Loveholic: I am verklempt!
Oh GOD.
Loveholic.
LOVEHOLIC.
Oh.
My.
GOD.
This is going into my Top 5.
This has to be the fastest moving kdrama I've ever seen. It moves lightning fast. It moves faster than any jdrama I've ever seen.
And it's gorgeous and swoonily romantic and angsty, and with a complicated plot. And Kang Ta who plays Kang Wook continues to be so gorgeous I just randomly space out staring at him.
OMG! OMG! OMG!
When I left off in the middle of ep 3, we had that amazing scene in the rain.
Once their feelings admitted, we see Kang-Wook and Yool Joo so obviously happy, so compatible, so kdrama perfect we just know a horrible crash is coming soon.
I love the little montage of them both running to catch a bus to school. Or when he has to clean the windows and he sees her walking in the yard and he keeps moving the location of his clean-up so he can see her. ADORABLE.
He is just so giddily in love, and for the first time we see him really relaxed and happy (which I am sure is so the contrast with what happens when his world comes crashing down would hit us the harder. I love you, manipulative kdrama writers!) And she glows too.
I love the whole sequence when she goes to Seoul to her parents' for her birthday. He sees her off at the train station and he asks her when she is planning to get back and she says tomorrow 'three or four' and he repeats, questioningly so she grins and says 'three' and he tells her he will meet her. And as she is about to leave, he says 'Happy Birthday' and gives her a book as a present. And she teases that it's the book she bought for him and he says he hasn't read it so it's new ;) And then he says he has to run and leaves abruptly.
But when she gets on the train, she opens the book and on the fly-leaf it's written for her to sit on the left side and look out of the window. And she does so and he's posted signs to the telegraph poles wishing her happy birthday and saying he loves her. And he is holding the last sign and...ggggggguuuuuh.
And then she is in Seoul, hanging out with her family and her bf (who is amazing, he rents out a whole restaurant for her, candles everywhere and sings for her, before she can tell him about break-up) but earlier she got a message that KW is coming to Seoul and asking to meet her at the train station but she can't make there until really late. And we see him pull a Domyouji and wait and wait and wait for hours. And finally she is free and she runs to the station, and finds him and it's all so happy. Especially when they go to a blossom-viewing festival, and he takes her hand.
But he misses the last train/bus back. And he says he's OK staying in the bus station and taking the first bus back. But instead she finds out one of her friends is out of town, so she smuggles him into her apartment.
The most adorable scene follows, where chemistry and UST is thick on the ground and she realizes she is in an apartment, at night, with the guy she is in love with (seriously, the actors have so much chemistry you could cut it with a knife). So she bolts and it's so cute. And next morning she shows up in the apartment and decides to wake him up, but when she pulls blankets off him, he is very very unclothed (alas not completely) and more amusingness follows (heeee, the embarassment, as at that stage they haven't even kissed yet). And she cooks him breakfast and I love the way he looks at her cooking. That is totally everything he wants, a private fantasy. I love it.
And then they go home on the train together and she buys him a watch, as a present and memento for their trip.
And later there is an adorable scene of him cooking for her and there is teasing. Or the discussion where they would be in a year, two years, five years (irony!)
EEEEEE!
But it's kdrama. And in the kdrama world, where 'light' kdramas like Goong and My Girl made me bawl, what are the chances of our woobies staying happy like this, in a serious kdrama?
Yeah, I thought so.
It all starts relatively innocuously enough. Some students plan to cheat on the test and KW won't participate and YJ catches them and says she will fail them all, including the nerdy Harry-Potter looking guy with glasses who was going to supply them with answers (I changed my mind on him. He is starting to make me think of a serial killer, not someone I want the cute secondary girl with). The not!Harry-Potter is distraught and pissed off, so he lures YJ for the purpose of 'begging' her to let him retake and hits the radio broacasting button so the entire school could hear them and basically accuses her of having a thing with KW and she doesn't deny it (or admit it). And KW takes off running and the switch is off, but the damages is too late.
