Snow Queen and a bunch of upcoming dramas
After finishing Damo, I have started the wonderful Snow Queen. I saw two eps of it some time back, loved it, but then put it aside until I’ll have the time (and break in drama schedule) when I could watch it uninterrupted, because it was just that good. (My DVDs are weird. The first half seems to have awesome subs but when I checked the back eps, no such luck. I guess I'll have to dl which I don't like).
Now, I am most of the way through episode 3, and my love for it knows no bounds. In some ways, it’s a very understated, quiet drama, but the emotions of it ring even more painfully true because of that. And it’s also incredibly beautifully filmed, every frame bathed in this translucent morning light somehow. And I love the two main characters: Tae-Woong, who is incredibly gentle yet incredibly strong, and Bo-Ra, someone who is fragile and lovable beneath the brittle mask she puts on. And they are both so wounded.
I also really like the ‘others’ in the quadrangle. Geon-Woo, the cute young doctor who likes Bo-Ra, is a lot of fun. He is unpredictable: Bo-Ra is all so ready to snub him but he never acts as expected. I love it when she expects him to offer lunch and snubs him but he says he has no intention of taking her to lunch ;) I love it when he takes her to see those sea critters and you see her forget her mask and smile with delight, straightforward, warm, childlike even. I know I said I was going to talk about them separately, but let me just mention how much I love Sung Yuri in the role of Bo-Ra. It is so hard to make you care for Bo-Ra, to make her seem more than a bitch, and SY manages, manages to portray the hidden warmth, the wounded core, the fun and impulsiveness buried in her. I really find that her manner, now as in childhood (I am rich, blah blah), her imperiousness is her defense mechanism: overcompensation for her loneliness, for her illness: she lives with the knowledge that her life will be painful and short. No fun at all.
And I like what-s-her-name, the daughter of the boxing gym director who likes Tae-Woong. TW sees her only as a younger sister, and I love that she knows that, but she still hopes. She is jealous of BR and says some pretty hurtful things (when she accuses BR of being a slut and lies that it’s TW’s opinion too) but ultimately, she is good and tries to apologize and she is so young.
But much as I like them, for me, SQ is all about TW and BR.
There are no words for how much I love Tae-Woong. Tae-Woong is someone who does not have the best lot in life, by far, but he’s refused to harden himself and reaches out no matter what. In fact, it might be this refusal that dooms or wounds him: he is not callous enough for the everyday cruelties of life. This makes him sounds like a weakling, or a Gary Stuish prig, but he is neither.
He won’t shout or bluster, but he is incredibly strong: he never backs down with Bo Ra (who is rich and could crush him) or her father, and physically he is obviously no weakling either. And he is not a prig at all: just watch him have fun with Bo Ra, who is completely drunk and he has to carry her home. He is an adorable, lost boy, someone incredibly hurt and lonely, someone who needs to allow himself to live again, to believe he is worthy of happiness.
Just as Bo Ra needs to allow herself to believe that too. I really think they are set up perfectly to be each other’s salvation from loneliness (mutual) and fear (hers) and guilt (his). She can be just a girl with him: not the rich Miss Bo Ra, not the invalid patient, not even the high strung woman. No, just an average girl in love: who gets upset, or hurt, or mad, or happy, or silly. And he can lose his temper, or have fun (he doesn’t allow himself much fun, does he), to find someone who makes his life worth living, to matter to someone.
I love all the scenes between them, I love how they are necessary to each other already even though they won’t admit it even to themselves. That is why Bo Ra quietly crumples when she things Tae-Woong thinks she is a loose woman who cares about nothing: she’s allowed herself to depend on him, to care for his opinion. That is why when Tae-Woong goes to confront her about her treatment of director’s daughter (I love the scene between the two women btw, as DD comes to apologize for earlier insults but the scene spirals out of control and Bo Ra, always good with words, wounds DD badly) and he tells her that she (Bo Ra) didn’t even care she hurt the girl so badly she felt like dying, that he didn’t tell BR that he likes DD only as a sister for her to use it to hurt the girl, that she just doesn’t care, that is why it’s so personal for Tae-Woong: because he needs Bo Ra not to be like this, he is too invested. And that is why, when he turns away to leave, and Bo Ra finally loses her composure and yells with tears in her voice something to the effect of ‘so, you are the only people allowed to care? I cared, I was worried for her’ even though he doesn’t turn, you see by the look on his face, just how necessary hearing this was for him. It’s like he can breathe again.
Did I mention the part where TW is looking for his mother. After he ran away from home after the death of his friend, his Mom looked for him but then got so many debts she had to run, and he came back soon after. No wonder he wonders around as a lost soul. I love the scene where he runs after the woman he thinks is her (btw, why do all Korean actors run so well?) And it is so Tae-Woong that when he comes to visit old neighbors to inquire, he brings some beef as a present (despite not having much money) as if he is too much a bother without compensating somehow.
