Kdrama Review: Taereung National Village (2005)

Taereung National Village 
태릉선수촌 
7/10 ♥

Every now and then, I get nostalgic for my favorite actors when I haven't seen them in a while. Hence my reason for watching this drama short. And the reason I picked this special production about athletes living in an Olympics training facility, falling in love and out of love... Lee Sun Gyun, aka The Voice. What I ended up watching was Lee Min Ki in a not underwhelming starring role. Taking in each 30 minute episode, the whole drama clocks in at around 4 hours. I speak from authority in that I do not like sports stories, I don't know a think about judo or archery, and I only know that I kind of like watching the swimmers and gymnasts when they come around every four years. But I liked this drama, and it wasn't because of the athletics. It was because of the athletes and the actors who played them.

Like many stories, this is a coming-of-age tale for the majority of the characters. Except the kids in Taereung have already had larger-than-life expectations thrust upon them. Hong Min Ki (Lee Min Ki, not to confuse anyone) is good at judo, except for that little problem that he becomes physically ill before every single match. Bang Su Ah (Choi Jung Yoon) won an archery medal at the last Olympics, but she's showing signs of a slump this time around. Her boyfriend Dong Kyung (Lee Sun Gyun) is a swimmer (yeah that means he walks around in swimmers trunks a couple times ) who's reaching past his prime before he could ever achieve something glorious, and little Ma Ru (Song Ha Yoon) is the best gymnast in the village with the whole world in front of her. Don't expect miracles out of everybody. This is a highly realistic snapshot of 4 completely different athletes who are thrust together due to their relationships, and the world makes what it will of them.

Is her face just tiny, or does he have a big head?

The Males

Lee Min Ki practically glitters throughout the whole drama. He's hyper, alternately cute and annoying, and makes no secret of his crush for the former gold medal winner archer. He's at his coolest though (meaning dorkiest) when he confronts that girl's hulk of a boyfriend. I'm biased of course, but Lee Sun Gyun is fabulous. He also acts the same as every other time I've seen the man act: confident in the spotlight, with a twinge of vulnerability when he's not. It's not groundbreaking, but always appealing. I give this show bonus points for the bromance. When the two aren't nose to nose, about to come to blows, they're sheltering each other from life and all its dirty little tricks. 

The Females

Taereung National Village doesn't just do justice to the males of the drama. Su Ah snuck up on me as one of my favorite characters, mostly for how she maintains her confidence in the midst of career slumps and love troubles. She goes from being a clueless bystander in her own relationships, to seriously considering the whys and hows of all her issues. All this without becoming jealous or vindictive of her rivals in both areas. Her roommate Ma Ru is initially typecast as the clingy would-be girlfriend to Min Ki but for a timely plot device that kind of made me love her. Life works us through many kinds of trials, and Ma Ru went through the pits of character hell into looking and acting like a real human being.

Next time, don't date an archer ;)

The Extra Bits

Why watch? I don't know. If you love the actors, if you're in for 4 hours of slice of life. If you're up for watching people learn and grow, and act natural, and still be funny. There's something peaceful about this drama. After the glitz and glam of Kdramas, it was a refreshing, homey watch, and evidently pinned by a production team that knew what it was doing, despite receiving probably no extra promotional material to work with. But hey, when they snuck in a scene from When Harry Met Sally, with accompanying irony, I was sold.

Kdrama Review: Hotelier (2001)

Hotelier
호텔리어
7/10 ♥

Hotelier is the story of… wait for it… hotel personnel in fancy Seoul Hotel. They lead a ‘charmed’ existence looking after the wants and needs of the ridiculously picky wealthy, smiling through every crisis and their days never end. But it’s a family-run enterprise, so everyone basically loves everyone. Until their patriarch dies, and it’s up to his [very large hotel] family of managers and staff to save the business from falling into the hands of an evil corporate money-maker, and his incredibly ruthless M&A specialist attorney.

Except the attorney might just be wooing the floor manager, and the corporate boss man’s daughter might just be falling for the general manager. Throw in another lazy chaebol son, devious employees, birth secrets, miscommunication, more secrets, lies, more lies and love, and you’ve got yourself a Kdrama. 

"A drama plus ME!"

The Four Parts of the Square

Bae Yong Jun plays the attorney Shin Dong Hyuk, a whole year before Japanese housewives began passing out due to his stint propelling the Hallyu wave in Winter Sonata. This might’ve been his rehearsal drama. The same romantic gestures, overly long look of the eyes, and occasionally merciless nature typify his role here against a nearly helpless female manager Seo Jin Young (Song Yoon Ah). I say helpless, because what is a girl to do when she accidentally falls into the pool and is rescued by the speedo-wearing Yong Jun?

