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Reviews
Joahamyeon Ullineun (2019)
Cynical take on humanity
And a cynical take on teenagers.
The relationships in the series all sour.
Some parts of the story seemed offensive to me, to no purpose. I have not watched second season, not inclined to.
Good acting, clever script. But at the end, I wished I hadn't spent time watching this.
Myeongbulheojeon (2017)
Story with a magical premise produces magical cinema
I almost decided to skip this series because of the time travel element. I am glad I gave the series a look.
Regardless of the premises, books and novels exceptionally well written can be compelling, and that applies to the series, Live up to your name.
Given the magical premise, the story seriously considers medical ethics and advances, and Joseon history including a military invasion. The acting, scenery, filming, music are all brilliant.
The romance is charming and entertaining throughout, and so is the story as well as being thoughtful and educational.
The story takes a more dramatic turn about half way through, so it is not all light-hearted. The two principal Joseon doctors are important in Joseon history.
A romance, a history, a fantasy, a historical review of Korean medicine. Well worth watching.
Shinibsagwan Goohaeryung (2019)
Brilliant scripted and acted, about government responsibility
I loved this series. With 3 caveats that will follow my main remarks: (1) the introductory note in episode 1, (2) challenges of sub-titles, (3) quirks of S.K cinematic presentation of comedic scenes.
My idiosyncratic take is this. The government historiographers in the series are not only interesting individualized characters in a historical drama, they are archetypes representing truth and integrity in government. The inference in the series is that truth prevails. Nice sentiment. Unfortunately, around the world honest people of integrity are murdered by governments and murderous tyrants die peaceful deaths.
The theme of political integrity has some special resonance in 2020 as we live through the COVID-19 pandemic. Some national governments have been unprepared and late to implement precautionary measures, giving contradictory advice, such as masks are useless (January) and masks are essential (June). Then some governments lie about what a great job they have done, blaming their deceived citizens for inappropriate panic. In this series, the government blames victims.
The political theme of this series is, I suspect since I don't about Korean history, anachronistic. I doubt women and historiographers were as independent of royal dictates as the series portrays. I suspect that upholding independence of women and civil servants with integrity is more about using a historical setting to portray ideals for modern SK. I suspect that the series has messages for the modern SK viewer, and for anyone interested in how government interacts with citizens.
On the series itself. Scenes, costumes, settings, cinematography, music gorgeous to look at and listen to.
Acting is uniformly brilliant.
The plot, mainly about political change and intrigue, is brilliant, characters are memorable. Though there are principal characters, there are many others that create a strong impression. Romance is mainly in a major and minor subplots. The romantic subplots are intricately and brilliantly woven into the main political plot. The romantic sub plot is beautifully told.
On the caveats:
1) Netflix should add to the opening of episode 1 where it says " Early 19th century, Hanyang, Joseon" something like the following: "The Joseon dynasty began 1392 and ended 1897 in what is modern day Korea. Confucianism played an important role in society. In the early 1800s, the ongoing incursion of European culture and enlightenment ideas caused fissures is some parts of Joseon's political classes and society. This story is set in that time." I was a bit lost for the first six episodes. Is this a myth or based on actual events? Are the settings based on actual history? What's going on? For viewers in SK who probably learn about Joseon dynasty in primary and secondary school, a brief introduction is likely sufficient. But I began watching this never having heard of Joseon and knowing nothing about it. For a North American viewer, just a bit more information please.
2) This series requires following the plot points from the outset of episode 1. While trying to keep up with reading the subtitles, I did not realize that the viewer has to work a bit harder to pay attention. I give myself a star rating of 5 out of 10 for the first six or so episodes. Slightly more expansive introductory remarks would have put me on notice.
3) In comedic scenes, gestures of characters are accompanies by sound effects such as a swoosh, a boing sound of a spring, and the like. Does that mean that the series is going to be like a Jerry Lewis or Jim Carey comedy scene? The sound effects made me unsure where the plot was going. In retrospect, sound effects for comedic scenes are added for comedic emphasis, and are kind of a way for the director to wink with the audience at the hi-jinks portrayed. I assume it is a stylistic thing. Once the viewer becomes accustomed to that, there is less of disconnect between the serious political theme of the series, and the comedic bits.
Bombam (2019)
All about romance, beautiful story beautifully told, uplifting done well
This series is best understood as not just about the possibility of romance of the main protagonists, but for others as well, and the different ways people act in successful and failed, love relationships, of parents and their children: considerate, devoted, jilted, obsessive, abusive, quirky.
The story is grounded (maybe better: plausible and realistic). It's a slow build but it is a sweet story in which the characters have depth, can change and grow, show flaws and integrity. The story is brilliantly conceived, brilliantly played out.
The acting is consistently brilliant and convincing. In particular, Spring reveals the immense acting skill of the person who also played a mother in Something in the Rain: such different characters! Bravo.
Now that I have seen Spring after having earlier viewed Something in the Rain, I better understand what was frustrating about Something in the Rain. Rain is more a critique of SK society than a romance: lawyers who are psychopaths and sociopaths, work place sexism and denigration of women, drunkenness as remedying the distraught, social lying for personal convenience, social climbing mean mothers, social, family and workplace cultures that oppress women, class and economic bigotry. (Gosh, does the writer so dislike SK people or is it, dislikes people in general?) Into this mix is a male lead who is, romantically, with few exceptions, one dimensionally angelic. The romantic moments in the first 9 episodes of Rain were also more extreme than in Spring and truly moving and beautiful. Which leads to the problem in Rain. The last 7 episodes, after the initial hopefulness, get progressively sadder and Jin'a's shortcomings increasingly make her seem like a human emotional wrecking ball.
