SeRose
When the wives throw over the husband and say, Nah, we can do it.
Marvelous Women is clearly some Chinese's director's answer to the ban against hair-pulling harem infighting. So you don't want to see women fighting over the favors of one man? Let's pit two singularly stunning and capable women at odds with one another, then make them work together to save their family, their children, their livelihood, and each other.I do appreciate Cdramas that take the drama out of royal politics and center it around other characters entirely. The setting of Marvelous Women does that just. One woman is the respected but unloved first wife, the other a childhood sweetheart turned secret lover/concubine. Either one of these character types would be ripe as a villainess, and the show just barely teeters on this edge. Neither one of them is infallible. And they're not honestly always 100% good. They are messy and they have their faults, but more than that they have their wills. When the family finds itself in danger, it's up to them to band together. And then we're giving the picture of what might happen if two potential villains actually don't decide to fight each other. Perhaps, they can learn to be even more loyal to each other than anyone ever thought.
My. brain wanders, and this drama doesn't completely stamp out the possibility that in another country... these characters could have gone in another direction entirely. A romantic one perhaps? Find yourself a still of these women holding hands and you'll see what I see. That said, what the show gave us already is more than enough.
A satisfying, rich, and lovely watch overall.
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Surprisingly good if you squint
I came at this drama with some misgivings, knowing it would be a muted affair thanks to censorship laws. Perhaps not shockingly, the writers/directors still managed to get around that. (Censorship has a way of making artists get creative, so sorry, it'll just never fully win HAH).Couple of Mirrors deftly weaves a limited narrative between You Yi (and her relationships) and Yan Wei who comes in to foil the plans of Men and save the heroine! Okay, that's a slight slight exaggeration but also it's not far off the mark. Where it works is that You Yi strikes a character you yearn to root for, and her acknowledgment of another young woman and the bonds between them is this series' greatest asset. There is delicious chemistry, because no you can't even mute that. There is friendship. There is loyalty. And, there is just the tiniest hit of pure, unadorned crazy. It's a magical combination.
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The worst drama we have to love
We all have that one drama we know is terrible, but will love it regardless. That's Noble Aspirations for me. It's hard to find a campier drama that attempts to take itself so seriously, with such self-important imponent villains, a main couple with negative chemistry, and side characters who don't so much as shine but rather dull your senses until the only thing you have left is... Xiao Fan. Xiao Fan, my most favorite useless main leads ever, I would die for you! Perhaps it's a testament to Li Yi Feng's (lackluster?) acting, but somehow he comes off as the sweetest best boy ever, and that was all I needed? He is simple and adorable, and his smile brings healing. Sometimes you don't need a complicated hero, you just need a hero you want to hug.Unfortunately, the rest of this drama is trash. Only half the arcs are worth watching once, the rest can be fast-forwarded if you really dare. Bad CGI I can handle, but combine that with ridiculous storytelling, flat villains, and serious misdirection of the rest of the characters (Shu Shu - you are the drama's only other exception) and it's nearly unwatchable. For real, I can't see Mao Zi Jun as anything other than Mr. Poison. This one character has ruined the actor for me forever.
Bonus: If you can actually make it through Noble Aspirations 1, honestly, the sequel is better. Go figure. It's shorter too.
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Like many stories, this is a coming-of-age tale for the majority of the characters. Except the kids in Taereung have already had larger-than-life expectations thrust upon them. Hong Min Ki is good at judo, except for that little problem that he becomes physically ill before every single match. Bang Su Ah won an archery medal at the last Olympics, but she's showing signs of a slump this time around. Her boyfriend Dong Kyung is a swimmer who's reaching past his prime before he could ever achieve something glorious, and little Ma Ru is the best gymnast in the village with the whole world in front of her. Don't expect miracles out of everybody. This is a highly realistic snapshot of 4 completely different athletes who are thrust together due to their relationships, and the world makes what it will of them.