To complicate everything is Jin Young’s relationship with the GM Han Tae Jun (Kim Seung Woo). He’s a beloved, efficient, and eminently capable manager, and unlike most dramas, an exact equal in measure to his rival in love and business. So what if he doesn’t possess any of Dong Hyuk’s wealth, or the ability to smolder in dorky glasses. He’ll stop at anything to protect Seoul Hotel, and the ladies most attached to him, including an ignored rich daughter Kim Yoon Hee (Song Hye Ko, a year after her swooning forbidden romance in Autumn in My Heart). 

Why It Works

Because the recipe is timeless. Back then it might have sounded halfway original, but regardless Hotelier was enjoyable in its own way, like a portal to another world.  Within the scope of the hotel life is a giant, living, breathing anthill of people with their own stories, worries and woes, and between working out the kinks of hotel business they lean on each other in good times and bad. From the biggest role to the smallest, be it the GM, the head cook, or the two ever inseparable housekeeper ahjummas, Hotelier breathes life into the family of completely Hotel Seoul, and into the despair of keeping the hotel afloat.

More up on this decades-old drama, and a look at its somewhat surprising stance on gender roles. ALMOST NO SPOILERS.

DRAMA CLUB: The Master's Sun, Episodes 9-17

The Master's Sun
주군의 태양
7/10 ♥

Well, well, well - so the Master's Sun is over, and you know what? The Hong Sisters didn't make me hate them this time around *coughsbigcoughs* So I give them a splendid round of applause.

I won't try to write a full review anytime, because looking at it on an episode per episode basis was already stretching the amount of analysis I wanted to put into it. Could a person find more detail in the drama to disect? Sure. And therefore it'll probably be done by many others around the blogosophere. Me, I enjoyed watching each week on a fluff-level basis, and between moving to a new home, being internet-less for over a week, and then having surgery and a slow-as-hell recovery, I'm still glad that I found the time fangirl a little with my two other Drama Club members Drama Debussie and Vivi and write a few episode reviews for DramaFever. 

• Episodes 9-10
• Episodes 11-12 Discussion Post (I was conscious that week just long enough to write a short paragraph)
• Episodes 13-15 and Discussion Post
• Episodes 16-17 and Discussion Post

Kdrama Review: Jang Ok Jung: Live in Love (2013)

Jang Ok Jang, Live in Love
장옥정, 사랑에 살다
7/10 ♥

I’m not a huge sageuk fan, nor have I been entranced by or enticed to watch too many fusion sageuks of late, which is a tiny bit surprising considering I was a history major and 70% of the books on my shelf are historical non-fiction. It’s not that I don’t like watching history unfold on the small screen, but in my youth I spent a great amount of time reading historical fiction. Unfortunately, I was a huge fan of medieval European history at the time, and the majority of fiction about that era is written by women for women, which means that your heroines were almost always the same. 

You can get:

1. Royal women who are badgered and pestered by men whether or not they make good marriages, 
2. Minor noblewomen who by chance get to interact with (male) greatness, or
3. Mistresses, the latter of which is usually the most depressing and utterly exhaustive subject of storytelling. 

I got so burned out by the genre that I haven’t touched historical fiction in nearly a decade.

Bring it on Jang Ok Jung, concubine of an age! I wasn’t going to watch this one, I swear. But something about its pitch got a hold of me. I love a good ‘what if?’ historical retelling. What if, Jang Ok Jung (posthumously known as Jang Hui-bin) wasn’t the evil, conniving woman that history paints her as? What if she wasn’t totally about greed and power. What if it really was all about love between Lee Soon and herself, to hell with all else…?

Pshh.. This is well documented Korean history.

But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more to the story than history has to say. Or that the inner motivations of these highly visible personages were ever truly known by more than themselves or a few other people.

In other words, history always gives us this much leeway to make a romance out of nothing. If you want to approach Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love as infallible history, don’t. But if you’re in the mood for a sweeping epic love story set in historical period based more or less on real people– this might be a good drama for you.

