Favourite K Dramas

A lot has been said and written about this instant classic of modern tv, and I don't think I can add to it. I resisted watching this drama for the longest time- 3 years; I was wrong. It's delightful, start to finish; there's not a single wrong note - well, I didn't care for the Big Mystery at all- but apart from that- just perfect.  There's a formula to  Lee Woo-jung-Shin PD works- but it's a magical one. Whenever I need a pick me up, I go back to scenes from this show- the one where Deok sun and Dong Ryong are getting tutored in English by Sung Bo-ra comes to mind- and I come away feeling comforted and thrilled by the sheer vivacity of the performances and the elelegance of the direction. If you pick only one k drama to watch ever, then this should be it.

This has landed in one of my top shows of all time.   SFD was wonderful- ambitious and expansive- but it also meandered in ways that I didn't always enjoy. While TwDR shares the theatrical exuberance of SFD, it is a much more tightly written and directed affair- I honestly don't believe they wasted a single moment of screen time. Like all Kim-Park outings I've seen so far, the hero of the show is the Power of Story- here, the story of the invention of the Hanggul script. It's a passionate, tender, thoughtful take on the power of language, of ideas, of writing as art and skill and fundamental to liberation, and the creation of political consciousness, because it's fundamental to sharing our humanity over the bridge of time.  And it was just so much FUN. It had me screaming and crying and breathless in anticipation - a real great TV experience, that feels increasingly impossible to find. 

And the actors!I'll admit to being slow to catch on to Han Suk Kyu's brilliance as Sejong, but my GOD, it was like watching a forest catch fire- ember to unquenchable flame. He really gave it all- an indelible and role-defining performance- no other Sejong- not even played by himself, comes close.  Shin Se-kyung is a delight as always; Jang Hyuk is very watchable- though perhaps this isn't the role to which he's most suited. Even my least favourite- Song Joong-ki- showed up in a guest role to deliver the goods. 

Anyway: I challenge you to watch this until the end without sobbing your heart out-storytelling at its most magical. This is why we live.

I had started watching is when it first hit Netflix, before I had much familiarity with kdrama, and I noped out because the aesthetics were so bad. Kdrama bestie Rainhat convinced me to give it another shot, and I am so glad I did. Honestly, after a point, you won't even care about the specific shade of purple blood or the Forever21 discount rack clothing- because the story is just that powerful. Writers nim go for broke in this ambitious epic set in the transition to the Iron Age- tackling the foundations of the idea of the  "civilized nation state" in a tale that's a clever mix of fantasy and history- and of course- contemporary political concerns. I fell hard and fast for almost every individual character in this, not the least for Jang Dong-gun's Tagon- the king who is a calamity (to badly paraphrase one of the show's most memorable lines)- and Kim Ok-vin's equally ruthless and ambitious Taelha. Song Joong-ki plays a double role- I enjoyed him as Saya, the gender-bending schemer who literally grew up in a tower- much more than I enjoyed him as Eunseom- the moral heart of the story. Kim Ji-won was -ok?- as Tanya- who, by the way, is the actual best character and true heroine of the series. 

Anyway- this was another series that had me screaming, crying and dying in the best possible way, and I snorted it like coke over a week in my hurry to get to the then airing Season 2, and I have NO REGRETS about it. WATCH IT!

This is a series which has something to say rather than something to sell, and that makes all the difference.  While the last two episodes of this mini series didn't blow me away like the first four, the cinematic sensibilities of  screenwriter-directors Jeon Go-woon (Microhabitat, Persona) and Im Dae-hyung (Moonlit Winter)  carry the day- a wickedly funny script that's devastatingly tender in many places, and lovely, intimate and expressive cinematography- these are not people who care much for convention or commercial success, one suspects. Instead, they are just there to make cinema they care about- and hope you do too. 

The script requires the actors to be fearless, and that's exactly what Ahn Jae-hong and Esom are, in their portrayals of these deeply flawed humans, struggling with life, love and intimacy in a cruel world. In the wake of celebrity sex scandals and intense public shaming of individuals who cross a socially conservative society's moral lines, this show feels both like a call out of collective hypocrisy as well as a call-in- to be more compassionate to each other, to accept the imperfect. And nothing is more imperfect than sex, in this series;  it takes desire & sex out of the pristine, sanctified bedroom of love and poreless, hairless, gym-perfected bodies and instead lets it be awkward, messy , often uncontrollable and ultimately- ordinary.  Absolutely unmatched in my memory of recent tv offerings. 

I don't know what sorcery allowed TVing to allow something like this in their line up- they had to know it would NOT be a ratings bonanza-but whatever it is, I'm glad it happened, and cross my fingers that it will happen again.