K-drama talk and Talis has an ACL tear :(
Mar. 2nd, 2017 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
IT'S HAPPENING. adelagia and I are taking a Korean I class at BCC in the spring. I'm super excited, but also disappointed because I have to miss at least two classes (that's 20% of the course! :() due to work travel. I really, really, REALLY hope that I don't have to miss more, but who the eff knows. I've told adelagia that she has to take good notes on my behalf so that I won't be forced to take her first-place underwear (Answer Me 1997 reference! WATCH IT!"). :)))))
You know how when you take language classes in high school, the teacher has you pick a common name in that language? In preparation, I have consulted this Korean name generator. My Korean name: Shin Yeon-Ji. (If I input Sarea Okelani, it's Kan Sung-Ra, which sounds like a medieval warrior princess! :D Well, IMHO.)
jade_okelani and I have finished watching Boys Over Flowers. The most terrible thing has happened... she DIDN'T LIKE YI-JEONG/GA-EUL. /cry I don't even know what to say about it. She and I agree on almost every ship, and I didn't imagine this would be one where we diverged, when it is the ship EVERYONE WHO EVER WATCHES THE SHOW PREFERS. Sigh. She says that she doesn't feel like YJ "wants" GE enough. Whereas the people who ship them obviously feel differently. But you can't "convince" someone about a ship; that's like making someone feel something they don't, which is impossible.
Jade and I are now watching Goblin, which we've both heard good things about. We saw the pilot last night, and I thought it was okay. I love Gong Yoo, though he looks weird... I don't know if it's that he aged, or the military made him skinny, or what, but he doesn't seem as good-looking/charismatic as he was before, lol. But maybe it'll come through more once we get his character to loosen up more; I definitely liked him most in Coffee Prince and One Fine Day when he was smiling and being goofy. The girl seems okay, though she kind of reminds me of the girl from Cinderella and Four Knights, who I was meh about. (But that might've been more the character/story than the girl herself.) What's weird is that there are two guys in Goblin who remind us of SIG, but only in a disappointing way because they're not him. :))))
On my own, I finished watching Mirror of the Witch, which was seminal for my K-drama watching because it's a period drama. It's the first Korean period drama I've ever watched more than the pilot of, and I actually finished it! It starred the girl I liked from High School: Love On, Yoon Shi-yoon from Flower Boy Next Door, the guy who hates Onew in Descendants of the Sun, the second female lead from Answer Me 1997, Kwak Si-yang from Oh My Ghostess, and the guy who plays opposite SIG in The King's Face, another period drama that's on my watch list. WHEW. I'd forgotten how much I liked Yoon Shi-yoon, and this brought it back. :) I liked the show for the most part.
- I liked that the characters were, for the most part, not black or white. Well, other than the leads, who were both really only good. That's okay. I guess I should say that the "villains" had gray areas, which made them, and the story, a lot more interesting.
- There were some irritating things that happened, wherein new problems would crop up seemingly out of nowhere, and "rules" about how the curse would be broken that seemed to be pulled out of someone's ass. And as always, whenever you have anything to do with magic or supernatural power, the question is begged of why that person doesn't just do X, Y, or Z, other than that they didn't think of it or because the writer didn't write it in. :P When there's magic there needs to be rules and repercussions for it to be interesting, and while there was some of that, it was inconsistent.
- As much as I liked the two leads, I didn't really feel much romantic tension between them. Maybe it's because Yoon Shi-yoon is 30 and Kim Sae-ron is 16 (though she seems more mature), but they really seemed more platonic to me. There was a big bruhaha when she was cast, due to her age, but they actually worked fine opposite one another as the leads, at least for me and the Drama Beans recappers. For me, though, I don't know if it's because she's so young, but the romance part of it was lacking for me. They really seemed more like older brother and younger sister. The two of them never even kiss, that I can recall, though perhaps that was a conscious choice due to KSR's age.