We’re certainly not working with highbrow historical revisionism here, so I’m going to just go ahead and review it as historical fiction. The 2013 drama Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love is based off a 2008 novel of the same name by Choi Jung Mi. It’s basically chick lit, so don’t say you weren’t warned. In our drama version, Kim Tae Hee plays the titular role, and her lover is none other than Yoo Ah In who is finally back in hanbok (Thank you Drama Overlords! Thank you!) as the Crown Prince Lee Soon and later King Sukjong.

More mostly-non-Spoilery thoughts on Joseon History, the fictional world of Jang Ok Jung, and why it almost works.

Jdrama Review: Akumu Chan (2012)

Akumu Chan
悪夢ちゃん
7/10 ♥

Taking another foray out of my comfort zone (I admit, my zone is pretty limited to rom-coms and the occasional K-melo) comes Akumu Chan. Nightmare Chan, or My Little Nightmare, is a bizarre little original drama about an elementary teacher and her student who have prophetic dreams. Throw in some science fiction technology that makes dreams viewable via a 'dream card' on a TV screen for perusal once a subject is awake, and you’ve got the makings of a what’s sometimes a creepy thriller-paced storyline. Yes, it’s a Jdrama and therefore episodic, but the overall arc is terribly fascinating and each character just nuanced enough to make their growth appealing, and their pasts gripping.

Kitagawa Keiko (Buzzer Beat) plays Ayami-sensei, a cheery faced teacher who behind her smile hides a thorny personality and general distaste for her profession, kids, and of course love. But she’s destined be a mentor for transfer student Koto Yuiko (child actress, Kimura Manatsu). This child’s eyes literally wobble inside her head when she ‘connects’ to another person’s subconscious, and she sees the future. They’re almost always foreshadowing dire consequences, but to change future she needs a dream interpreter. 

And.. is he the hero or the villain?

Rounding up the cast was a new face for me, but very recognizable I'm sure to a few people: Gackt. He's a bit weathered now, and those curls... Ack! But as the male lead in our drama here he is quite something. Is he the Dream Prince, who literally appears in Ayami's dreams riding a white horse? or is he a sinister, ambition driven scientist who only wants the secret to the dream card? He's alternately creepy and endearing, and so makes it difficult to guess. Props to Gackt. And his curls.

Read on for more non-spoilery thoughts, Episode Guide and Episode Reviews. 

Kdrama Review: To The Beautiful You (2012)

To The Beautiful You
아름다운 그대에게
7/10 ♥  

To the Beautiful You snagged my attention the first time I heard it was to be made back in summer 2012, and for good reason. It hadn’t been that long since I had finished Japan’s first Jdrama version of this apparently timeless manga story Hana Kimi. My brain exploded. Korea? Is remaking this? With an idol cast? Save me now… Which is to say, from the moment episode 1 became subbed and available, I was on board – but for all the wrong reasons.

The story should be a familiar one for most drama watchers. American born Korean girl Goo Jae Hee (Sulli from f(x)) cuts her hair, moves to Korea, and dresses up as a boy to attend an all-males sports focused high school for pretty boys, and ends up rooming with the star of her life, a former legend at the high jump Kang Tae Joon (Minho from SHINee). The reasons and explanations vary from version to version, but basically her aim is inspire the injured and lackluster former star back into jumping. And for some reason, Jae Hee thinks she’s the only person capable of doing this – also that she can pull off such an undercover feat without being caught. Why am I picking bones with the story? It’s a manga. We should just be cool with it. 

More on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly coming up! (No Spoilers)

Kdrama Review: God's Quiz Season 1 (2010)

God’s Quiz
신의 퀴즈
7/10 ♥ 

Oh dear. It’s another episodic crime scene investigation story – my least favorite genre ever, thank you American TV over-saturation for my dislike of the genre. Why on earth did I start this one then? Because I’m a glutton for punishment. Also, I like to branch out a bit and pretend that I don’t just watch mushy rom-coms. Also, after dropping Faith by episode 4 I was genuinely intrigued by the one actor that didn’t seem to annoy me. Oh well, this was only 10 episodes long.

Synopsis:

Ryu Deok Hwan plays brilliant doctor Han Jin Woo, who for some reason has consented to take a post as a medical examiner at the ‘National Scientific Criminal and Investigation Laboratory’ established in a regional Forensic Scientist office in Hanguk University. This is a fancy way of saying he works in what amounts to a morgue, doing autopsies on bodies that (in this case) almost always had bizarre or extremely rare diseases. The team is joined by detective Kang Kyung Hee, played by Yoon Joo Hee, who for the sake of viewers serves as the outside perspective, to whom all medical terms need to be explained.