Lee Min Ki practically glitters throughout the whole drama. He's hyper, alternately cute and annoying, and makes no secret of his crush for the former gold medal winner archer. He's at his coolest though (meaning dorkiest) when he confronts that girl's hulk of a boyfriend. I'm biased of course, but Lee Sun Gyun is fabulous. He also acts the same as every other time I've seen the man act: confident in the spotlight, with a twinge of vulnerability when he's not. It's not groundbreaking, but always appealing. I give this show bonus points for the bromance. When the two aren't nose to nose, about to come to blows, they're sheltering each other from life and all its dirty little tricks.
Su Ah snuck up on me as one of my favorite characters, mostly for how she maintains her confidence in the midst of career slumps and love troubles. She goes from being a clueless bystander in her own relationships, to seriously considering the whys and hows of all her issues. All this without becoming jealous or vindictive of her rivals in both areas. Her roommate Ma Ru is initially typecast as the clingy would-be girlfriend to Min Ki but for a timely plot device that kind of made me love her. Life works us through many kinds of trials, and Ma Ru went through the pits of character hell into looking and acting like a real human being.
Why watch? I don't know. If you love the actors, if you're in for 4 hours of slice of life. If you're up for watching people learn and grow, and act natural, and still be funny. There's something peaceful about this drama. After the glitz and glam of Kdramas, it was a refreshing, homey watch, and evidently pinned by a production team that knew what it was doing, despite receiving probably no extra promotional material to work with.
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Our story is quite modern, despite it's sageuk feel (It's considered one of the first fusion sageuks out there). Think fusion of detective drama, conspiracy-driven action adventure, with good guys and bad guys, sageuk-era cops and robbers (police and rebels) and they're not all necessarily evil. Sadly, there's no bromance, -- Just a lot of testosterone.
Uhm, what else should I say? It's very much a Kdrama, and the story is built with almost exactly similar tropes: love triangle, secrets, suspense, a love triangle, conspiracies, noble heroes fighting for some very vague cause.. did I mention there's something weird about that love triangle...? *ahem*
The story is fast-paced and exciting! Ha Ji Won is super badass, like she was always meant to be. The men are all bearded in old fashion style, but like all hot Korean actors, they make it look it good. The costumes are spectacular, and the cast doesn't always look all pristine and pretty. And oh - guerrilla warfare! Cool! I'm a sucker for bandit hideout stories and rebel leaders who make use the landscape to slaughter whole troops in a creative fashion making a big ole' bloody mess! Yeeaaaahhhhh!(Whaat? I never said I liked only romance stories...)
WHERE DAMO DELIVERS:
Ha Ji Won is really the best thing about this drama. If you're a fan, you'll like her. If you're not a fan, well you'll still probably like her, depending on your inclination for bloody sageuk detective dramas. Actress aside though, the rest of the cast wasn't too bad either. Every character held their own, and even the comic relief at the beginning will make your heart plunge into an emotion of feels by the end.
Did I mention this drama is fairly realistic in its approach to human life? Don't just assume everyone's gonna make it out of this alive... Joseon Korea in turmoil isn't exactly the most forgiving of places.
WHERE DAMO DISAPPOINTS:
As cool as Damo is for the most part, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief if you try to make sense of the plot. The premise is pinned on one of the flimsiest of causes. The number of times our naively heroic characters yell out righteously "for the people!" was too many times to count. Especially when one knows anything about Korean history, or Joseon Korea's lack of history featuring anything remotely successful "for the people." At least as far as political, anti-political revolts go. This was sort of a killing point for me. When clever characters are mired up in a lame excuse for plot-making, I check out. It's just too unfortunate.
Also ere's one episode that takes place in a cave. Like, the whole episode. In a cave. The whole time. In a cave.
Good luck.
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Pshh.. This is well documented Korean history.
But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more to the story than history has to say. Or that the inner motivations of these highly visible personages were ever truly known by more than themselves or a few other people.
