a pleasant watch but sneakily unsettling.

Hong Sisters 10th script, 2015, 16 eps at 1hr ea. Overall W&M is a pleasant watch but sneakily unsettling. Set in beautiful Jeju Island, whose dialect and differently gendered economics are used as the comic background, it looks like a commercially motivated script but it is an outlier in the romance genre; the ML is a central, complex character whose emotional needs and problems have a gravitational pull far exceeding those of the FL.

Jeju, the main setting, is an oasis from feverish Seoul, but its citizens are not caricatured; the dialect is the big joke. The 2romance (elder bro + haenyeo) is actually a classic romedy form, acting as a sort of a supplement to the unconventional main romance. The 2ML in the love triangle (mayor of the village) is funny and warm and provides just enough balance and fun to offset the disconnect between the ML and FL.

The FL, Lee Jung Joo (played by Kang So Ra) finds refuge and a real home in Jeju, with friends of her own and the ML's business to run by herself. Active and energetic, she still plays a passive role in the second half of the script, and most of her camera time thereafter is used to reflect the emotions (?) of the ML.

The ML's own name for his hobby-restaurant, Warm and Cozy, is a word in Jeju dialect like hygge, untranslatable; probably comfy, easy but literally it means "pleasantly warm". He takes a long time to warm up to the FL, and somehow the show feels tepid until he starts to find out about his family.

The ML Seo Geun Woo (played by Yoo Yeon Seok) is born on the wrong side of the blanket to a hotel conglomerate, or more exactly to a woman of legendary affairs and serial marriages (the Gatsby allusion is to her as Daisy, for pitys sake, not to him!). He is trapped emotionally by a predatory female villainess (grasshopper), Mok Ji Won, a heartless sexual tease of a gold-digger who uses him as a decorative companion in-between her targets.

He is encircled in the script by other people's feelings about him: he is an 'oasis prince' to the young FL, first seen in the show in a polo melee; an unserious outlander to the island community; a photogenic and easily objectified chef to influencers and foodies; or an indolent 'grasshopper' to his family, an unemployable chaebol.

He is bitter about his own attractiveness and desires. His communication with the FL, his coeval from highschool, is at first only made possible by his mistaken belief that she is about to die; his character is too cynical otherwise, but he automatically responds with compassion to her.

Any real conversation as it emerges afterwards is still spoilt by his insincerity, apparent shallowness and sudden flares of sexual teasing. He feels closed off to her. A wedding, the unraveling of his own family mystery and a forced separation finally open his heart.

At the point where normally I want to grab the FL by the shoulders in frustration at her willful misunderstanding of about everything and give her a good shake, one finds oneself hoping both the director and the FL will give this ML a solid whack on his pretty bottom.

Who is the director who let the HS have their way with him? Park Hong Kyun, the only one to direct 3 of the HS' shows, whether by accident or design or an emergent mutual trust. The soundtrack is wickedly sly. Torch songs (Moon River on a date?) and lush full orchestra accompaniment... I was left with the feeling that the writers wanted to skewer the romance genre without the audience noticing.

To be honest I keep thinking about this show and its characters and certain scenes, which probably means intuitively it is actually a better show than I have described. This has been the hardest to write about so far in my Hong Sisters rewatch project.

Spoiler alert to follow!!!. The temperature metaphor is expressed only by the ML . He characterizes their relationship as one of suppressed heat. When they finally confess mutual love, she wants to go on dates and he wants to go to bed. He wins, which is flabbergasting in this context.

first posted august 26th 2024 on Viki

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It's not the meme, its how you use the meme --the first Hong Sisters' script

2005; 17 eps at 1hr ea. 10stars because it is a classic, not bec it is perfect. Apologies in advance for a series of longer reviews of early Hong Sisters' shows (getting ready for can this love be translated).

The first HS script. Comedy predominates. The internationalization of kdrama has meant the slow disappearance of toilet jokes and most of the continual threats of slaps and punches amongst family members, but they still form part of the broad-comedy style here. The soundtrack is much less intense than a super romantic drama too.