Without using spoilers, I’m going to do this review a little differently, because I think we can look at God’s Review in two separate lights: generally, and by individual episodes. My verdict is that some episodes, particularly the early ones are not very good. But like all episodic shows, it takes a little time for viewers to get attached to the general cast. The dynamics of an investigation team are always the heart of this genre, and looking past the formula of disease/death-of-the-week episodes, God’s Quiz’s overarching plot and its characters are especially well done. 

A decent medical investigation drama? I guess I can deal with that...

TwDrama Review: Summer's Desire (2010)

Summer’s Desire
泡沫之夏
7/10 ♥ 

Summer’s Desire is pure crack. A guilty pleasure like no other – a shameless soap opera chock full of birth secrets, back stories, long flashbacks, hideous characters, dangerously dramatic scenes, and a whole lot of romance mixed with revenge, and revenge mixed with romance.

It’s a classic love triangle. What else? Boy loves girl, girl likes guy, new guy likes girl, girl loves new guy? Uhm, it’s kind of confusing, but for sure I know one thing. Both male leads are and always have been head over heels for Yin Xia Mo, played by the gorgeous Barbie Tsu. Peter Ho plays the rich young master Ou Chen, heir to a fortune, and hopelessly jealous and possessive of the girl he met and loved as a child. Huang Xiao Ming is Luo Xi, a briefly adopted son in Xia Mo’s family, now a top movie star and heartthrob to a generation.

More than that, however, viewers cannot be sure of. Summer’s Desire is captivating in its buildup, and sizzling in its prime. Why did Luo Xi leave Taiwan all those years ago before he became famous, and why is Ou Chen already suffering from amnesia – no secret as of the first episode. What’s more, he can’t even remember the girl he loved and lost (?) all those years ago, or why. Will he recover his memories first to recover his most prized possession, and will it be in time, before Luo Xi’s own feelings reawaken? Hey, it’s a Taiwanese drama. That’s anyone’s guess!

Hang on there.  I'm not sure whether I like you or love you anymore...
Just let me think about this for a few more episodes. 

Read more for the rest of my mostly Non-Spoilery review!

Kdrama Review: Bridal Mask (2012)

Bridal Mask/Gaksital

각시탈
7/10 ♥

I did it! I finally did it! What did I do? Watched Bridal Mask in under a week! 4 days to be specific (though I took a 2 day mandatory drama slump break in between).  Was it worth it? I’m not even sure. I have to be honest with you. I hated a lot of things about this drama.  I also disliked a great many more things. I did so much eye-rolling I once gave myself a headache. Snap decision rates this a 7. You’ll know why if you read beyond the spoilers mark below.

The Synopsis: During the Japanese occupation of Korea (ca. late 1930s) there is Bridal Mask – Freedom Fighter! Or, revenge fighter. Heaping revenge upon revenge, avenging wrongs that in turn incite others to enact revenge, so they can go out and again avenge someone else who died during someone else’s revenge. Yes teacher, I did learn how to properly use these two words. I’m just glad a drama finally gave me ample opportunity to use them.  Did I mention this is a revenge drama? Instead of a he said, she said; he killed, she killed. It’s also got one of the most torturesome bromances I have ever had the misfortune to sit through…

If this doesn't bode well, nothing will, bro. Nothing will. 

Back to the good part: Actually I can’t remember the good part anymore, but I know there was some! Something had to keep me glued to the TV for 28 hours, though it was probably curiosity more than anything else. Just how sucky can these characters’ fates actually get!?!

Probably the most epic of epic dramas (that I have seen recently), Bridal Mask the story of a Lee Kang To: a Korean ‘traitor’ employed in the Japanese Imperial Police. This is my first time with actor Joo Won, and though I can say I was pleased overall by his performance, I'm still not really his biggest fan.  More to my taste Park Ki Woong plays his best friend Kimura Shunji, a civilian school teacher in contrast to his more militarily minded father and older brother.

So how do they get from crying together on a bicycle to arch enemies on either side of a Korean-Japanese mob versus police war? Watch and find out, if you have the stomach to handle it.

Can't we just rationally discuss who gets the girl over tea time? Pretty please?

What I Liked:

For all the plot-wasting time, I found Bridal Mask to be a genuinely good story with some pretty compelling characters, especially in the initial set-up period of the drama: Kang To before he became Bridal Mask and Shunji before circumstances forced him to side with his father against his friend. 

