The K-Drama Meta.

[youcallitwinter]

I HAVE EXAMS ON IN A FEW, WOULD YOU BELIEVE. PRAYER CIRCLE FOR MY CONTINUED ACADEMIC EXISTENCE. And in the meanwhile, I don't even believe this myself.

Female (Second) Leads: Narratives vs. Tropes:
[In Defence Of] Coffee House.

When do I suggest reading this:

- If you're not planning on watching Coffee House , because you should. I think it's

Comments

[alexia_drake]

I hope you'll feel better now that you wrote it. lol

Good luck for your exams :D

[youcallitwinter]

LOL, is it weird that I actually do feel a lot better, heh.

Thanks so much!! :D

[alexia_drake]

lol No, it's not weird. A lot of people feels better after getting something off of their chest, no matter what it is.

You're welcome :D

[youcallitwinter]

LOL, true, maybe I'm not completely insane in my 5000 word-vomit of drama-feelings!

:D

[ever_neutral]

Okay, so I just skimmed this because I have not seen it still. Some random comments:

Which, hilariously enough, leaves us free to ship all the ships that are more openly problematic,coughYoungDoEunSangcough, but automatically become less problematic, because you already know they're not endgame.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OUR LIVES

:| :| :| :| :| :| :| :|

WHEN WILL YOU FINISH DREAM HIGH

While I hated the show because the ship that was given an inordinate amount of time and narrative space to develop, bizarrely enough, turned out not to be endgame.
FOREVER CONFUSED ABOUT THIS. WAS THE SHOW JUST KILLING TIME IN ALL THOSE SCENES???? LIKE???? STARCROSSED LOVERS IS SO OVERRATED TOO TBQH.

LISTEN, YOU MAKE A COMPELLING ARGUMENT ABOUT COFFEE HOUSE. WHEN I EVENTUALLY WATCH IT I WILL COME BACK TO THIS POST SO IT MAKES SENSE.

ETA: Kim Woo Bin Face Day tomorrow. Bring it.
EP 13 IS ALREADY OUT BUT I HAVE TO WAIT FOR MY MOTHER TO FINISH WORK OR SHE'LL GET MAD AT ME (L M F A O @ HER CRUSH ON KIM WOO BIN).

GODSPEED WITH EXAMS, BRO

[youcallitwinter]

I so did not want to write this till you'd seen the show for the fear of spoiling you (although I had this horrible feeling you might hate it too, omg) BUT THEN I COULDN'T CONCENTRATE ON LIFE, SO I JUST DID IT ANYWAY. Actually with this show it's impossible to tell whether it's better to go in spoiled or not, it actually literally depends on the person in question.

- I WILL FINISH DREAM HIGH SOMETIME. It's good to have something worth watching in the wings, since I'm running though dramas like...Usain Bolt

[ever_neutral]

I'll probably start some time this weekend, mmmkay?

Usain Bolt????
???????

Basically my theory is that the PD was either in awe of KHJ's face
As good an explanation as any.

SPEAKING OF SECOND LEADS. I am so conflicted over Heirs so just let me scream at you for a bit. I haven't seen ep 14 yet so these thoughts are not definitive, but mostly fresh and unfiltered: I am genuinely feeling your distrust about the portrayal of Tan now. I think ep 13 was the first time I actually felt like he was being portrayed as a ~hero?? E.g. ~Saving Ye Sol (?) from the evil ~Rachel, declaring he needs to ~make up for the past, etc. etc. Which I do not buy at all, because he is yet to show, like, ACTUAL REMORSE about the things he did in the past. (And he has shown ZERO remorse over what he did to YD just a few eps ago, since he seems to think that was completely justified on account of him being the good guy and YD being the bad one, &c. &c

Part 1

[youcallitwinter]

WHY IS THIS SO LONG, APOLOGIES.

I'll probably start some time this weekend, mmmkay?

YES, SO EXCITED ALREADY \o/

???????

