I can’t believe this is one of the dramas that started the Korean Wave… Actually, no, I believe it. I’m just trying very hard not to die by cringing at the same time. Like…EW, SERIOUSLY.
Every trope and cliche of every kind, color and culture under the sky was crammed into this one drama that is actually ten years old but seemed about twenty. It was 24 episodes long which was 10 episodes too many. 1 episode = 1 hour, so 10 hours of garbage and cringe and funk ton of EW.
Let me get the pros over with, it’ll be quick:
– it was entertaining.
– The presence/acting of Lee Min-ho, the graceful lady who played his mother and the girl who played his fiance.
Now then.
The plot was a fucking disaster. The theme was simple: boy and girl have to be together. The makers of the drama proceeded to go about it in the most Indian soap-opera fashion possible, I think a lost a few brain cells. They dragged the show by its toes by doing one pointless and stupid thing after another. Love triangles, bitchy and controlling parents, poor parents and financial problems, that random dude who wants revenge because of reasons, unwanted finaces, memory loss, a girl that literally grows out of nowhere to create angst in the last two fucking episodes… I can go on but hopefully, you get my point.
Cringe after cringe after cringe.
Geum Jandi was…like all other kdrama heroines? Really fiesty and brave but displays startling idiocy when the love story begins. Like, listen, okay I get that you cry because he hurt you or because you miss him, frankly, the boys do the same but there are things I can’t ignore. Like, going out in heavy snowfall to look for a necklace you dropped hours ago in a HUGE FUCKING FIELD? And then inexplicably not being able to walk after 5 minutes? I shit you not. Geum Jandi, the girl who kicks and screams in the face of adversity, finds her ‘strength’ draining because snow is falling? She repeatedly drops to her knees and then faints. After which the guy swoops in saves her, takes his shirt off, gives her his extra clothes and they kiss. Nice.
You see, things like these, I can’t swallow. And this show is filled up to its fucking neck with them.
She was shown to be 18 years old, right? And I’ve seen this done in Goblin too, there is a ‘___ years later’ that happens in both dramas and so to show the ‘difference’ between the young protagonist and the somewhat grown up protagonist, the actresses adopted this childish way of speaking. I couldn’t even with this because IT WAS SO ANNOYING. Even 12 year olds don’t talk like that for the love of God.
So we have the members of F4, the group consisting of four high-born boys, Jihu, Jun-pyo, Yi-Jeong and the last guy, a group that lords over the entire Shinhwa school, doling out punishments and shaming on a regular basis which the student seem to accept readily as fate. Until Jandi enters the picture. You know, the super special girl who ‘reforms’ a bunch of guys with her specialness? A few things as quick and as randomly as possible lest I forget:
– no one studied at that stupid school which was touted as the most prestigious in all of Korea. People were shown being bullied, going to and coming from the school and essentially doing all manner of things EXCEPT studying. There wasn’t a single teacher in sight though we did see the principal once.
-it was always ever Jun-pyo being an ass-hole and doing all those horrible things to other students while the other three were actually nice by comparison. Which makes me wonder why didn’t any of them EVER try to stop him? Especially Jihu? They followed him around like loyal dogs, all dolled up with their stupid hair and perfect clothes and it was rather infuriating.– the last guy, whose name is Won-bin I remember now was so useless I can’t fathom why he was even in the show. He and Yi-jeong made me so uncomfortable in the beginning with their stiff acting and fake, lifeless expressions but Yi-jeong had a semblence of an arc with Gaeul and his family problems. Won-bin had none of that. He was useless ornament whose only signifiant contribution is his ‘Yo, my bro’s.
– forget their faces (and GHASTLY hair) for a second, the boys are all identical copies of one another. They have the same issues, unrequited love, neglect from parents or parental figures, misunderstood-ness. Like…what the funk? Oh, Jihu plays the violin, Yi-jeong is interested in pottery, Won-bin does God Knows What and Jun-pyo, well Jun-pyo is a spoiled little bitch who does nothing, but this ‘distinction’ DOES NOT COUNT. THEY WERE ALL THE SAME TO ME.
Since Korean dramas are all about the LURVE, lemme tackle this now. Jandi and Jun-pyo? Not the greatest couple in the world. Yeah they fought all the time but most k-couples do. I could never understand Jun-pyo’s sudden (and by sudden I mean SUDDEN) fascination with Jandi that morphed into possessiveness and intense feelings for her faster than your usual meant-to-be couple. It just happened too fast and too forcefully and combined with no real chemistry/intensity, it was a rather boring couple.
Which brings me to Jihu, the martyr. Haye, bechara. The Second Lead, or as I like to call it, Sacrificial Lamb, was loved for 5 episodes and spent the next 20 loving the girl back and politely being pushed into the friend-zone. If there was ever a guy who deserved some love, it was Jihu. DESPITE his horrendous hair. She called him her soulmate near the end. RIGHT.
Again this made no sense? Jihu was in love with this hot chick who was a childhood friend, Jandi was in love with Jihu because he was nice to her when no one was and Jun-pyo was in love with Jandi because the fuck should I know. The way Jihu stopped loving his chick and Jandi stopped loving Jihu happened out of nowhere, without any apparent reason and it made me FURIOUS. They had to don their proper relationship hats in the love-triangle and for that their tracks were changed so tactlessly I can’t even.
The parents. In this show, they were either witless beyond repair, like Jandi’s (da fuq even was their deal?) or needlessly cruel like Jun-pyo’s mother or Yi-jeong’s father. Or you know, they were dead, like Jihu’s.
I want to take a special paragraph to say that while the character itself deserved a nice, long thwacking in the middle of a crowded street, the actress who played Jun-pyo’s mother was stunning. She was classy and graceful and gorgeous and had the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard. I think I fell in love.
And I want to stop right here. I’ve said enough and I would like to move on.
This KDrama Review is by Sara
