Salatheel

A film script became a drama that works

Initially I dropped this show but came back to it later, and I’m glad I did. There’s a lot that could be better about it, but the heart of it is very good. What interested me was that a film writer (Yoo Young Ah), wrote a drama that filled 16 hours with a plot that could have serviced a two hour movie, and managed to pull it off.

Movies, like short stories, revolve around one basic idea. To try and do more is actually to do less because you don’t have the space to properly explore them. So, here she takes the basic noona/chaebol romance, stripped of any excess emphasis on politics, secondary romances, plot twists (the normal complexities written into long dramas) and plumbs the depth of it. Although I don’t think the characters had enough shade written into them to give them the full three dimensions, Park Bo Gum acted his heart out and gave a a really convincing performance, particularly towards the end.

I doubt there’s anything more than that comment, insightful enough to add anything to the already abundant comments in other reviews.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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A lot to like, but flawed delivery

Essentially this is a love story set against the background of the Gwangju Uprising. It is not so much about the politics but rather a serious piece of social commentary that explores the impact on the people involved. There is a lot to like about this production that carries you through the flaws in the plotting, writing, staging and direction.

The story centres around coercion on multiple levels: personal, family, business and political. We all make choices in life that reflect our response to current circumstances and when those circumstances turn increasingly oppressive the trigger point for each individual is different. Although our choices are our own to make, what we decide to do will impact those around us. At what point does the greater good triumph over family responsibilities? What is the cost to the individual if they choose family? What is the fallout if they choose the greater good? What is the tipping point, if there is one, to change from one to the other?

The drama sets up a number of scenarios to explore these dilemmas: from the nurse who has been impacted by her father’s decisions, to the student who chooses action regardless of family. The drama illustrates the human and emotional costs involved and shows that social change is only possible through the sacrifice of not only innocence but also the innocent.

The pluses of this drama are the performances, not just by the leads, Lee Do Hyun and Go Min Si, but also some of the supporting cast. Oh Man Suk was excellent as Hwang Ki Nam and had a very credible ruthlessness. Lee Sang Yi as Lee Soo Chan made a memorable impression as a good man forced to recognise and embrace reality. The lovers had a beautiful and believable chemistry and that made it easy to go along with their instant love.

There are also some very good character development arcs, as various characters get to grips with these issues. For me Lee Soo Chan, who is memorably played by Lee Sang Yi, is the best illustration of wilful ignorance to action. But others in the story are forced to come to terms with themselves in less favourable lights. There is a sense that we all would hope to be a hero, but the show reveals the courage needed just to survive, let alone take action, and does it with a certain amount of compassion.

Although the concepts within the drama are well thought through and delivered by the writer, Lee Kang, the actual structure and plotting is not always good. There are many times, particularly with the leads, where motivations are forced, or jarringly out of character, in order to serve the purposes of the plot.

The direction did little to help the lacklustre tension and was far too static and slow. It was in the mode of a romance which means it failed to do justice to the dynamics of the setting, which was in the middle of an uprising. At times we needed to see more anxiety and less stoicism. There needed to be more frequent and more marked changes of pace. This was partly the script but the greater responsibility lay with the director and how the scenes were played out and edited. Passages of dialogue in dire situations were delivered in calm measured ways, instead of urgent, desperate whispers. The editing interrupted impending threat by giving the actors all the time in the world to be romantic. It also often jumped erratically between the different scenarios leaking tension like a sponge, rather than building it in layers.

Overall, this is a good drama and well worth watching if you are prepared for patches of frustration along the way. It provides good food for thought and reveals multiple perspectives to reflect on.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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A promising fledgling trapped in a cage of romance tropes.

This drama was a pleasant surprise that exceeded my admittedly low expectations. There was a straightforwardness and believability about the writing, and the delivery of the lines by the central leads, Im Si Won and Shin Se Kyung, that enhanced the reality of the story. The attitude of the FL was credible given her background. She was written with some depth to her, unusual in romance dramas. The pressures and considerations around her profession as a translator were well illustrated and interesting. I must admit that I’m pretty hopeless at learning languages but I do have an appreciation of how a language shapes your world. After all, you can only know that you experience things that you have words for.

