Rants and Weekly Raves #50 (RAWR) - Part 1
JoAnne: I feel very blah
kakashi: me too! (anybody here want to discuss "So Ganzi"? - and btw, I had to split this post in two parts. It was FAR TOO LONG)
I'll bite! Pro: This is a man who does what speaks to his heart. That is both admirable and sexy. Con: His heart has terrible taste. It's not like the hot sweet guy with terrible clothes that you can take out and dress better, either. This guy is choosing these clothes deliberately, because he likes them. So it becomes a question of swallowing hard and accepting that his awful outfit is not a reflection on you, and there's the bonus of knowing that a whole lot of women won't even TRY to touch him because of how terrible it is. Meanwhile, you get to secret smile because he's hot, rich, determined, and great in bed. Plus, hopefully funny. Okay look at that video. He has to at least be giggling a little bit, right? Also: I have no idea if he's actually great in bed. A point in his favor is that he works hard at everything he does and he only does what he loves, so... A point against him is, again, that he clearly doesn't share the sensibilities of most, and perhaps he has no clue what might be good in bed. I'm holding out for a 'he does' though.
Here's the translation of the lyrics ... It may explain the attitude.
No, no, by style I wasn't referring to his clothes - which, although rather gangster-ish, are not as bad as SOME of the stuff he puts on that glorious bod. I meant the video overall, which is a bit...tacky. That's as good a word as any. As Kakashi points out by sharing the lyrics, though, his attitude is awesome. He's gonna do him, and he doesn't much care what anyone has to say about it. So maybe his advisers HAVE tried to tell him 'Sub, no, please, for the love of GOD no.' and it just doesn't work, and now they're like, 'Ok, whatever, I'm getting paid and you're happy, so go for it.' (To be fair, this is not as bad as some earlier efforts, and I applaud his pursuit of artistic fulfillment.)
Yes, the translation makes it a little more palatable, but the video still says less "I want to be a rapper" to me (or even, "I want to be fulfilled artistically") and more "I want to be a gangster." Blech.
bcook: Hehehe. I Luff him so hard. He's not THAT BAD! He's not. I mean...he's no Tablo but he's not at like Idol trainee level either. (Speaking of badly dressed guy, Uri Ji Sub has horrendous, horrendous taste in clothing...probably prophetic). I liked his one song with the girl who got famous etc etc. It was sweet. So yeah maybe we'll be perfect together in bed coz he'll work hard and be fun and quirky and maybe rap sweetly bad nothings in my ear. Yeah. I'll take that.
I Remember You
Ah, this show is so good! We learn that Doc does some seriously awful things, yes, but has the best of intentions while doing them. He is a monster made... and he makes monsters, but he is not incapable of love, sort of, and it's not going to be just Gukkie's heartbreak that brings me tears, I think.
Huh. I found Jang Nara so off-putting in Fated to Love You that I avoided this one entirely. But JoAnne isn't the only one saying good things about it, so maybe I need to give it a shot? But not this week...
Huh. I found Jang Nara so off-putting in Fated to Love You that I avoided this one entirely. But JoAnne isn't the only one saying good things about it, so maybe I need to give it a shot? But not this week...
Mrs. Cop
Good things first: Yay for ahjumma lead roles! Kim Hee-ae is going towards 50 in real life and runs after bad guys just like a spring chicken in this drama. Yay for casting non-pretty police officers (for the most part) and yay for an interesting and important topic: how to balance career and family. In this case, a career of a violent crime detective with single motherhood. It triples the stakes, believe me.
Now for the not-so-good things: I'm seriously sick of inapt police officers to the point where I have to stop watching. WHY do they have to be dumb and make the silliest mistakes? Why does this woman, whom we are to take seriously in her struggles, I would guess (?), have to be an over-emotional, BAD detective? Why do we have to have her woman-ness rubbed in our faces all the time? Is the pervasive sexism deliberate, to show us how sexist a police-environment is? I hope it is, because if it isn't, this is the most sexist show I've seen in a while. I hear the writer is a man - maybe he needs a short lesson in how to write empowered female characters. Unless he has something in store to surprise us.
