really nicely.

The downsides: This show skews WAY more male than it really needs to. I can only imagine if they'd made Mireu or Chihoon or somebody a girl instead of a boy. There are two female characters, both of whom are very cool (for certain values of the word "cool"), but I really don't understand why it's so boy-heavy since it doesn't seem to be saying all that much about gender (except that, you know what? It really sucks being the girl that everyone has a crush on. It really does). Especially considering that the writer went on to write my favorite show with an all-female leading cast.

It's also dark. Not that dark--it's not graphic, there's no real sexual violence, the trauma that the kids are carrying around is more alluded to than explored deeply. But it does contain themes of suicide and self-harm and there is some blood, so it's definitely not one you should watch in a fragile moment.

And the final episode has some plot holes...but they're plot holes. The ending is (to my mind) incredibly emotionally satisfying despite them.

Warnings for: Suicide, self-harm, drug abuse, medium-intensity violence.

Where you can watch it: Viki--at least in some countries--and various illegal sites if you, like me, think that it's okay to stream or torrent things if the powers that be won't make them legally available in your country. If you're wanting to find it, I'll help you out.

For those of you who love Age of Youth already: It is really, really interesting seeing some of the writer's interests from Age of Youth showing up in this show in a completely different genre.

Totally random icons

01-04. Age of Youth/Hello My Twenties (if you want any of these without the text, let me know)
05-09. Angel the Series (mostly Cordy, one Fred)
10-21. Birds of Prey
22-33. Much Ado About Nothing
34-35. Shut Up! Flower Boy Band
36-36. Art
37-39. The X-Files


Preview:


( Read more... )

I've decided to start keeping a post of my recs for Korean dramas to help you figure out what you might want to watch. This won't be a list of all the dramas I watch, just the ones that I think are good enough that other people should watch them too. I'll be updating it as I find new ones, and I'll be making this a sticky post within the next few days. I hope it can lead you on your way to loving Korean TV dramas!

At the moment, all of the listed dramas are available on dramafever and/or hulu. Dramafever officially licenses these dramas, so if you watch there (or on hulu) you are NOT participating in piracy--you're getting things straight from the source. In the future, there might be some dramas that aren't available on those sites (for instance, I've got Capital Scandal on my harddrive at the moment and Resurrection/Rebirth currently torrenting, and I expect to add both of them to this list) and I know that those sites aren't available to all of my friends, so you can PM me if you're trying to find something you don't have access to. I'll try to help you out, though I make no promises.( dramas here )

tell your friends!

I'm completely serious about wanting to do some sort of White Christmas fic-a-thon. It sounds like there are a couple of people interested in at least watching it but they all want to wait till summer SO what if we did it like this:

Sometime in late June or in July, once people have had a chance to watch it, we have people sign up to write fic. No punishments if you don't write it, no word limit, and you can write anything at all you want to write. And if you don't sign up, but you end up wanting to write something, you can totally post it. The signups are more because sometimes you need that kick in the pants of I-actually-committed-so-I-should-do-this-oh-look-there's-a-deadline to get you to writing. Do we think this is workable? Even if we only got five or ten stories, it would still be worth it to do since right now there is LITERALLY NOTHING. (Except for Ranya's. Which is wonderful. But not enough.)

For those of you who like kdramas, WATCH THIS SHOW. For those of you who haven't had any interest in kdramas, I really think you'd enjoy it, so maybe you could give it a try anyway?

It's got a fantastic cast (for those of you who know any Korean actors: Esom, Kim Woo Bin, Sung Joon, Hong Jong Hyeon, Lee Soo Hyuk, Kim Young Kwan, Kwak Jung Wook) and great, great writing.

So the premise is that all of these kids are super bright (and each broken in their own way, though the fullness of that is only revealed as the show goes on) and attending a school for gifted students that’s way in the middle of nowhere. The eight of them get mysterious ~messages hinting at something dark and terrible coming and so they stay at school over Christmas. And get snowed in. And as it turns out…yeah, something dark and terrible is totally coming, but it wasn't what any of them expected it to be.

And the whole show is an exercise in showing that monsters are made, not born, and they’re made from choices, and anyone can make those choices under the right circumstances—anyone. It’s a psychological thriller where every time you think things are looking up there’s some new scary twist and the characters keep discovering things about themselves and each other they probably didn’t want to know.

And it’s close to perfect. Really. There are some holes in the very final episode, but they’re plot holes, not emotional resonance holes—a few of the details don’t make full sense in the logic definition of the word, but emotionally they make complete and total sense and when you get to the ending you realize that’s where you were headed all along, and it’s the only place it could have gone.

My only complaint is there’s only one female character BUT she’s amazing (actually, that's a lie, there's two, but there's only one in the main cast) and the male characters are amazing too and honestly it’s so good and you should all watch it.

Oh, and it’s only eight episodes, so it’s short. And here's a bunch of places you can watch it.

I JUST WANT TO MAKE THIS FANDOM A THING. If ever a show needed a fandom, it's this one. I want it so bad that this post isn't even remotely coherent. Picture me with grabby hands doing a Gollum impression because that's about where I am at the moment.

I've decided to start keeping a post of my recs for Korean dramas to help you figure out what you might want to watch. This won't be a list of all the dramas I watch, just the ones that I think are good enough that other people should watch them too. I'll be updating it as I find new ones, and I'll be making this a sticky post within the next few days. I hope it can lead you on your way to loving Korean TV dramas!