The serious nature of the topic under discussion at the start was well treated, with echoes of DP, another drama that explores institutionalised bullying. The ML had some of the expected personality traits: cold, unresponsive etc, but he was given a credible reason for them in his background. The drama did a reasonable job of showing us the steps of his transformation without completely turning our frog into a prince charming.

The characters of the leads were non-standard for romance and they were well fleshed out and believable. With two unconventional and interesting leads one wonders whether it was necessary to have such a prominent secondary couple. The mood of the drama was more akin to “I’ll see you when the weather is fine” or “Just between lovers”, both of which emphasised the primary romance, with less than usual time given to the secondary one. We really needed to spend more time with our main couple to understand the subtleties of their interactions with each other. Sometimes the time lines were twisted and there was an inexplicable reaction happening before the motivation that explained it, which was confusing and unnecessary.

According to kdrama tweets on Twitter, (https://twitter.com/iconickdramas/status/1347390682848129025?lang=en) this is Park Shi Hyun’s first outing as a lead writer, having been an assistant writer to Kim Eun Sook who wrote “Goblin”, “Descendants of the Sun” and “Mr Sunshine”. If this is the case, Park is definitely to be commended and encouraged because it shows promise and it’s faults can at least be understood if not forgiven.

Having mentioned faults, let’s go there and explore them. I think that one source of the problem as far as I’m concerned was trying to fit a non-standard romance into a standard formula with a standard treatment. In the process the subtlety was trashed and a great deal was lost in translation. The natural flow of the story seemed to be forced in some places and stifled in others by the rigid application of standard romance tropes and editing choices. The relationship between the two leads was forced. The writer hardly gave it time to develop before pulling it apart on cue which seemed totally inappropriate for this drama. As far as I’m concerned, in order to reveal the natural development of the characters it needed it’s own non-standard form. In particular, the episodes around two thirds of the way through lacked character integrity for me.

Unfortunately we were treated to the tedious long frozen gazes that seem to plague romance dramas. Sorry, but I’m so over that style of directing and editing. I find it unnatural, weird and incredibly dated. You know that very soon it will identify an era that was very OTT and laughable. In fact it seems like that to me right now. I imagine that it is all about live broadcasting, allowing viewers to have long lingering hot-shots of their favourite crushes. But this was a Netflix series, watched on-line where you can freeze the frame yourself and gush in the privacy of your own bedroom (or whatever you want to do…). So why?

I felt that Park Shi Hyun wanted to write something different and was being constrained by outside forces to conform to a norm. The result was a strangely unsettling experience full of cliched romance production values and lip bump kisses. It really had the potential to be so much better than that.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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It’s all in the editing…

The overall harmony required to make a stunning drama rather than a great drama is all about balance, where nothing dominates. Each aspect works with the others, so that everything blends together into a seamless whole. The final cut of this drama felt like individual soloists in a group competing for attention. The quality of the writing, cinematography, directing and acting was all really excellent, but the editing lacked the requisite harmony and balance to create a seamless, sumptuous experience. Too often, the script and actors played second fiddle to the cinematography.

The cinematography in this production was admittedly stunning but way too prominent, particularly in the early episodes. So frequent are the carefully framed and composed long shots that it becomes overly self conscious. While I want to commend the striking and beautiful set shots, they caught my attention with such an impact that they drew me out of the story. This is fine occasionally, but when it is every few minutes, it’s too much. I am watching a drama, not wondering through a photography exhibition.

There was a lot of hand held camera work, close ups, tilted frames and unusual angles which followed each other in rapid succession. As though the cinematographer was trying to push every possible ounce of novelty into the available space. I’m wondering if the editing suite was then provided with a wealth of material that may not have included enough straightforward shots to edit the scene without employing a superfluity of fast cuts. Okay, I’m being generous here, it was deliberate.

Often, in dialogues between two people, the shots continuously cut between them so that you didn’t get a sense of conversation. Admittedly, it could be symbolism for some non-communication happening, but to be honest, it intruded into the flow of the dialogue to such an extent that the actors and the words seemed to be battling for attention and the meaning was lost. It had the effect of keeping the viewer at a distance, watching what was happening as an observer, rather than being drawn in.

