Kim Yoonmi 김윤미 金潤美

Tea Boys is an adaptation of the term "Tea girls/women" which comes from Go Princess Go. Go Princess Go defined it as basically someone who is or acts sickly, and thus a victim, but in actuality they are very scheming. (i.e. the idea is as you drink tea, you can see the leaves at the bottom, so you know what they are about.) Maybe also named this because they are so sickly, (or pretending to be) that the only thing they can do is drink tea.

You can see another 100% Tea Boy in Bloody Romance, This one, though is more of a 90% Tea Boy. Mostly Tea Boys are marked with super long half up hair and are poisoned/sickly, and usually wear long flowing robes, in a majority of the time white. They tend to be super into the arts and scholarly, but not upright scholar type with a strong sense of justice (More like Chaotically good or evil, sometimes you don't know which). People go gaga over Tea people, as Go Princess Go points out, and that people are a sucker for them. (Because they are so pitiful... and front so well, but the opposite sex usually hates them instantly. So het Men spot tea men faster than the het women do and visa versa. This is how you know it's a tea guy.)

This is in contrast to someone who is a Fog Man/Woman. Like in the Chinese dramas where there is a person that usually leads the person into a fog, and then traps them and usually drains them of their life energy. So the character believes their lies, but finds out later they got poisoned and are trapped and now need to escape and they were never on their side. (See Love and Redemption for an example of the worst Fog person I've ever seen.) In this case, everyone will hate the Fog character universally want to stab them. The more abusive and manipulative they get, the more people will hate them.

His acting is a bit more precise in this drama, imo. But it depends on which character he plays, mainly. He has been playing a ton, ton of tea boys lately who have been getting more and more scheming, but he should deviate a bit more.

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More of a light-hearted feel most of the way until episode 7 when the plot starts to take off. The relationship is a love-hate relationship with Tsundere elements on both sides. The mystery is light and spans pretty much the entire drama so far They solved it to the audience pretty much right away. It's a matter of the main character catching up to it. It's more romance-heavy in some ways. Less thriller/conflict heavy.

To get a clue, Maiden Holmes has more cases and happenings so far than this one has for the same time span and also got accused of being romance-heavy.

The male lead is an interesting character, at least and not the typical fair. They rapidly develop him.

The female character's set up I feel a bit more wishy-washy about.

It gets its teeth in Episode 7.

Who is the kid actor that plays Bao? He's not in the cast list.

I have a feeling that the censorship board gutted their script because I caught bits that were hastily written and made no sense... But the poison was the reason he was tsudere. I heard the novel is really good though. Much funnier, and more entertaining.

I'm fairly sure I watched this one when I was a child in Korea. I have an irking feeling I watched this one. I'd like to see it again to confirm.

She's turning tea woman. (Go Princess Go Reference)

How many do you want? And Which languages?

I would put up there Goblin--extremely well done. (Dokkaebi, strictly speaking--a case of cover translation) The sponsors-inserts are a bit much, but like if you're doing a 5 car flip special effect, you have to at some point get sponsors. Also, I'd vote this probably the best portrayal of reincarnation in a Korean drama, period. (Uses a fair amount of Mugyo [Muism], though).

Also Extraordinary You is mind blowingly good in terms of writing and acting. Tight, tight script, well thought out, and the production values are really good. Though I kinda think it pays off to watch any of the Variety of productions of Boys Over Flowers--the Japanese, the Korean, Chinese or Taiwanese one--though my favorite is Japanese first because there are a lot of in-jokes about it in the drama which will add extra laughs if you get it. (Mostly because MBC did the original) A slight warning, to pack snacks for this drama and eyedrops, 'cause it's super addicting and you might not sleep for 16 hours.

I can add to the list Japan, China and Taiwan. (I've watched Filipino and Indian, too, but not as many Fantasy)

BTW, dramas worse than this with reincarnation in it, Love of a Thousand Years. It's B-movie level. I don't think it made back its money either when it aired. I fell asleep trying to watch it three times... and every time forgot what the plot was because I couldn't figure it out. lol

I'm looking more at the acting range for both actresses and their particular talents rather than the specific characters. I think Song Ji Hyo's more careful and deliberate energy she puts into characters given her past acting, etc, is more in line with Lee Eun Yeong's writing style. And that HJE, could play the other character very well, because the other character is flamboyant, which HJE can also play well. Part of a production is also the kismet between cast and crew. I'd be curious what the production would look like for both dramas if they switched. But I'm that sort of person too.

Because there writer is Lee Eun Yeong, I would honestly think she clashes a lot with HJE's style, so might try Song Ji Hyo instead (who also has a currently airing drama) lol They could switch dramas. I think it would be interesting because Song Ji Hyo has made similar statements to the main character and I think her energy fits some of what Lee Eun Yeong would want for the script.