It's not the meme, it's how you use the meme. Pouting, slouching bad-hairdo teens in the boonies end up in a contract marriage after an innocent (in every way) drunken mistake. Frenetic and weird, but honest and familar teen-stupid behavior.

Then..they endearingly almost immediately bicker and protect each other like a decades-long married couple, and this remains the central joke and plot point while they work through eternal problems of miscommunication and the backwards joke of contract-marriage-before-confession. The hairdo etc styling is the contrast to the adult problematics of true love.

Classic self-referential meta touches from the H-sisters. The real Korean legend of Chunyang, a smart cool heroine, involves a tardy almost-too-late return of a scholar-family-son from his career-exam-appointment in the capital to fulfill his promise of marriage to a country-girl-daughter of a gisaeng, rescuing her from death and a bad guy, an oppressive-magistrate-son.

Here the girl and the guy are in a silly highschool setting usually seen with more angst in romances. The end-of year school play is always Romeo and Juliet. If the actors really kiss, the teen legend is that they will stay together forever. The play ends in chaos of course, the kiss lands and the drama goes on in high gear from there.

Most of the original premise of the legend undergoes funny reversals and enjoyable transformations in really quick tightly constructed dialogue. The girl isn't left behind, her guy is a bit dim or, more charitably, immature, etc. Lots of hullabaloo and plenty of angst somehow resolve, in the musical sense, sweetly into love by the end of the series.

first posted August 2024 on Viki

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very pretty and very silly classic, a watershed for kdrama

I recommend this for rainy days, snowy days, slow Friday nights or whenever you want to relax. Enjoy. The Hong sisters' 2nd script, their first hit, their trademark trustworthy dialogue and cool plots already evident. Std. length, 16eps at 1hr ea.

Very pretty and very silly fun involving Jeju Island, Lee Dong Wook, Lee Joon Gi and Lee Da Hae. Two chaebol heirs, LDW and the beautiful LJG, and a poor girl who lives by her wits asked to masquerade as a family member...if it seems familiar it is nearly two decades ago and lots of series have tried the formula since. Deathless stuff.

Truth and lies, think of actors and filmmakers. A fable ( from a 13th C compilation!!) of the king with donkey ears is not used as a frame, but something like a comment on the action. His secret, shouted into a bamboo grove, is repeated on the wind like urban myths. The king uselessly mows the bamboo down..

The liar says the best lies in a con are outrageous, the best liars are persistent and shameless. Kdrama in a nutshell. Love alone cannot be lied about for very long. A great kiss and confession are late, look for the little catch of air in the throat of the listening recipient..

The personal fantasy sections are great. Also a drunken ramble along a sidewalk cursing obstacles. Snow and snow globes are overdone. Glass-walled elevators ; hotel setting. The eavesdropping scenes are particularly nice since each one is done differently, and obvously, when lying is a problem, listening is a hard necessity. Product placements mainly the latest phones in 2006, lots of fun.

The show is more polished for a general audience than the HSs' first, on purpose. Until Hotel del Luna (12th show), Hwayugi (11th), and Alchemy of Souls (13th), this show (2nd ), My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (6th) and The Greatest Love (7th) were the most popular.

The excellent experienced director Jeon Ki Sang, is the same as for Sassy Girl Chunhyang. The composer, Oh Joon Sung, of an interesting soundtrack which wraps around the ends of scenes often in emotional counterpoint (to move the audience along?) went on to a long career after this, his first.

A positive welter of pop culture and older movie/show references is too much for me to parse, but the lover's farts from Goodwill Hunting are there for future Phds.