There was extensive playing around with depth of field which created some nice effects and the out-of-focus areas added to the texture which is normally the job of lighting. Frequently the visible area of focus was greatly reduced by including blurred pillars and walls in the frame. Shot mainly in warm tones with plenty of colour in the sets and costumes the overall feel of the production was vibrant and dynamic. A good contrast was achieved between the appearance of the two companies, Barro which was assigned golds through orange to brown and Unicon in cooler blues through green, which went a long way to setting up the tension and defining their differences in approach and character.

Overall, although I welcome and thoroughly enjoy good cinematography (and there was bucketloads of that) there is a balance to be struck between all the aspects of storytelling if a drama is going to be successful at engaging its audience. Although it calmed down towards the end of the drama, the beginning was way over the top. Here it is notable that despite the imbalances, the drama was still powerful and I put that down to the scriptwriter, Kwon Do Eun.

The script is crisp, clever, intelligent and often witty (even in translation) and contained three beautifully realised and different relationships. Scarlet’s followed the norms for romance and was cute, easy and relatable, but I found much more to interest me in the other two, more mature relationships. Song Ga-Gyeong’s partnership with her husband was the most moving for me, with a poignant performance by Jo Seung Hyun as Oh Jin Woo. I really like him as an actor in general and in this performance he did a great job of conveying the inner world below the dignified surface.

The dialogue between Bae Ta Mi and Park Morgan was fresh, original and well executed and it provided the core of the romance aspects of the story. The demands that Park Morgan makes on Bae Ta Mi and the constraints he puts himself under, as well as the compromises he makes, present wonderful opportunities for building the tension (both sexual and otherwise) between them and I enjoyed their interactions and flirtations. The progression of their relationship was not, in my opinion, created by the writer for plot convenience, but represented believable aspects of their characters and reflected the real difference in their ages and dreams.

The heart of this story though, was the exploration of the relationship between three powerful and strong women and the three actors playing them gave excellent performances. If you need to thoroughly like your heroines then this is not the drama for you. With the exception perhaps of Scarlet, who is a lightweight in comparison, the other two present the ruthlessness which they had to have in order to survive and thrive. And it’s not always pretty. But that provides the interest and character development in the story and what makes it a compelling drama. The various ethical dilemmas raised in the plot serve to test both their characters and their humanity.

Much of the plot is episodic and revolves around moral issues regarding personal information and privacy. It does a good job of giving the facts in fairly credible conversations and highlights the core problems and political pressures in the internet business world. It explores the implications of the totally connected society that we live in and highlights the shifting sands of rights and responsibilities. It’s a good show to watch if you want to be stimulated to think.

The soundtrack uses of a lot of music familiar to western ears, from jazz to classical as well as some original material. In a show bursting with strong production values, this was its weakest point. There was some good stuff in the mix but not original enough to strike my ear and hold my attention.

This show isn’t about nice neat solutions, it’s about incompatible dreams and principles and ethically messy grey areas, so expect to be conflicted.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Never mind the plot, feel the production values…

There’s a ton of reviews for this show, so I don’t want to write another - wow, amazing, watch-this-show review. With that in mind I’m going to focus on the direction and production values, because they are totally awesome. If you have not already seen this show, widen your eyes and ears when you watch it. If you are re-watching, hopefully you will have enough spare capacity to take more notice of some of the stuff I’m going to talk about.

In a drama like this, where the plot is complex and there are a lot of characters with conflicting motivations, first time round it was as much as I could do to just keep up and I popped out at the other end wondering why I found this show soooo amazing. Because let’s face it, the plot is not brilliant. Yes it’s got some great twists and continually finds inventive ways to keep the tension going, but it’s horribly clichéd and frequently stretches credulity like knicker elastic. Sometimes I found myself laughing when I should have been chewing my nails—not good. Whilst I was busy following the plot and being mesmerised by LJG,'s performance, all the production values were impacting me at a subliminal level creating the context for the story to come alive. I may not have always directly noticed it, but if they weren’t there, to be honest, I’d have been watching an average thriller. So I’m still going to give this show a 9 because everything but the plot is exceptional.