Oh Tae-Woong!
My favorite scene in the ep so far is the one where he ends up taking the drunk Bo-Ra home. It’s adorable. Drunk, Bo-Ra’s barriers come down and she is like a kid: she insists on singing (horribly off key) and he ends up piggybacking her home, while she sorta wiggles and he is all ‘do you want to walk home?’ and he is exasperated and yet not. He is more alive with her than any other time. And she is all possessive ‘you are mine’ etc etc.
Gosh, I love this drama.
I was going to post it in the other post, but it was getting much too long. So this one is just about the upcoming kdramas I am interested in.
Speaking of awesome (or at least interesting) kdramas, it’s only three days until The Devil!!!
So, I bring you some wonderful production pics:
I am also interested in checking out the upcoming (in March at some point), Hello Miss/Hello Baby because it stars Lee Da Hae, the heroine of My Girl and Green Rose and I adore her. The plot sounds cute too:
Hwa Ahn Dang owner, Soo Ha (Lee Da Hae) who is trying to save the place from being bankrupt, meets Dong Gyu (Lee Ji Hoon) and Chang Min (Ha Suk Jin), the grandsons of a wealthy man who had worked at Hwa Ahn Dang a long time ago. Together with a crazy woman's daughter 'Hwa Ran', they get involved in a dangerous love story...This drama is adapted from the novel, "Kimchi Mandu."
After my recent angst-drama bout, I need something light.
The first ep apparently just aired. Don’t they look cute:
From Drama:
From Press Conference:
Another drama I am all eager for? The jdrama starring my kdrama favorite Lee Wan (yay for coproductions). Magnolia Flower is about the love between a Korean man and a Japanese woman.
I bring you pictures from the promo event for it:
The female lead looks ehhh (and I don’t like her hairstyle) but as someone in a thread for a Joe Cheng drama pointed out to a similar comment, that just means you get to look at the male lead more.
I am also somewhat interested in the upcoming Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi / Legend. It’s a period/fantasy epic so might be fun:
It stars Bae Young Joon who I liked in kmovie Untold Scandal. He was also the lead in Winter Sonata but I am one of 10 kdrama fans who hasn’t seen that one yet.
Btw, alexandral, I’ve dled first 11 eps of Let’s Go to the Beach (Lee Wan!). Once I am done with SQ, that is next. Also, I am considering getting Queen of the Game. I am a sucker for ‘starting revenge but falling in love’ scenarios. vierran45, did you finish it? Was it good?
Now, I am most of the way through episode 3, and my love for it knows no bounds. In some ways, it’s a very understated, quiet drama, but the emotions of it ring even more painfully true because of that. And it’s also incredibly beautifully filmed, every frame bathed in this translucent morning light somehow. And I love the two main characters: Tae-Woong, who is incredibly gentle yet incredibly strong, and Bo-Ra, someone who is fragile and lovable beneath the brittle mask she puts on. And they are both so wounded.
I also really like the ‘others’ in the quadrangle. Geon-Woo, the cute young doctor who likes Bo-Ra, is a lot of fun. He is unpredictable: Bo-Ra is all so ready to snub him but he never acts as expected. I love it when she expects him to offer lunch and snubs him but he says he has no intention of taking her to lunch ;) I love it when he takes her to see those sea critters and you see her forget her mask and smile with delight, straightforward, warm, childlike even. I know I said I was going to talk about them separately, but let me just mention how much I love Sung Yuri in the role of Bo-Ra. It is so hard to make you care for Bo-Ra, to make her seem more than a bitch, and SY manages, manages to portray the hidden warmth, the wounded core, the fun and impulsiveness buried in her. I really find that her manner, now as in childhood (I am rich, blah blah), her imperiousness is her defense mechanism: overcompensation for her loneliness, for her illness: she lives with the knowledge that her life will be painful and short. No fun at all.
And I like what-s-her-name, the daughter of the boxing gym director who likes Tae-Woong. TW sees her only as a younger sister, and I love that she knows that, but she still hopes. She is jealous of BR and says some pretty hurtful things (when she accuses BR of being a slut and lies that it’s TW’s opinion too) but ultimately, she is good and tries to apologize and she is so young.
But much as I like them, for me, SQ is all about TW and BR.
There are no words for how much I love Tae-Woong. Tae-Woong is someone who does not have the best lot in life, by far, but he’s refused to harden himself and reaches out no matter what. In fact, it might be this refusal that dooms or wounds him: he is not callous enough for the everyday cruelties of life. This makes him sounds like a weakling, or a Gary Stuish prig, but he is neither.
