Beautiful Days push - have a manpain feast today :)
I woke up an hour earlier than I had to be because I was soanxious about IRIS. There is fannish and there is unhealthy. It's just as well that it's ending - I have never been this obsessed about drama in all my years of watching. Never.
This also made me decide to rewatch Beautiful Days with Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo.
Made in 2002, BD is a classic melodrama, one of those quintessentual Hallyu hits. She is a strong, feminine artist brought up at an orphanage. He is an icy, competent workaholic from a completely messed-up family. They meet, fall in love, and face obstacles together, while being completely grown-up and hot about it.
Why do I love it?
1. It's a drama where the OTP gets together early and then faces the world. I love those.
2. It bucks two biggest kdrama cliches - heroine with leukemia recovers (apparently because the station received a mountain of letters begging it to let the OTP have a happy ending) and childhood crush does not = OTP. Her childhood 'destined' love is his stepbrother (a character I loathe as he is whiny immature brat though I think we were supposed to like him)
3. There is no Other Girl. There are various other female characters but no OTP interlopers. Because he'd never even look at another woman.
4. Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo burn up the screen. It helps that they are "allowed" to be physical with each other. (Has there ever been a LBH drama without a bed scene? :D)
5. I adore LBH's character - he is a difficult person and the drama makes no bones about it (it helps to make him real and not just some Prince Charming fantasy) and being in that family permanently affected him but he is rock-steady and grown-up and the way he looks at her! I am a sucker for competent, love-starved guys. I also love that being with her makes him happier and mellows him out a bit but he will always be a reserved, driven person - his basic character did not change.
6. Choi Ji Woo is so good at womanly role - she is elegant and ladylike and relatively quiet but she is no pushover in any way - when she thinks he goes out of bounds, she has no problem bringing him to heel asap without raising her voice. It's like she's 'training' him for a relationship as he's had no practice before. She is awesome. Together they are so mature, which I love.
7. One of the most delicious angsty shippy scenes ever (in my cap).
If this is all not enough to convince you, have a shippy MV:
Yes, his hair is blond. No, I have no idea why the stylist throught it was a good idea. I don't care - he still looks hot.
Pssst - skip ep 1, it's pure backstory and not that interesting.
This also made me decide to rewatch Beautiful Days with Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo.
Made in 2002, BD is a classic melodrama, one of those quintessentual Hallyu hits. She is a strong, feminine artist brought up at an orphanage. He is an icy, competent workaholic from a completely messed-up family. They meet, fall in love, and face obstacles together, while being completely grown-up and hot about it.
Why do I love it?
1. It's a drama where the OTP gets together early and then faces the world. I love those.
2. It bucks two biggest kdrama cliches - heroine with leukemia recovers (apparently because the station received a mountain of letters begging it to let the OTP have a happy ending) and childhood crush does not = OTP. Her childhood 'destined' love is his stepbrother (a character I loathe as he is whiny immature brat though I think we were supposed to like him)
3. There is no Other Girl. There are various other female characters but no OTP interlopers. Because he'd never even look at another woman.
4. Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo burn up the screen. It helps that they are "allowed" to be physical with each other. (Has there ever been a LBH drama without a bed scene? :D)
5. I adore LBH's character - he is a difficult person and the drama makes no bones about it (it helps to make him real and not just some Prince Charming fantasy) and being in that family permanently affected him but he is rock-steady and grown-up and the way he looks at her! I am a sucker for competent, love-starved guys. I also love that being with her makes him happier and mellows him out a bit but he will always be a reserved, driven person - his basic character did not change.
6. Choi Ji Woo is so good at womanly role - she is elegant and ladylike and relatively quiet but she is no pushover in any way - when she thinks he goes out of bounds, she has no problem bringing him to heel asap without raising her voice. It's like she's 'training' him for a relationship as he's had no practice before. She is awesome. Together they are so mature, which I love.
7. One of the most delicious angsty shippy scenes ever (in my cap).
If this is all not enough to convince you, have a shippy MV:
Click to viewYes, his hair is blond. No, I have no idea why the stylist throught it was a good idea. I don't care - he still looks hot.
Pssst - skip ep 1, it's pure backstory and not that interesting.