Let’s start with the directing. I loved the innovative way in which Kim Chul Gyu gave the viewer insight into Do Hyeon Su and elicited our empathy for him. This take on psychopathy is pretty unique and none of the usual things are going to work here. I can imagine that a lot of time and thought went into working out a way to do it. And in the end it was brilliantly achieved through close-up camera work, subtle facial movements (LJG was simply awesome here); slow motion and lack of normalising sound. Without these techniques, Do Hyeon Su would have been just another closed up, leading male and it would be difficult to credit why Chae Ji Won loved him. Kim Chul Gyu enabled the viewer to get inside Hyeon Su’s head. Sometimes, in those extreme close-ups, you could actually see LJG’s thought processes going on behind his eyes. And the sequences, particularly in the first couple of episodes, were cleverly designed to show cause and effect. In Ep 4, first date, we are encouraged to see Ji Won through Hyeon Su’s eyes, by utilising slow motion for her face and turning up the soundtrack, so that as viewers we were forced to register her facial expressions in a way that we normally wouldn’t. The effect was to share the process with Hyeon Su of working out what she was feeling and responding in kind. Brilliant!

The constraints of the plot early on worked well to curb the release of emotions and increase their intensity. This underplaying is magic and such an achievement can only be realised when a great director works in total harmony with capable actors. I don’t need to say much about the career-highlight portrayals by Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won, just read other reviews for that. However, when the constraints of the plot are lifted about two thirds of the way through, imo things get a bit out of hand and there is a bucketful of crying, which is a pity. I’m such a great believer in less is so very much more. LJG has said in interviews that he felt that the melo took over at the end and the impression I got was that he wished they’d pulled it back a bit. I must admit that the whole portrayal of the antagonist Baek Hee Sung was simply too OTT for me. And the scenes involving the Baek family were the least convincing in the drama.

Moving on to the cinematography. Park Seong Yong has been involved in a string of smash hits, and that can’t be accidental or just luck. There is no doubt that he has played a part in their success. In Flower of Evil he relies heavily on photographic composition. In the first two thirds of the drama he frequently lingers on beautifully composed set shots that are lit and framed to perfection. There is a scene in Ep 8 between Hyeon Su and Hae Su set in a derelict indoor fishing facility with extensive walls of now broken glass. The scene, at night, is lit primarily from one bright, gold light-source set externally. It creates a breathtaking atmospheric beauty for this very moving scene. I mean, who would have thought to do that? Wow! And that is just one example of a thread of innovative and exquisite shots that meander like a necklace of pearls through all the earlier episodes.

The richness of the colour palette is another gem in this production. The whisky bar in Ep 9 utilises deep reds and gold, in a set that glories in chiaroscuro: hidden motives and black deeds hide in the shadows. Scenes where we see the calculating side of Hyeon Su are often filmed in blue-tinged lighting, emphasising the hard lines of the faces and bringing a sharp coldness to the overall mood.

The cinematography everywhere enhances and reveals the emotional impact of the action. The phone conversation at 10pm in Episode 10 is a beautiful example of this. When after a deeply difficult and moving scene there is a static long-shot of Ji Won alone on the wide, bare expanse of the office rooftop, with a blurred backdrop of skyscraper lights: so very small and alone with all her desperate feelings.

Throughout, the lighting echoes one of the themes of the drama; that light can be born from darkness. The overall tone of the production is shadowed, with frequent highlights of warm tones, even occasionally used for the antagonists.

The soundtrack is a masterpiece of creativity as well. Not smoothed to the point of blandness, it has a gritty, exposed texture. It reflects the dichotomy of the story from the pulsing beat and rising scale of “Psycho” to the unforgettable, haunting falsetto of “Feel You”. Often, the string section in contemporary film and game music is used for hackneyed, swelling melodies and I loved that the titles music utilised slightly grating arpeggios from the strings and layered soaring voices above them.

Overall, even with all its faults, Flower of Evil is an unique drama that offers up a feast for the eyes and ears as well as some really notable performances from all of the leads. Lee Joon Gi was beyond good and his performance alone is enough to recommend this show.

What my rating means: 9+   A drama I totally fell in love with and is endlessly re-watchable. It ticked all the boxes and had some serious wow factor. It would go on my personally recommended list.

