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You know what suck? Late shifts. You know what doesn't suck? Dalmatian & chillin' with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ryoflame. Best. <3
And Best Love/Greatest Love/The Discovery of Affection/Oh, Pieces, You're in a TV Show With Cha Seung-Won and Played by Gong Hyo-Jin!/whatever the fuck it's called.
First thing's first. City Hall? Was my first drama. It was the one that took me from "yeah okay" to "HOLY SHIT", and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it that I didn't want to challenge or stir up. Why? Because it's perfectly imperfect in my mind, and I was cool with that. So you can imagine my reluctance to buy into Best Love, and not just because my tin-hat is securely in place re: CSW and Kim Sun-Ah.
A Hong Sisters drama is like a cheeseburger - you can't have the meat without the cheese. And oh, how there's cheese.
But in all honesty? Loving it so far, cheese, meat and all. Absolutely loving it. I was worried when Cha Seung-Won mentioned he wasn't going to do anything like City Hall again, and was instead focusing on action drama and film - but I shouldn't have been. I mean, the first time he's on screen? Is a giant piss-take of Athena. In fact, the whole.
Damn.
Thing. Is a piss-take of his image. For instance:
His rather distinct facial hair that threatened to take over the world in Athena - it's pointed out that it creates the same shape as the Korean character for "cow". Amazing.
Sometimes I want to head-butt Cha Seung-won so bad, I want to hock in my large amounts of costume jewellery to get a ticket to Seoul and do it in person. Then follow the head-butt with mumble mumble sexy tiems mumble LOOK OVER THERE flees.
(ohgodilovehimsomuch)
You want to know about the most important character, right? Ae-Jung. Ae-Jung. Ae-Jung. I love her. I haven't seen Gong Hye-Jin in anything, to be honest, but I know a lot of people were quite vocal in her being cast in this - mainly because Pasta wasn't that great, and she's known for a lot of serious work. But I love her. She's fantastic - I've never related to a TV character as much as I relate to Ae-Jung - maybe only Yamada from Trick could come close.
There's such a nice energy about her and her smile. Any suggestions she's slowly gaining on Kim Sun-Ah and Kim So-Yeon as the Ladies of My Heart will be denied - at least til the drama is over, anyway.
But enough about that - you want to know about the chemistry, right?
It's pretty great. They're both bringing out the best in each other's performances - he's so damn confused about how he's feeling about her, and she's so ambivalent and the slapstick gives way to this heart-felt crap that should be awful but it's just. Yeah. Like - he's telling her she'll never guess the keycode for his security system and -
So befuddled! So whatever! It must be love!
I thought the heart thing would be overplayed, but it's juuusssttt right. At least for now. I'm watching you, pacemaker subplot.
As for the rest of the show - it's a roll call of drama stereotypes, who are blossoming under the deft hand of The Hong Sisters:
The down-and-out old maid/ahjumma/ex-star thatPieces everyone relates way too much to!
The egotistical smart-ass sexy man lead who's secretly a ham with a heart of gold (or, in this case, metal)!
The kindly or misunderstood but seriously boring second male lead!
The robot girlfriend!
The sidekick (who gets a surprise storyline)!
The Greek Chorus-esque BFF!
The zany family!
The Surprise Gay Subplot!
(okay, okay, maybe the band's intertwining stories isn't exactly the Surprise Gay Subplot. But I bet it goes there, justtt a little.)
It looks good, too - the direction is well-realised and thought out. The Hong Sisters are known for referencing other dramas and having layers of puns/word plays/pop culture references along with their meat and cheese, but two scenes stood out:
I promise you, the above scene is as stupid as it looks. Like, what? How does that even work? Why did it go for like, fifteen minutes? I'm thinking they're referencing this scene from City Hall:
BUT IN A STUPIDER WAY. I'm watching you, Best Love. I can't handle CSW mears* unless it progresses the plot somehow and he wears a natty suit doing so. And this:
Reminded me of this:
The dialogue was almost the same - thus, I'm assuming it was deliberate. Or The Hong Sisters really like Choi Siwon. He's pretty great.
In summary: BEST LOVE I LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU'VE GOT A STUPID TITLE AND LOTS OF CHEESE. IT'S OKAY, I LIKE CHEESE <3
I hate it when my diary is read by Korean drama writers.