In Rain, the character of Jin'a, taking the series as a whole does not deserve to be the girlfriend of a romantic angel (though who else would put up with her), and, what throws the viewer off balance, does not deserve to be so capably represented as cute and adorable by the immensely talented Ye-jin Son. The actress is so successful that the viewer is in effect conned into thinking better of Jin'a than Jin'a deserves. (Other reviews vary in their tolerance of Jin'a's behavior from indulgent to negative.) Was that the writer's intention, or merely incidental to the choice of cast?
In summary, if you only had enough time for one of Spring or Rain, I would opt for Spring. It makes you feel better for having watched it. Uplifting done well.
Bap Jal Sajuneun Yeppeun Nuna (2018)
Comparing Crash Landing and Something in the Rain
Medium. S. Korean television series Crash Landing on You and Something in the Rain (Korean: Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food) are in Korean, watched with English subtitles.
Cultural setting: "Among rich countries, South Korea is arguably the worst place to be a working woman." "70% of the women polled said they had been sexually harassed at work." From an article, South Korea is going through deep social, economic change, in the Economist, Apr 8th 2020 edition.
In common. Each involves romantic relationships. The main female character in each is played by Ye-jin Son.
Acting: Acting in both is excellent. Comparing the very different characters Ye-jin Son creates shows she is a great actor.
Production: Crash Landing's film, sets, costumes, camera work, editing, music, impress and are on a beautiful, epic scale. Rain is on a smaller scale.
Script: Crash Landing's range is Shakespearean - farce, comedy, politics, intrigue, murder, riotous coincidence and romance, with allusions to movies and literature. Some voice overs and editing choices are delightfully witty (Captain Ri 'getting lost'). A romantic epic adventure and fairy tale, in a modern political setting.
The female lead in Rain is oppressed by traditional cultural, workplace and family values. At the outset she is unassertive and treated disrespectfully by some of her male colleagues.
Idealizations: In Crash landing, the protagonists begin as archetypes, a S. hard-hearted capitalist and a N. hard-hearted army guy.
In Rain, the male lead role begins and stays virtuous, almost (with some few exceptions) saintly, an ideal portrayal of how to love. His character is constant, and so is his love.
The romance: In a portrayal of romance, the star of the movie is the relationship.
In Crash Landing, the romantic leads and their two romances improve in character over time, until both characters and their romance are lofty and exalted. The main romance is cheered on by five army guys, like a Greek chorus directing the audience how to respond.
In Rain, the female lead increases her self-esteem but still subject to heart-breaking errors in judgment, perhaps a legacy of earlier cultural and family oppression. Jun-Hui's devotion and love increases her self respect and self-confidence, but she chooses to disrespect his deep love for her, heart-breaking to watch. It is another exercise of bad judgment; she is mean. Did the screen-writer intend to unfavorably portray someone he knows?
The story in Rain is nuanced and sad. The romance and its trials must be understood in the context of S. Korean society's harshness towards women. The harm to work and romance are mirrors of the social oppression that women endure. Unfortunately though, the social and family oppression undermine the romance. A viewer expecting romantic fulfilment is bound to be disappointed, since the sociological elements sadly intrude on the romance. Still, Rain has many beautifully conceived romantic scenes mostly in the first eight episodes.
Music: Crash Landing music has a plot function, and the sound track, whimsical in comedy, lush for romance, enhances the movie. Most if not all songs, many beautiful, seem Korean.
In Rain, Stand by your Man, an American country and western song with a beautiful tune is dissonant, culturally out of place, and as it is repeated, increasingly annoying, distracting, and intrusive. Scenes with the song would, without it, be more moving and romantic. Even if irony was intended (not clear what the intention was). The song by Rachael Yamagata, is ethereally beautiful.
Subtitles: The viewer relying on subtitles likely misses dialect, word play, linguistic, cultural, literary, cinematic, historical and other allusions, as well as idiomatic words and phrases. Great to watch even with subtitles. In Korean both series must be even better.
Rain's confusing time line in episode 16 (spoiler alert). Netflix describes episode 16 as portraying the lead characters as seeing each other for the first time in months. That is almost certainly incorrect. Perhaps confusion arises from a remark to Jun Hui in episode 16: "You never dated a girl for over 3 months when you were in the United States." The friend's remark applies to more than one girl, so time elapsed is more than 3 months. Second, Jin'a's friend and former work colleague left work and has an established country bed and breakfast, which takes more than a few months to happen. Another work colleague has a child about year old in episode 16, which means she met someone, got married and had a kid. Finally when they started dating Jin'a was about 35, and in episode 16 she is nearing 40. Maybe it is clearer in Korean, but as things stand the time gap is not made clear in episode 16. The time gap is important to the poignancy of the deep love lost. The time gap is probably closer to 3 years. The time creates an implausibility. Why didn't two characters so deeply in love make more of an effort to get back together earlier?
Conclusion: Both are good. Big budget Crash Landing has more range, is more epic, has more humor, is more fun, and implicitly portrays the tragedy of N and S. Smaller budget Rain makes an implicit argument that S. Korean society needs to change how it treats women, is more realistic, more nuanced, is more grounded in S. Korean culture, is thoughtful and thought provoking.
Sarangeui bulsachak (2019)
Capital E Entertainment
Kind of but not quite a Romeo and Juliet story, mixed with fantasy, satire, comedy, tragedy, murder, mystery, tension, wistfulness, and dramatic, fateful and improbable but entirely romantic coincidences; with observations on politics, societies, character, and allusions to Hollywood and other movies, eg., Pretty Woman, The Wizard of Oz.
Characters and pretensions that are universal; this series is for the world. The 'hero' is the romance the captivating characters create (even the villains).
Despite being subtitled (beautifully rendered), the series is entrancing. Probably even better if you understand Korean.
Ten stars. Bravo.