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adelagia and I have started our Korean class, and I am LOVING it so far! It's so fun to learn! And I love being able to put a lot of it to practice by watching K-dramas and looking up the names of my favorite actors (after guessing at how they spell their name). ;)
I'm actually really surprised by the written language. I had always imagined it was like Chinese, because they use characters, so it was just a matter of memorizing a bunch of different characters. But in fact, it's a lot more like English, wherein they have vowels and consonants, and you use them to create words, just like English! But instead of words going left to right, the words are placed so that they look more like characters (like Chinese). Anyway, the whole thing is really fun and awesome.
I'm just bummed that due to work travel, I'm going to miss two weeks in a row. Argh! I'll be so behind. :( I hope I can keep up; I've felt really good about things so far and it would really be tragic if this ends up derailing the whole thing.
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For my last few K-dramas, I seemed to be in a cycle where I was either watching a show where I liked the story, or a show where I liked the ship, but not both. >< This is unlike, say, Answer Me 1997, High School King of Savvy, and Oh My Ghostess, where I liked both of those things at once. (SIG was in all these shows in some capacity... coincidence?? ;) )
Strong Woman Do Bong SoonIn the category of a show where I liked the ship -- "like" is an understatement -- is Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. There was a period of time when I was super done with everything about it other than the stuff with the main pairing, but the other stuff was SO terrible that it was a really frustrating viewing experience. Buuuuuut they did right by us, mostly, in the final two episodes, so my overall lasting impression of the show is positive. I do plan, however, to create a supercut of the show that removes almost everything about the gangsters, and possibly some of the kidnapping plot as well, because both of those things were so poorly done.
As a whole, SWDBS was not a good show. Its massive success is wholly based on the chemistry between, and the individual charms of, its two leads. It also, occasionally, had beautiful cinematography. But that's pretty much it. The writing, story development, plot, pacing, and secondary characters all left so much to be desired. But the leads were so good, and their chemistry so wonderful, that I would still recommend the show to anyone (though I'd caveat it). That's pretty powerful!
( Spoilers through finale. )Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok JooThe opposite of SWDBS is Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, which was written by the same writer who co-wrote High School King of Savvy and Oh My Ghostess, both of which were really good in all ways. WFKBJ was a good show, with great writing, pacing, plot development, secondary characters, etc. The leads weren't, in my opinion, as strong as SWDBS (I know Tumblr would shout me down on this one; the couple seems universally beloved). They were good, but I never shipped them the way I ship
Bo-young and Hyungsik Bong-soon and Min-hyuk.
I never really got into the lead actress/heroine (way too much crying and wailing for my taste, and I do
not understand their coloring choices for her at all), and while I
did like the lead actor/hero, I wasn't quite as into him once he was completely defanged (just like Spike!). People seem to love that both Ahn Min-hyuk and Jung Joon-hyung are both nice guy heroes, and while I definitely like that too, what made them interesting was that they both also had a bit of an asshole sheen. I particularly liked Joon-hyung for not getting sucked back into his ex-girlfriend's BS.
Answer Me 1994This is another one where I liked the story a lot more than I liked any of the ships. It was actually a near-miracle that I ended up finishing this one at all, considering how much I disliked the heroine initially. In the end, I was fine with her, which is a good thing since I have to watch her opposite Park Hyungsik in Hwarang at some point. But the ship was... so meh. It says a lot that
jade_okelani and I thought watching all of 1994 was worth it just for the brief cameos that SIG and Eun-ji did... it speaks to how little we were into 1994, and how much we loved the ship in 1997.
( Spoilers! )I was going to include two other dramas in this post, but if I do that, who knows when I'll actually post this thing? So -- the end! (For now.)
