North against South. One (if not the first) Spy-KDrama, atypically action-packed… but hard to get

In 1998, "White Nights 3.98" as a TV production for the first time ventured into completely new territory - not only spatially but also in terms of content. It is about the espionage activities related to the development of advanced nuclear weapons, as well as conflicts between the United States, Russian secret services and mafia, which are carried out on the backs of North and South Korea. The title "White Nights 3.98" on the one hand refers to midsummer nights in northern latitudes and thus to the scene of action: Mongolia. On the other hand it relates to the supersonic flight speed measured in the ´Mach´. Here '3.98' denotes the speed at which one of the protagonists is traveling in a key scene.

------------------
As a child, Min Gyeong-bin had actively witnessed the heroic death of his father, who was able to foil the assassination attempt by North Korean Unit 124 on President Park in 1968 while deployed by the Jongro police. His childhood dream is to become an Air Force pilot, dancing through the air at high speed. Gyeong-bin actually manages to be trained as a pilot, but due the circumstances he ends up being deployed to the secret service. His target is nuclear researcher Anatoly Jang, who is deputy director of the Institute for Atomic Energy Research in Irkutsk, Russia. The FSB, the Chechen mafia and the North Korean secret service are also interested in him, secret information and the latest generation of nuclear bombers. The Nort Koreans mobilize one of their best snipers: Kwon Taek-hyeong.
Taek-hyeon's father was part of Unit 124 at the time. As the black sheep of his family, Taek-hyeon usually had a hard time. After helping his first love Anastashia to flee south through the Imjin River as a teenager, he also lost his heart along with her. He learned how to shoot as a soldier, and as an unscrupulous sniper he can now be bought around the world - including a terrorist rebel group in the Arab world, far from home. Now, however, he is hired by his own people. He's supposed to eliminate Anatoly Jang. Far too late he realizes his target being the father of his first and only love, who in turn is now an agent of the Russian FSB...
-------------------

This KDrama is atypically action-packed: with flight scenes reminiscent of Top Gun, a trigger-happy sequence where the North Korean protagonist shoots himself free in Rambo-style, underwater scenes in the Imjin River (that flows through the demilitarized zone), explosions, and more. The KDrama actually opened up a spectacular new genre in the South Korean series world. And yet. "White Nights 3.98" had a difficult stand in South Korea in several ways. Ratings started high and then plummeted.

There are several reasons that tell us more about South Korea, than about the KDrama. "White Nights 3,98" is based on the novel of the same name and is an exciting and thoroughly entertaining, at times well-done as well. It is also documenting, that in spite of Cold War having already ended, North and South Korea with their particular political dynamic represent the last and still red-hot stronghold of a Cold War that is actually still going on. However, the KDrama comes to TV at a time when the North and the South just startet to look to the future with more optimism, with their hopeful, positive "sunshine politics" and the newly created Kŭmgang-san region dedicated to South Korean tourism in North Korea. "White Nights 3.98" might present a hot topic that is always up to date, though it completely missed the social topic of the time. People didn't really feel like giving their hearts to warring spies - North against South. So even though at the beginning, the series was still in third place, its ratings rapidly went down.
There is another reason for this. A considerable part of the scenes (3 out of 12 months of shooting time) were shot abroad, mainly in Russia and partly in Uzbekistan. This brings exotic flair to the series orbit, which in KDrama is otherwise concentrated on the peninsula. (Compared to other KDramas, the total production costs were accordingly three times as high.) However, the international subject matter, the dramaturgical interdependence with the secret services of the USA and the Soviet Union, also required native speakers who could easily find their way around the South Korean set. It repeatedly seems to be a problem to find a suitable cast - a problem that I already encountered in "Sad Love Story". Eventually, the acting performance of the Russian and American casts can´t keep up with the rest of the production. That's really a shame, because it not only offends the eye, but also the ear.
Yet, the production had to take another criticism. Director Kim Jong-hak, who excited the masses with "Sandglass" just a couple of years before, now caused offense by working with deliberate reminiscences of that earlier production - with similar or even the same scenes. One or the other seemed strangely familiar to me, too. But those who don't know "Sandglass" won't mind. And even so, it doesn't really have to bother. Nevertheless, it was not well received as a 'gag' at the time. The South Korean audience was 'not amused' about it.
Additionally, criticism referred to the rather sloppily drawn central character Kwon Taek-hyeong. In the original novel, the protagonist, who is difficult to grasp, is probably a lot more understandable in his ambivalence and complexity. The series massively simplifies/slims his profile. There is comparatively little left of his dark, evil, unscrupulous side in the script. Little remains of his ambivalence either. You also learn practically nothing about that background. Finally, the story of how he went from being a teenager to an unscrupulous terrorist is simply left out. Only the painful loss of Anastashia remains. In the series version, Choi Min-soo had to make up for a few things with his presence in order to convey a strong profile to this tragic character.

