Dramas Lately Watched

I've been trying to write a decent Christmas post for about a week now, and I keep coming up with nothing--perhaps it's too much eggnog.



Or perhaps it's that there are few specific Christmas kdramas per se, and I struggle getting into the Christmas spirit with the dearth of holiday material to write on. There's Will It Snow for Christmas? (2009), which I haven't seen, and don't intend to, despite the temptations of a young Kim So Hyun and Song Joon Ki.

Look at the pretty babies!

I won't watch melo unless it's sublimely good (or at least really, really darn good), and the reviews don't say 'sublime' to me. Plus, despite it's title and airdate over the Christmas season, it doesn't seem to actually have much to do with the holidays. So that's a strike.

I can wholeheartedly recommend White Christmas (2011)--an eight-episode tale about six teens trapped over Christmas break at their elite high school, being equally hunted and haunted by a serial killer. But while it's challenging, fascinating, and deliciously dark, it doesn't really scream Christmas cheer. Although there is definitely screaming. 

So much screaming

So watch it, but don't expect any warm fuzzies.

What does that leave me with to write about? I quick recap of my kdrama activities of late, I guess.

Empress Ki (2013)

This was my summer and quite a chunk of my fall. Clocking in at fifty-one episodes, I was pretty intimidated by my first attempt at a sageuk. But luckily, the interwebs did not lead me astray, and Empress Ki was a fabulous, engrossing watch. 

Our heroine, a crossdressing smuggler trying to find her family who ended up entangled with the monarchs of two opposing nations, was satisfying on a lot of levels...I never felt that the writers patronized her, or dumbed her down. She was almost a Mary Sue, so brilliant was she, if it hadn't been for a great character trajectory that led her through territory usually reserved for male leads.

I also loved our male leads, and actually became engrossed in the love triangle for once. There were simply no easy answers for anyone, and that's the kind of story I love best. If you want to read my further (extensive) ranting about the show that owned my life for a while there, check out my liveblog.

Overall, it was great, if grim in a lot of places. And it certainly made me exercise my brain. Thanks to this watch, I'm no longer so scared of the long watches, and I'm definitely thinking Dae Jang Geum needs to be on my list to watch now!

                                     

The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry (2010)

A lovely marshmallow pile to fall into after the trek of Ki. I actually didn't want to watch this one, not usually being overly into noona romances--I have trouble recognizing age difference of five-ten years as being worthy of that much angst if they're both consenting adults, or I get squicked out by an adult dating a high schooler. So much squick.

But this one wasn't about society imposed angst about age (or well, not much anyway). The real points for our major characters were the real life maturity differences, and that's a conflict I can get behind. What do you do when you're an adult with a career and a place of your own, and the guy you love/who loves you is still a uni student couch-surfing with his friends and playing rock and roll? 

And I liked that we got so many sides of the romance question from perspectives of accomplished successful women--from Da Jung, who really wants to get married, and has to learn that marriage isn't an end unto itself; from Bu Ki, who learned the hard way to be happy and independent on her own terms; and from Shin Young, struggling to decide what will really make her happy in the long run. I love the choices they make and the paths they take to get there, and it helps that the noona romance was more than freaking adorable--it was root-worthy. I cheered for them every step of the way. 

                                 

Best Love (2011)

I don't know if it was that I loved Woman too much or what, but though I enjoyed this one, it didn't send me. I like the Hong Sisters (sometimes...not so much lately), but I do find their humor and obsession with metaphors a little over the top sometimes. And I love a good metaphor. 

So yeah, I enjoyed my introduction to Cha Seung Won, I always enjoy Hong Gyo Jin, I wondered if Yoo Inna ever plays anything besides an actress (no, seriously, I've seen her in three shows now, and she's always an actress). The glimpse into K-ent was educational, if depressing--I can't imagine living in that kind of constricting fishbowl. It made me laugh out loud, and even clutch my heart a few times, because I am a sucker for a Cinderella tale. I just wish for a slightly different construction--Dokko Jin's heart surgery handled with more dramatic flare there at the end, and for Gu Ae Jung's recovery of her career to play more of a part of the show. I would have liked to have seen her achieving success on her own.

But oh well. 

Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010)

Who's a beautiful, almost-perfect drama? Who is? You are? That's right!

God, another thing I'm such a sucker for is the lonely girl being taken in by a group of guy friends and making a little found family with each other. It was one of the few things I really enjoyed in Boys Over Flowers, it's what's made me a big fan of the Flower Boy series, Coffee Prince, even You're Beautiful. It hits me right in the soft, fuzzy feels. Maybe because I grew up wanting an older brother (although I have since been informed I wasn't missing anything). 

Anyway, this one took that and added even more elements I love--a vigilante hero, a mystery, a paean to the joys and importance of learning, and an absolutely stunning dash of feminism. The side characters stole my heart--charming, charismatic playboy Gu Yong Ha; dark, brooding hero Moon Jae Shin; mysterious, warrior-gisaeng Cho Sun. Alas, that meant the main leads were rather overshadowed for me. That's not to say they weren't good or interesting! I just couldn't help but swoon over the 'sidekicks' when they walked on the scene.  

The ending fell rather flat. This show did have a bad habit of setting up perfect, gut-wrenching conflicts, and then deflating them. Still. It was twenty hours well-spent. 

And currently?

                            

Oh My Ghostess (2015)

I...am cautiously optimistic. I'm a quarter of the way through and it's made me laugh out loud more than once, as well as jump out of my skin a little, which is rare enough to keep my interest piqued. The acting is good, I like a woman getting to have a sex drive, and the premise, while not reeeaallly my thing, is unusual enough not to be really predictable. At least, not if they do the thing right.

We seem to be moving in the right direction plot-wise, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the reviews haven't lied to me. 

There you have it--an update on the watching habits of moi. 2015 was a good year for drama watching. Here's hoping 2016 keeps the good stuff coming.

(photos from dramabeans)