The Principal interviews her but she refuses to say she doesn't love KW. When she walks out of the office, all the students are grinning and cat-calling and she is about to have one of her fits and KW runs up and walks away with her, basically half-carrying her, half-supporting her as the whole school stares. And then they sit on the bench and he tells her she should have lied, it's OK if only the two of them know the truth. But she says she couldn't because to deny it would be to deny them. And they have this gorgeous stolen day: they go on a boat to some park and they have this conversation all people newly in love have: about when they first fell for each other, how it felt (I love his saying that first meeting, when she fell into his arms, she smelt like cotton candy and her body was just as light in his arms). And then she says she'll quit school tomorrow (presumably to get a different posting) and move to Seoul and wait for him a year (presumably until he goes to Uni) and then they'll start everything (OK, protagonists of Majo No Jouken, are you listening! That is what you should have done). And he lies on her lap as she sings lullabies and then there is this kiss!
In the evening when they come home, the big gang kid (who is pissed off about losing his revenue stream of the cheating on tests) is waiting and he basically asks to see KW alone and KW goes off with him but YJ is worried as she follows. As well she should as the big gang kid is basically massacring KW. She gets invloved in the messed-up fight and in the process, one of her kicks pushes the evil kid off the level they are at (it's a construction site) and he falls a few floors and dies. And YJ crumples in one of her fits.
Next thing we see, KW is in the ambulance as the medics try and fail to revive bad kid and the look on his face! He knows his life is over. As YJ is still unconscious, he 'confesses' to the cop that he was the one who did it (such an echo of an earlier scene when he was going to protect her from an interrogation or when he told her he'd do anything including beg and crawl). And then there is this amazing scene where YJ wakes up and since the fit was so severe, she misremembers and she actually 'remembers' bad kid killing KW and she wanders around the hospital, one slipper one shoe, looking at the cadavers trying to find him. Only to see him being marched away by the cops.
OMG, that scene! Her so relieved and so confused and his realizing she doesn't remember so his lie is easier. OMG, heartbreak!
And when we see him next, he is in the police car, ropes around him, and I know it's angsty and all, but he is wearing a beanie and that sort of highlights his cheekbones and RAWR.
Turns out the cops are taking him to the crime scene to reconstruct everything which he 'does.' And YJ is flipping, saying this isn't how it happened but he points out she doesn't remember correctly and he is pushing her away to protect her and OMG!
And then there is the scene in jail, where he is in a crowded room and one of the other inmates is literally screaming and he is just staring ahead and one of his cellmates asks him what he is in here for and he replies 'my friend died' to which the man replies 'murder. It's 5 years.' And continues chillingly 'You are going to go insane like that [screaming] guy. You are going to lose yourself slowly bit by bit. You will find out you aren't even human, you are beneath everything' and KW stares straight ahead, his face totally set, both realizing what sort of hell he will be in and yet still completely resolved...
Oh.
My.
Guh.
And then I had to pause because I was getting too emotional.
And then we have him being taken away to jail and she is there and he is asking her if he looks fine (prison jumpsuit, hands tied) and she says yes and he says he doesn't. And she promises to wait for him and he says she'll get tired and she says she won't and he says he'll have to live like an ex-convict and she says she won't care so he says he is tired already (woe! angst!) and as he is being driven away, she runs after the bus in her little heels, screaming his name.
And then we see her on the bench, where they sat before, repeating the 'magic spell' he taught her and crying.
And then, 15 minutes into ep 4, we get TIME JUMP. We are now five years from then.
See, lighting fast.
You know, in some ways, this drama is very about 'pure love.' Loving even if there is no profit in it. Not just for KW (hello see above) or YJ (who faces social ostracism, loss of a very eligible bf, her dream job). But for Ja Kyung the girl who loves KW even though she knows it's pointless (as echoed by her mother, who used to love a married man) or the Prosecutor bf of YJ who is no fool and who can see the emotional connection between the OTP but still loves his gf no matter what.
This is amazing. I actually want to learn how to make icons so I can make some of this. I checked drama wiki and apparently the ratings of this more than doubled between first and last eps. I can see why.
