@AnnaAnthro Probably on purpose because he likes trying different things and I think also he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed. So it’s very on-brand for him to do Something Completely Different for what’s essentially a comeback role.
I think he’ll be the lead in a romantic comedy sageuk set to air later this year, which is a little more conventional, for him.
I watched Death's Game after Lee Sun-Kyun's death, and it made me really reflect about the consequences of a suicide on the survivors. A stellar story in eight episodes.
Just finished Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938, and it was a delight for Rang to finally get that happy ending he deserved. The first Nine Tailed was bittersweet and I felt shattered for his sake, even if it was a fitting ending for him. This drama was the perfect love letter for his character.
And dangit, Lee Dong Wook needs to do more dramas with long, flowing hair. He rocks that look.
Though I have to say ... it is a tad on the nose with the nationalistic fervour, though it is perfectly understandable for that period when Korea was colonised by Japan. Now, if this was a #CDrama, I know that they'd be shouts of "I'm not watching this because it's propaganda" already lol
A woman is given the chance to relive her life and get back at the people who ruined her life.
This is a super fun makjang #KDrama that didn't take itself too seriously.
Someone needs to do a thesis on the history of how different #kdramas and #cdramas are in their introductory title sequences!
Kdrama: Here is a cute cut-out collage of floating cherry blossoms, upside-down cars, tumbling foxes and… a rapidly expanding pool of blood!
Cdrama: Swirling water colours, tumbling dragons & phoenixes and… super fast rice paper cutouts depicting all the key events of the story including who kills who & who kisses who!
For those of you not aware, there is a whole genre of Korean historical fiction about the invention of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, because the real-life story behind the invention of Hangeul is “an incredibly sophisticated and super-secret linguistics project carried out centuries before the field of linguistics was actually invented.”
It was also revolutionary in that it made literacy accessible to commoners who didn’t have the resources to learn Chinese.
THE KING’S LETTERS has King Sejong secretly teaming up with Buddhist monks.
In TREE WITH DEEP ROOTS his work is organized into cells of scholars who don’t know the whole scope of the project, and there is a scene involving a dissection (which would have been sacreligious in a Confucian country back then) so he can diagram the anatomy of the mouth and throat.
Stubbornly watching Sunrise on the River and I’m now at episode 11. It may not be cracktastic like In Blossom, but the cases are good and the acting is stellar.
As you can see I’m trying to stockpile episodes of In Blossoms so that I can survive the one-episode-per-day drought of next week lol.
Which is funny when you think about it. I still remember the days when I watched #Kdramas and it was two measley episodes per week. I have been horribly spoiled by #Cdramas.
I don't know why but I am still thinking of Lee Sun-kyun. I feel so sad for him still 😢
I got to know him very, very early. Through the dramas Coffee Prince (2007) and Pasta (2010). Was lovely to see his star rise over the years and was genuinely happy for him when Parasite became a big hit.
I have been re-watching JOSEON ATTORNEY and one of the themes it explores is something that I always find fascinating when it comes up in a sageuk: that the nature of monarchy is fundamentally corrosive to one’s humanity (or prosocial instincts if you want to get academic about it).
I’m not talking about the common people who live in a monarchy. I’m talking about the monarch and the people in the royal family.
Of the lot, I love Flower of Evil and Happiness the most! Flower of Evil may have over-the-top melodramatic moments, but I was so invested in the characters' insane journeys and the ending was so satisfying. Happiness - if there's a genre that needs to be invented, it is "slice of life zombie drama". I want them to make more of these LOL.
@bookstardust@JillsJoy Actually i think first 3 are quite women centric but i am not sure about k2. To me i think of women centric as "written with women in mind", so even if the protaganist is male, it can still be women centric.
@liztai this should be published in Korean but the media there was/is complicit. Another needless tragedy stoked by the insatiable need to weigh in and comment without facts.