"White Nights 3.98" may be a spy thriller, but it's not a about male heroes only. There are plenty of women involved as events unfold. Of course, there are also tragic entanglements in love. Ultimately, the driving dramaturgical forces are not ideologies, people and homeland, but heart and pain, impulsive and human decisions. Whatever one may accuse "White Nights 3.98" of, it comes up with strong emotional moments in the proven KDrama manner.

By the way, here you can see Park Eun-bin making her acting debut as a six-year-old, and Song Hye-kyo was still in the starting blocks of her career back then, too... if ever you get to see the KDrama. With subtitles it is (currently) difficult to get...




----------------------------------------
Historical SIDE NOTE:
For me, in connection with "White Nights 3.98" (besides all the entertainment and star encounters), the historical context was ultimately interesting - not only in relation to the contemporary critical reception of the KDrama, but also regarding the true historical prelude storyline:
In 1968, North Korean Special Forces attempted to assassinate South Korean President Park, thus a special ´Unit 124´ had advanced as Black Op on South Korean soil. They had dived through the iced Imjin River and left the demilitarized zone behind. On their way to the Blue House, 7 km east of Paju, the group was spotted by four passers-by and reported to the police. However, the special unit was prepared for this and changed into the uniforms of the local 26th Infantry Division of the South Korean army and split up. Unnoticed by the police and military, they were able to penetrate as close as up to 100 m to the Blue House in Seoul. However, by chance or good intuition of the local police chief, the assassins were confronted at Checkpoint Jongro and engaged in a shootout. 29 of 31 members of the special unit died trying to escape or killed themselves as a precaution. One of two survivors was caught and defected to the south. The other, Pak Jae-gyong, made it back to North Korea and to the top of the military and political ranks.

Read More

A substantial, mature and exceptionally beautiful love story

For me this is my highlight of 2023.

As a phenomenal firework of quiet nuances, “Tell Me That You Love Me” is exuding soulful warmth in graceful silence while creating a soothing atmosphere that takes root deep in the heart. Accompanied by a soundtrack with pulling effect, that could hardly be more harmonious, sincere feelings are conveyed via looks and gestures, while words and thoughts are frequently communicated in sign language, thus telling a story, that knows how to gently touch the audience.

It's not about appearance, facade, coat and make-up, but about essence. Approaching the substantial is exactly what makes this production so exceptional for a KDrama. With Jung Woo-sung, who is once again breathing pure authenticity, certainly a perfect casting for the ML. He also seems to having actually communicated in sign language most of his life. But Shin Hyun-been was also able to effortlessly impress me with her reflected presence. What a couple!

Calm aesthetics and gentle pace intensify the profoundness of the encounters, which opens up spaces for the essential. Even if trenches between the worlds of the hearing and the deaf may be deep and ample at times, loving encounter is still possible. Even if the feelings for each other may be deep and honest, specific barriers inevitably remain. “Tell Me That You Love Me” is gently approaching the dilemma - a desire to face the challenge with confidence, but on the other hand the fear of failure considering the barriers and therefore wanting to run away.

I´d say, anyone who can open up to this rather idiosyncratic “language” of this KDrama will be rewarded by a substantial, mature and exceptionally beautiful love story.

Read More

Be ready for a comprehensive script and excellent actors everywhere

Spreading its unique, quite appealing, and in places wittily pointed charisma, "Delightfully Deceitful" surprises with a multi-layered crime fiction, that is set in the milieu of people with extraordinary talents and qualities. Even if the poster may suggest otherwise: it is not a romantic comedy. However, "Delightfully Deceitful" does neither shy away from a little comedy here and there, nor from finely nuanced emotions.