- It was nice to see Kwak Si-yang do well. I liked him a lot in OMG, playing Joon, but his role was fairly small. He did well as Yeon-hee's oppa, though I wasn't crazy about his character. He's not the best actor in the world, and definitely looks better in a modern setting, but honestly, who doesn't? :P There were a couple of scenes in which his acting was a bit too obvious, but this was a much bigger role for him than in OMG and I look forward to seeing him in other stuff!
- On the other side of the coin, both YSY and KSR are both great actors, especially impressive given KSR's age. I was also impressed with Jang Hee-jin as Queen Shim and Lee Ji-hoon as King Seonjo. I also liked Lee Sung-jae as Yeon-hee's adoptive father, though I had serious problems with his character and specifically the way the other characters dealt with him. Yum Jung-ah was also good as Hong-joo, but as she was the villain, and not particularly sympathetic (though she wasn't 2D evil), and has the obvious fake plastic surgery nose that so many K-stars have, I'm pretty meh on her overall.
- The issue I had with Hyun-seo was that once Hong-joo started using him as a puppet for black magic, the good guys should have dispatched him immediately! He even asks to be killed, telling Yo-kwang (Lee Yi-kyung) that if he should pose a threat to Yeon-hee, that Yo-kwang should kill him. Yo-kwang has multiple opportunities to do this, EVEN WHILE HYUN-SEO IS ACTIVELY BEING EVIL, and doesn't do it!! Once he gets stabbed in the stomach!! It's like, dude it's NOT YOUR FRIEND/MENTOR ANYMORE!!! And it was even stupid that Hyun-seo asks to be killed if he tries to hurt Yeon-hee again -- YOU WILL. YOU ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF A SHAMAN WHO WANTS HER DEAD. HELLO???? He should have been asked to be killed immediately, and the good guys should have done it while he was actively being evil!!! So much bad stuff could have been prevented. It was so stupid, honestly.
- Now, Hong-joo having trouble killing him, and wanting to keep him around, THAT was good. That made her a deeper, more interesting character.
- I almost shipped the secondary pairing on this show, because the "conflicts" that Yeon-hee and Heo-jun go through don't actually make for an interesting love story. While but I liked Yo-kwang and Soon-deuk (Min Do-hee), their "romance" wasn't much of one.
- The ending was pretty anticlimactic/stupid. So Yeon-hee dies in Heo-jun's place, which sucks. And then it's 40 YEARS LATER, he's walking through a random field, and then goes through a magical portal? doorway? who the fuck knows? and suddenly he's young again and Yeon-hee is there. WTF? Like, if you want to give the show a happy ending, JUST FIND SOME LOOPHOLE IN THE CURSE! Don't give us this half-ass "happy" ending. It was Titanic-esque, except Titanic earned that ending; I don't think the show did.
- Speaking of the curse, it was so fucking dumb and frustrating how little they actually worked on lighting those last 8 candles considering IT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD STOP ALL THE TERRIBLE STUFF HAPPENING. And the show itself was paced poorly; there should have been a candle lit every so often. Instead, we'd see two, then none at all for a number of episodes, and then suddenly all but one were lit. They don't even bother to show the last two being lit or how they're lit! Considering the curse is the basis of the entire show, the fact that the characters don't work feverishly ALL THE TIME to get them lit is just absurd.
Bad news about Talis... it looks like he has an ACL tear. Ugh. Last week, the day after I took him to the vet to have him checked up because I suspected he needed a dental (he's been yelping randomly and has really bad breath; I know the signs as I've been through it before), my mom took him on a walk to the park. On the way back, she says, he started limping badly and she had to carry him home. She mentioned that he had been obstinate about moving with her to the trash can after he was done with his business (typical for him), so she had to pull/drag him (I've been through it myself), and I suspect that this is when the tear happened. So now I have to take him to a specialist, and either he has to have surgery (he's old, so I'm not thrilled with the idea of putting him through that), or he has to get one of those custom braces made. Ughghghghgh.