Definitely Top 5.
Loveholic.
LOVEHOLIC.
Oh.
My.
GOD.
This is going into my Top 5.
This has to be the fastest moving kdrama I've ever seen. It moves lightning fast. It moves faster than any jdrama I've ever seen.
And it's gorgeous and swoonily romantic and angsty, and with a complicated plot. And Kang Ta who plays Kang Wook continues to be so gorgeous I just randomly space out staring at him.
OMG! OMG! OMG!
When I left off in the middle of ep 3, we had that amazing scene in the rain.
Once their feelings admitted, we see Kang-Wook and Yool Joo so obviously happy, so compatible, so kdrama perfect we just know a horrible crash is coming soon.
I love the little montage of them both running to catch a bus to school. Or when he has to clean the windows and he sees her walking in the yard and he keeps moving the location of his clean-up so he can see her. ADORABLE.
He is just so giddily in love, and for the first time we see him really relaxed and happy (which I am sure is so the contrast with what happens when his world comes crashing down would hit us the harder. I love you, manipulative kdrama writers!) And she glows too.
I love the whole sequence when she goes to Seoul to her parents' for her birthday. He sees her off at the train station and he asks her when she is planning to get back and she says tomorrow 'three or four' and he repeats, questioningly so she grins and says 'three' and he tells her he will meet her. And as she is about to leave, he says 'Happy Birthday' and gives her a book as a present. And she teases that it's the book she bought for him and he says he hasn't read it so it's new ;) And then he says he has to run and leaves abruptly.
But when she gets on the train, she opens the book and on the fly-leaf it's written for her to sit on the left side and look out of the window. And she does so and he's posted signs to the telegraph poles wishing her happy birthday and saying he loves her. And he is holding the last sign and...ggggggguuuuuh.
And then she is in Seoul, hanging out with her family and her bf (who is amazing, he rents out a whole restaurant for her, candles everywhere and sings for her, before she can tell him about break-up) but earlier she got a message that KW is coming to Seoul and asking to meet her at the train station but she can't make there until really late. And we see him pull a Domyouji and wait and wait and wait for hours. And finally she is free and she runs to the station, and finds him and it's all so happy. Especially when they go to a blossom-viewing festival, and he takes her hand.
But he misses the last train/bus back. And he says he's OK staying in the bus station and taking the first bus back. But instead she finds out one of her friends is out of town, so she smuggles him into her apartment.
The most adorable scene follows, where chemistry and UST is thick on the ground and she realizes she is in an apartment, at night, with the guy she is in love with (seriously, the actors have so much chemistry you could cut it with a knife). So she bolts and it's so cute. And next morning she shows up in the apartment and decides to wake him up, but when she pulls blankets off him, he is very very unclothed (alas not completely) and more amusingness follows (heeee, the embarassment, as at that stage they haven't even kissed yet). And she cooks him breakfast and I love the way he looks at her cooking. That is totally everything he wants, a private fantasy. I love it.
And then they go home on the train together and she buys him a watch, as a present and memento for their trip.
And later there is an adorable scene of him cooking for her and there is teasing. Or the discussion where they would be in a year, two years, five years (irony!)
EEEEEE!
But it's kdrama. And in the kdrama world, where 'light' kdramas like Goong and My Girl made me bawl, what are the chances of our woobies staying happy like this, in a serious kdrama?
Yeah, I thought so.
It all starts relatively innocuously enough. Some students plan to cheat on the test and KW won't participate and YJ catches them and says she will fail them all, including the nerdy Harry-Potter looking guy with glasses who was going to supply them with answers (I changed my mind on him. He is starting to make me think of a serial killer, not someone I want the cute secondary girl with). The not!Harry-Potter is distraught and pissed off, so he lures YJ for the purpose of 'begging' her to let him retake and hits the radio broacasting button so the entire school could hear them and basically accuses her of having a thing with KW and she doesn't deny it (or admit it). And KW takes off running and the switch is off, but the damages is too late.