Also, in keeping with my sudden realization that I’m prone to bit-player syndrome (as opposed even to second lead syndrome), I found myself watching more and more for a single character with about 5 seconds of screen time per episode. An unusual fascination perhaps, but I highly respect an actor who in a short amount of time can pull off a decent character with so little to work with.  My bit-player love this time around: Choi Dae Hoon as Lee Hae Seok, the son of a Korean count in cahoots with the Imperial government.  He’s everything a spoiled rich kid is supposed to be: playboy, carefree, friends with everyone, and deep down behind it a yearning that something is just not right with the world he occupies. If you expect to see a huge character arc from this guy, it’ll take a while (with about 1 major development per every 10 eps). I’m just giving credit where I think some is due. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the actor has been in anything else, ever. More’s the pity. I liked him way more than I did some of the main actors.

Ooh boy, do I love that smirk. Couldn't you have been the major player here??

What I Didn’t Like:

The romance – shockingly. I just didn’t feel it, and it’s mostly to do with the main female actress Jin Se Young as Oh Mok Dan. Her backstory is fine and dandy (for Kdrama standards), but as the pinnacle of our love triangle she’s almost too bland, and her acting while not horrid was not as compelling as others. I was mostly bored every time she came on screen, and only tolerated her because she was so vital to the story, and in the motivations behind our two main leads.

Also, I hate to admit it, but there were so many torture scenes in this abominable show that I almost wanted to yawn through them. Just how many times need we depict people being whipped or burned or put in a box with metal stakes. I think it was the writers’ go-to solution. “Well, what should we do now? The story’s slowed a bit.” “Hey, I know! Let’s have them bring this person back in for questioning and torture, AGAIN!” Repeat, two episodes later. And two episodes after that. Tedious, anyone?

Need more masked-man action, pppplease!!

Unfortunately I think Bridal Mask suffers much from a combination of too many small things to count. Almost as if it couldn’t decide what genre it really was (after the revenge drama part).  Maybe the length has to do with most of these faults. Read more for a short conclusion of why I gave this a higher rating than my initial reasoning demanded.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Jdrama Review: Buzzer Beat (2009)

Buzzer Beat

ブザー・ビート
7/10 ♥

It’s been awhile since I watched this Jdrama, but since I’ve been mulling over some recent Jdramas (and their complete lack of credible romance stories), I’ve been thinking more and more about Buzzer Beat, and its extremely capable and compelling love story. Yes, you heard it right. This drama brings out all the stops – or at least most of them – with romance, hugging, kissing, cuddling, and a million other “awww”-worthy moments. Also, there’s some basketball. I actually like basketball, so this drama is pretty well set in my books. Minus a few irritations, side characters, and cliché plot holes, Buzzer Beat’s 11 episodes are a fun watch, and well worth the time.

Want proof about its watchability factor? On the few nights where I couldn’t access my real computer, I savored this drama (meaning, I totally marathoned it) on youtube with Spanish subs. Note to self: my freshman high school Spanish is completely not up to scraps. I needed a dictionary to translate the Spanish subs of a Japanese language drama. Now that’s obsessed.

Buzzer Beat stars Yamapi, or Yamashita Tomohisa, as Kamiya Naoki, a less than stellar pro-basketball player with a low salary and no fans. Kitagawa Keiko is our other lead star Shirakawa Riko, a bummed, single violinist without a job. Both are struggling to stay confident about their sport/art when circumstances throw them together. What follows is a halfway original story of personal growth as the two develop a sincere friendship with one another, and perhaps the chance of something more.  

Up even past the halfway mark, both the story and the romance (aka ‘Total Cuteness-ity’) are riveting. Unfortunately, the show’s failings lay in the last few episodes, where the writers throw on heavy doses of angst and lost almost all of my attention. I mean, I figured there would be a nice sweet ending, but must it really be necessary to suffer so much to get there? It’s a little sad that a perfectly wonderful show was ruined by Kdrama-esque plot holes and noble idiots pandering about in circles, but overall the strength of the earlier episodes (at least 82% of the drama) were fine and dandy. Buzzer Beat even does a good job at not turning every side character into an exact stereotype, a feat for which I am I always grateful.

If only this show was perfect. Our characters were already
great. I guess that'll make up for most of it. 

My vote is that you watch it for the leads, and turn your brain off by episode 9. That should make things all better. Read more for a not totally spoilery episode-by-episode account, and some of my favorite Buzzer Beat drama quotes.

Kdrama Review: Can We Get Married? (2012)

Can We Get Married?

