update #388: people's minds are not vending machines
Three things I have watched lately-ish.
• Whisper of the Heart (1995): I loved watching this. I loved how it captured Shizuku’s life, both in specifics of her context -- such as being a Japanese teenager who shares a bedroom with her older sister and who has to pass exams to get into a good high school -- and in the more-universal, emotional experience of being fourteen.
I don’t think it is just that I can see a lot of myself, aged fourteen, in Shizuku. Rewriting lyrics of a song, reading her way through library books, frantically throwing herself into writing a story...
I loved the scenery, the way it is romantically picturesque but also realistic, carefully portraying details of everyday contemporary urban life. That seemed so fitting -- it reminded me of how, as a teenager, there was something wonderful about having the independence to travel alone by train and to take myself to the library, so that there was something picturesque about the experience of going, even when things like train stations, traffic lights and concrete paths often weren’t actually beautiful.
I wish I had discovered this when I was fourteen. Or thirteen. (There was a time then when we were “babysitting” my grandparents’ video player and I borrowed things like the BBC adaptation of The Borrowers from the library… )
• Shadow and Bone (season one): I haven’t read Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, but I have read the Six of Crows duology.
I thought all the Crows were perfectly cast, with the possible exception of Inej. (I don’t know whether she actually differs from how the book described her, and realise that even if she does, adaptations don’t need to be faithful down to every last detail -- this one isn’t trying to be! I liked Netflix!Inej, I just couldn’t shake my awareness that she didn’t quite fit what I’d imagined.) I especially enjoyed the Crows’ scenes, and didn’t mind the way their story was twisted and altered to fit in with Alina’s.
A lot of the beats of Alina’s story were rather standard-chosen-one fare and consequently kind of predictable, but Alina herself was a delight.
Would happily watch more.
• Secret Garden (2010): This is a Korean drama I watched a tiny bit of last year because I was curious to see an actor from Crash Landing on You, Hyun Bin, playing a different character. The first episode didn’t leave me desperate to find out what happened next, and no one showed any interest in watching it with me, so watching more hadn’t been a priority.
But last month, I was off work with a bad cold and wanted a TV distraction. This was an excellent choice -- and by the time I was halfway through (and had recovered) a couple of family members had become sucked into the story too.
Secret Garden is about a stuntwoman (Ra-im) and a department store CEO (Joo-won), and involves body-swapping shenanigans. It’s a bit strange, and then very silly but also very funny, and then it becomes unexpectedly heartfelt and serious and I was worried that we were headed for tragedy territory -- but it turns out all right in the end.
(It’s not the strongest final episode -- a bit too much filler and some flashbacks which sit oddly at this point in the story, as if they under orders to make twenty episodes out of a story which really only needed nineteen -- but it’s nevertheless an okay ending.)
The acting of the two leads when they swap characters is so clever! The changes in body language! (I eventually realised the actress who plays Ra-im played the lead in Chocolate, so I’m extra impressed with her acting now.) There are a few moments when the narrative over-emphasises the body-swapping and it’s stupid -- like when Joo-won, in Ra-im’s body, ogles Ra-im’s roommate, that just seems inconsistent with his character. But more often, I just found these scenes funny.
Hyun Bin as Ra-im demonstrating, matter-of-factly, over the top of a t-shirt, how to put on a bra? Hilarious. (But maybe in a Your Mileage May Vary way.)
Joo-won is like a badly socialised puppy. His family didn’t teach him manners and, because of his position in society, he’s faced few consequences for being rude. Definite shades of Mr Darcy (worthy of the response of: “why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”) but with the rudeness dial set even higher.
I was slow to warm to him, as a character, but I was also intrigued -- because it’s difficult to predict what he will say or do!
I appreciate that Ra-im constantly labels his bad behaviour -- she doesn’t pretend it’s okay. And an advantage of twenty episodes is that there’s time for character growth. Ra-im: “My dad was a fireman but he passed away when I was 17 while trying to rescue someone [...]”
Joo-won: “Then who raised you?”
Ra-im: “I raised myself. As a poor and alienated neighbour.”
Joo-won: “What about your monthly expenses?”
Ra-im: “Money from the government.”
Joo-won (nodding): “I see where all the tax I paid went.”
Ra-im: “Do you regret it?”
Joo-won: “I would have paid more, had I known I was raising you.”
Ra-im: “You don't seem too bad when you're like this.”
Joo-won: “I told you, I'm not.”
-- from episode eight
Joo-won: “I really thought I could [...] not fall in love with her. I thought I would be fine since she was just ordinary. But nothing's going my way.”
U-yeong: “You idiot. You can't plan those things. People's minds are not vending machines. It's not like picking a soda.”
-- from episode eleven
The soundtrack grew on me, as did the subplot with Joo-won’s cousin U-yeong/Oska and his ex (although I wouldn’t have minded had that been ruthlessly edited).
In the familiar faces voices category: a young Lee Jong-suk with very unattractive hair (I was a little bit fascinated that it’s possible to make him look unattractive) plays a minor character -- I’ve seen him in several things and his voice is unmistakable.
And there’s an unexpectedly delightful cameo from someone who is Crash Landing in the final episode; again, it was the voice rather than the face that I recognised. Originally @ Dreamwidth.
