K-drama Dream Casting: Who Would You Choose?

A while back, Kathryn, one of our readers, sent me an email asking who our "dream cast" would be. Her ideal was a romcom staring Ha Ji Won, Gong Yoo, SSH (Song Seung Hun?), and Hee Ji Jin with a Yoon Eun Hye cameo where she plays a professional woman for a change of pace.

I have to admit that Kathryn's  selection sounds pretty enticing, and I'm not sure if I can top it. I almost emailed her back right away saying it was too hard and I could never decide with all of my favorites, but now, after spending way, way too much time imagining different pairings, I have come up with the...wait for it...


ULTIMATE K-DRAMA DREAM CAST OF ALL TIME 
(according to the completely biased Vivi)


Are you ready for this?

Here we go...

Since this is my hypothetical dream cast and I can do whatever I want, I'm going to have two main pairings because I can't choose. Think of it as interconnected stories with separate romances instead of a love square with two losers who get dumped and then pick each other as a consolation prize. No consolation prizes here! In fact, there are NO SECOND LEADS ALLOWED in my dream cast scenario. You Are All Surrounded is an example of what we're going for here. Some bromance and friendship between Cha Seung Won and Lee Seung Gi, but ultimately they're involved in their own individual romantic stories.

My two leading men would be Song Joong Ki and Ji Chang Wook. Why those two? Song Joong Ki has been a favorite of mine for a while, and Ji Chang Wook...well, let's just say I've caught a little case of Healer fever these days....

Really, I chose these two because even though they're relatively young, they both have an incredible ability to express volumes with a tiny facial expression or gesture. If you want to see what I mean, watch Nice Guy again. Half of the time, Song Joong Ki is saying one thing, but he'll do the tiniest little things with his face to express how he really feels. I don't necessarily want my dream K-drama to be a super soapy melodrama or anything (NO PEOPLE FALLING IN LOVE WITH SIBLINGS ALLOWED), but I would want to give them roles that allow both actors to stretch a full range of emotions, even if it's under the broader romcom genre umbrella. Oh, and this K-drama might become a musical where Ji Chang Wook belts some songs. I'm just tossing that in there for good measure while we're dreaming big.

So who are the lucky leading ladies? I went back and forth on this a lot, but I thiiiiiink I finally settled on Han Groo with Song Joong Ki and Song Ji Hyo with Ji Chang Wook.

Both of those actresses have an on-screen presence that pushes past the typical wide-eyed Candy girl, and I would love to see more of them. Plus, I secretly want to be best friends with both of them, so casting them in my K-drama is the first step in that secret plan (mwahahahahahahaa).

Now, because I can't just quit at 4 characters and my imaginary K-drama pocketbook is limitless and my script is so amazing that no one would ever say no, I would use Park Seo Joon as Song Joong Ki's wild younger brother (don't they seem perfect as brothers?), and Yoo Ah In and Jung Ryeo Won would be antagonists.

Notice I didn't say "villains" because they would be funny at times, terribly tragic at others, and always magnificently nuanced. You would probably walk away from the show crying buckets of tears over them and still not being sure if they're good or bad.


Add in at least one adorable little child actor who you wish you could kidnap and keep forever in real life.

 Oh, and Lee Min Ho as a murderer. A terrible, irredeemable serial killer who haunts your dreams at night. Just because it's my drama and I can. And I would like to see the fangirls squirm a little.

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But he also doesn't have a very big part because we're too busy focused on the other, more interesting and awesome, characters.

So that's my dream cast. I would absolutely and completely watch the crap out of that show. What's yours?

Birth of a Beauty Korean Drama Review

Ohhhh, Birth of a Beauty, where do I even begin with you? Ugggggggggggggggggh. Even thinking about this review is making me feel bored and slightly grumpy.

And somehow giddy at the same time.

How is that even possible? Well, to answer that question, this drama is going to have to be reviewed in multiple parts.

The Obstacle of the Premise

Before we get into what happened with this drama, we need to talk about the elephant in the room, which isn't a thinly veiled fat joke about our heroine, but rather a reference to the questionable premise.

So here's the rundown: Sa Geum Ran (played by both Ha Jae Suk and Han Ye Seul) is an overweight married woman whose handsome husband cheats on her and then does other terrible things. In despair, Geum Ran turns to Han Tae Hee (Joo Sang Wook), a genius who helps transform her through drastic plastic surgery into Sara, the perfect woman. Then they try to get revenge and learn important life lessons or something.

By our powers combined....

I have heard a lot of people saying that they either didn't start the drama or quit early on because they found the premise distasteful and shallow. To be honest, I was right there with you. On paper, it sounds suspiciously similar to the movie 200 Pounds Beauty, which, to be honest, I hated. It was a jumbled mess of messages about body image that tried to preach a "be yourself" message while also saying that plastic surgery will cure all of your woes. I can see why people wouldn't want to watch that all over again for 21 episodes.