He won’t shout or bluster, but he is incredibly strong: he never backs down with Bo Ra (who is rich and could crush him) or her father, and physically he is obviously no weakling either. And he is not a prig at all: just watch him have fun with Bo Ra, who is completely drunk and he has to carry her home. He is an adorable, lost boy, someone incredibly hurt and lonely, someone who needs to allow himself to live again, to believe he is worthy of happiness.
Just as Bo Ra needs to allow herself to believe that too. I really think they are set up perfectly to be each other’s salvation from loneliness (mutual) and fear (hers) and guilt (his). She can be just a girl with him: not the rich Miss Bo Ra, not the invalid patient, not even the high strung woman. No, just an average girl in love: who gets upset, or hurt, or mad, or happy, or silly. And he can lose his temper, or have fun (he doesn’t allow himself much fun, does he), to find someone who makes his life worth living, to matter to someone.
I love all the scenes between them, I love how they are necessary to each other already even though they won’t admit it even to themselves. That is why Bo Ra quietly crumples when she things Tae-Woong thinks she is a loose woman who cares about nothing: she’s allowed herself to depend on him, to care for his opinion. That is why when Tae-Woong goes to confront her about her treatment of director’s daughter (I love the scene between the two women btw, as DD comes to apologize for earlier insults but the scene spirals out of control and Bo Ra, always good with words, wounds DD badly) and he tells her that she (Bo Ra) didn’t even care she hurt the girl so badly she felt like dying, that he didn’t tell BR that he likes DD only as a sister for her to use it to hurt the girl, that she just doesn’t care, that is why it’s so personal for Tae-Woong: because he needs Bo Ra not to be like this, he is too invested. And that is why, when he turns away to leave, and Bo Ra finally loses her composure and yells with tears in her voice something to the effect of ‘so, you are the only people allowed to care? I cared, I was worried for her’ even though he doesn’t turn, you see by the look on his face, just how necessary hearing this was for him. It’s like he can breathe again.
Did I mention the part where TW is looking for his mother. After he ran away from home after the death of his friend, his Mom looked for him but then got so many debts she had to run, and he came back soon after. No wonder he wonders around as a lost soul. I love the scene where he runs after the woman he thinks is her (btw, why do all Korean actors run so well?) And it is so Tae-Woong that when he comes to visit old neighbors to inquire, he brings some beef as a present (despite not having much money) as if he is too much a bother without compensating somehow.
Oh Tae-Woong!
My favorite scene in the ep so far is the one where he ends up taking the drunk Bo-Ra home. It’s adorable. Drunk, Bo-Ra’s barriers come down and she is like a kid: she insists on singing (horribly off key) and he ends up piggybacking her home, while she sorta wiggles and he is all ‘do you want to walk home?’ and he is exasperated and yet not. He is more alive with her than any other time. And she is all possessive ‘you are mine’ etc etc.
Gosh, I love this drama.
I was going to post it in the other post, but it was getting much too long. So this one is just about the upcoming kdramas I am interested in.
Speaking of awesome (or at least interesting) kdramas, it’s only three days until The Devil!!!
So, I bring you some wonderful production pics:
I am also interested in checking out the upcoming (in March at some point), Hello Miss/Hello Baby because it stars Lee Da Hae, the heroine of My Girl and Green Rose and I adore her. The plot sounds cute too:
Hwa Ahn Dang owner, Soo Ha (Lee Da Hae) who is trying to save the place from being bankrupt, meets Dong Gyu (Lee Ji Hoon) and Chang Min (Ha Suk Jin), the grandsons of a wealthy man who had worked at Hwa Ahn Dang a long time ago. Together with a crazy woman's daughter 'Hwa Ran', they get involved in a dangerous love story...This drama is adapted from the novel, "Kimchi Mandu."
After my recent angst-drama bout, I need something light.
The first ep apparently just aired. Don’t they look cute:
From Drama:
From Press Conference:
Another drama I am all eager for? The jdrama starring my kdrama favorite Lee Wan (yay for coproductions). Magnolia Flower is about the love between a Korean man and a Japanese woman.
I bring you pictures from the promo event for it:
The female lead looks ehhh (and I don’t like her hairstyle) but as someone in a thread for a Joe Cheng drama pointed out to a similar comment, that just means you get to look at the male lead more.
I am also somewhat interested in the upcoming Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi / Legend. It’s a period/fantasy epic so might be fun:
It stars Bae Young Joon who I liked in kmovie Untold Scandal. He was also the lead in Winter Sonata but I am one of 10 kdrama fans who hasn’t seen that one yet.
Btw, alexandral, I’ve dled first 11 eps of Let’s Go to the Beach (Lee Wan!). Once I am done with SQ, that is next. Also, I am considering getting Queen of the Game. I am a sucker for ‘starting revenge but falling in love’ scenarios. vierran45, did you finish it? Was it good?