The next thing I would do is do an inverse romance story or love herself story. Anchor it there, with the past lives less important than the present. The main problem with the story is a question of weight. Put the emphasis on the present and her incredible friendships she has and how that anchors her world. Oh My Baby had a really good balance, BTW, between mother that's supportive and mother who wants things for her child in a character conflict. This can also anchor the character if the parents are more mixed between trying to support her goals and being concerned. (BTW, that episode got me)

Start by making the main love interest, Hwang Ji Woo, a viable alternative, then slam later with the terrible things and use that anchor to make jokes about rom com lies. Things like, But you had a past life together. But--but don't you feel destined, etc. Passing shots, but frame it with the help of the director to spoof it strongly. Throw one every episode. Like just missed him. In other words, make the relationship a joke in front while anchoring her day-to-day relationships in the back as something worth cherishing and showing she doesn't need this man.

She can fall in Episode 10, and recover in episodes 11-12, back to herself, but this is where you play the other end of the realistic part of the rom com tropes. Like stalking for love. Threatening suicide, wrist grabs, etc, and reminding the main character, why loving herself is more important. Play up Dark humor, etc (Honestly, it might be a stretch for Lee Eun Yeong, but I think she has the ability to do it). Again, use the anchor of friendship as they support her through her tough times. Background what their lives, etc as an alternative narrative, but spend a lot of time on friends and family instead.

So then you can mix in humor, and the character being happy at say... her friends giving birth, etc. Her parents learn to support her choices because they also want that (They also could have a younger child who steps up)

As for her love rival... honestly, I think cut it because the biggest rival to the male character is herself and her wants and her needs and why she loves being by herself. Things like watching movies and dramas at 2 am. Fill those scenes with what's great about being single and how much she loves it.

So then the overall message isn't "No man is the best." But the dual message, "No man is best for HER." and "in order to love others, you need to love yourself first." With the warmth of friendship and finally the support of her family to understand her motivations by seeing how parenthood and marriage isn't for her, it becomes easier to understand the character and weight it properly. Maybe even the so-called "love rival" wins and we get to see how miserable that person is with him. (They divorced X years later).

I would weight the emotion towards love, laughs and warmth and I think it could be done with the delicate nature of Lee Eun Yeong's writing, she just needed to weight things properly. When writing stories, one has to think about the emotionality.

Sometimes writers, especially in a rush miss the point of the writing they are doing and think more about what to stuff into the plot than how to make the emotional beats stick. A lot of writers are guilty of this. And I think, structure-wise it does work, to be completely fair--the ideas are there. The problem is that landing the execution wasn't there. The writer didn't think about how to anchor the emotional beats along the way.

Honestly, from what I know this can happen for a variety of reasons--the actors demand too much, the product placement people ask for changes to the script too much, the PD and writer fight and don't get along, etc. You can kind of see this made fun of in The King of Dramas.

I think I could fix the emotional beats, honestly by making an anchor relationship somewhere, and then giving proper weight to the events needed. (The weight on the events feel too even both camera-wise and script-wise) But it feels like there were too many cooks in the kitchen, honestly. Lee Eun Yeong tends to like to write delicate pieces that unfold slowly and thoughtfully. And this drama has some of that, yes, but it collides a lot against the producer and direction style, in my estimation, which is quite quick and efficient. And HJE, while I don't hate her, also has a much more blunt style. So I kinda feel like it just didn't congeal properly. (This is about as fair as I can get to everyone without putting it on one person's head.)

It's not the most terrible watch I've ever had... but I wouldn't climb out to recommend it either. Honestly, the watchers at this point are having more fun sniping the drama than they are enjoying it for it's up front entertainment value.

There are decent dramas with reincarnation-type themes out there though.

There's a decent amount of stalking for love in this drama as a theme. Not one of the relationships in the drama is warm or fuzzy. It starts looking that way at the beginning, but rapidly tries your patience as the MMC increases his stalking for five years at the beginning of the drama, and then the Second Male Character joins in the stalking. The other relationships--not romantic aren't healthy either and have a baseline breakdown. The Parent-child relationships aren't warm at all and have cringy parents. The work relationships aren't that steady either. And there isn't enough friend time on screen to make up for the lack of warm relationships elsewhere. There are people backstabbing the Female Main Character, but she isn't actively trying to make the relationships better in any way, so while initially strong-minded, etc, with lots of gumption, she lacks agency to change what's actually wrong.

Besides this, there are pacing issues. Lots of little pacing issues.

It's up to you. You might get more pleasure out of sniping it and hoping the female lead doesn't melt completely than you would watching it because it's good and well-thought out. I got a lot more warmth out of Mystic Pop Up Tent with the short romance scenes than I did out of this one.

So, if you are tolerant of stalking (for 5+ years and stalking after break ups, and stalking because OMG feelings) and don't mind bad pacing issues, diminished returns on feelings of romance, (because well, they are stalking her... so it's kinda hard when he's being manipulative, etc to want them together.) Then this drama might work for you. The upsides? The drama is well shot, though the production values aren't as high as some of the other dramas she's done. The acting probably pulls the script, which is a bit choppy out of the gutter a bit. The sticking point for most people with this drama is the writing and the stalking. Kinda odd since Lee Eun Yeong tends to be a good writer, but I think she missed this time to anchor enough emotion in the right places for us to cheer for the things we need to cheer for. (Even the main female character's want.)