Kdramas are critical to mental and emotional health, right?
I write reviews of kdramas that seem more like personal essays.
photo: Suncheon Filming Site (2019)
Recent Posts
I try to post reviews seven days after they conclude. Do I generally succeed? No! But bear with me!
Strange Crew: Glitch
The short Netflix series, Glitch, kind of spoke to me as a story about two unexpected soulmates, Hong Ji-hyo and Heo Bo-ra, who abruptly find and then lose each other in middle school only to reconnect under weird extraterrestrial and terrestrial circumstances in adulthood.
Does Twitter Know that it is no longer 1868?: The Controversy of Little Women
Despite Little Women’s feast of dark tones, literary value and delicate/tawdry storytelling…the drama’s conclusion was maligned, or perhaps more accurately, mourned on Twitter. When a drama doesn’t end up in a “wedding and a kiss”, the netizens take to their keyboards! I felt worried about the response…for both the show and for humanity.
What is the worst thing about Extraordinary Lawyer Woo Young-woo?
Are you upset that Extraordinary Attorney Woo did not give you the feels and heals that you were looking for? Let’s look a bit closer at what culture, especially the pop stuff, is for.
Snowdrop: The Case of the Hysterical Hostage
My resentment towards Snowdrop can be summarized by one particular point; it actually made me question the legitimacy of the beloved drama, SKY Castle. To have it sullied after watching the sophomore endeavour of the writer/director feels insulting because now the original drama feels transformed from a critical satire on Korean elites and their nefarious plans to buy their children’s futures into a run-of-the-mill makjang (though these elements were ever-present). Nonetheless, I still assert that SKY Castle was refreshing, tawdry, and fun; Snowdrop was vanilla, repetitive and pretty boring.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do?: Yumi’s Cells
Western culture is bad at acknowledging and processing a lot of things: namely, grief, conflict, justice, fairness and atonement. A lot of these things are deeply rooted in the way we process emotion. Human beings have the tendency to either react too impulsively or interpret their emotions as irrational. Nonetheless, the way we feel about things and how we make sense of emotions matter immensely. In reflecting on this, I enjoyed Yumi’s Cells for two reasons. Firstly, it showed the complexity of a human being’s emotional landscape in an entertaining and earnest way, and secondly, it appealed to the audience’s emotions, in a way that probably bordered on the manipulative, but allowed for true outpouring that was very comforting to the viewer…this viewer anyways.
It’s Always the Quiet Ones: When the Weather is Fine and A Piece of Your Mind
This transition from winter to spring isn’t all sunshine and cherry blossoms, it can bring anxiety alongside with anticipation. The Spring of 2020 (one that will likely go down as one of the hardest for the entire world in recent memory) brought the release of two quiet and meditative dramas. Keeping viewer interest is sometimes a challenge with slower plots but the payoff can be quite exceptional if the story is accessible and the writers credit their audience’s intelligence. It is a delicate balance. I have decided to review these dramas together because one is an exceedingly well-done quiet drama and the other has garnered some well-earned contempt (from me in particular but also from kdrama fans!).
No Accounting for Taste: Itaewon Class
This glorious show deviated in so many ways from other Korean dramas, especially in its social radicality and representation but remained committed to the concept of the bittersweet. This theme was performed beautifully and expertly in this drama, and yet, this concept also describes my experience of watching the drama as well. While I found this drama emotionally fulfilling throughout, I was slightly disappointed by the end because it seemed to conclude in a place that was far more conservative than its beginning.
Dr. Romantic 2: The Lemming Crew
Are the doctors of Doldam a group of broken individuals trying to do good in this difficult world or is their profession a dangerous cult in disguise that uses eavesdropping in the most ruthless and nefarious ways…? Find out the answer here.
It's So Hard to Say Good-bye: Crash Landing On You
I wanted to write a very wry review of this drama demonstrating my frustration at its meandering and repetitive plot. I was so bored by all the good-bying that I wanted to give up on watching the drama early, and often. But I won’t write the review like this….because when I finally began to understand the drama’s narrative (which I admit only happened at the end of episode 15), I felt a little ashamed at my initial reaction.