The Principal interviews her but she refuses to say she doesn't love KW. When she walks out of the office, all the students are grinning and cat-calling and she is about to have one of her fits and KW runs up and walks away with her, basically half-carrying her, half-supporting her as the whole school stares. And then they sit on the bench and he tells her she should have lied, it's OK if only the two of them know the truth. But she says she couldn't because to deny it would be to deny them. And they have this gorgeous stolen day: they go on a boat to some park and they have this conversation all people newly in love have: about when they first fell for each other, how it felt (I love his saying that first meeting, when she fell into his arms, she smelt like cotton candy and her body was just as light in his arms). And then she says she'll quit school tomorrow (presumably to get a different posting) and move to Seoul and wait for him a year (presumably until he goes to Uni) and then they'll start everything (OK, protagonists of Majo No Jouken, are you listening! That is what you should have done). And he lies on her lap as she sings lullabies and then there is this kiss!
In the evening when they come home, the big gang kid (who is pissed off about losing his revenue stream of the cheating on tests) is waiting and he basically asks to see KW alone and KW goes off with him but YJ is worried as she follows. As well she should as the big gang kid is basically massacring KW. She gets invloved in the messed-up fight and in the process, one of her kicks pushes the evil kid off the level they are at (it's a construction site) and he falls a few floors and dies. And YJ crumples in one of her fits.
Next thing we see, KW is in the ambulance as the medics try and fail to revive bad kid and the look on his face! He knows his life is over. As YJ is still unconscious, he 'confesses' to the cop that he was the one who did it (such an echo of an earlier scene when he was going to protect her from an interrogation or when he told her he'd do anything including beg and crawl). And then there is this amazing scene where YJ wakes up and since the fit was so severe, she misremembers and she actually 'remembers' bad kid killing KW and she wanders around the hospital, one slipper one shoe, looking at the cadavers trying to find him. Only to see him being marched away by the cops.
OMG, that scene! Her so relieved and so confused and his realizing she doesn't remember so his lie is easier. OMG, heartbreak!
And when we see him next, he is in the police car, ropes around him, and I know it's angsty and all, but he is wearing a beanie and that sort of highlights his cheekbones and RAWR.
Turns out the cops are taking him to the crime scene to reconstruct everything which he 'does.' And YJ is flipping, saying this isn't how it happened but he points out she doesn't remember correctly and he is pushing her away to protect her and OMG!
And then there is the scene in jail, where he is in a crowded room and one of the other inmates is literally screaming and he is just staring ahead and one of his cellmates asks him what he is in here for and he replies 'my friend died' to which the man replies 'murder. It's 5 years.' And continues chillingly 'You are going to go insane like that [screaming] guy. You are going to lose yourself slowly bit by bit. You will find out you aren't even human, you are beneath everything' and KW stares straight ahead, his face totally set, both realizing what sort of hell he will be in and yet still completely resolved...
Oh.
My.
Guh.
And then I had to pause because I was getting too emotional.
And then we have him being taken away to jail and she is there and he is asking her if he looks fine (prison jumpsuit, hands tied) and she says yes and he says he doesn't. And she promises to wait for him and he says she'll get tired and she says she won't and he says he'll have to live like an ex-convict and she says she won't care so he says he is tired already (woe! angst!) and as he is being driven away, she runs after the bus in her little heels, screaming his name.
And then we see her on the bench, where they sat before, repeating the 'magic spell' he taught her and crying.
And then, 15 minutes into ep 4, we get TIME JUMP. We are now five years from then.
See, lighting fast.
You know, in some ways, this drama is very about 'pure love.' Loving even if there is no profit in it. Not just for KW (hello see above) or YJ (who faces social ostracism, loss of a very eligible bf, her dream job). But for Ja Kyung the girl who loves KW even though she knows it's pointless (as echoed by her mother, who used to love a married man) or the Prosecutor bf of YJ who is no fool and who can see the emotional connection between the OTP but still loves his gf no matter what.
This is amazing. I actually want to learn how to make icons so I can make some of this. I checked drama wiki and apparently the ratings of this more than doubled between first and last eps. I can see why.
Definitely Top 5.