Book joy and Iljimae rant
Kill that baby!
Any book that starts that way can't be all bad :) SMeyer should have paid attention.
Yes, as you can tell, I got my hands on Acheron. There better be loads of angst, is all I am sayin'. Cursed at birth is a good start, so let's hope Kenyon keeps this up.
In other news, I completely lost any interest in finishing Iljimae, even beyond my mini-hiatus from dramas. It's not a bad piece of work, but if that's the most I can say, it's not going to hold me. Someone once compared it to a live action version of a cartoon comic book and it's true. Not much room for nuance or character study there. Lee Junki could do this in his sleep. My basic problem is the script: just like character development, it doesn't go anywhere. It's the opposite of tighly written or arced and it does not evoke any genuine emotions from me. There so many ways the basic story could be made interesting, gripping even, but it has these moments of brilliance and then fades away into nothingness again. I mean, this thing has 24 episodes! The Legend managed to tell a Lord of the Rings type epic fantasy in that much!
So far, Hong Gil Dong is the only take on Robin Hood I liked in kdramas. Not only is the script tight-tight-tight, it actually has a resolution as opposed to Iljimae's supposedly open, most nothing is resolved ending (when you set certain 'goals' in a storyline, they must be resolved, dammit). But most importantly, it manages to have character growth, a mix of humor and angst both successful, and characters I fall madly for (or love to hate). It's tightly written, narratively and character-driven, and makes me feel deeply. Iljimae does none of the above. Oh, and HGD actually also has interesting things to say.
It's amazing what difference a good script makes. A script that knows where it's going. Kang Ji Hwan who plays HGD is amazing, true, but Lee Jun Ki can be equally good, I've seen him. But the script gives him (and others) nothing to work with. It reminds me of Powerful Opponents, another interesting premise that went nowhere.
Any book that starts that way can't be all bad :) SMeyer should have paid attention.
Yes, as you can tell, I got my hands on Acheron. There better be loads of angst, is all I am sayin'. Cursed at birth is a good start, so let's hope Kenyon keeps this up.
In other news, I completely lost any interest in finishing Iljimae, even beyond my mini-hiatus from dramas. It's not a bad piece of work, but if that's the most I can say, it's not going to hold me. Someone once compared it to a live action version of a cartoon comic book and it's true. Not much room for nuance or character study there. Lee Junki could do this in his sleep. My basic problem is the script: just like character development, it doesn't go anywhere. It's the opposite of tighly written or arced and it does not evoke any genuine emotions from me. There so many ways the basic story could be made interesting, gripping even, but it has these moments of brilliance and then fades away into nothingness again. I mean, this thing has 24 episodes! The Legend managed to tell a Lord of the Rings type epic fantasy in that much!
So far, Hong Gil Dong is the only take on Robin Hood I liked in kdramas. Not only is the script tight-tight-tight, it actually has a resolution as opposed to Iljimae's supposedly open, most nothing is resolved ending (when you set certain 'goals' in a storyline, they must be resolved, dammit). But most importantly, it manages to have character growth, a mix of humor and angst both successful, and characters I fall madly for (or love to hate). It's tightly written, narratively and character-driven, and makes me feel deeply. Iljimae does none of the above. Oh, and HGD actually also has interesting things to say.
It's amazing what difference a good script makes. A script that knows where it's going. Kang Ji Hwan who plays HGD is amazing, true, but Lee Jun Ki can be equally good, I've seen him. But the script gives him (and others) nothing to work with. It reminds me of Powerful Opponents, another interesting premise that went nowhere.