adelagia and I are taking a Korean I class at BCC in the spring. I'm super excited, but also disappointed because I have to miss at least two classes (that's 20% of the course! :() due to work travel. I really, really, REALLY hope that I don't have to miss more, but who the eff knows. I've told adelagia that she has to take good notes on my behalf so that I won't be forced to take her first-place underwear (Answer Me 1997 reference! WATCH IT!"). :)))))You know how when you take language classes in high school, the teacher has you pick a common name in that language? In preparation, I have consulted this Korean name generator. My Korean name: Shin Yeon-Ji. (If I input Sarea Okelani, it's Kan Sung-Ra, which sounds like a medieval warrior princess! :D Well, IMHO.)
jade_okelani and I have finished watching Boys Over Flowers. The most terrible thing has happened... she DIDN'T LIKE YI-JEONG/GA-EUL. /cry I don't even know what to say about it. She and I agree on almost every ship, and I didn't imagine this would be one where we diverged, when it is the ship EVERYONE WHO EVER WATCHES THE SHOW PREFERS. Sigh. She says that she doesn't feel like YJ "wants" GE enough. Whereas the people who ship them obviously feel differently. But you can't "convince" someone about a ship; that's like making someone feel something they don't, which is impossible.Jade and I are now watching Goblin, which we've both heard good things about. We saw the pilot last night, and I thought it was okay. I love Gong Yoo, though he looks weird... I don't know if it's that he aged, or the military made him skinny, or what, but he doesn't seem as good-looking/charismatic as he was before, lol. But maybe it'll come through more once we get his character to loosen up more; I definitely liked him most in Coffee Prince and One Fine Day when he was smiling and being goofy. The girl seems okay, though she kind of reminds me of the girl from Cinderella and Four Knights, who I was meh about. (But that might've been more the character/story than the girl herself.) What's weird is that there are two guys in Goblin who remind us of SIG, but only in a disappointing way because they're not him. :))))
On my own, I finished watching Mirror of the Witch, which was seminal for my K-drama watching because it's a period drama. It's the first Korean period drama I've ever watched more than the pilot of, and I actually finished it! It starred the girl I liked from High School: Love On, Yoon Shi-yoon from Flower Boy Next Door, the guy who hates Onew in Descendants of the Sun, the second female lead from Answer Me 1997, Kwak Si-yang from Oh My Ghostess, and the guy who plays opposite SIG in The King's Face, another period drama that's on my watch list. WHEW. I'd forgotten how much I liked Yoon Shi-yoon, and this brought it back. :) I liked the show for the most part.
- I liked that the characters were, for the most part, not black or white. Well, other than the leads, who were both really only good. That's okay. I guess I should say that the "villains" had gray areas, which made them, and the story, a lot more interesting.
- There were some irritating things that happened, wherein new problems would crop up seemingly out of nowhere, and "rules" about how the curse would be broken that seemed to be pulled out of someone's ass. And as always, whenever you have anything to do with magic or supernatural power, the question is begged of why that person doesn't just do X, Y, or Z, other than that they didn't think of it or because the writer didn't write it in. :P When there's magic there needs to be rules and repercussions for it to be interesting, and while there was some of that, it was inconsistent.
- As much as I liked the two leads, I didn't really feel much romantic tension between them. Maybe it's because Yoon Shi-yoon is 30 and Kim Sae-ron is 16 (though she seems more mature), but they really seemed more platonic to me. There was a big bruhaha when she was cast, due to her age, but they actually worked fine opposite one another as the leads, at least for me and the Drama Beans recappers. For me, though, I don't know if it's because she's so young, but the romance part of it was lacking for me. They really seemed more like older brother and younger sister. The two of them never even kiss, that I can recall, though perhaps that was a conscious choice due to KSR's age.
