The Problematic of the Unproblematic

We're 7 weeks into both Faith and Arang and I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the former and am falling increasingly in love with the latter (if that's even possible). Yes, you can call my biased - but I promise to be as fair as possible while I continue to compare various aspects of the two shows. After posting about the female leads (arguably the epicenters in both shows) I would like to do something similar for the male leads: the characters of Choi Young and Kim Eun-oh or 'Sato'. Kim Eun-oh & Choi Young At first glance, the two have nothing in common: Eun-oh, the illegitimate son of an influential nobleman (who, as we find out in episode 1, can see ghosts), is rather selfish and rude and ends of stuck in a small town as Magistrate because of his quest to find his mother, who suddenly disappeared on him. The desire to find his mother (whom he actually hates, as he confesses later) is the only thing that drives him (at least initially). Choi Young...

Both Faith and Arang have strong female characters as their leads. In fact, both shows are fundamentally about these two women. While it is not at all uncommon in KDramas (particularly RomComs) to have female characters take the center stage, I like both characters so well because they are somewhat different from most of the KDrama-women I've come to know. Sure, there's a fair share of sassy, independent (usually poor) women in KDramaland - often confronted with the typical male lead, who is super rich, but morally and emotionally flawed. The sassy woman saves the flawed man through love - and the previously-flawed man saves the previously-poor woman from misery through wealth (and love). This formula works oh-so-well and I never grow tired of it - but Eun-soo and Arang are particularly great, because they are different. Eun-soo Eun-soo and Arang are both much more than just sassy and independent. They are true fighters, with an additional touch of fierceness, streng...

I just re-read my old blog entries and I am amazed at how funny I once was (if it really was me who posted them, cause I have no recollection of those times). Was it the being grateful at least once a day? Or was it the not-yet-watching of Korean shows?? Yes, I realize now that there was a time before KDrama. When I watched Supernatural and Vampire Diaries and True Blood. These days, I just watch KDrama. And Supernatural and Vampire Diaries and True Blood. Ha! I bet that came as a surprise! So let me say this, in passing: True Blood is the dumbest show ever! It really, really sucked last season! Anyways, writing about Korean shows is not something funny. It's very serious business - and people take it very seriously. There's fangirls that get so vicious when you say something potentially bad about their object of admiration (Lee Min-ho has many, by the way) that you just want to go hide under the table. So, don't expect this stuff on here to be funny. 

When these two shows were announced, I was super-excited ... in the case of Arang because the story (or rather, the folklore) inspiring it sounded intriguing, because it was Lee Jun-Ki's comeback drama after 2yrs of military service and because Shin Min-ah is one of the Korean actressess I admire (I admit I have a slight bias towards liking Korean actors more than their female counterparts) - and in the case of Faith because of the fantasy twist, the time-travelling and Lee Min-ho, whom I simply cannot not like, even though his acting is ... well ... more on that later. And then, the trailers ... Hell yeah!  And then, they even started in the same week, and I just knew it was going to be KDrama heaven; two shows = Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays = weeks and weeks of bliss ahead.  Now, we're 12 episodes or 6 weeks into both shows and the truth is that Arang delivers everything it ever promised and much more, whereas Faith isn't at all what I expected....

Okay. I'm really gonna do this! I've recently become a rather active member of the Dramabeans community. While I've always read their wonderful recaps, it took a change in my viewing behavior to turn me from 'lurking in the background' into 'engaged and commenting'. Until about mid-year, I used to mainly marathon shows - or at least start watching after a large junks of episodes were available. 'A Gentleman's Dignity' ( 신사의 품격) changed that. These days, I'm actively watching three KDramas as they come and loving it: 'Faith' (신의), 'Arang and the Magistrate' (아랑사또전) and 'Vampire Prosecutor 2' (뱀파이어 검사 2). And I can barely stop myself from delving into 'Nice Guy' (차칸남자) (though I tend to stay away from Melodrama). While writing some rather long posts on Dramabeans, I realized that there is so much more to analyze ... and that I really want to analyze it. So, I'm really gonna do it. On here, soon. Keep w...