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Drama Recs #8
AKA what I've been doing lately instead of being productive like I wanted to:
1. One Spring Night: Lee Jeong-In’s relationship has been on its last legs for a while, but she’s been going through the motions. Then she meets Yu Ji-ho, a single father who falls for her pretty much instantly… What I liked most about this drama was its tone, which is a little hard to describe. Fragile, real and bittersweet, with the sweetness winning out in the end. Beside the main romance, I also loved the relationship between the three sisters and the way it showed men just being shitty in very mundane ways. It just drew me in in very unexpected ways and captivated me to the end.
2. Save Me: After a lot of misfortune, Im Sang-mi’s family gets seduced by a cult and she has no way to escape, until she manages to beg one of her former classmates to save her. That classmate, together with his old friends, does his best to save her… This is a really well done drama with a lot of interesting characters. The first half or so is pretty bleak, because bad things keep piling up for all the main characters, but that just makes the pay-off even better, when the guys finally get their act together and Sang-mi finds her own agency to fight back. I also really enjoyed the small town feel of the series overall.
3. Tale of the Nine Tailed: Six hundred years ago, nine-tailed fox Lee Yeon lost his one true love to another creature’s machinations. In order for her to get re-incarnated so that they could be together once more, he gave up his role as a mountain spirit and his treasure. Now, he meets Nam Ji-a, who looks exactly like his lover, but who doesn’t appear to have his treasure. Nevertheless, he ends up falling for her, but Lee Yeon’s lover isn’t the only one back from the dead… So, I don’t usually like reincarnation, but it worked for me in this case, since it addressed the aspects that usually bother me. Another thing I liked about the drama is the catty brotherly relationship between Yeon and Rang, and also Lee Yeon’s personality on the whole. He’s just somehow lively, funny, dorky and cool at the same time.
4. W – Two Worlds Apart: For seven years, Oh Sung-Moo has been publishing the insanely popular webtoon W. Now, he’s finally ready to finish it and kill of the main character. The only problem: the main character doesn’t want to die, and he accidentally pulls Sung-Moo’s daughter into the webtoon’s universe… I really liked the meta level of this show. It changes back and forth between the two worlds, fantastic and “real”, and interweaves them so well, while also commenting on tropes and rules as they apply to fictional characters and storylines, as well as the power an author has over their creations.
5. When the Camellia Blooms: When Hwang Yong-shik returns to his small home town after years away, he falls in love with the pretty Dong-baek almost instantly. The problem: Dong-baek is something of an outsider, since she has no family except for her son and runs the local bar. All the neighbours gossip about her, but there are other problems as well, namely Dong-baek’s famous ex, her annoying landlord and – definitely not least of all – a serial-killing stalker… I really loved how everyone in this drama felt like a family of a kind. Even the gossiping neighbours consider Dong-baek “theirs”. And I adored Yong-shik, who is kind of dumb unless it comes to the one thing he is actually good at – which is definitely not romance. He tries his best, though, and it’s sweet to see Dong-baek’s journey to finally becoming happy.
1. One Spring Night: Lee Jeong-In’s relationship has been on its last legs for a while, but she’s been going through the motions. Then she meets Yu Ji-ho, a single father who falls for her pretty much instantly… What I liked most about this drama was its tone, which is a little hard to describe. Fragile, real and bittersweet, with the sweetness winning out in the end. Beside the main romance, I also loved the relationship between the three sisters and the way it showed men just being shitty in very mundane ways. It just drew me in in very unexpected ways and captivated me to the end.
2. Save Me: After a lot of misfortune, Im Sang-mi’s family gets seduced by a cult and she has no way to escape, until she manages to beg one of her former classmates to save her. That classmate, together with his old friends, does his best to save her… This is a really well done drama with a lot of interesting characters. The first half or so is pretty bleak, because bad things keep piling up for all the main characters, but that just makes the pay-off even better, when the guys finally get their act together and Sang-mi finds her own agency to fight back. I also really enjoyed the small town feel of the series overall.
3. Tale of the Nine Tailed: Six hundred years ago, nine-tailed fox Lee Yeon lost his one true love to another creature’s machinations. In order for her to get re-incarnated so that they could be together once more, he gave up his role as a mountain spirit and his treasure. Now, he meets Nam Ji-a, who looks exactly like his lover, but who doesn’t appear to have his treasure. Nevertheless, he ends up falling for her, but Lee Yeon’s lover isn’t the only one back from the dead… So, I don’t usually like reincarnation, but it worked for me in this case, since it addressed the aspects that usually bother me. Another thing I liked about the drama is the catty brotherly relationship between Yeon and Rang, and also Lee Yeon’s personality on the whole. He’s just somehow lively, funny, dorky and cool at the same time.
4. W – Two Worlds Apart: For seven years, Oh Sung-Moo has been publishing the insanely popular webtoon W. Now, he’s finally ready to finish it and kill of the main character. The only problem: the main character doesn’t want to die, and he accidentally pulls Sung-Moo’s daughter into the webtoon’s universe… I really liked the meta level of this show. It changes back and forth between the two worlds, fantastic and “real”, and interweaves them so well, while also commenting on tropes and rules as they apply to fictional characters and storylines, as well as the power an author has over their creations.
5. When the Camellia Blooms: When Hwang Yong-shik returns to his small home town after years away, he falls in love with the pretty Dong-baek almost instantly. The problem: Dong-baek is something of an outsider, since she has no family except for her son and runs the local bar. All the neighbours gossip about her, but there are other problems as well, namely Dong-baek’s famous ex, her annoying landlord and – definitely not least of all – a serial-killing stalker… I really loved how everyone in this drama felt like a family of a kind. Even the gossiping neighbours consider Dong-baek “theirs”. And I adored Yong-shik, who is kind of dumb unless it comes to the one thing he is actually good at – which is definitely not romance. He tries his best, though, and it’s sweet to see Dong-baek’s journey to finally becoming happy.