In other words, history always gives us this much leeway to make a romance out of nothing. If you want to approach Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love as infallible history, don’t. But if you’re in the mood for a sweeping epic love story set in historical period based more or less on real people– this might be a good drama for you.
We’re certainly not working with highbrow historical revisionism here.
JOJ: Live in Love is a snapshot of Joseon history ca. 1680s. It's a complicated and very violent story of King Sukjong (before, Crown Prince Lee Soon) and his wives/concubines- among whom are some of the most well known female figures of the age, including the famously tragic Queen Inhyun.
JOJ, however is a romantic and simplified spin on what’s probably 10x more complicated than the drama depicts. I’m actually okay with that, because it does a decent job of making all these events make sense in a way that won’t make your head spin.
But it’s also romantic in that the story it tells is exactly opposite from what history tries to tell. Give a quick thought back to last year’s hit drama Queen Inhyun’s Man, and the depiction you get of Jang Ok Jung is of a conniving bitch. So who wants to see Ok Jung get a makeover? Apparently not Korean audiences, because the ratings were just not there. It took an extra dose of romantic scenes to garner interest in the show. I think it’s shame because despite the unconventional retelling, Jang Ok Jung wasn’t all that bad.
The actors were fabulous, particularly Hong Soo Hyun- she just does sageuk figures so well, and I loved how they played with her Inhyun character in tandem with Ok Jung's dramafied character.
Overall, it was compelling. However, this is history, and history has an outcome that won’t be undone by fiction no matter how good your script is. As for the love between Lee Soon and his beloved concubine/queen, I bought it completely. Even within the grounds of how unhistorical it was that King Sukjong could’ve only had one person he ever loved (or even slept with – because, history says he had tons of concubines and a parcel of children). But I liked how the relationship between the two worked as an anchor for the overall political story. Ok Jung was portrayed as smart and wily, King Sukjong as a master politician, and as such their teamwork was a boon to the storyline. It kept things fresh and interesting at least 80% of the time.
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The drama is basically carried by its lead man’s peculiar charms. Ryu Deok Hwan isn’t an actor I look at and necessarily think “hot!” but he is every bit as charismatic, and his Dr. Han is what initially attracted me to the drama and kept me going. He’s a smart aleck with zero people skills. You’d think this makes him perfect to work with dead bodies, but he’s not actually thrilled to put his surgeon skills to use doing autopsies, and only grudgingly accepting the post because of his sunbae. Why? “Because it smells so bad!”
Detective Kang is standard female detective fare – sharp and deductive, and she gives Dr Han a lot of crap for his faulty and abrasive manners. They’re totally awesome together. If only the drama wasn’t modeled so much on the standard investigation genre, I’d ship them whole-heartedly. However, watching their friendship (and maybe something more?) progress both at work and out of it is very touching. They make a good pair.
The other cast members make a good mix for the rest of the investigation team. Everyone’s got their personalities and their screen time, and the chemistry among them is pretty good. I particularly liked Park Jun Myun as the ‘matriarch’ of the group who starts off being super unimpressed by our little hot-shot newbie but warms up to him later.
What’s This ‘Quiz’ About?
It's primarily an investigation genre show, however I find that for all the dead and dying people the main plot deals with, there’s a lot more on the discussion table – especially about human life. Maybe because Dr. Han struggles with himself as much as with the victims he investigates, but when he’s not being eccentric, he’s deeply conscious about life and human perceptions of life and death.
"People aren't ignorant about rare diseases, but they are ignorant about humanity."
Conclusion:
As long as I was in the mood for this type of story, God’s Quiz really made my day. I probably spent a great deal of time thinking about it long after I finished watching.
The overall plot arc really brought it together too, and I love the contrast of personalities Ryu Deok Hwan put into his character as someone who often seems shallow, but underneath is really a deeply contemplative human being. Unfortunately, I just wish more could’ve been focused on these things and less on the episodic cases.