At the moment, all of the listed dramas are available on dramafever and/or hulu. Dramafever officially licenses these dramas, so if you watch there (or on hulu) you are NOT participating in piracy--you're getting things straight from the source. In the future, there might be some dramas that aren't available on those sites (for instance, I've got Capital Scandal on my harddrive at the moment and Resurrection/Rebirth currently torrenting, and I expect to add both of them to this list) and I know that those sites aren't available to all of my friends, so you can PM me if you're trying to find something you don't have access to. I'll try to help you out, though I make no promises.


( dramas behind the cut! )

as usual, nothing all that exciting since Vienna, but we'll do it anyway (and I will endeavor to use capitals because this is not tumblr):

+ INFINITE CONCERT PENDING. OMG. It seems Jamie will not get to go with me (I can't talk about this because DESPAIR), so I'm thinking of the DC one? I just need to find someone to go with, to room with/sit with/sing-along-on-the-top-of-my-lungs with. Warning: if Woohyun and/or Dongwoo start crying, I will probably cry my eyes out too. So. You've been warned.

+ In case I haven’t talked to you since then, the Vienna trip was great. Nearly perfect except for the heat which was EXTREME and Europeans don’t know how to use air conditioning (they say they have it, but it doesn’t ever seem like they actually use it!) and also you can’t get a big glass of cold tap water anywhere + there are almost no water fountains anywhere so it was a very thirsty trip. But we had a great time, everything went smoothly, I was the tour guide and arranged EVERYTHING (which was partly stressful but also kind of awesome?) and the parents loved it, so I’m very happy.

+ The little sister is in Ecuador. For almost a year. I am living alone. I LOVE living alone (even though it enables my anti-social behavior in ways that probably aren't healthy), but I miss her a lot.

+ Working on a new novel. AGAIN. Because, no, I am not physically capable of just sticking to one. But I feel really good about this one? Let’s ignore that that’s often the case when I start a new one. I literally had a dream about it and woke up with it fully-formed in my head. Often when I dream, I find myself thinking, “This would be a great book,” but then I wake up and realize the dream made no sense. But this one actually did! Also in the dream the love interest was Sunggyu. I kid you not.

It’s set in a fantasy version of like…late 18th century/early 19th century Madagascar? And you would not believe how hard it is to get ahold of a book on Malagasy history. Our library is fantastic, but the only history books they have are either A) for children or B) natural history. I get that the place has all sorts of flora and fauna found nowhere else on earth and that’s awesome BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE?

Anyway. I’m really trying to work on it. I want to make it work. I do.

+ So fic is going on hold for a bit. I have signed up for an OT3 bigbang and also for Infinite’s secret santa (and I will for Yuletide), but honestly I think it’s time to put fic on the back burner for just a bit until I get some actual work done on the novel. It’s time for discipline.

+ I did a remix fic for kpop-ficmix and I AM SO HAPPY WITH IT. I can’t wait till it’s posted and writers are revealed and I can tell you about it.

+ The job keeps requiring people to work mandatory overtime, and I am SO GLAD I took the time to fill out my FMLA paperwork so I don’t have to do it too. The company just all-around sucks with the way it treats employees, and yet I can’t bring myself to find something else because I can’t find anything else I’m actually interested in or a place that lets me spend as much time writing/interneting as this one does.

+ On Saturday I had my mama come over and we did some serious overhaul cleaning. Like, went through all the clothes I had and I took like five garbage bags full to goodwill. Which sounds ridiculous and like I have massive amounts of clothes, but honestly I still had some stuff from high school. High school. It was just a matter of actually removing them from my home.

Also went through closets and things and organized. Still have some to do, but I'm feeling good about it. I have a tendency to drive everyone around me crazy with my clutter because I live so totally in my head that it doesn't bother me but it bothers everyone else. But getting rid of stuff feels good.

+ I really need to stop reading about polygamist Mormon cults, but y'all, I can't stop. At this point, I feel like I know more about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints than any person should know. BUT I CAN'T STOP READING.

+ Also reading The Family by Jeff Sharlet and it keeps plunging me into despair re: fundamentalist Christians. Since I'm also a Christian I feel like it is my job to battle the fundamentalist ones but that is a lot for one person to take on. I need some perspective.

+ I haven't been good at actually watching things lately? Slooooowly watching I Hear Your Voice and weeping over Lee Jung Suk's everything. It's so good. But I only manage one episode every few days. I need to finish You're the Best Lee Soon Shin and watch the last episode of Monstar and start Master's Sun, but for some reason my attention span when it comes to TV is very short right now.

+ And I was thinking about kdramas and how they seem bent on giving me a schoolboy kink. Oh, let's put Sung Joon and Myungsoo in school uniforms. Let's put Lee Jung Suk and Kim Woo Bin in school uniforms. Let's put Seo In Guk and Hoya in school uniforms. WHAT NEXT? I am trying not to be a dirty old lady, but kdramas are making it really hard.

+ I...do not really go to church anymore because it's just too hard for me to go and yet never actually talk to anyone. I know I should, but I don't. However, I read progressive theology blogs like ALL THE TIME. I have zero interest in ever going into ministry, but man, I would love to go to seminary just so I could geek out about theology. Nothing more fun.

+ Oh, and I’ve been thinking and I want some advice. ( cut for overexplaining and rambling )

Gah. For someone who leads an incredibly quiet life, this got long. Kudos to you if you managed to make it through that, and I totally understand if you didn't!