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Less would have been so much more…

The problem with trying to do too much is that you don’t do enough. There was not enough depth to really make this drama memorable. We were introduced to a number of relationships, all of which had promise, but none of which were fully explored. We were given the overall picture, but what totally draws you in and keeps you there long after the last episode, is not the obvious, but the small moments of unexpected revelation that can only happen when you spend time with characters.

With so much going on there was not enough time to explore big transitions, let alone small ones. Some of the developments required by the plot, which were complex emotional transitions, were skipped through on a wing and a prayer. Worse, motivations were explained in retrospect with large chunks of repetition and telling rather than showing. This is such bad writing and the fault lies in a weak structure.

I don’t think that increasing the number of episodes would necessarily have helped. All of the character interactions had large amounts of emotional baggage, and if they had all been fully explored, it would simply have become too much. There’s only so much emotional pay-off that you can squeeze from story or from a viewer. When this has to be divided across too many characters it can get very thin, with the result that the viewer feels less all round intensity and therefore empathy.

I was not convinced of why there was a need to tell this story in two time-streams with two sets of loosely connected characters. The periods of time that were spent in each time-stream were frequently too long, which broke your connection to the other story-line. I couldn’t find a strong enough reason to think that it merited this treatment, they just seemed to run in parallel rather than intersecting with each other. Neither did one story enhance our understanding of the other, both seemed to say the same thing.

For this to be a special drama, and I think that the themes and concept had the potential to be so, the first half desperately needed to be pruned of some of its intensity around non-core relationships and to focus more on the central ones. As for the second half, the structural faults in the plot needed to be resolved. Maybe it’s just that I like clean lines and deep thoughts, but KISS is an aphorism for a reason folks!

Having said all that there were things to like about it too. The sombre colour palette with great lighting designs that provided highlights and supportive context for the action. The colours were rich and intense, particularly in the night scenes and the definition had a beautiful clarity to it. Some of the cinematography (enhanced by CGI) was breathtakingly beautiful, particularly at the beach.

The standard of acting from all four of the main cast was good, particularly from K and Cream although I think that the director took the melo too far in places. The characters themselves were interesting and varied although I wasn’t convinced by the character of Li Na, or Phoebe Yuan’s performance - she was no Elizabeth Taylor…

I didn’t find the OST that inspiring to be honest, which was a pity as it was set in the music industry and an opportunity was missed. But maybe I’m not that qualified to judge as I’m not a great fan of Asian music in general, which often sounds too smooth, bland and overproduced for my taste.

Overall, my interest waned as the episodes progressed and more and more flaws were revealed.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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It is possible to have way too much of a good thing

There are a ton of reviews for this show, so I wasn’t going to add to them, but I feel frustrated enough to want to write one. I’ll try and make it short, in keeping with my critique!

I loved how this show started. Great characters, clever interweaving of flashbacks, beautiful unfolding of relationship etc etc. But as a writer I got really frustrated watching this. There is a natural arc for any story that you write and it has an appropriate length that does it justice. The perfect length states your case and leaves a clear impression in the viewer’s mind that is just enough for them to want to hold it in their hand and gaze at it a while longer, hopefully realising things for themselves, that lead them deeper. In my mind, this is the joy of a story. Not just what is told, but where it leads you afterwards.

However, in order to realise that goal, a writer needs to do two things:
1) have the message precise in their mind;
2) write only enough to illustrate it clearly.

Mostly, too much information is written and the job of editing is the delight of tightening and sharpening and chipping away until that message shines like a cut diamond. When you have cut sufficient away for the brilliance to emerge, then you have found the natural length of your story.

But dramas are commissioned and given a length: write a story that fills 16 episodes. What happens when you need to expand the story to fill the space allotted? Your diamond gets cut to fit the setting and instead of being sparkling and sharp, it becomes cloudy and dull. The writer tried to expand the beauty that was there and in the process went round and around and around the same material until it was trampled underfoot in the endless circularity that was all the middle episodes, by which time I was barely interested enough to follow it through to its inevitable conclusion.

If this had been an 8 or even a 10 episode drama, it could have rated at 8, no trouble. There was stuff that was good. The dialogue, the performances of the leads in particular, the sets, the cinematography, the drawings featured in the show... But sadly, it just has to be a flawed 6.5 for me.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.