Read more + pics + episode reviews on my blog at:
http://shinealightrose.blogspot.com/2013/05/kdrama-review-gods-quiz-season-1-2010.html
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This is such a lovely atmospheric drama, featuring real and recognizable human beings. Eiji is a simple man with a hidden past, and Katori absolutely does not overact in his characterization. He is slow and plodding, and one of the kindest, most selfless creatures you’ll ever see. Yet the drama weaves his past in such a way that the slow unveiling of his life history and the history of the woman he loved is almost as integral to the story as the events that happen in real time. Throw in his obvious affection for Shizuku, and their own adoption of a neighborly grandmother, another loner desperate to feel needed and loved, and just try not having any feels for this beautiful little family structure.
Keep in mind, all this is even before the lovely Mio steps into their lives, cane in hand, full of anxiety and uncertainty about this new direction in her life. And maybe with just a few secrets of her own, hidden behind a web of lies. And perhaps she’s not the only character to have more than one secret.
Conclusion- I love it. All of it. The only reason it doesn't get a perfect score is probably because of some of the pacing issues, but after I’d finished the drama and started to reflect on it, I realize just how lovely it is. I’m not yet that versed in Jdramas, but I think this was a rare find for me.
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Sound awesome? If you have a thirst to see KAT-TUN’s Kame and/or you want to learn something about wine (and the eloquent prose of wine critics), then this is the drama for you. If you’re also in the mood for a slow, sentimental story with a ‘feel good about family and friends premise’, then this drama is for you. If you get slightly bored by mostly plot-less dramas, overly characterized side characters, and a subdued main lead, I recommend a skip.
Kami no Shizuku plods along at a pace that is just unhurried by anyone, and seems almost to take itself too seriously. I love reading a good wine description, but it’s mostly for the humor value. Hence, I got a lot of comedy out of what’s not exactly a comedy. The story is honestly not that intriguing, but it’s only 9 episodes! And I was in it for the wine. Too bad I won't ever get to taste any. The going price today for some of those vintages are between $100 and $1100! Bet they were sampling Welch’s grape-cranberry juice for this production.
Getting back to the drama, each “apostle” represents a memory or value of our hero’s father that in all-due-cheesy-fashion, our lead has to figure out. There are some nice filler stories per individual episodes, a little bit of a romance between Kanzaki and Shinohara, and a properly strange mystery over the connection between Kanzaki and his rival Tomine Issei. Mostly though the guy crept me out with his wine-gurgling “oohhhhhhh”. Can’t tell if overacting or he just had a really dry throat after all that cranberry juice.
Conclusion: It’s not a re-watch, but I enjoyed learning something about wines and vintages, a little of how they are made, and what natural or seasonal changes can affect the production. I also learned what a sommelier is and appreciated seeing some of the tricks of their trade. Especially with Kame as the model.
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In some ways, Majo no Jouken was a predictable roller-coaster ride as the ‘forbidden’ couple struggle to find acceptance in a society that doesn’t legally forbid their love, but certainly doesn’t know how to handle it. However, a variety of side characters add to the battle, including Hirose-sensei’s one time fiancé and Hikaru’s young and possessive single mother. And between these two, we get the feeling that there are some things even sicker and twisted than the relatively innocuous age difference of our show’s main lovers.
On a Technical Note:
This drama had me asking questions I never thought I'd worry about. The amount of time I spent surfing the internet studying Japanese legal age of consent; wondering if Japan really does consider it a psychological disorder for a woman to love a high school age boy; curiosity if Japan would really go to such lengths to depict one of the creepiest mothers ever before hinted at; confusion as to why I could care so much about a couple that seems so destined to suffer one crisis after another...
All fruitless efforts, really. Half mushy, half gritty, Majo's romance was a hot whirlwind of a mess, and not afraid of delving into serious life questions. What does a woman do when her boyfriend is uneducated and unemployed, and how does said boyfriend take care of a woman 9 years his senior? There is no instant maturity, no immediate solutions, and not every expectation will be fulfilled as first it was conceived. Kind of like... life.