I have read that My Girl in 2005 was a watershed in the depiction of strong independent FLs. I think that in MG the Hong sisters also reduced the amount of corrosive manipulation by the MLs as well, at least that is what I infer when I watch other shows from that era.

first posted aug 8th 2024 on Viki

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An awesome epic weeper

A really awesome watch. An epic 2-tissue-box weeper. A love triangle which will make you feel that all other love triangles are but shadowy caricatures of the real thing. The script overall is truly powerful, but this is a 10star watch because the plot, character arcs/characterization and the acting power of the leads are so magnificent that an 11stars would have been a nice option for them alone. Pay careful attention to the prophecies of the blind face-reader and the three cat metaphors (kitten, shameless and genuine/false clay). The lyrics of songs in a chinese soundtrack always carry extra clues to the plot -- I loved the opening credits particularly.

The magnetic and charismatic Ren Jia Lun (as Wei Zhao/Wu Xia) can really act, even with his face in a half-mask for 1/4 of the movie -- watch him fall in love with his eyes. Landy Li (as Xie Jiang Ci) is the best actress I have seen in a long time -- across her face roll waves of love, fear, happiness, sorrow and the best glare ever. Jeremy Tsui (as Pei Yan) with the mellifluous voice (a separate v-actor?) has amazing stature and dignity; he also carries off beautifully a fine transition between obsessive love to facing reality; I also have never seen an actor do this so well.

The actors playing the most important 'supporting' roles, Zhang Feng Yi as the Emperor (Xie Che) and Wen Zhang Rong as the mother of Pei Yan (Rong Yu Die) give powerful, finely understated and magnificently ambiguous performances as the two poles of the "interesting times" in which our 3 true lovers are caught. Here is a question for you: how would the lives of Pei Yan and Wu Xia been different had Jiang Ci not left her master and mountain village behind to go see the world of 'rivers and lakes'?

I enjoyed the finely detailed and solid structure of the provincial corruption. I dont like battle scenes or overly confusing palace intrigue generally; less melodramatic and stereotypical than usual, these here held my attention. There were some very fine moments visually, but overall I think the battle scenes do not match the expertise of the rest of the series. The imperial intrigue, less claustrophobic than usual, was run from the outside of the palace. Wait for the most nerve-wracking 24 hour build-up to a wedding ever seen!

There are moments where the soundtrack, cinematography and script do not mesh well, marring an otherwise masterfully written and structured show. A few cheesy or schmaltzy moments during the two wars, mainly due to an out of control soundtrack which did not match the action. The impressionistic storyline of the wars was closer to a realistic experience than the usual easy-to-follow narrative. Many other minor sequences also had interesting, more modern storytelling structures. I think this might make the show a rewatch possibility.

The costuming was really intensely beautiful, very little of the standard pink and blue filmy drapery. The cinematography was overall excellent and professional with many really great shots. The director is only eight years into the business and was able to pull off this cast-of-thousands epic, so I look forward to his next shows.

simultaneously posted on viki

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overall super high quality, romantic.

Lovely, high quality. Be sure to watch to the very very end. Dont cry too much on the way.

I recommend this. There are some really good reviews out there so I dont have much to say except, the actors are so good and sooo young. Oh yes, also one of the two directors is a cinematographer and the other a screenwriter so that may account for the overall high quality.

The plot makes sense and has a clear clean structure. As always the theme of art and artists is fun to watch. As life becomes homogenized and Disneyfied, creativity, coming-of-age stories, individuality and bravery continue to be psychologically important.

All of these actors bear watching in the future, I would advise following them now. It is hard to be outstanding in this cast, all are excellent and charmingly good-looking but I would pick out Zhang Xuan Wu (21) for sheer beauty and outstanding charisma, and Yao Xing Hao for acting skills beyond his years (26).

As always BL is ahead of the international pack in new and trending themes and structures. Due to its brilliant and faithful audience (us, a'course!), creators can be experimental on shoestring budgets. More power to them.

Of the two directors, Li Xi was the cinematographer for Rise of Phoenixes, and has 2 more out this year, Bank on me and 13 Years of Dust. Ning Yuan Yuan was the screenwriter and director of An Insignificant Affair and an actress in The Hotel and Little Flowers,

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