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Hacked away its own feet

However hard great actors try, and you’ve got to admit, Ji Sung is pretty damn good, they can’t quite hide appalling writing. Rather like an oyster creating a pearl from irritating grit, however magnificent, the grit is still there in the middle. This show is full of good actors (with one or two exceptions) wrapping up grit with varying degrees of success.

Cudos also has to go to the director for trying to help in the process by toning down some scenes which could have really got out of hand. But the banal and unintelligent writing drags them all down, again and again. The lines are often so pedestrian and obvious and either do absolutely nothing to reveal the interior emotions and insights of a character or, even worse, vocalise feelings in totally weird and unnatural ways. Stating the obvious is the go-to choice for imparting information and there are plenty of scenes where some of the antagonists behave more like naughty boys rather than credible, disturbed, human beings.

Then there are a whole slew of unfathomable motivations which have to be verbally “explained”, any number of clunky and repetitive plot devices aided and abetted by bad editing choices, an ever growing list of eye-rolling coincidences, an abundance of unbelievable twists and a complete abandonment of any sort of credible legal procedure. There was plenty of tension but the pacing just got slower and slower making it hard going through the middle and it really didn’t need two extra episodes.

The vagaries of memory loss seem to follow no rhyme nor reason. That memories are buried and hidden is something I have personal experience of, but the writer’s use of it coming and going just to serve the plot smacks of total convenience rather than reality. Further, the slow revealing of the crime doesn’t reflect recovered memories, adding to the sense of manipulation rather than suspense.

The actors have to do all the heavy lifting themselves, with body language, facial expression and tone and Ji Sung is the shining light here with a wonderful pearl of a performance that is the one good reason to keep going. His relationship with his daughter was very real and Shin Rin Ah also put in a great performance. Unfortunately though, Uhm Ki Joon and some of the supporting cast are only able to manage mis-shapen lumps of calcium carbonate with their parts.

The cinematographer created ambiance by the bucketload with the use of highlights and shadows. The scenes inside the prison were lit to perfection, utilising low levels to create an atmospheric, metallic, industrial feel in mainly soft golds and blues. There was also imaginative and meaningful use of the shadows cast by window bars and rectangular slabs of light offered by slots in doors. I also loved the opening credits sequence with its overlaid images and washes of blues and golds, picking up on the overall theme.

In the hands of a good writer this could have been a superb drama, because the basic ideas, acting talent and the production values are up there. But instead, all of that is undermined by weak dialogue and unconvincing plot execution, and I was left with a drama that I struggled through rather than enjoyed. In fact, I simply couldn’t get to the end and that’s saying something because when I commit to writing a review I finish the drama. So apologies, but I really can’t see anything salvaging this one!

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Blows hot and cold.

I looked back to my somewhat tedious review of “Run On”, which was the scriptwriter’s (Park Si Hyeon) first solo offering. I will however, give myself a little leeway, it was one of my early reviews. But unfortunately the same sort of complaints and comments work for this one too.

I had hoped that she would have had the confidence to resist the temptations of trope that she seems to get stuck in. Because I think she writes character quite well. The main leads are all individuals with noticeably different personalities, even if the males are somewhat dolce. She is able to give them some depth and interest, and I felt that they were more rounded than average.

But just as you are meandering along thinking that the plot/relationships might branch in new and interesting directions, you get pulled up sharply by a seeming inconsistent return to trope and accepted norms. Such as trivial events to cause awkwardness and jealousy, with irrelevant newly introduced, one-off characters. It feels out of place in a romantic melo, rather, the sort of fluff you find in a rom com. It undermines the character integrity making them seem vulnerable to superficiality. As a result, the whole drama blew hot and cold on me. I wanted to like it more than I actually did.

There are a fair few eye rolling conveniences in the plot, particularly involving the tangled web of past relationships that does nothing to advance the credibility. But it got better as it progressed and there were some beautifully tender scenes between the all of the leads. The bathroom scene in Ep 11 was especially good. It was well written and well acted. However, I found the last episode deeply unsatisfying. It sort of fell apart, then sort of came back together, looking sort of like the flakes on your plate after you’ve eaten a croissant, that you mop up using your finger so that the plate is sort of clean by the end, but you sort of wish there was more.