At the beginning there are the personality portraits and relationship dynamics of a bunch of (because of their distinct peculiarities) 'a-social' contemporaries, who as such being colorfully thrown together eventually form a group of their own. With time, though, the plot of the crime story unfolds, raising once more the question of whether law&order have anything to do with justice; or isn´t vigilantism more promising?  In any case, the story revolves around organized crime, unscrupulous villains, malicious fraud and a lot of money.

Nevertheless, there is this bunch of idiosyncratic, unconventional, angular chessmen on the chessboard. Regardless of whether they are psychopathic, sociopathic or hopelessly empathetic, they are all rarely black or white, yet mostly in rich shades of gray. In any case, with their talents they are beyond the social average. While the KDrama could very well surface along at high speed, with a cool and casual esprit, it eventually comes along with a pleasantly profound grounding, since the socio-psychological premise , that we humans are inevitably social beings, swings the baton in the background. The thing is: we want to belong.
Exposure, stigmatization and exclusion also lead to the realization that the rules of the others do not apply to me. This might become associated with some kind of freedom. It also leads to a feeling of loneliness. Yet, the feeling of loneliness inevitably causes humans to slowly but surely wither away. No matter if it may be considered a gift or a burden, stigmatized individuals have to develop a emotional strategy for themselves in order to escape the sometimes more and sometimes less obvious psychological strain. That’s tough for grownups, let alone children...

This premise is handled from different perspectives. Additionally, the KDrama dares the balancing act of mixing this psychodynamic issue with no less complex interwoven crime fiction. Thus, in terms of the genre, the story may initially sail along in foggy realms, but over time the view becomes clearer.

"Delightfully Deceitful" has a well blended mix of spices to offer. Over 16 episodes it is always exciting, intense, opaque, emotional, also dark, sometimes two-fisted. Additionally: Be ready for a comprehensive script and excellent actors everywhere.

Read More

Pleasantly warming and inspiring, like a cup of tea that you may enjoy sip by sip

Once again a wonderfully authentic KDrama with amiable characters, who are living a live just like any South Korean life could be. The KDrama is neither captivatingly suspenseful nor does it urge to be devoured in one go. Instead, it's rather pleasantly warming and inspiring, like a cup of tea that you may enjoy sip by sip. The story could always go on as everyday life is - in Jejudo and elsewhere (in the province).

At first glance, “Welcome to Samdal-ri” is a sweet Rom+Com and, in passing, it is also a declaration of love for Jejudo, the largest South Korean island. At second glance, however, the KDrama also delivers a lovingly drawn and yet time-critical image of society, in particular of a generation that is struggling to balance between archaic roots and home on the one hand as well as global, urban & digital lifestyle values on the other.

In general, lifelong friendship can be considered the overarching theme. The peer group as a family of choice in the sense of a community of fate, whose commitment has been growing from the inevitable spatial proximity of a village community - here: Samdal-ri.
Specifically, the story is about such a lifelong friendship between two friends, who at some point naturally became a love for life, yet without automatically being able to be lived as such.
As so often, it´s about family with its particular momentum, mingling as centrifugal and as pulling force, too.
Refreshing, soft and tangible: Shin Hye-sun and Ji Chang-wook. But overall, "Welcome to Samdal-ri" offers great casting in all positions.

Enjoy your tea time...










---------------------------------------------------------

SIDE NOTE...
...on "Welcome to Samdal-ri" offering a felicitous, good-humoured and optimistic time-critical image of society

On the one hand, the monotonous everyday life in the provinces just glides along. In “Welcome to Samdal-ri” the social tightness of the village structure is intensified by the island situation on Jeju-do. Binding village life in its everyday occurrences may be boring for some, while reliably familiar and pleasantly manageable for others. Rhythm, rules, community - everything is well-arranged. You can count on being safely caught by a social net that is protecting, warming. However, it comes with a price: a naturally intrusive social environment that would like to have a say everywhere...
On the other hand, the shimmering metropolis of distant Seoul is attracting the young with its wide world full of fashion, culture and lifestyle, promising individual fulfillment in a varied, anonymous, fast-paced, entertaining, colorfully inspiring, glittering city life that bears the stamp "successful". But this has its price, too, as the KDrama clearly shows with various examples. Fast-paced, cool big city life is mostly superficial, curt, nonbinding, aloof and mercilessly leaving you out in the cold.