I almost find it hard to recommend this, because unless you’re in the mood for a torturous road of almost Kdrama level proportions (though at least not in length), Majo no Jouken is a painful drama to watch. Even the initial sweetness of the romance is very nearly spoiled by a traumatic second half. However, if you love seeing actors portraying their characters well, and those characters being well-handled over the course of the drama, or if you just want to see Tackey back when he was young and adorable (as opposed to the older version which is just plain hot), then I guess you should watch it sometime. ;) And hardships aside, the characters really do make a sweet couple. I say that even remembering just how young he is here. At least that much is quite believable.
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Aoi Ryosuke may have a devil’s curse, but he is terrified of his own abilities, while his counterpart Ryuzaki Shinji is a devil himself, with the gift of god. When they are brought together however, the game really begins.
From beginning to end, the mystery behind their powers drives the plot of the drama: just how much they know about each other and what are the implications of their gift. Is it a curse or blessing, or both, and how are they to be used? What is their purpose on this world? While a larger mythological background is hinted at, I actually appreciated how the drama focused more on the immediate repercussions. This isn’t a tale of gods and demons. It’s the story of two men who behind their powers are just as human as you or me. Their entanglement with Detective Hasebe gives this even more of a humanly-backing as she struggles to learn more about them - to trust or fear, protect or arrest.
“If I were able to change this world, would God be the only one who could allow that? If humans were able to hold God’s powers, would they be able to change the world?”
Thus begins the story as Ryuzaki stands overlooking a city drenched in rain. The camera pans down to reveal Aoi,as he walks into the nearest police station and turns himself in for murder:
“Coming here on my own makes the distinction, of what sort of person I, who has taken away that life, will become.”
The Dog of Orthros: The name comes from Greek mythology. Orthros was a two-headed dog beast (brother of the more famous 3-headed dog Cerberus), and minion to a giant. I'm sure other comparisons could be made between drama and myth, but there's not much known about the dog. Rather, it's more interesting to me that nowhere in the show does it say which man, the angel or the demon, is the actual beast. Both are just two parts of the same whole.
Not to ignore the drama’s political plotline (because, in this kind of scenario unfortunately one just has to exist), but that part was a little more on the predictable side of things – the only questionable outcome is which man, if either, would align with the greedy and power-hungry parties and politicians.
What was more subtly done I thought were many of the side characters, including Detective Hasebe’s young daughter (who often seemed to understand important things better even than her mother), and delinquent youth Kumakiri Masaru (Yaotome Hikaru).
Should you watch it?
I could barely turn away from this drama, and not even the political plotline bored me for more than a few minutes at a time. Like most Jdramas, the romance may be a tiny bit lacking, but the relationship between the three main players was anything but lacking in overall chemistry. The thriller/mystery aspects were also extremely well done (if not completely perfect) but enough that even knowing the outcome, I’d be likely to watch it again.
Read more (with pictures) on my blog:
http://shinealightrose.blogspot.com/2013/03/jdrama-review-orthros-no-inu-2009.html
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This review may contain spoilers
I did it! I watched Bridal Mask in under a week! Was it worth it? I’m not even sure. I have to be honest with you. I hated a lot of things about this drama. I also disliked a great many more things. I did so much eye-rolling I once gave myself a headache. So this is about "Bridal Mask" – Freedom Fighter! Or, revenge fighter. Heaping revenge upon revenge, avenging wrongs that in turn incite others to enact revenge, so they can go out and again avenge someone else who died during someone else’s revenge. Did I mention this is a revenge drama? It’s also got one of the most torturesome bromances I have ever had the misfortune to sit through… I think I sat through most of this drama wondering just how sucky can these characters’ fates actually get!?!
Probably the most epic of epic dramas (that I have seen recently), this is also my first time with actor Joo Won, and though I can say I was pleased overall by his performance, I'm still not really his biggest fan. Park Ki Woong as Shunji was more to my taste.