I really liked Song Jung Ki’s performance. He inhabited the character’s quirkiness and made it smoothly believable. He was also backed up well by the others.

The OST had the feel of late night bar music - pleasant in the background. And the cinematography inhabited the warm regions of muted colours especially browns and dusky pinks.

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Nostalgia mains served with a side of morality and a sweet romance desert

This is a nostalgic review of the birth of modern China and the principles that underpin it. I found it an interesting watch, not least because I can remember the fall of the Gang of Four and the change of direction that followed it. It was a time when the West and China began to reconfigure their relationship.

The drama takes place across four years and illustrates the changing times very clearly. If you were ever in doubt about what direction China was trying to move in, then this drama makes it abundantly clear. It is a sanitised version of history, preserving the sincerity and showing that if you stray from the intended path, either physically, mentally or morally, you will deservedly crash and burn. But then, that’s not just a theme/style for Chinese drama, it’s pretty universal imo. All countries have the tendency to sweeten the difficulties of the past for a bit of uplifting propaganda. It’s called nostalgia.

All the hallmarks of a Chinese romance drama are there. It sticks close to a semblance of reality; moves at a tortoise pace; has modest but determined women; soft and supportive men; lots of family drama; plots that leave you in no doubt of what the outcome will be at any given moment; clear lines of demarcation between the goodies and the baddies, who without fail will either reform or get their deserved comeuppance.

But within that accepted norm, this one offers some good performances. Especially by Arthur Chen and Sun Qian, who serve up a very credible and sweet romance. The rest of the cast also do their bit and I particularly liked the performance of Kong Lin as Mu Yang and Mu Jing’s mother.

Aside from a slow moving middle section which almost had me giving up, this worked well. Unfortunately, the delicious humour at the start faded out not to return. I think a little more leavening would have lifted that doughy middle section and made for easier digestion. The rating that I’m giving it is not so much about my own taste, but more how it sits in comparison to others in the genre.

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Nothing new, but a good place to start

I decided to watch this series because I wanted to understand more about what drives the gender dynamics that I sometimes find quite confronting in Japanese romance dramas. It was only the last episode that began to address that question for me when the hosts chatted with four Japanese people who didn’t have a direct connection to the adult entertainment industry about societal expectations and couple dynamics. I can't say it helped greatly, but it did give me a bit of insight into why Japanese men in these dramas sometimes take the initiative in a forceful way.

The first five episodes concentrated on exploring different aspects of the sex industry with the exception of sex workers. If you have watched any documentaries about this topic, or participated in the activities it covers, it is unlikely that you will learn anything new here. But for those who have no knowledge it will serve as a good introduction.

The tone of the series was to break through embarrassment and talk directly about what was on offer. The participants all displayed a professional dignity which created an atmosphere of easiness in which direct questions could be asked and answered openly and frankly. Sung Shin Kyung in particular did a good job of hosting and hit the right note in both his manners and his general demeanour to ease conversations and interactions.

Unfortunately, it did still include the Korean variety show habit of extensive use of overlaid squiggles and emoticons, but if you grit your teeth you can get past them.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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From the sauna to the ice bath and back

Whether you enjoy this drama or not is probably more about your expectations going into it, than the drama itself. It’s not an emotional roller-coaster of a thriller but rather a piece that is two thirds cerebral chess and one third comedic camaraderie. They make strange bedfellows and perhaps attract different types of audience hence my comment about prior expectations.

The plot concerning the standard chaebol rivalries is a complete contrast to the fun-filled dynamics of Violent Crime Team 2 and sometimes the constant shifting is like plunging from the sauna into the ice-bath. (I did that once and thought I was having a heart attack!)

Let’s deal with the cerebral chess first. Although complexity is good, too much complexity can interfere with the flow and pace of the drama. It gets a bit tangled up with itself and there are a lot scenes that use a lot of names to explain the intricacies of who knows what about who said what about who threatened who because of what was done about what who ordered…

There is a balance to be struck by the writer when constructing the plot and here I think the tendency to keep explaining is counterproductive as it breaks the both the tension/suspense and the flow of the viewer’s emotional connections to the characters and story. I wasn’t totally convinced that it was necessary and at times things felt a bit repetitive. The downside of not explaining is that the viewer sometimes get lost but it allows you to keep up the pace and tension. I think this was done very effectively in “Insider” where an equally (if not more) complex plot swept along and carried you with it.