So, for all of my skepticism, how did Birth of a Beauty fare? 

I guess all I can really say is that I didn't feel like the premise became an obstacle to character development after the first handful of episodes. It's not like the series did anything unexpected with the premise (like Miss Korea did with beauty pageants), but it didn't totally fail, either. I really liked how they continuously included the initial Sa Geum Ran actress as a reminder that plastic surgery can't magically heal emotional wounds, and I'm sad that they forgot about her in the last stretch of the series.

It's funny that both 200 Pounds Beauty and Birth of a Beauty concluded with a friend wanting full-body plastic surgery. In the former, it was left as a funny (but not really) joke hanging at the end of the movie, and in the latter, it was used as a chance for Sara to pontificate (in a pretty heavy-handed and obvious way) about the importance of loving yourself. 

So no, I wouldn't say that people should automatically rule this drama out because of the premise.

Review 1: Episodes 1-14(ish)

On to the show itself!

It's no secret that I loved the pairing of Han Ye Seul and Joo Sang Wook, but it bears repeating just one more time. 

I. Love. This. Couple.

You had me at "couple's pajamas."

These two carried the show with a pleasant blend of chemistry and wit. Remember how I was talking about balanced K-drama relationships back in the day? Well, this is what I meant. With many K-dramas, I wonder why the lead couple wants to be together at all, and I especially wonder how they'll manage to stay together once the entire world isn't trying to keep them apart and making them fight for their "true love." Well, that wasn't the case here. The development of the relationship made it obvious that it was based in mutual respect, trust, and friendship. Instead of being noble idiots, they were open about their concerns and worked together. They fell in love because they enjoyed being around each other, and seeing how their offbeat personalities complimented each other made the series well worth watching in spite of some other glaring problems.

Now, let's talk about some of those glaring problems.

First of all, the entire plot was full of nonsense. I swear that my experience with this show constantly alternated between massive Liz Lemon eye rolls:

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...and giddiness at the hilarious/adorable stunts our leads pulled with each other:

For example, can we talk about that "psychological test" that Tae Hee took where they emailed him and said, "You're in love with Sara" and then he � THE SUPPOSED GENIUS OF THE OPERATION � re-reads that email with his computer facing said Sara?!?!?!?!?!?!!

No, let's not talk about it. It offends the logical part of my brain too much.

But thennnnnnn because of aforementioned love test, we get the fantastic seduction war pictured above, which was one of my favorite sequences. So do I forgive the love test or not?

Or, as another example, the absurd hypnotizing head contraption that helped prove that Han Tae Hee really loved Sa Geum Ran instead of Sara:

Can you forgive nonsense if it leads to cute things? Apparently I can!

Ok, so that then leads us to the villains. This is a classic case where the writers probably should have evaluated quality over quantity. I would much rather watch one interesting, well-developed villain than three boring, one-dimensional lead villains and a handful of minor villains. I think there was some potential for interesting emotional development with Han Min Hyuk and his traumatic childhood, but instead the writers were like "Bastard son? Murderer. Cheating husband? Murderer. Selfish mistress? Murderer. Other selfish mistress? Murderer! Welp, I think our work here is done for the day!"

50% of the scenes involved one or more characters making this exact face.

But, as I said before, the good outweighed the bad for me, until...

Review 2: Episodes 15-21

Sigh. I hate you, show. Allow me to quote myself from five minutes ago: "Instead of being noble idiots, they were open about their concerns and worked together. They fell in love because they enjoyed being around each other, and seeing how their offbeat personalities complimented each other made the series well worth watching."

All of that was true � until the writers realized that they were dealing with 20 episodes instead of 16, and then they got an episode extension on top of it, and they just threw in the towel. 

In the last 5-6 episodes, it's like the characters got amnesia, bu no one bothered to inform the audience. They forgot that they were really, really good about being open and honest with their concerns and decided to run from each other and trust murderers instead.

Han Tae Hee forgot that he was a "genius" and couldn't even notice very obvious clues about what was happening with Sara. Sara forgot that she used to be a judo champion who beat up a gang of men ten episodes earlier and suddenly couldn't even figure out how to break out of a wrist grab from Lee Kang Joon.

I know Lee Kang Joon is menacing and all, but come on. Just look at him. The man is clearly a sissy.

To be honest, I only made it through the last six episodes because I was determined to write this review, and I fast forwarded a lot of the villainous planning sessions just to get through it all. 