우리가 결혼할 수 있을까
7/10 ♥

Wow, I almost didn’t finish this drama. At least twice during my long run, it ended up on my dropped list. Each time I revived it and kept on going. Overall I’m glad I did. It’s hard to categorize this drama, let alone rate it. My 7 is an estimable guess, an average of the joy and exasperation Can We Get Married? brought to my life.

What's it about and why did I keep going? Four couples from four different walks of life duke it out. Seriously. That’s about it. Some are fighting to get married; some are fighting to stay married.  But while the in-fighting and in-laws are over the top and hair-wrenchingly vexing, somehow, somewhere, a Kdrama did something unlike many a drama: it brought a little realism to this world – not a ton, mind you. This is still a drama after all.  But in the characterizations it brings to the screen, especially in our lead couple, the cute but petty Hye Yoon, and her salaryman fiancé Jung Hoon.

Honorable mention in my book also goes to Hye Yoon’s older married sister and her cheating husband. (Never thought I’d say that before!) But honestly, they kept me more invested in the drama than anyone else.  Who is the real villain? I can’t really say. They are flawed human beings, as human beings are wont to be. It’s a refreshing change, painful as that knowledge sometimes is. Extra honorable mention goes to the mothers. Oh, those women – how I love to hate them, and sometimes I hated hating them. No shallow stereotypical Kdrama moms are these (initial appearances aside). They’re as fully fleshed out as the rest of the cast, and almost as sympathetic (almost).

Think we look cute? Just wait 'til you see our mothers.

I think much has been said about this drama already, but it’s one of the few shows that I have actually recorded my thoughts per episode as I watched them. So instead of trying to fully justify myself on the drama as a whole, I’ve edited out the spoilers from my initial episode commentaries. So read more below for my episode play-by-play, including a few more cute pics of Sung Joon, and some of my favorite drama quotes:

Jdrama Review: Liar Game (2007)

Liar Game

ライアーゲーム
7/10 ♥

Well I finally got around to watching what is hailed in some circles as a classic:  Japanese manga adaption Liar Game.  Having heard much about it and its cast, I was no ends of hyped up and ready to go. I got to cracking, and 5 hours later in whirlwind fashion I’d watched nearly half the drama! Then I took a break and watched some more.  I haven’t marathoned something like that in nearly a month (Full House 2 really doesn’t count), so finding a drama so highly marathonable was a treat to behold, but once I stopped – I stopped. And wondered. And pondered. Why it was seemingly addicting, but not perfect. Intriguing, though somewhat lacking. But ultimately, why I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen. 

The Plot

Ignorantly naïve and honest-to-a-fault Kanzaki Nao (played by Toda Erika) is duped into playing a mysteriously organized ‘Liar Game’ after receiving 100 million yen (or $1,000,000), which she must either keep safe from her opponent and his 100 million yen, or steal his to win the game. She is of course dangerously out of her league, until it’s brought to her attention that a former con-man and genius swindler Akiyama Shinichi (played by the gorgeous Matsuda Shota) might be persuaded to help her out.  Enticed with pity, Akiyama teams up with our ridiculously gullible heroine as they are forced to play, and keep playing a series of rounds, each with higher stakes and more cunning, villainous opponents. 

The Cool Part

The games themselves are a logician’s masterwork.  No twist is foreseeable, and no puzzle unsolvable to the brilliantly minded Akiyama-san.  If you like sitting for half an hour – or two - in complete suspense wondering how on earth they will ever manage to win each round through sheer guile, biting your fingernails in anticipation of victory – well that might explain why it’s so highly marathonable.  Matsuda Shota plays his part to perfection as the ultimate silent type: an analyst of humans, ever noting the depths of lies and secrets, and calculating every possible move before it happens. You’ll find yourself sitting in absolutely stillness waiting for his manipulations to become clear and work their magic.

The Boring Part

You get the feeling after a while that Akiyama-san will always be there to save the day. And then, the suspense becomes merely repetitive.  Having watched half the drama, the pattern for each match firmly memorized, and my brain starting to unravel to keep up with each game’s rules and intricacies, I found myself spacing out.  Fortunately, the drama anticipates just such an outcome. Get lost trying to understand the all the players’ plots and maneuverings?  No sweat! Before the game ends, there’ll be at least a 20 minute step by step account of how everything happened, and why.