- It was nice to see Kwak Si-yang do well. I liked him a lot in OMG, playing Joon, but his role was fairly small. He did well as Yeon-hee's oppa, though I wasn't crazy about his character. He's not the best actor in the world, and definitely looks better in a modern setting, but honestly, who doesn't? :P There were a couple of scenes in which his acting was a bit too obvious, but this was a much bigger role for him than in OMG and I look forward to seeing him in other stuff!
- On the other side of the coin, both YSY and KSR are both great actors, especially impressive given KSR's age. I was also impressed with Jang Hee-jin as Queen Shim and Lee Ji-hoon as King Seonjo. I also liked Lee Sung-jae as Yeon-hee's adoptive father, though I had serious problems with his character and specifically the way the other characters dealt with him. Yum Jung-ah was also good as Hong-joo, but as she was the villain, and not particularly sympathetic (though she wasn't 2D evil), and has the obvious fake plastic surgery nose that so many K-stars have, I'm pretty meh on her overall.
- The issue I had with Hyun-seo was that once Hong-joo started using him as a puppet for black magic, the good guys should have dispatched him immediately! He even asks to be killed, telling Yo-kwang (Lee Yi-kyung) that if he should pose a threat to Yeon-hee, that Yo-kwang should kill him. Yo-kwang has multiple opportunities to do this, EVEN WHILE HYUN-SEO IS ACTIVELY BEING EVIL, and doesn't do it!! Once he gets stabbed in the stomach!! It's like, dude it's NOT YOUR FRIEND/MENTOR ANYMORE!!! And it was even stupid that Hyun-seo asks to be killed if he tries to hurt Yeon-hee again -- YOU WILL. YOU ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF A SHAMAN WHO WANTS HER DEAD. HELLO???? He should have been asked to be killed immediately, and the good guys should have done it while he was actively being evil!!! So much bad stuff could have been prevented. It was so stupid, honestly.
- Now, Hong-joo having trouble killing him, and wanting to keep him around, THAT was good. That made her a deeper, more interesting character.
- I almost shipped the secondary pairing on this show, because the "conflicts" that Yeon-hee and Heo-jun go through don't actually make for an interesting love story. While but I liked Yo-kwang and Soon-deuk (Min Do-hee), their "romance" wasn't much of one.
- The ending was pretty anticlimactic/stupid. So Yeon-hee dies in Heo-jun's place, which sucks. And then it's 40 YEARS LATER, he's walking through a random field, and then goes through a magical portal? doorway? who the fuck knows? and suddenly he's young again and Yeon-hee is there. WTF? Like, if you want to give the show a happy ending, JUST FIND SOME LOOPHOLE IN THE CURSE! Don't give us this half-ass "happy" ending. It was Titanic-esque, except Titanic earned that ending; I don't think the show did.
- Speaking of the curse, it was so fucking dumb and frustrating how little they actually worked on lighting those last 8 candles considering IT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD STOP ALL THE TERRIBLE STUFF HAPPENING. And the show itself was paced poorly; there should have been a candle lit every so often. Instead, we'd see two, then none at all for a number of episodes, and then suddenly all but one were lit. They don't even bother to show the last two being lit or how they're lit! Considering the curse is the basis of the entire show, the fact that the characters don't work feverishly ALL THE TIME to get them lit is just absurd.
Bad news about Talis... it looks like he has an ACL tear. Ugh. Last week, the day after I took him to the vet to have him checked up because I suspected he needed a dental (he's been yelping randomly and has really bad breath; I know the signs as I've been through it before), my mom took him on a walk to the park. On the way back, she says, he started limping badly and she had to carry him home. She mentioned that he had been obstinate about moving with her to the trash can after he was done with his business (typical for him), so she had to pull/drag him (I've been through it myself), and I suspect that this is when the tear happened. So now I have to take him to a specialist, and either he has to have surgery (he's old, so I'm not thrilled with the idea of putting him through that), or he has to get one of those custom braces made. Ughghghghgh.