EDIT: Omo, the National Treasure Girls' song is sung by Sunny Hill! OMG I LOVE THEM <3
In other news, I've posted a Half-Assed Review of F(x)'s new album at YouTube. LOL PYJAMAS
*mears = man tears
ryoflame. Best. <3And Best Love/Greatest Love/The Discovery of Affection/Oh, Pieces, You're in a TV Show With Cha Seung-Won and Played by Gong Hyo-Jin!/whatever the fuck it's called.
First thing's first. City Hall? Was my first drama. It was the one that took me from "yeah okay" to "HOLY SHIT", and I have a real soft spot in my heart for it that I didn't want to challenge or stir up. Why? Because it's perfectly imperfect in my mind, and I was cool with that. So you can imagine my reluctance to buy into Best Love, and not just because my tin-hat is securely in place re: CSW and Kim Sun-Ah.
A Hong Sisters drama is like a cheeseburger - you can't have the meat without the cheese. And oh, how there's cheese.
But in all honesty? Loving it so far, cheese, meat and all. Absolutely loving it. I was worried when Cha Seung-Won mentioned he wasn't going to do anything like City Hall again, and was instead focusing on action drama and film - but I shouldn't have been. I mean, the first time he's on screen? Is a giant piss-take of Athena. In fact, the whole.
Damn.
Thing. Is a piss-take of his image. For instance:
His rather distinct facial hair that threatened to take over the world in Athena - it's pointed out that it creates the same shape as the Korean character for "cow". Amazing.
Sometimes I want to head-butt Cha Seung-won so bad, I want to hock in my large amounts of costume jewellery to get a ticket to Seoul and do it in person. Then follow the head-butt with mumble mumble sexy tiems mumble LOOK OVER THERE flees.
(ohgodilovehimsomuch)
You want to know about the most important character, right? Ae-Jung. Ae-Jung. Ae-Jung. I love her. I haven't seen Gong Hye-Jin in anything, to be honest, but I know a lot of people were quite vocal in her being cast in this - mainly because Pasta wasn't that great, and she's known for a lot of serious work. But I love her. She's fantastic - I've never related to a TV character as much as I relate to Ae-Jung - maybe only Yamada from Trick could come close.
There's such a nice energy about her and her smile. Any suggestions she's slowly gaining on Kim Sun-Ah and Kim So-Yeon as the Ladies of My Heart will be denied - at least til the drama is over, anyway.
But enough about that - you want to know about the chemistry, right?
It's pretty great. They're both bringing out the best in each other's performances - he's so damn confused about how he's feeling about her, and she's so ambivalent and the slapstick gives way to this heart-felt crap that should be awful but it's just. Yeah. Like - he's telling her she'll never guess the keycode for his security system and -
So befuddled! So whatever! It must be love!
I thought the heart thing would be overplayed, but it's juuusssttt right. At least for now. I'm watching you, pacemaker subplot.
As for the rest of the show - it's a roll call of drama stereotypes, who are blossoming under the deft hand of The Hong Sisters:
The down-and-out old maid/ahjumma/ex-star that
The egotistical smart-ass sexy man lead who's secretly a ham with a heart of gold (or, in this case, metal)!
The kindly or misunderstood but seriously boring second male lead!
The robot girlfriend!
The sidekick (who gets a surprise storyline)!
The Greek Chorus-esque BFF!
The zany family!
The Surprise Gay Subplot!
(okay, okay, maybe the band's intertwining stories isn't exactly the Surprise Gay Subplot. But I bet it goes there, justtt a little.)
It looks good, too - the direction is well-realised and thought out. The Hong Sisters are known for referencing other dramas and having layers of puns/word plays/pop culture references along with their meat and cheese, but two scenes stood out:
I promise you, the above scene is as stupid as it looks. Like, what? How does that even work? Why did it go for like, fifteen minutes? I'm thinking they're referencing this scene from City Hall:
BUT IN A STUPIDER WAY. I'm watching you, Best Love. I can't handle CSW mears* unless it progresses the plot somehow and he wears a natty suit doing so. And this:
Reminded me of this:
The dialogue was almost the same - thus, I'm assuming it was deliberate. Or The Hong Sisters really like Choi Siwon. He's pretty great.
In summary: BEST LOVE I LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU'VE GOT A STUPID TITLE AND LOTS OF CHEESE. IT'S OKAY, I LIKE CHEESE <3
I hate it when my diary is read by Korean drama writers.
EDIT: Omo, the National Treasure Girls' song is sung by Sunny Hill! OMG I LOVE THEM <3
In other news, I've posted a Half-Assed Review of F(x)'s new album at YouTube. LOL PYJAMAS
*mears = man tears