The Real Crux of the Matter

Games and plotting aside, there’s something very unique about Liar Game’s premise.  The story isn’t merely about forcing poor innocent, indebted people to play a game, practically to the death, financial death.  Liar Game instead strives to uncover the heart of human nature itself.  As the game’s masterful creator intones:  “Humans are willing to betray each other in order to survive.  Therefore, what’s wrong with deceiving others from the start or living faithfully for your own desires? That’s being human.”

 
The world he paints in one of black and white, where the black-hearted will always win, and the weak and pitiful will always lose.  It’s the cunning versus the trusting, and the pack against the loner, not necessarily evil versus good.  To reach the top, humans should or will be capable of stepping on anyone and anything; survival of the smartest, when the risk is losing everything.  You lie or you lose. 

In Kanzaki Nao, we not only have the most gullible and trusting character ever written; she is an allegory of trust and honesty, absolutely incapable of lying. To the exasperation of the Liar Game Tournament office (or perhaps to their increasing interest), Nao refuses to adhere to their rules.  She tries again and again to prove that with teamwork, everyone can win and advance to the next round, maybe not with a profit, but at least debt free. The catch is, if Nao wins, it will disprove everything our Liar Game creator believes in.  But for how long Nao can keep the players working together is the only true unknown. It’s a question not even solved by the end of drama.  Another season and several movie specials follow Season 1. 

Conclusion

I actually managed to improve my appreciation for the drama in the course of writing this article.  It’s hard to fault Liar Game for any real plot holes, especially when it’s obvious that the entire story has purpose beyond plain entertainment, fun, games or romance.  Are all the concepts expertly done? Not always.  Is it a little cheesy and overly moralistic at times? Absolutely. Will this be my favorite drama of all times, or will I ever rewatch it? No, and most likely not.  But the characters are generally good, and well acted for their roles.  Matsuda Shota is fantastic to watch, especially when he gets his game face on.  I’d like to say that Erika Toda didn’t overly impress me with her acting, but when her character is an allegory, and mostly unrealistic – that’s something I just can’t make a case out of disliking. Did it detract a little bit from my enjoyment overall? Sure, but then it was a fun ride and eventually I will continue the story, and finish the game another day.

Jdrama Review: Pride (2004)



Pride

プライド
7/10 ♥
 

Yay for Pride!  It’s a first-rate steamy romance; no wait, it’s a first-rate inspirational sports drama. No wait, it’s a bit of both and somewhere in the combination is a half-hearted attempt to tell a new and unique story… no wait, there’s nothing new or unique.  But if you A) Like a decently spun romance, or B) like Japanese hockey, then this is the drama for you. 

Pride sets off with some pretty decent story-telling, and a couple of nicely charismatic actors.  Initially I was watching this thing for Kimura Takuya, who plays hockey-player extraordinaire Satonaka Halu.  He’s your standard rom-com lead, romantic yet insecure, and to cover up his insecurities, he hides behind the ‘Pride of the Iceman.’ I think that has something to do with being awesome on skates, padded up like an Eskimo, and generally being able (and allowed) to bowl over any man who gets in your way. 

Equally impressive as an acting force, however, is Takeuchi Yuko playing Murase Aki as the girl left behind… by another guy/jerk introduced halfway through drama.  Here’s the rub:  Halu was warned never to sincerely love a woman, lest it interfere with his career; Aki is technically still waiting for her boyfriend to return (after a two year hiatus – and these people obviously don’t believe in phones).  So in the meantime, to stave off loneliness and generally have fun, they’ve agreed to date until Aki’s boyfriend returns, and then they’ll part amicably as friends.  Maybe…

As a sports drama it’s honestly not too bad.  Keep in mind, I’m not a huge sports junkie and I’m not generally fond of the genre, but I’m also not completely averse to seeing hot guys working out.  Did I have any genuine anxiety that maybe the team wouldn’t play well in the finals, or that every player would become injured and remain crippled? Not really. Were the slow-motion sequences of pucks magically sliding towards the goal net cheesy? Yes, sort of.  Did I really care one way or the other? Nope.

 

As a romance story, it’s above average with a touch of good chemistry, some fairly hot kiss scenes, and then some…  And really up through the halfway mark, I had nothing too bad to say about the development of the couple.  Unfortunately then we’re hit with your typical dose of angst, stupidity, and a serious lack of communication.  There were also some people I wanted to throttle through my computer screen… Oh well.  It prolonged the drama another 4 episodes, by which point I’d already clocked out.



