No, it wasn’t all the amazing Korean
dramas I stumbled across during the first few months of my addiction
(although that helped).
It was actually the Dramabeans year end
recaps for 2011, which drove me wild with envy. To have seen so many
dramas! To write so authoritatively about them! To recognize actors
by name, and excel at playing six degrees of Park Shi Hoo! When I read those
articles, I saw unicorns and rainbows.
And now here I am, having posted on
this blog at least twice a week for the past 52 weeks. In the
meanwhile, I’ve watched an obscene number of dramas—new and old,
good and bad—and can recognize, name, and outline the relative
merits of practically every handsome young actor working in Korea
today. (Next year, I’ll work on the old and ugly. Or not.) I know
what I like (realistic romantic comedies with a heavy dose of
melodrama), what I dislike (whimpering, useless female leads; talking
heads vying for political power in funny hats), and what I want to
see more of (hot kissing; see above).
(This poster is just like I like my melos: DRIPPING! WITH! MISERY!)
This drama shows all signs of being a classic K-melo: it’s built around a tragically separated pair of young lovers who are reunited as adults, only to be kept apart by an angsty love triangle.
I Mis You is like a vortex of hope and fear for me. I’ve adored Yoon Eun Hye since hitting “play” on Coffee Prince’s opening episode, and ever since I’ve longed to see her in something more meaty and serious than the light-as-air rom-coms she seems to gravitate toward. Yoon Eun Hye may not be the most skilled actress or pick the best projects, but her utterly likeable persona and charming awkwardness always shine through. I’m also a huge fan of melodramas; the more insanely over-the-top and full of misfortune they are, the more I tend to like them.
But that’s where the fear comes in: I Miss You was written by the same screenwriter as Can You Hear My Heart, one of my least favorite shows of all time. I’m hoping that my violent reaction to CYHMH can be attributed to its overly cutesy acting and lousy direction, but I’m not so sure. Beyond that, I Miss You’s tumultuous, wank-filled backstory is every bit as melodramatic as its plot (read more about the hot mess at Drama Beans and The Vault). And then there’s the fact that this drama’s cast was only finalized a week before it began airing, which means most of its filming will be alarmingly close to live.
I want to love this drama (and probably will, in spite of myself), but it’s hard to imagine anyone on this makjang merry-go-round finding time to focus on creating a decent show.
Like many fans of Korean television, I suffer from that most wonderful of first-world problems: Too many dramas, too little time. With the never-ending production schedule and decades worth of older shows waiting to be watched, there’s no way any latecomer could ever hope to catch up.
And then there’s the issue of availability. With my drama-watching setup, streaming shows are the easiest to watch. And although a crack distribution network exists for international fans of Korean drama, some programs are still hard to come by: Nearly everything is available somewhere out there in the wilds of the Internet, but not always in a format I’d care to spend my time on. God bless services like My Soju and Drama Crazy, but it’s hard to watch their 15-minute chunks of blurry, low-res video when you’re used to high-quality streaming sources like Netflix, Viki, Crunchyroll, and Dramafever.
Last week I posted a list of new dramas I’m looking forward to watching. This week, we’ll explore the flip side: Old dramas that I want to watch, but haven’t been able to find high-quality streaming files for.
LOVE STORY IN HARVARD(2004; 16 episodes).
Melodrama. Practically every Korean rom-com threatens to send at least one character to America to study. This show actually does it—its first half is set in Harvard, where the members of its love triangle are working toward graduation. While the plot predictably focuses on a hardworking poor girl and the two wealthy men who fight for her affections, online reviews note that Love Story in Harvard actually deals realistically with the difficulties of studying abroad and adjusting to life in a foreign country. In its decidedly less-than-beloved second half, the action returns to Korea, and by the end this drama lives up to its namesake. You guessed it…Erich Segal’s weepy 1970 novel Love Story. It’s always fun to see how Korean dramas portray America, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that Dramafever will pick this one up.
Watch them now:
—Kim Rae Won, as male lead Park Ji Hyung in A Thousand Day’s Promise
—Kim Tae Hee, as female lead Lee Soel in My Princess
Romantic comedy. Based on a book by the author of the original Coffee Prince novel, this sageuk is set during Japan’s occupation of Korea in the 1930s. Drama set-ups don’t get much better than this: Its heroine is a bookstore-owning freedom fighter who meets the male lead, a shallow playboy, when he bets his friends he can seduce her. Of course he eventually grows a soul and works for the cause of liberation, all while wearing an extensive wardrobe of jaunty fedoras. In spite of what seem to be campy production values and a cartoony vibe, this show’s reviewers report that it’s an unexpectedly serious exploration of Korea’s struggle for freedom.
Watch them now: —Kang Ji Hwan, male lead Hyun Ki Joon in Lie to Me —Ha Ji Min, female lead Park Ha in Rooftop Prince
SEOUL’S SAD SONG/CONSPIRACY IN THE COURT (2007; 8 episodes).
Sageuk. A Joseon-era girl who’s trained as an assassin meets up with her first love and the two become entangled in a plot against the progressive-minded king, a man eager to improve the lives of his subjects in spite of protests from the nobility. By all reports beautifully written and shot, this drama seems like it has a social conscience—and a sad, sad ending, if the reviews are to be believed.
Watch them now: —Jin Yi Han, as supporting character Hong Young Hwi in Dr. Jinn —Kim Ha Eun, as supporting character Yang Mi Ryun The Thornbirds
Romantic comedy.The first drama written by the Hong sisters (yes, the ones who gave us the deeply sub-par Big)is widely held to their best work to date. Based on a Korean folktale, it traces the tumultuous relationship of two high schoolers that are forced to marry after a rumor gets around that they spent the night together. Naturally, the male lead is rich and mean and the female lead is poor and hardworking, and they spend the next few years bickering and falling in love in spite of their differences. To the best of my knowledge, the owner of the website Dramabeans has never once said the words “Hong sisters” without reminiscing about how much she loved this show, which is enough recommendation or me.
Watch them now:
—Han Chae Young, on MBC’s upcoming Strangers 6 —Jae Hee, on MBC’s upcoming May Queen
Melodrama. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that this drama starring grownups and intended for grownups has yet to be completely subbed in English, even though it finished airing months ago. An unhappily married woman is urged by her husband and his family to focus on her son’s education in hopes of getting him into an exclusive school. In the meanwhile, she develops feelings for their married neighbor. With the sensibility of an indie movie and a down-to-earth plot focusing on a nearly invisible segment of the Korean population—the middle-aged ajumma—this drama is so good it can make jaded blogger types squeal like little girls.
Watch them now: —Jang Hyun Sung, as Kyung Joon’s uncle on Big (They can’t all be winners, can they?) —Kim Hee Ae, as supporting character Yoon In Hye Midas
Watch it now, if you dare: As far as I know, no fan subs have made it beyond episode 6. Whether any official sources will carry this drama is up in the air—like this spring’s Queen Insoo and the currently airing I Live in Cheongdam Dong,Wife’s Credentials originally aired on jTBC, one of Korea’s new upstart cable channels.