• Whisper of the Heart (1995): I loved watching this. I loved how it captured Shizuku’s life, both in specifics of her context -- such as being a Japanese teenager who shares a bedroom with her older sister and who has to pass exams to get into a good high school -- and in the more-universal, emotional experience of being fourteen.
I don’t think it is just that I can see a lot of myself, aged fourteen, in Shizuku. Rewriting lyrics of a song, reading her way through library books, frantically throwing herself into writing a story...
I loved the scenery, the way it is romantically picturesque but also realistic, carefully portraying details of everyday contemporary urban life. That seemed so fitting -- it reminded me of how, as a teenager, there was something wonderful about having the independence to travel alone by train and to take myself to the library, so that there was something picturesque about the experience of going, even when things like train stations, traffic lights and concrete paths often weren’t actually beautiful.
I wish I had discovered this when I was fourteen. Or thirteen. (There was a time then when we were “babysitting” my grandparents’ video player and I borrowed things like the BBC adaptation of The Borrowers from the library… )
• Shadow and Bone (season one): I haven’t read Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, but I have read the Six of Crows duology.
I thought all the Crows were perfectly cast, with the possible exception of Inej. (I don’t know whether she actually differs from how the book described her, and realise that even if she does, adaptations don’t need to be faithful down to every last detail -- this one isn’t trying to be! I liked Netflix!Inej, I just couldn’t shake my awareness that she didn’t quite fit what I’d imagined.) I especially enjoyed the Crows’ scenes, and didn’t mind the way their story was twisted and altered to fit in with Alina’s.
A lot of the beats of Alina’s story were rather standard-chosen-one fare and consequently kind of predictable, but Alina herself was a delight.
Would happily watch more.
• Secret Garden (2010): This is a Korean drama I watched a tiny bit of last year because I was curious to see an actor from Crash Landing on You, Hyun Bin, playing a different character. The first episode didn’t leave me desperate to find out what happened next, and no one showed any interest in watching it with me, so watching more hadn’t been a priority.
But last month, I was off work with a bad cold and wanted a TV distraction. This was an excellent choice -- and by the time I was halfway through (and had recovered) a couple of family members had become sucked into the story too.
Secret Garden is about a stuntwoman (Ra-im) and a department store CEO (Joo-won), and involves body-swapping shenanigans. It’s a bit strange, and then very silly but also very funny, and then it becomes unexpectedly heartfelt and serious and I was worried that we were headed for tragedy territory -- but it turns out all right in the end.
(It’s not the strongest final episode -- a bit too much filler and some flashbacks which sit oddly at this point in the story, as if they under orders to make twenty episodes out of a story which really only needed nineteen -- but it’s nevertheless an okay ending.)
The acting of the two leads when they swap characters is so clever! The changes in body language! (I eventually realised the actress who plays Ra-im played the lead in Chocolate, so I’m extra impressed with her acting now.) There are a few moments when the narrative over-emphasises the body-swapping and it’s stupid -- like when Joo-won, in Ra-im’s body, ogles Ra-im’s roommate, that just seems inconsistent with his character. But more often, I just found these scenes funny.
Hyun Bin as Ra-im demonstrating, matter-of-factly, over the top of a t-shirt, how to put on a bra? Hilarious. (But maybe in a Your Mileage May Vary way.)
Joo-won is like a badly socialised puppy. His family didn’t teach him manners and, because of his position in society, he’s faced few consequences for being rude. Definite shades of Mr Darcy (worthy of the response of: “why with so evident a desire of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”) but with the rudeness dial set even higher.
I was slow to warm to him, as a character, but I was also intrigued -- because it’s difficult to predict what he will say or do!
I appreciate that Ra-im constantly labels his bad behaviour -- she doesn’t pretend it’s okay. And an advantage of twenty episodes is that there’s time for character growth. Ra-im: “My dad was a fireman but he passed away when I was 17 while trying to rescue someone [...]”
Joo-won: “Then who raised you?”
Ra-im: “I raised myself. As a poor and alienated neighbour.”
Joo-won: “What about your monthly expenses?”
Ra-im: “Money from the government.”
Joo-won (nodding): “I see where all the tax I paid went.”
Ra-im: “Do you regret it?”
Joo-won: “I would have paid more, had I known I was raising you.”
Ra-im: “You don't seem too bad when you're like this.”
Joo-won: “I told you, I'm not.”
-- from episode eight
Joo-won: “I really thought I could [...] not fall in love with her. I thought I would be fine since she was just ordinary. But nothing's going my way.”
U-yeong: “You idiot. You can't plan those things. People's minds are not vending machines. It's not like picking a soda.”
-- from episode eleven
The soundtrack grew on me, as did the subplot with Joo-won’s cousin U-yeong/Oska and his ex (although I wouldn’t have minded had that been ruthlessly edited).
In the familiar faces voices category: a young Lee Jong-suk with very unattractive hair (I was a little bit fascinated that it’s possible to make him look unattractive) plays a minor character -- I’ve seen him in several things and his voice is unmistakable.
And there’s an unexpectedly delightful cameo from someone who is Crash Landing in the final episode; again, it was the voice rather than the face that I recognised. Originally @ Dreamwidth.