Gossip apparently seems to be for us humans naturally coming with our anthropological cradle… Whether city or countryside, whether Seoul oder Samdal-ri, it is everywhere - the KDrama is cleverly using this as a dramaturgical bridge between the two worlds...
In a village with an intrusively curious neighborhood like Samdal-ri, where almost nothing can be kept secret, gossip adds spice to an otherwise uniform everyday life. However, it turns out, globalization and digitalization have by now raised village gossip to an unimagined, even more threatening (since anonymous) level. Rumors multiply virally in the form of social media posts shared at lightning speed, thus turning Seoul into just another (digital) village, yet on a global scale - with the effect that the brutal force of the impact far dwarfs that of a rural, analogue village. Once a rumor like this has started, it's hard to stop it and it's practically impossible to undo it. The anonymity of a viral rumor mill also invites hateful comments, the existential consequences of which no one seems to have to take responsibility for. Never mind whether there really is something to it or not… no one is interested anyway.
In the worst case, self-imposed exile from the analogue village offers an opportunity to escape social pressure at least. The digital village of the globalized new world, however, no longer shows any mercy. It's everywhere... there's no escape...

The uncontrollable social media with its enormous power as well as the largely non-binding, superficial encounters of an anonymous urbanity are juxtaposed with the archaic themes that continue to shape life on Jeju-do today - and thus the roots and grounding of its people. Eventually, "Welcome to Samdal-ri" tells of the dominance of tides and weather shaping everyday life; of the power of the sea, which continually takes its toll; of the lives of the Haenyeos diving for abalone and more - day after day, year after year; of the Haenyeo families, following the mother as the strong head of the family; and even of bloodguilt that turns friends into enemies, urging to pass this feud on from generation to generation.

Although life in the provinces may seem archaic, tight and boring, not everything automatically has to be wrong or bad. Nevertheless, young people increasingly and understandably prefer to go to Seoul. They want to leave the dusty roots and rigid structures behind. They prefer to live at the center of the vibrant new South Korean world instead.
But even if they leave their village home for individual fulfilment, psychologically they are still far from finding their way back to themselves. And even if Seoul has such a promising, almost magnetic, electrifying, cosmopolitan charisma, the capital, along with the temptations of big city life, also harbors a fatal seed, that many have not expected: Betrayal! Betrayal of oneself (and/or eventually betrayal of others...) For most people sooner or later this seed will be sprouting, if they lose their grounding along the way - if they simply radically cut off their roots instead of finding ways to continue to nourish them...

As such I appreciate "Welcome to Samdal-ri" offering way more than a Rom+Com - e.g. a felicitous, good-humoured and optimistic time-critical outlook on contemporary issues within modern society.

Read More

What´s life if our heart threatens to tear? Emotionally intense KDrama. About crime&politics, too

“Wonderful World” is painting a wonderful psychological picture of people desperately trying to come to terms with their inner suffering. The focus is on feelings that we would rather not experience. Accordingly, the KDrama is anything but funny. This is once again a KDrama that isn't afraid of drama.

What is life like when our heart threatens to tear? If someone is losing their child, for example... There is no stent nor bypass for that. Guilt and loss of control, the desolation of existence and sheer agony are shaping the terrain through which one has to survive every day. At best there is grieving. But to get there even, that is a long way... “Wonderful World” takes on these emotional dimensions – carefully, sensitively, seriously and urgently.

At the same time, this KDrama vividly documents how the selfish decision of individuals, who see themselves as elite or want to be seen as such, unscrupulously, ruthlessly and brutally throw the lives of 'insignificantly normal' people completely out of balance. It is thus a political drama about a world that is not as 'wonderful' as it claims to be, too.

“Wonderful World” is also a crime thriller because there is a murder to be solved. This brings tension and additional dynamism to the story. “Wonderful World” could also be understood as a story about one or two revenge missions. In my opinion, however, these are more stencils in the background. In the foreground unfolds the emotional world of those who feel left alone in their pain and their helpless anger - but still, they carry on, somehow. Two humans see and understand each other in their suffering and are/feel/come close to each other because of this ...and ultimately try to regain a sense of control over their lives. Therein lies the power and beauty of “Wonderful World” (I think anyways).

As I said, this KDrama is not afraid of drama. It's right in the middle of it and even better. The increase in entanglements, and the music, too, remind me in places of the early KDramas - and gladly so. A great script. Yes, bitter life experiences, admittedly. Nevertheless. Intense acting. Serious. Authentic.

Read More