Conclusions

Birth of a Beauty and I are in a fight right now. I feel annoyed, but maybe that's because I semi-marathoned the last few episodes, and it was painfully boring and full of obnoxious cry faces. Then I look back at all of the good times we had, and I think that maybe we can overcome these obstacles and reconcile. But if anyone's going to undergo drastic cuts to make this relationship work, it's going to be the show, not me.

Where to watch Birth of a Beauty

DramaFever

Viki

SoompiTV

Welcome, 2015! K-drama Resolutions for the New Year

You can do it!

It's a new year, and that means it's time to make a whole bunch of promises you have no intention of keeping! It's only January 5, but I'm pretty sure I have already broken some of my resolutions. It's not too late to make some more, though!

Instead of setting goals for ourselves, this time around Coco and I decided to brainstorm some resolutions for K-drama writers. C'mon, writers! We're just trying to help you be the best you! Aren't we so nice and motivational? This idea was partly inspired by Amanda from Outside Seoul and her Christmas wish list of last year. (Hi Amanda! We miss your blog posts.) So, without further ado, here are some resolutions for the K-drama writers of 2015. Let's make this the best K-drama year yet, shall we?

Resolution 1: More realistic female characters

Yeah, you are, but most people are sometimes.

This resolution is brought to you by Discovery of Romance.

I was kind of taken aback by the massive hatred that came down on the female lead of that series. Most of the commentary on the show went something like "She's such a terrible person! What do these hot, wonderful guys see in her???" Yeah, I found Yeo Reum selfish and infuriating for much of the series, but I didn't really think that she was worse than anyone else on the show�wasn't that kind of the point?  I mean, her boyfriend kept running around with his not-really-sister behind her back, so he wasn't exactly a saint.

My point here isn't that you should run out and watch Discovery of Romance because it wasn't a great show overall. My point is that in the real world, women�like men�have flaws. We get so used to watching sweet, innocent, pure-hearted young ladies running around helping old ladies cross the street all day that it's shocking to see female characters with genuine character flaws aside from "too nice" or "too poor." Many female leads grow, but only in predictable, safe ways. They become more confident. They get better hair. You get the picture.

Personally, I would love to see more female leads with a Han Yeo Reum streak. Yes, you can take it too far and make viewers hate all of the characters (and Discovery of Romance definitely pushed that boundary in the first half), but I'm tired of granny-helping sweethearts. Let's get some more complex women addressing complex problems.

Resolution 2: No more amnesia. Period.

You know what I want to forget? This entire part of the series.

Dear Drama Writers, 

If, at any point in the upcoming year, you run out of ideas and think amnesia might be the answer, trust me. It isn't. Put down your pen and walk away from the script. Everyone who watched Trot Lovers will thank you.

Resolution 3: Cast actual high schoolers in high school dramas.

Actual teenager
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Obviously not teenagers.
Via

We don't really need to see 27-year-olds running around, pretending to be 16. I'm sure you can find someone who is an actual teenager to squeeze into that school uniform. Too hard? Fine. We'll even let a 20-year-old slide. But if they're pushing 30, we're not buying it.

Resolution 4: Give the second female lead a chance

Second female leads deserve love too!

Second male syndrome is a pretty well-established fact in Dramaland, but what about the second female leads? I hear through the grapevine that Doctor Stranger was a rare unicorn of a case where people were rooting for the second female lead, but that's the only example I have ever heard.  Why not write a script where instead of arguing the merits of the two men, viewers are torn between two fantastic women instead? 

Did your brain just explode at the possibility of this idea?

Heck, while we're dreaming big, why not let the second female lead get the guy sometime? At least it would be memorable!

Resolution 5: Give our villains depth

This face. I MUST KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!

If you could probably compile all of your villain's lines from a montage of other shows, it might be time to rethink things. Do we really need more cookie cutter businessmen and women furrowing their brows and growling "I will destroy them!" as the camera zooms in on their clenched fists? Do you even know for sure which specific drama I'm referencing right now? I rest my case.

Let's look at two illustrative dramas: You Are All Surrounded and Pride and Prejudice. In YAAS, you have the Birkin bag lady and her easily shocked and very villainous dad, played by the same actor who is easily shocked and very villainous in both Heirs and Nine. On the other hand, though, you have Chief Kang. For most of the series, we couldn't be quite sure if she was a hero or a villain, and that made us sit up and pay attention every time she was on the screen.

Pride and Prejudice has a similar character in Moon Hee Man. I'm a couple of episodes behind (so if you spoil it for me, I'll turn into the Birkin bag lady and beat you with a handbag), but I'm almost to the end of the series, and I'm still never sure what to think of his character.

Perhaps the answer to the common second-half drama slump is to give some nuance to our baddies and keep us coming back for more.

Conclusions

See? That's only five resolutions! So reasonable! Now come back next December and let us know how you did.

What resolutions would you like to give to the K-drama writers this year?