Chicago Typewriter

All About Love Stories: By Uyen!

| kfangurl

Surprise, everyone!! We have yet another guest post series to enjoy, this month!

Unlike our previous guest post series, this one was kind of an accident, almost. I have Ele to thank for this one, because it was her innocent question about something, that made me casually talk about the off-the-top-of-my-head, hypothetical possibility of a guest post series on love, in the month of February, in honor of Valentine’s Day.

So many folks on Patreon responded enthusiastically to this idea, that I felt that it would be remiss of me, not to actually make it happen, come February.

And so, here we are. This month, we will enjoy a total of nine guest posts from patrons on Patreon, on the topic of love stories. The brief is pretty flexible, in that, each writer is free to go deep, or go wide, on anything around the topic of love stories in Dramaland. I feel like we have a lot to look forward to, this month! 🥰

Today’s inaugural post is brought to you by Uyen, whom you might remember from her year-end awards post. I find Uyen’s enthusiasm for dramas really quite infectious, and I’m so glad that she’s taken the time to share some of her drama thoughts with us today!

Uyen also writes about dramas on her own blog, which you might like to visit here!

I hope you guys enjoy!

~ KFG ❤️

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Review: Racket Boys

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Essentially, Show is a diamond in the rough; emphasis on diamond, and emphasis on rough, heh.

Show is rough around the edges, with one of those rough edges being a pretty scattered sort of approach to storytelling, but the warmth and community feels that it delivers are so good, and so strong, that you end up being more than willing to look past Show’s shortcomings.

The young cast really shines in this, and the adult characters are mostly there as sources of guidance and support, and that’s one of the things that I enjoy most about this show.

Our young crew is earnest and competent, and all-around believable, not only as their individual characters, but as the team that they form.

The stand-out for me, though, is Tang Joon Sang, whose character kinda functions as our protagonist. He really brings a lot of dimension to the role.

Wholesome and quite excellent, in spite of its flaws.

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Dear kfangurl: What are some dramas where we can learn about Korean culture &/or history?

| kfangurl

enapeters writes:

Hi, kfangurl, thanks for your amazing and detailed drama reviews.

I’m currently watching Mr. Sunshine, and although I’m not loving the OTP, I have enjoyed learning about the time period in Korean history when the show is set. I’ve learned so much about Korean, Japanese, and U.S. relations at the time, and it’s fascinating!

Similarly, when I watched Crash Landing on You, I loved seeing the different perspective of North Korea so much that I started getting really emotional thinking about the separation between North and South Korea.

I was wondering, what dramas have you seen or recommend where you felt like you were getting a new or better understanding of history or culture?

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Dear kfangurl: Do you have difficulty seeing an actor in a different role?

| kfangurl

Elaine writes:

I have a Dear kfangurl question to ask! My question is whether you’ve ever had a problem watching the same actor in a different role, because you have such a strong impression of him/her in the first show you saw the actor in?

Asking because I just started watching K dramas last year, and i started with highly rated ones like Crash Landing on You and Healer, where the OTPs are so smashing that I was reluctant to see the actors in other shows as it would feel to me almost like they were cheating on their original OTP! Lol.

So far I haven’t “repeated” any actors besides Lee Jun Ki – I first saw him in Arang and the Magistrate and a few months later in Flower of Evil. But to me that felt ok as his performance made the two characters feel completely different. It probably helped that his Flower of Evil character was supposed to have antisocial personality disorder so has flattened emotions.

But now almost a year after watching Healer, I’m watching Park Min Young in Her Private Life and I keep getting flashbacks to her Healer performance, especially when the two characters overlap on certain traits like optimism, pluckiness and sunny smiles.

It’s probably a personal quirk but I do wonder if anyone faces this issue too! For now there are so many dramas out there that I can avoid repeats of actors but soon it won’t be an option! Ha ha.

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Review: Search: WWW

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A dark horse of a show that took a tiny bit of getting used to, but eventually surprised me by sneaking under my skin to grab my heart in a big way.

Search: WWW truly is a rarity in Dramaland.

First of all, it’s women-centric and puts the spotlight on the relationships among our main female characters, which in itself is a big plus.

But even more surprising than that, is that while each of our 3 main ladies has her own loveline with a perfectly matched love interest, those romance arcs never take centerstage in our narrative, even at their most melty.

Instead, the romances are positioned as just one aspect of our women’s very full lives. Seriously, how refreshing and cool is that?

Thoughtfully written, solidly directed, and brimming with consummate performances by the cast, this is one drama that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

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Flash Review: Chicago Typewriter

| kfangurl

One thing that I’ve learned from watching dramas, is that love has everything to do with timing. Well, guess what, you guys. I’m learning that this principle about timing applies to drama love too, ie, whether or not I end up loving a drama has a lot to do with timing too.

Sometimes, the timing has to do with my mood. Like, maybe I’ve got a rom-com on my screen, but I might be in the mood for a melo instead, and so the rom-com doesn’t work for me.

Other times, the timing has to do with whether I’m late to the party.

Which, by the way, can go either way. With Memories Of The Alhambra, being late to the party meant that I could adjust my expectations based on the fragments of information I’d gathered from other viewers, and I ended up enjoying the show more than the average viewer.

With Chicago Typewriter, however, being late to the party meant that it ended up more hyped up in my mind, from the large amounts of love I’ve seen poured out for this show by other viewers before me, than Show was able to live up to.

I guess I’d gotten to the point where my expectations were just too high?

As much as I hate to admit it, I didn’t manage to love Chicago Typewriter as much as many of you did. On the upside, I did like it quite well overall. Let’s dive in to see how that all worked out, shall we?

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