my girl, my lovely kim sam soon, and thoughts on RPF.
I registered at soompi to bathe in general Korean awesome. What an enormous forum! After browsing the gigantic Goong thread, I clicked on the fanfix forum and oh boy!
I'd heard about dorama RPF from dangermousie but it's very funny to surf some of it and notice the similarities between this RPF and the Bollywood RPF I've run into. Basically, casting people in your own crappy version of a Bollywood film/dorama OR then just writing about the actual people but in a completely OOC way. It's fascinating to me because I'm so used to thinking of fanfiction as something based on canon and canon characterizations in one way or another. And if the fic is RPF, I'm used to thinking the person writing has some kind of knowledge on what the actor's actual personality is like. And basically the reason to write RPF to me is because the actors would be have a completely different chemistry than the characters and exploring that would be interesting. But the Yoon Eun-hye/Joon Ji-hoon fic I'm currently reading pretty much works on the assumption YEH is like Chae-gyung and JJH is pretty much like JJH. Why make it RPF at all? Though of course the Goong canon can be thought of as "districtive" - but that's kind of the beauty and difficulty of fanfiction in my eyes.
But I'm not bashing this type of RPF, because it's totally a sick curiosity for me. Plus I'm semi-hopeful some of it will actually be well-written but I'm not counting on it. Overall RPF is this black sheep of the fandom family - whether you love him or hate him, you have to have an opinion on him. I personally don't want to sit next to him over dinner, but if I see him standing on his own, I will go and ask how he's doing.
Moving on.
So I began watching My Lovely Kim Sam Soon (My Name is Kim Sam Soon and whatever other alternative titles it may have - hence why the tag is called 'kim sam soon') earlier this week and am now up to episode four.
I like how the heroine is so plain. She really isn't mind-blowingly attractive, but she can look pretty and she has a ton of bad habits and she is really flawed. Like, *really*. But there's also a genuine warmth to her character and she's basically just really relatable and awesome. Also! She's not 18-23, she's really actually older than that - I get the feeling that's not too common in dramas (except maybe those obvious teacher-student type romantic situations).
I don't know what to say about the hero, to be honest. I do like him a lot though I'll admit some of his actions were dangerously close to asshole behavior, but generally I am fond of him. His mother's pretty dreadful, though I can't help but find her hitting him funny.
Again I find it impossible to like the 'other girl' aka hero's ex who serves as distraction for the OTP. Really, just, WTF, such bitchy behavior. Ironically I thought she was okay in the first episode. Have to see how things develop from here on but yeah, no love.
The American dude is ace but I've yet to see what function he has in this show. Still, liking the show in general a lot thus far.
My Girl, where I'm probably at episode ...12? Or starting 13, either way, getting le angsty but I love how it still has a ton of really light, comedic moments.
Slight SPOILERS ---
Oh man, 63 store building of aaaaaaaaaangst. Love it. Heartbreak x 10. I also like - though it's also frustrating and KILLING me - how the OTP keeps going in circles. Basically it starts with either of the OTP doing something because they love the other (thus filling millions of shipper hearts with glee).
Then the other one suggests or hints that maaaaaybe they kind of like each other and BAM, both go on denial mode.
Gong Chan's usually like, "I did it, not because I love you a lot, but because I don't want you to be my sister - and not because I like you and having to treat you like a sister would break my heart into little pieces but because I don't like your personality and find you annoying or at least I pretend that so you wouldn't notice how ridiculously in love with you I am."
To which Yoo Rin responds, "Well, good, because I only did it to get more money from you, and not because I really like you and your family and anyway I'm an excellent liar so all those times when you maybe thought I loved you which I do, I was actually just lying. Because I'm a terrific liar. And I don't like you. No, really."
I love it but I just keep yelling at them. AAHHHHH JUST GET TOGETHER, YOU BOTH LOVE EACH OTHER LIKE MAD. Geez. :P
But yeah. Dig it.
I'd heard about dorama RPF from dangermousie but it's very funny to surf some of it and notice the similarities between this RPF and the Bollywood RPF I've run into. Basically, casting people in your own crappy version of a Bollywood film/dorama OR then just writing about the actual people but in a completely OOC way. It's fascinating to me because I'm so used to thinking of fanfiction as something based on canon and canon characterizations in one way or another. And if the fic is RPF, I'm used to thinking the person writing has some kind of knowledge on what the actor's actual personality is like. And basically the reason to write RPF to me is because the actors would be have a completely different chemistry than the characters and exploring that would be interesting. But the Yoon Eun-hye/Joon Ji-hoon fic I'm currently reading pretty much works on the assumption YEH is like Chae-gyung and JJH is pretty much like JJH. Why make it RPF at all? Though of course the Goong canon can be thought of as "districtive" - but that's kind of the beauty and difficulty of fanfiction in my eyes.
But I'm not bashing this type of RPF, because it's totally a sick curiosity for me. Plus I'm semi-hopeful some of it will actually be well-written but I'm not counting on it. Overall RPF is this black sheep of the fandom family - whether you love him or hate him, you have to have an opinion on him. I personally don't want to sit next to him over dinner, but if I see him standing on his own, I will go and ask how he's doing.
Moving on.
So I began watching My Lovely Kim Sam Soon (My Name is Kim Sam Soon and whatever other alternative titles it may have - hence why the tag is called 'kim sam soon') earlier this week and am now up to episode four.
I like how the heroine is so plain. She really isn't mind-blowingly attractive, but she can look pretty and she has a ton of bad habits and she is really flawed. Like, *really*. But there's also a genuine warmth to her character and she's basically just really relatable and awesome. Also! She's not 18-23, she's really actually older than that - I get the feeling that's not too common in dramas (except maybe those obvious teacher-student type romantic situations).
I don't know what to say about the hero, to be honest. I do like him a lot though I'll admit some of his actions were dangerously close to asshole behavior, but generally I am fond of him. His mother's pretty dreadful, though I can't help but find her hitting him funny.
Again I find it impossible to like the 'other girl' aka hero's ex who serves as distraction for the OTP. Really, just, WTF, such bitchy behavior. Ironically I thought she was okay in the first episode. Have to see how things develop from here on but yeah, no love.
The American dude is ace but I've yet to see what function he has in this show. Still, liking the show in general a lot thus far.
My Girl, where I'm probably at episode ...12? Or starting 13, either way, getting le angsty but I love how it still has a ton of really light, comedic moments.
Slight SPOILERS ---
Oh man, 63 store building of aaaaaaaaaangst. Love it. Heartbreak x 10. I also like - though it's also frustrating and KILLING me - how the OTP keeps going in circles. Basically it starts with either of the OTP doing something because they love the other (thus filling millions of shipper hearts with glee).
Then the other one suggests or hints that maaaaaybe they kind of like each other and BAM, both go on denial mode.
Gong Chan's usually like, "I did it, not because I love you a lot, but because I don't want you to be my sister - and not because I like you and having to treat you like a sister would break my heart into little pieces but because I don't like your personality and find you annoying or at least I pretend that so you wouldn't notice how ridiculously in love with you I am."
To which Yoo Rin responds, "Well, good, because I only did it to get more money from you, and not because I really like you and your family and anyway I'm an excellent liar so all those times when you maybe thought I loved you which I do, I was actually just lying. Because I'm a terrific liar. And I don't like you. No, really."
I love it but I just keep yelling at them. AAHHHHH JUST GET TOGETHER, YOU BOTH LOVE EACH OTHER LIKE MAD. Geez. :P
But yeah. Dig it.