My Top 5 ... Snow Scenes
Inspired by the currently falling snow hereabouts (why, why, why??), I've decided to pick five memorable snow scenes from KDramaland.
This time round, the "Top 5" also include horribly sad scenes, so it's not Top 5 wonderful Snow Scenes, but just 5 Snow Scenes that I can remember. If there happens to be KDrama-snow-experts among you, my choices may seem odd, because some of the obvious snow dramas are not represented (like Winter Sonata or Will it Snow for Xmas). Yeah, that's because I haven't seen those... Also, at least two out of the five are snow scenes filmed in Japan. Does Japan have the nicer snow than Korea?
Let me admit right away that I haven't fully watched Love Rain. In fact, I skipped through about half of it and that's it (despite of Jang Keun-suk). The Diamond Snow scene in Episode 5, however, was truly beautiful. If this is how director Yoon Suk-ho and screenwriter Oh Soo-yun depict snow, then I'll probably have to watch Winter Sonata after all.
The legend has it that two people who see the Diamond Snow together will fall in love (and get married happily ever after). The question of fate is always a strong theme in KDrama: In Love Rain, however, the two children of an ill-fated couple find love because they do not believe in fate, nor in history repeating itself.
“I don’t believe in fate. Whether it’s Diamond Snow or Wet Fog, the reason why we were able to see it together was because we were together. I want to see a lot of things with you. Not because of fate, but because we look for each other.”
There seems no way around this drama and my trauma caused by it. I guess that's why I keep mentioning it all the time. For those of you not yet familiar with this piece of autobiography: I swore to stay away from all melodrama after (accidentally) watching it. Seriously, I was just hunting down all things Rain-related!! And what am I doing now? Watching Nice Guy by the same writer, knowing exactly how it will end (=tremendously sad). Oh, and would you believe it? Lee Kyung-hee also wrote Will It Snow for Christmas. Either they love snow, or they don't, these writers ...
Anyways, this is about two lovers who cannot be together, but are finally united in death. Which may sound ok, but really isn't. The saddest part about the ending is how he tries to carry her to safety (he finds her half-frozen, because she cannot live without him, though she has promised), but has to stop because of the snow. So he just hugs her tightly, and they both die in the snow.
Park Shi-hoo again?! And I am not even doing this deliberately. There is this very cute scene in Queen of Reverals (Episode 24) when Yong-Shik (Park Shi-hoo) and Tae-Hee (Hwang Tae-hee) get lost during a business trip (there's a Top 5 list to be made about business trips that bring lovers together, too), and play in the snow. On their way back on the bus, they exchange tangerines with each other’s facial expressions on them (he draws a smiley face for her, and she draws a frowny face for him). Both put their tangerines on their nightstands to be reminded of the other. Awwww, it's so cute ...
This is the drama that constantly made me hungry and, to this day, makes me crave the kind of Korean food that they show. Which I will most likely never have. The setting of Kimchi (or Fermentation) Family was so stunningly beautiful that I yearned to go there, eat the food, and find peace. I don't remember when exactly winter comes in the drama, but the cold outside makes the warmth within so much more powerful. A beautiful drama.
Yeah, IRIS ... Another drama I didn't finish. However, I have a lasting memory of the one scene in Episode 6, when the beautiful North Korean spy (Kim So-yeon as Seon-hwa) hunts down the sexy South Korean spy (Lee Byung-hun as Kim Hyun-jun) in Akita, Japan. She follows him up a lonely mountain, through the deep, fresh snow with her sniper rifle on her back, ready to kill him. It's the loneliness of that mountain and the tiny figures of the two enemies that made this memorable.
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| I made this myself today. A true beauty! |
1: Love Rain
The legend has it that two people who see the Diamond Snow together will fall in love (and get married happily ever after). The question of fate is always a strong theme in KDrama: In Love Rain, however, the two children of an ill-fated couple find love because they do not believe in fate, nor in history repeating itself.
“I don’t believe in fate. Whether it’s Diamond Snow or Wet Fog, the reason why we were able to see it together was because we were together. I want to see a lot of things with you. Not because of fate, but because we look for each other.”
| — | Seo Joon, Love Rain, Episode 17. |
2: A Love to Kill
Anyways, this is about two lovers who cannot be together, but are finally united in death. Which may sound ok, but really isn't. The saddest part about the ending is how he tries to carry her to safety (he finds her half-frozen, because she cannot live without him, though she has promised), but has to stop because of the snow. So he just hugs her tightly, and they both die in the snow.
3: Queen of Reversals
4: Fermentation Family
This is the drama that constantly made me hungry and, to this day, makes me crave the kind of Korean food that they show. Which I will most likely never have. The setting of Kimchi (or Fermentation) Family was so stunningly beautiful that I yearned to go there, eat the food, and find peace. I don't remember when exactly winter comes in the drama, but the cold outside makes the warmth within so much more powerful. A beautiful drama.
5: IRIS