What I Liked:
For all the plot-wasting time, I found Bridal Mask to be a genuinely good story with some pretty compelling characters, especially in the initial set-up period of the drama: Kang To before he became Bridal Mask and Shunji before circumstances forced him to side with his father against his friend.
What I Didn’t Like:
The romance – shockingly. I just didn't feel it, and it's mostly to do with the main female actress Jin Se Young as Oh Mok Dan. Her backstory is fine and dandy (for Kdrama standards), but as the pinnacle of our love triangle she’s almost too bland, and her acting while not horrid was not as compelling as others. I was mostly bored every time she came on screen, and only tolerated her because she was so vital to the story, and in the motivations behind our two main leads.
Also, I hate to admit it, but there were so many torture scenes in this abominable show that I almost wanted to yawn through them. Just how many times need we depict people being whipped or burned or put in a box with metal stakes. I think it was the writers’ go-to solution. “Well, what should we do now? The story’s slowed a bit.” “Hey, I know! Let’s have them bring this person back in for questioning and torture, AGAIN!” Repeat, two episodes later. And two episodes after that. Tedious, anyone?
Need more masked-man action, pppplease!!
Unfortunately I think Bridal Mask suffers much from a combination of too many small things to count. Almost as if it couldn't decide what genre it really was (after the revenge drama part). Maybe the length has to do with most of these faults. I will say that the overall ending was good - the last 30 minutes were especially compelling. Shunji, you will always be in my heart, somewhere. Deeep down.
Read my more detailed review + spoilery thoughts on the end at:
http://shinealightrose.blogspot.com/2013/02/kdrama-review-bridal-mask-2012.html#more
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Sumire the career woman and MatsuJun the obedient dog: Together they are one of the cutest onscreen couples I’ve ever seen. And when I say cute, I do mean cute as in ‘puppy dog’ cuteness. So cute it’s downright awkward.
Yet the strength of the show lies in this very strained and awkward relationship. On one hand, the players are perfectly happy to pretend like it makes sense. He needs a home and someone to feed him, she’s lonely and likes the companionship, especially at the end of a hard day. To come home from work to find a happy pet waiting anxiously for its owner? Tail wagging, happy and desperately giving out the mixed signals of ‘I love you - Feed me!’ No questions asked, no stressful conversations, and no obligations.
It’s a borderline perfect friendship, laced with a dangerous hint of sexual tension. Especially once Sumire begins an actual dating relationship with another man, and neglects to tell him about the ‘pet’ she keeps at home. Tanabe Seiichi plays the ideal boyfriend Hasumi Shigehito, tall and even more career bound – perfect for the haughty Sumire whose shorter ex-boyfriend suffered an inferiority complex. Yet the person that begins to melt Sumire’s cold exterior is not the boyfriend she’s crushed on for years, but the warm and huggable stray living away tucked up in her apartment.
In case you’re worried that this isn’t enough conflict already to see this plot through to the end, fear not. Despite the wtf-premise of boy acting like dog, not everything is always fun and games with this couple, nor is the real issue behind their mutual farce completely ignored. Takeshi/Momo may act like the perfect dog, loving and obedient, but behind the antics is a real human being, sadly cognizant of the reality of the situation. How long can they keep this up and how long he can keep his own feelings hidden drives the plotline of the latter half.
Do I recommend this? Absolutely. Just shut off your brain for a tiny bit and roll with it. It’s a unique romance story adapted from a manga – but unlike others of its origin, the drama’s characters are rarely overdone or overly dramatic. Even MatsuJun as the dog exhibits some depths of character as he switches between the happy-go-lucky puppy and the lone artist, dissatisfied with himself and his life. Sumire is the real face-palming mystery of the show, unsure of herself and her feelings. And yet, her strange behavior could not dampen how fun the drama is overall. I’m already in a re-watching mood, and at 10 episodes, this seems eminently doable.
For some select screencaps, see my original blog article at http://shinealightrose.blogspot.com/2013/02/jdrama-review-kimi-wa-petto-2003.html
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