Pride on, “Pride” 

Now this is where I am curious.  Is this just a culture thing that Japanese people (or their drama writers) can pride themselves on having… pride?  Now when I was growing up, we had this lovely little novel called Pride and Prejudice, and I hope I don’t spoil the ending for anyone, but the two main love interests eventually figure out  that having too much pride may not be such a good thing.  Sure, it’s good to have confidence in yourself, as a hockey player (Halu), and as a human being (Aki).  Having something to be proud of, either about yourself or how you live can also go a long way towards your peace of mind and overall quality of life. 

I don’t know if you can tell, but this drama is kind of about the characters having “pride.” 

What’s strange is in how their professed sense of pride actually works.  Halu’s is understandable for an athlete.  He has to exude confidence about himself for the sake of his team and his sport.  Not allowing any girl to get near him to possibly break his heart is a sad yet reasonable fear.  For Aki, her pride is actually in how long she’s waited for a guy to return from another country! Pardon me while I take a moment to choke that down… Okay, I’ve recovered.  Yes, that’s great. She waited.  Not that her pride in such matters kept her from falling in love with the adorably puppy-ish Kimura Takuya. 

SPOILERS ALERT!

Jdrama Review: Love Shuffle (2009)

Love Shuffle

ラブシャッフル
7/10 ♥

After reading endless praise-worthy reviews, and reading the synopsis, Love Shuffle seemed to be offering up something unique.  Four strangers who live on the same apartment floor meet one day in a stalled elevator, and after this plus a few other chance meetings, decide that each of their respective love lives are something of a mess.  Borrowing their own partners, they devise the ‘love shuffle’.  Each week a different couple is paired together, compatibility and chemistry are measured, true and fake loves abound, and everybody seems more confused about their destined partners than when they started.  It’s a true OTP-guessing drama, fun and sexy, with a healthy dose of quirky characters and plot twists.  All that, and I still couldn’t love it. 

"Say it ain't so.. Joe!"

Maybe I’m hung up on the idea that there is, or should be, something wrong fundamentally with casually switching partners every week.  Or maybe this is too much fiction for me to be able to accept that a psychiatrist would really put his suicide-prone patient into the mix.  Not that these are even serious flaws for a TV drama, but something from the get-go was telling me, “I don’t like it.” I nearly dropped the show at only two episodes.  A week later, and after some serious consideration, I picked it up again. 

I’m happy I did so, because there are good themes to this drama.  For one, it doesn’t hurt to analyze what’s at the heart of a basic human relationship.  These are not your typical marriage-obsessed characters.  Indeed, some of them are quite the reverse, and some don’t seem to care one way or the other.  In Kdramaland, everything seems to scream of that one fated lover.  Miss your OTP, and you might as well resign yourself to a lonely, sad existence.  Here is where Love Shuffle breaks a few boundaries.  These are human beings yearning for one other, yes, but not necessarily or exclusively via typical romantic outlets.  If I loved anything about this drama, it’s in the friendships that were forged and honed throughout.  The foursome that live on the same floor, drinking wine each evening in the hall in their PJs.  The women who come together, alternately snarky and supportive.  The men who bond both in jealousy and in commonality.  The couples who are not destined, but can still inspire. 

Where I think Love Shuffle misses the mark though is in the fairly grey area of delivery.  It’s as if the drama can’t decide if it should be a comedy or a melodrama, an inspirational tale of life over death, or a social commentary of the emasculated young male figure in a patriarchal country.   Sure, the drama tries to tackle some issues in fairly creative ways.  The most relevant would probably be Matsuda Shota’s character Sera Ojiro, introduced to us as a former wartime photographer who had become disgusted at his own insensitivity. In a turnaround moment, Ojiro purposely starts a fight with a gang of men, who had just the day before beaten him senseless. Reinvigorated, he knocks down the greatest offender, looks around with satisfaction, and then calmly snaps a picture of the man’s bloody face.  

Not that I’m making too much of this parallel (or am I?), but Ojiro is also adept at using his camera to maneuver his models into the exact position and level of vulnerability he wants them in. 

Exhibit A:



Exhibit B:

Love Shuffle is commendable in its uniqueness, and multiple-plot driven storylines. It's even at times hilarious, though be sure to watch with decent subtitle translations, as oftentimes the jokes are Japanese-specific. I’m not sure why, but every now and then I find myself walking around thinking, “Yay, panda...” Sadly, that’s about as much enthusiasm I had overall, though that is not meant to be a discouragement.  I thoroughly recommend Love Shuffle, as I don't doubt that I am one of the few people out here too picky for my own good. So what do you think?