Musings of the Obsessive Kind
She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Musings of the Obsessive KindShe's a mite whimsical in the brainpan. |
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| Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 12:02 am "If I wanted to live, I had to kill my beloved with my own hands." Opening narration FTW | |||
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Current Mood:
 bouncy Oh...Lobbyist is total LOVE. Just watched the first two eps... I don't care if nobody else on my flist except for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} miss_dian is interested...I will be sharing anyway. The drama opens in medias res and then flashbacks, one of my favorite ways to start a drama, as you try to figure out who these people are, what their relationships are and what brought them to this situation. The drama opens in Nowhereinparticularstan, a dusty place full of unpleasant men with guns who don't believe in through shaving or much of a haircut. We see a man and a woman in the back of a truck (I know they are our protagonists, Harry and Maria): they are blindfolded, bloody, and with their hands bound behind their back. It seems a hostage exchange is under way, with them as hostages. The hostage exchange goes horribly pear-shaped, of course, and Harry (who earlier told Maria to just run, and he will slow their pursuers down) is shot down, as he tries to protect her escape route. Everything goes silent as he collapses and she screams in horror, desperately trying to get to him. CREDITS. And it gets even better! We flashback a bit, and see Maria tied to a post somewhere, staring straight ahead as Harry voice-overs: "If I wanted to live, I had to kill my beloved with my own hands. Or with the guns I had been planning on selling. While my heart was heating up and my head was cooling down...that's what weapons are like." Clearly, we are going to have the best of both worlds: the moral that weapons are bad AND a lot of explosions. For sheer 'knowing and doing what Dangermousie likes' this opening is hard to beat. And then we go into flashback proper. Harry and Maria grow up on an idyllic small island that gets inflitrated by North Koreans. There is a submarine! Harry's Dad is killed in the ensuing battle, and he and his sister, total orphans, are to move with their aunt and uncle in Philadelphia. Harry and Maria had become fast friends and childhood love (any kdrama worth its salt has to have childhood love by hook or crook). Maria's family, meanwhile, decides to move to New York. Did I mention that I love that the drama establishes straight from the bat that Maria is tough: she is the school trouble-maker and can outfight boys. Mmmmm. YES. Anyway, Maria and her family find out that their immigration papers have been forged, get to live in a hovel and get crummy jobs, and be picked on at school for being Korean (WTF? If they moved to Ruralsville, Iowa, maybe, but New York? Oh well, it gives Maria a chance to be her awesome tough self, so OK). Eventually, her Dad gets shot by evil American robbers, as people usually are, when driving his bus... Meanwhile Harry and his sister are not faring at all well. Their poor aunt married a drinking-moonshine-straight-out-of-the-j I am willing to cut them slack on the Philly-as-rural thing, actually, as it can be one of the far away areas around it, and to a person in Korea, especially since Harry is what 10? 12? it would all be Philly. But still...moonshine-drinking, unshaven, abusive, gun-wielding redneck with a hatred of Korean food? LOL. Anyway, Mr. Redneck not only makes poor Harry and his little sister work like slaves on his horse farm, he uses his fists and whip and whatever else comes to hand on Harry and his wife, and basically life generally sucks. A point to the writers for two things: (1) you see Harry eye his Uncle's gun, he clearly is beginning to associate it with power, which is something he desperately wants as he is totally powerless; and (2) if his life is so hellish now, no wonder he will later fixate on his happy time at the island... Anyway, so far so good. Apparently Lobbyist was rather a flop for SBS which poured scads of money into it, only end up with mid-teens rating, which might be respectable for an average drama, but not for a specially-nurtured ‘baby’ this was supposed to be. Couple of eps in, my verdict? While not as mind-shatteringly awesome as other underperformers of last year, The Devil and Capital Scandal, this drama is pretty darn good and enjoyable. It’s a pity it didn’t do better, but clearly, viewers of Korea aren’t as fixated on seeing SIG suffer and fondle guns as I am. OTOH, my tastes and the tastes of the intended Korean viewer don’t necessarily always align. I mean, millions and millions of Koreans adored Love Story in Harvard but I thought it could serve as a sleeping aid, so clearly, there is an ‘intended audience’ gap here… I suppose Lobbyist proved that the viewers of Korea remain mesmerized by Song Il-Gook only if he has a sword. I, however, am not nearly so picky. | |||
| Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 09:41 am BSG irritant | |||
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Current Mood:
I think I have just decided my favorite character on Battlestar Galactica is currently Gaeta. Because he seems to be the only one left who has any notion of military discipline. Which, seeing that most of the characters are...you know...in the military, is a plus.  grumpySeriously, I know this ship was staffed with random third-tier individuals* because it was going to be decommissioned and they have also been on the run a while, but come on! Gosh, I never wanted to drown so many fictional people in my life at once. Of course, Adama's way of running the place like a very personalized fief doesn't help. I like the guy but seriously... *when they were still random people caught in events and not SPESHUL DESTINY unique snowflakes. -sigh, I miss that show- Also, I find Kara really interesting as a character but really irritating as a person. Self-destructiveness gets old, after a time, especially when you drag others down with you. I feel grumpy today :) | |||
| Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 03:35 pm Sandglass, here I come... | |||
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Current Mood:
I have just discovered Sandglass, a 24-episode Korean drama that I am dying to get. bouncyMade in 1995, this would be the oldest kdrama I have watched but I simply must have it. Final episodes of it apparently averaged over 60% rating (!!!) and it put SBS (the station) on the map. It also stars the Super Evil Villain from The Legend as one of the three protagonists, which is something else... The story is fairly straightforward in the outline: set in the 1960s-1980s, it follows three individuals and through them, the Korean political events of the times. Tae-Soo (Choi Min Soo), who grows up as a school trouble-maker, temporarily attempts to mend his ways with the friendship of the studious, regime-oriented Woo-Suk (Park Sang Won), but seeing that he is the son of a Communist guerilla, college and any promising legitimate occupation is closed to him, and he eventually becomes a rising member of the mob. Woo-Suk, of course, ends up studying and eventually rising high as a prosecutor, a bit too incorruptible for the regime around them. The third protagonist in the story is Hye-Rin (Ko Hyun Jung), a wealthy, disaffected daughter of a casino owner who becomes a student activist, and is involved with both men. What really interests me is not the love story (which is apparently satisfying but strictly secondary) but the fact that it deals with a whole bunch of contemporary hot topic political issues of the time (totalitarian rule, mistreatment of activist, class issues), including, most famously, the Gwangju Massacre. I mean, how could I not DIE to watch a drama about which the UCLA review states "Perhaps no other drama has ever represented the intertwining of the personal, political, and social so clearly and movingly. Using the stories of Tae-soo, Woo-shik, and Hye-ran to illustrate the intertwining of business, politics, and crime, Sandglass examines Korean society as a place beset with corruption and oppression, and really gives voice to a society crying out for justice. Its effectiveness for reminding Koreans of their recent history has even been credited in part for helping lead to the arrest of the former dictator Jeon Do-hwan." !!!!! The reviews are all crazy raves: one here, another one here, another here, and a fourth here. If it's a third as good as the reviews make it sound, I am going to love it. | |||
| Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 11:37 pm "To me...a gun was the only way to save my sister." Lobbyist continues to rock with its film noir | |||
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Current Mood:
Ahem. bouncy *chokes a little* The publicist for Lobbyist either deserves a firing or a raise. I have not decided which. In other news, any drama which has the grown-up OTP meet when he is hired to kill her? WINS AT (drama) LIFE. So yes, ep 3 is very excellent. ( Ep 3 ramblings ) Shallowness aside, Song Il Gook is good, you guys. I mean, really really good. You can totally feel his fear and rage and attempts at determination and complete desperation. I've forgotten how amazing he was in Jumong but this is certainly reminding me. | |||