I Do, I Do (through episode 4)

This drama is really unusual.  At least, maybe, my reaction to it is unusual because it may just be me.  But I'm not really feeling the love line but I am completely invested in the two female leads.  

A lot of K-dramas have trouble with the heroines.  Sometimes they are nothing more than a cardboard cut out that reacts to the hero but we have trouble understanding what motivates them or why they are feeling what the audience is told they feel.  And as for the B female lead, well usually she's just a crazy, clingy chick who puts the E in Emotional Disorder. 

The reason I'm digging I Do, I Do is that both women are becoming very compelling in their own right, away and apart from the male leads and their story lines, particularly when they are together. A lot of this is the writing, but I think you really have to credit the actresses, Kim Sun-ah and Lim Soo-hyang.

Spoilers after the jump...

Committing to I Do, I Do

The promos for this drama were weird and honestly a little off-putting so I didn't think I was going to watch it in spite of the fact that I love Kim Sun-ah.

 

See. Weird.

I mean, this show has SHOES!!11!!! Shoes! And the ladies love shoes, amirite? We want to make sure that every promo features the shoes because SHOES!!!


Yeah.


I'm not all that into fashion or shoes, nor am I all that drawn to noona-killer plotlines, so I figured I'd give this one a pass.  I'm not even sure what made me watch the first episode. 


But, you know, it's pretty good.  It's fluffy, but there's some interesting stuff going on here, too.  I don't want to post spoilers, so I'm going to stick to the most general points.


More than anything, the plot really picked up momentum when the B lead was introduced.   Yeom Na-Ri (played by Lim Soo-hyang) is the young and ambitious daughter of the company CEO.  But she has her own drive to succeed as she is the illegitimate daughter of his mistress.  She has impeccable credentials but no real world experience.  She makes the rookie mistake of trying to dominate Hwang Ji-An (Kim Sun-ah), her sunbae, rather than learn from her. It makes for a great antagonism that has nothing to do with a man. 


Also, ignore that picture up there, because Park Geon-hyeong is the B male lead and he is sex-on-a-stick.  If he and Kim Sun-ah dance the tango in this I will probably spontaneously combust. 

The male lead actor, Lee Jang-woo is fine.  He does have some chemistry with Kim Sun-ah (but she is like Ha Ji-won in that I challenge an actor to not have chemistry with her.)  I think acting opposite Kim Sun-ah will make him improve over time. 


If I could make a K-drama wish, it would be that A-chick ends up with B-dude and A-dude ends up with B-chick.  I will be shocked if this actually happens. 

Korean Rom Coms

I've been taking a little break from my regular dramas because I've been on a Korean rom-com binge.  I'll talk a little about what I've been watching and my opinions.  I'm not going to do a movie review because that really isn't my thing.  People who write those always seem to have a much better handle on storytelling through film than I have.  I just have opinions.


She's On Duty -  Wow, talk about your missed opportunities. Kim Sun-ah, Gong-yoo, you'd think this was made in heaven. Instead it just felt flat. 

It's not that the leads didn't have chemistry.  There were a couple of scenes where you could see that they did.  I think the problem lay with the murky storytelling and the directing.  The rhythm was off and it just seemed to jump from scene to scene but without any emotional weight, if that makes any sense.  It was like: this happens, then this happens, then this happens. Also Gong-yoo was tragically (TRAGICALLY) underused. Sigh!  Though there are some fun fight scenes.


Tropes that sucked me in:  High School all over again, secret identities, bad-ass chicks.