Since I was talking about running, I thought I might as well go all out *kanyeshrug*

As good an explanation as any.

You know that was it.

DUDE, ALL YOUR Heirs THOUGHTS ARE MINE TOO, OBV. Because idk, I kind of have no doubt now that it's being played straight. In fact, this is the kind of problem that I feel these kind of narratives almost inevitably tend to face, unless the point of them is a deconstruction. Because it's very easy to go from self-awareness right into romantic territory, so that once the romance is played straight, most people don't even deem it necessary to go back and address the problematics that had been raised earlier, you know

[kwritten]

this is so lovely and wonderful and let me have your babies???

ahem

I will be back shortly with a real comment I promise I promise!

[youcallitwinter]

lbr, we would have the prettiest, most kickass children ever. DAWN CAN BE OUR CHILD AND WE SHALL LOVE HER TO DEATH /gets carried away, clearly.

Hee, if you actually sat through some 5000 words of this, FOUR FOR YOU. And omg, if you ever have thoughts on it, I would be v. excited to know!

[youcallitwinter]

HOW CAN YOU CONSISTENTLY BE SO SO KIND AND MAKE MY DAY <3 <3

(omg, I so want to try teaching at a college once, though, I think it'd be really fun.)

HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY READ 5000 WORDS ON SOMETHING YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH? :O I bet you were the best student your university ever had, there's no second option.

Thank you so much re: exams, I'm dying here!!!

[marble_rose]

So I have nothing to add about CH because I've yet to see it, but all your posts about BOF made me really curious. I had already seen the Japanese version where, while Rui (Ji Hoo) was definitely sweet, there was never any reason to believe he was an actual contender. Anyway, I was just really curious to see what was different about this version and why you were so attached to Ji Hoo/Jan Di. So I started watching it

Part 1

[youcallitwinter]

You should watch CH sometime, if you find the time! BUT CAN I JUST SAT YES BECAUSE I AM FOREVER STARVED OF TALKING ABOUT MY BEAUTIFUL BOF SHIP.

Also, everything you've said just aligns with what I've heard of the other versions; I've never seen Hana Yori Dango or Meteor Garden etc., but from what I know, the Rui/Tsukushi ship is good, but it's definitely second lead. Or, at least, that the Tsukasa/Tsukushi ship gets the best narrative and it actually feels like they fight to be together and that their being together is worth fighting for.

In Boys Over Flowers? NOT SO MUCH

Part 2

[youcallitwinter]

Episode 16 has one of my favorite JH/JD moments at the end, I legit think it's one of the most beautiful scenes in the series as a whole. I love how the standard in this show is that JP/JD have some loud blow-up with each other or with his mom or someone and then you get a quiet JD/JH scene where they're just together, and the scene is all about silent comfort. Just.

Oh, and I'd once come across this comment somewhere and I think it encapsulates what I feel must be the difference perfectly:

You know, in HYD, Makino told Rui that she felt more herself with Domyouji, that with him (Rui) she always felt reserved. That isn’t true in this drama at all, in fact even before I switched over to the Ji-Hoo/Jandi pairing, after Junpyo got beat up for her sake and they were supposed to be together, even then I was discontent with their relationship, because I never got the sparks of joy/delighted sparring that I got in both HYD and Meteor Garden. The couple fights almost equally in all the adaptations - it’s Makino/Domyouji’s way of

Re: Part 2

[marble_rose]

YOU CAN TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS SHIP ALL YOU WANT. WE WILL TALK IT INTO THE GROUND.

I think that comment hits it dead on. Just...the entire feel of the dynamics in HYD is different than that of BOF. Sure, in HYD, Rui is still sweet and supportive, but it always sort of feels like he's teasing her, that she's still flustered by how swoon-worthy he is, the same way she was in the very beginning when he was the only one who was remotely nice to her. They never quite reach that tender, intimate place in which Ji Hoo and Jan Di seem to reside