Oh, and there is another not-so-good-thing: Kim Min-Jong. I've tried many times to like him but fail again. He always acts the same: listless, flat-voiced, boring. Nope.
Funny because I always have thought of Kim Min Jong (not that I've seen him in much, first time was A Gentleman's Dignity) as sort of a sad sack - this is the first time I've liked him at all or really seen him as a man. He's not a fav, though. As for the show...I really don't know what I think. Her temper tantrums are appalling. Her constant lack of awareness of what happened in the previous 5 minutes -and frequently done by herself - thereby leading her into terrible situations, is appalling. Her professional demeanor and behavior are appalling. It's like they took that standard 'rebel cop' and put it into a woman's body and added a cute kid and said 'Now if we just make her cry, it will totally work as a woman.' No. You are wrong.
PS. How many times can one kid escape from a DOZEN TRAINED MEN?
Hidden Identity
But now it's over, right? Please, somebody add a really nice picture of Bummie (and his bum).His bum is not the Bummie bit I'm obsessed with.
Is it ... his gun?
He did grow up to be a surprisingly manly looking man, didn't he? Tiny little thing though.
Should I watch this? (No) My Beautiful Bride is ending soon and I have to justify the money I spent on a Dramaflu subscription so that I could cast to my TV. :/
Assembly
Jaehyus: Up through ep 6 here. Taecyeon is surprisingly tolerable. And overall, I like it, but I also got a bit fed up by ep 6 because the story seemed to spin its wheels a bit. If every episode is going to be Our Heroine pulling an over-the-shoulder Mad Face, and then saving Our Hero from Evil Party Machinations, then I probably won't continue. Let's see how eps 7 and 8 go.
Basically, Our Heroine, In Kyung, I think her name is, keeps doing this angled glare. It's a little tedious.
The Scholar Who Walks the Night
We got some serious forward plot movement this week! The memorandum was found, Yang-Sun's true identity was fully revealed, and feelings were spoken aloud...well, some of them, anyway. We even learned more about doppelgänger Hye-Ryung's motivations, and about Gwi's oh-so-mysterious past, though the stuff about Gwi could have been dropped in a lot more gracefully than it was. More importantly, Dramaland has finally given us a hero whose first thought when he learns his lady love is near death is, "Prepare us a bath!" Bathtime and smooches and secrets, oh my!
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| I loved everything about the outfit Jun-Ki wore for most of Episode 10 -- the colors of his dopo and jeonbok, their collars, the embroidery on the jeonbok, and even the style and color of the beads on his gatkeun. And I especially loved how they all coordinated with each other. |
Everything I know about men's hanbok I learned in The Talking Cupboard.
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| I also loved the design on the Crown Prince's collar here, and the red collar he wore later in the episode. Both men's costumers really hit it out of the park for me today. |
As for me, I unabashedly like the scenes that are Yang San with the Scholar, or Yang San with the Crown Prince. Or any of them with their family/followers/retinue. It's only when we get to Gwi (I'm sorry Lee Soo Hyuk, I'm sorry!) that we get into cartoon-y territory (He is exceedlingly cartoony. I think it's the way he waves his nose about.). Okay, then and when Scholar gets hurt. Lee JoongKi really gives 150% on those scenes. Dial it back a bit, lovie. Anyway... I cried a bit a few times in Episodes 11 and 12, which yes, I recognize I'm a week behind, but that's where I am.
Lee SooHyuk leads with that amazing Schnozz. He's always sniffing things like an elephant-nosed dog, and while it got a tiny bit annoying this past week, it was still hot. Anyway, all this nonsense of a secret plan to kill Gwi: stake him through the heart, cut off his head and burn the body. All done and literally dusted.
Also, I love the gisaeng's clothes in this show as well as the men's. Her clothes, hair, makeup: all of it. She's fabulous to look at, at least.
Ooooh, I agree!!
But there doesn't seem to be any other point to her except as someone to react to things.
Please Stay Tuned for Part 2 of our Weekly Ramblings
where we talk about Yong Pal, The Time We Were Super Bored, Hwajeong, Last,
Oh My Ghostess and Late Night Restaurant
where we talk about Yong Pal, The Time We Were Super Bored, Hwajeong, Last,
Oh My Ghostess and Late Night Restaurant