Cunning Single Lady

Dear kfangurl: What are some archetypes in kdramas?

| kfangurl

T writes:

Hi kfangurl,

What are some of the archetypes you see in Kdrama characters? Could you recommend other dramas with those types of characters?

For example:

Romance is A Bonus Book’s Kang Dan-i is strong, sensitive, but oblivious to Eun-ho’s love for her. Eun-ho is petty, cocky, but really protective and compassionate toward his loved ones.

Another example:

Strong Girl Bong Soon’s rich heir Ahn Min-hyuk is the hardcore, serious, charming type, but completely caught off-guard and smitten with Do Bong-soon, which makes him fall to pieces. Bong-soon is the epitome of aegyo, but hesitant to embrace her full potential (another type).

What other dramas use these archetypes in similar ways or mix and match them in surprising or refreshing ways?

Thanks.

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Flash Review: Fates and Furies

| kfangurl

Have you ever been hearts-in-eyes infatuated with someone – charmed by their good looks, sweet words, and thoughtful chivalry – only to be later disappointed by their glaring flaws, on deeper acquaintance?

Whether it was with a real-life crush or with a celebrity Oppa, I feel like many of us would likely have felt this way at some point in our lives.

That feeling, my friends, is how I felt, watching this drama. For Show’s first half, I was very much smitten, and gobbled up episodes back-to-back, pacing myself only because I sincerely dreaded running out of new episodes.

The bum thing was, Show became a lot less cracky for a good chunk of its second half. On the upside, Show comes back with a reasonably solid finale, so it wasn’t all downhill.

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Review: Are You Human Too?

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

Show is tightly paced, pretty well-written, and manages solid cliffhangers and some good plot twists, through its run. Just be prepared for a fantastical set-up (robots, after all), with melo lashings in somewhat substantial measure.

With the right lens, though, this show is highly enjoyable. I found myself looking forward to new episodes of this one, more than I did with most other shows on my drama plate at the time.

Seo Kang Joon is absolutely fantastic in this, demonstrating acting chops that I never knew he had. Show is worth the watch just to see him in action.

A ride more rollicking than I first expected or imagined.

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Flash Review: Cheese In The Trap

| kfangurl

You know how, when you drive past an accident on a highway, and your brain says not to waste time staring, since that’ll just slow down traffic even more, but as you crawl past in your car, the curious cat in you can’t help but stare in morbid fascination anyway?

Yep. That’s sorta what happened with me and Cheese In The Trap.

Because I wasn’t able to keep current with the episodes as they aired, I was only at episode 8 (ish?) when all the behind-the-scenes drama erupted and everyone got really upset with Park Hae Jin’s heavily reduced screen time in the last third of the drama.

A big part of my brain said then, that I ought to just drop the drama and look away while the going was good, but the curious cat in me was morbidly fascinated by it all. Was it as bad as everyone said, I wondered.

I guess there’s something to be said for spoilers, since I went into the finale stretch having had the ending quite thoroughly spoiled (I couldn’t help reading ending spoilers, even though I’m usually much more spoiler-phobic; not only was I morbidly fascinated, I was also – at times, anyway – trying to decide whether or not to keep watching).

That prepped me for the ending really well, and in the end, I didn’t actually hate it. Gasp!

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Are kdramas getting worse / “dumbed down”?

| kfangurl

So recently, a couple of comments on the blog have combined to give me pause for thought.

And instead of just answering the latest question in the comments section, I thought it was interesting enough, and thought-provoking enough, to put it all in a new post, and see what you guys think.

Well ok, that, and the fact that as I chewed on my answer to the latest comment, I realized that there were just too many facets to the answer than I felt could fit reasonably into a simple comment.

Basically, the question is, have kdramas gotten worse / more “dumbed down” in recent years?

Let’s dive in together to take a look, shall we?

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Year In Review: 2014

| kfangurl

If there’s one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on, it’s that time is flying. Like, seriously. Where has 2014 gone?

I can hardly believe that 2015 is almost here, promising/threatening gifts of dramas chock-full of vampires, multiple personalities, and other psychological disorders goodies.

Before 2014 makes her exit, though, I wanted to come out and give credit where it’s due. Coz as much as so many of my friends in dramaland have been talking about a meh drama year, I feel like I had a pretty good drama year, actually.

I know. How did that happen, right?

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Review: Cunning Single Lady [Sly and Single Again]

| kfangurl

THE SHORT VERDICT:

A divorced-to-reunited rom-com that has flaws aplenty but manages to get the most important thing right: its heart.

If you wanted to count ’em, you’d easily find a whole bunch of flaws and imperfections in Cunning Single Lady. But if you’re willing to look past all of that, you’ll find a good dose of cute, an endearing spot of sweet, and a heartfelt rekindling of a sincere love that never did go away.

Lee Min Jung and Joo Sang Wook turn in quality performances as our lead couple, and are the key reasons to tune in to this unassuming little show that turned out to be quite a bit more heartwarming than I expected.

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