As the drama progresses it gets bogged down in the nitty gritty and where it is going has been obvious for a while, with the result that it becomes somewhat tedious and struggles in the last half to capture interest. This is partly because it is rooted in a slice of life approach that sort-of abides by the rules of investigation which slows everything down and keeps it grounded. It also emphasises dialogue over action and there are too many static scenes of people sitting around on chairs and talking.

Having plunged into the ice bath let’s go back to the sauna, and what a fantastic sauna it is. Especially in the first half the camaraderie of Violent Crime Team 2 is a total delight. It’s wonderfully funny and so warm. All of the detectives have distinct personalities and are given opportunities to shine. It totally enlivens the first half of the drama and makes it such a enjoyable watch. If it ended half way through the drama would definitely be a higher rating.

Along with the performances by the detectives, the standout for me was Jung Moon Sung as Woo Tae Ho. I was really riveted by his performance and he totally convinced me that he was a man surrounded on all sides with only his wits to aid him to survive. And lastly, just a nod to casting for actually finding someone (Jasper Cho) who can speak English convincingly, even though his accent is Canadian not American, but we’ll forgive that - nothing’s perfect…

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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Even excess cheese can sometimes be good.

This is a romcom that wants to take itself seriously and there are moments when it succeeds in doing that and moments when it seriously doesn’t. I suppose I’m just a bit too old and a bit too relationship-wise to hack this type of cinderella-who-pretends-to-be-in-need-of-protection-meets-prince-charming-primed-to-give-it drama. And I must admit to being a tad confused about how our prince humble-charming could also be such a prince narcissus and switch between the two with such apparent ease. I was waiting for a good reason for it, but in vain… However, to the drama’s credit, I got through all sixteen episodes of it. Mostly I don’t.

So in its favour, it’s a good example of the genre. The performances are quality, the comedy isn’t too embarrassing, and the script (if you accept the premises in the first place) stands up to scrutiny. There’s a bucket-load of kissing and touchy-feely and enough chemistry between the leads to be convincing.

Things do get pretty unbearable in the cheesy nausea stakes, aided and abetted by an excruciating glut of long, lingering looking into eyes (bad choices in the editing suite). Then by Episodes 10 & 11 the product placement is off the wall and the false smiles and general niceness is at imminently-about-to-throw-up stage. The scripted sexual interactions are often painfully naive and delayed to the point of ridiculousness, but that’s par for the course in k-drama romances. In fact, at times the relationship dynamics (and I’m not talking about the sexual ones) were pretty off between the lead roles and there were a few occasions where I was just screaming at the screen, “Back off! Get off her case, mate. That’s way over the line you’re stepping!”

The core plot is pretty much over by Episode 12, so the last 4 episodes meander along fossicking around with emotional trajectories and sort of trying to tie up loose ends in a long-winded but amiable way. Unless you’re really into sugary fluff the last episode is a total bore.

However, despite the dodgy predilections of the writer for uncomfortable relationship dynamics, Park Seo Joon carried the role with aplomb and has to be congratulated for doing the best (most believable) totally wasted (Episode 15) that I’ve seen in any K-drama. That’s not something you learn by getting very pissed yourself, it’s something you know by hanging around sober whilst those around you descend into mumbling wrecks. He’s an actor, like Ji Chang Wook, who is capable of so much more than these romcom scripts demand. “Itaewon Class” was a step in the right direction as far as I’m concerned and I’m looking forward to “K Project”. I think Park Min Young also hides her light. She plays pretty much the same person in every drama, but occasionally, she can bring it with just a look. Which is more than can be said for Lee Tae Hwan, who was unconvincingly lightweight. However, the day was totally saved by Hwang Bo Ra (playing Bong Se Ra) whose luscious, mobile lips have a comedic life and excellence all of their own. She made me lol on numerous occasions and her time on screen was a total joy.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

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