The Vineyard Man (KBS, 2006) – A Review

Well, never say never. At one point in time, I had decided that I would give The Vineyard Man 포도밭 그 사나이 (KBS, 2006) a wide berth. It got luke-warm reviews, and seemed to lie in a no-man’s land where it was panned by the pro-Yoon Eun Hye faction for pairing her with an insufficiently dishy leading man (What? Are they blind?), an uncool grape farmer no less. And then panned by the Yoon Eun Hye-indifferent faction for show-casing her more irritating screechy attributes and lack of subtlety in her acting. Both factions agreed that the plot was a whole lot of nothing. It seemed to please no one. Except diehard Oh Man Seok fans.

So, of course, I’ve finally watched it. (OH MAN SEOK! OH MAN SEOK!). And you know what, the show actually won me over in the end. It really wasn’t all that bad. It had a certain charm. Okay, it will never come near my top ten list. And it was largely held together by Oh Man Seok, who is stratospherically adorable here — dorky, awkward, speaking the cutest little saturi, and veritably bursting with health and goodness. I admit it, I probably would not have watched this show to the end but for Oh Man Seok. But still, once one got over the hump of the first few episodes (ridiculous plot plus annoyingly whiny Yoon Eun Hye), getting through the rest of the show was not a hardship, and at times was even a gentle pleasure.

So, just what about this unremarkable and unpretentious show moved me from not-with-a-ten-foot-barge-pole to Hmm-not-bad-maybe-I’ll-blog-this?

Introducing… Manzzang Madness!!!

I once said I was a bad fangirl in the sense that I didn’t go ga-ga for any particular actor. And it was true. At least, until now. Because, as of late, I have developed a monumental crush on… Oh Man Seok 오만석 (nickname: “Manzzang” meaning “The man, the best”). I’m so obsessed right now, I probably should be embarrassed. But I’m not ashamed, because I adore him so much and I feel that it is perfectly natural that any right-thinking k-drama lover must be devoted to him.

That Winter, the Wind Blows: Final Reflections — Um…

Well. Um. Uh. So, what can we say about the recently-concluded That Winter, the Wind Blows (“TWTWB”)? It was a mess, but at least it was a pretty mess?

Or…, it was good for a laugh, at least? Those of you who trudged along to the bitter end will know what I’m talking about. The Final Episode of TWTWB will probably go down in k-drama lore as Epic Finale Fail. It wasn’t as incomprehensible as Fashion King’s infamously random and utterly unsatisfying ending, for TWTWB’s ending may have scratched some itches for gratification. But in terms of narrative integrity it was one big gigantic fail.

But trouble had been brewing long before the final episode. Within its first six episodes, TWTWB started to lose its sparkle for me. By the eighth episode or so it was spinning its wheels and starting to get quite tedious to watch. We started yelling at it, “C’mon, DO something!” “Something HAPPEN, please!”. Around the eleventh episode I knew we were in trouble when I caught myself forcing myself to watch the show the way I would force myself to do chores.

Is it even worth our while trying to analyze what went wrong? Is it worth analyzing where on the floor a toddler’s tossings end up? Should we ponder the pattern of litter on a street to seek insight into society’s bane? Are the rantings of a lunatic worth psycho-analyzing? Sometimes I feel that some misfired endeavors are just not worth analyzing. That’s not going to deter the Fellowship of the Snark from having a good old go (Watch the space in The Vault!), but here I think I’ll pass on any deep analysis. The show failed. The end.

Instead of deep thoughts, then, I present to you my choice selection from the copious (non-spoilery) screenshots I took of those egregious close-ups, to amuse myself and keep myself slogging through the second half of this show. Hey, all that’s got to be good for a giggle, right?

The Game of Thrones and K-drama

One of the reasons I wasn’t blogging for a time (a few weeks back) was because I was preoccupied gobbling up all two seasons of Game of Thrones (or “GoT” as I will call it from now on). For those of you who have been living under a television rock, this is the hot HBO fantasy series based on George R. R. Martin’s fantasy books. And it is tons of fun.

I haven’t really looked, but the internet must be absolutely awash with GoT reviews and fanfic. However, I bet few have written anything connecting GoT with K-drama, bwahaha!

My break from K-drama and time spent with GoT gave me a bit of a fresh perspective on television. I think K-dramas can learn from GoT, so very addictive and successful as it is. I wouldn’t say that GoT is brilliant. In fact, it is notably unoriginal. And it is precisely that accessible quality that makes it interesting as a model. Sure, it has a big budget and jaw-dropping location shoots no k-drama could dream of emulating. But it is not rocket science. Its success is not magical or accidental. It is back-to-basics television that K-dramas can learn a lot from:

[Fear not: No spoilers. Click away!]

That Winter, the Wind Blows – Episode 1 reaction

Yup. I’m in!

Iris 2 – Episode One reaction

Seriously?

I mean, seriously?

I was braced for some fairly risible stuff. This is, after all, from the makers of Iris (*yawn*) and Athena (*eye roll*) and the writer of Poseidon (*headdesk*). But … seriously?

You know how we joke about how we lose 30 IQ points watching a dumb show because it’s so dumb? Well, I feel as if I have lost 30 IQ points because I FEEL DUMB. As in “Huh? What happened? What? Huh? What was that about?” kind of dumb. Because I don’t understand what happened in Episode One. Literally don’t understand. I’m kind of worried about my mental faculties now, maybe I’ve just suffered a stealth attack of dementia or something?

Time Between Dog and Wolf (MBC, 2007) – Initial Reflections

I’m on Episode Four of Time Between Dog and Wolf (from here on dubbed “TBDAW”). It has taken me three tries – three tries! – to get past the first episode. Thing is, there are two things about k-dramas I can’t stand – (1) stories about pre-pubescent children falling in love (squick), and (2) exotic location shoots that make no sense, i.e., that drive the plot rather than plot driving location (e.g., why all that hanging around temples? Why speedboats on the Chao Phraya River? Apart from, they’re there, they’re nice to look at, and we can do it?). And both of these things we had in SPADES in Episode One of TBDAW.