Showing posts with label Drama Marathon. Show all posts

Why I Watch Kdramas

Posted by lei on September 8, 2011. Filed under:
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My brother has this super power of knowing whether or not I am watching dramas in my room. It's not like I am living in a camera-filled Big Brother house or something, but he's so damn accurate he never fails to make me shudder all the time. At night, he knocks at my door to remind me stop watching dramas. Gah, that is so sweet; he's exactly being like my annoying alarm clock. I love him.

Yi Kyung
Still, I hate him for always asking me what I get from watching kdramas. I thought it's obvious enough that my love life sucks; it sucks so bad that the only thing that would make me kilig is by taking a pee. Lol joke. I saw a facebook page named "Ang tanging nagpapakilig nalang sa akin ay ang pag-ihi." wtf

My point is, I get this feeling of infatuation pang, or according to PamQ, the "shivery, fuzzy, chilling (positive) feeling that people get when they're inlove." I think guys should fully understand that this is the reason why we prefer watching romantic films over noisy action movies --aside from the fact that we're secretly hoping that the boyfriends would pick up lots of romantic gestures. Ladies, back me up here.

Han Kyul & Eun Chan
Wong-ah & Min-ho
But then again, watching is watching. No matter how good looking the characters, or how kilig the scenes, everything still boils down to the quality of the drama. The line separating art and crap is still there, and I hope we all agree that nobody appreciates a crap despite how colorful it is. I praise well written and excellently executed dramas but leave everything else that doesn't meet my expectations in a limbo or simply straight to the trash can.

Good thing though, there's a lot of good kdramas around. They are often non-conventional, fast-paced, engaging, and short. Each episode plays a big role in gradually unfolding the plot, each scene foreshadows things that are about to happen, and each character maintains their dynamics. I have no idea why teleseryes aren't like this, or why no network seems to bother making one. Or maybe I  rather not compare the two because I know nothing about teleseryes anyway.

Cinematography wise, kdramas are gorgeous. The colors are rich and vivid, and so is the contrast. I know it's all about the quality of the camera which the production is using, but it's evident that the directors and cinematographers know their jobs very well.

It is like watching a good movie, you know. Nice lighting? Check. Good use of multi-camera set up? Check. Fresh story line? Check. Spontaneous scenes? Check. Great soundtrack? Check.  It just all pleasing, even without all those hot actors with chocolate abs. Of course, having eye candies like them never hurts!

But, you know, it is still all about the execution. It makes tragic stories bearable to watch and love stories three fold sweeter, because rather than the technical things, it is the art of story telling that makes kdramas addictive. For that, kuddos to kdrama productions because they're good at it. Like for real.


*All photos from google.

9 Ends 2 Outs

Posted by lei on June 1, 2011. Filed under:
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Title: 9회말 2아웃 / 9 End 2 Outs




  • Also known as: 2 Outs in the 9th Inning/Bottom of the 9th with 2 outs
  • Genre: Romance, comedy
  • Episodes: 16
    • Long Story Short
    Although the title makes you think this is about baseball playoffs, no it is not. It is about Hong Nan Hee (Park Soo Ae) and Byun Hyung Tae (Lee Jung Jin) who are best friends for 30 years. The drama focuses on how they finally end together and their struggle to mutually agree to take their friendship to a whole new romantic level. If that's so, why use a baseball thing in the first place, you ask? Well, because this drama relates baseball philosophy to "real" world happenings, friendship, and love.
    Sometimes, we don't need to have too much going on to enjoy a drama, and this is what I love in 9 End 2 Outs. Although the facing is a slightly slower compared to our typical k-dramas, it is, however, a well written one and excels at narrating how the love story unfolds. Honestly, not all dramas can smoothly pull that off and have the leads a good transition from being two bickering partners into a believable cheesy couple.

    Some dramas fail at showing us "when" and "how" the leads started liking each other, that whenever they act like a real couple, it doesn't make sense to me since the impression of "they haven't reached that next level yet" is still on me. It ticks me off whenever a drama wants me to believe that a big fire is coming out of a lighter. I am glad that this drama is not like that and that everything that happens in each episode helps the leads to finally realize they belong to each other. Slowly adding a wood onto a small fire is more convincing, right?

    This drama has a lot of talking,but mind you all, the talks are with sense and are mostly reflections about life, which is a good thing. I, as a viewer, learned a lot from the dialogs and I absolutely love that.
    Anyway, another thing great about this drama is that the leads know that they are attracted to each other and are mature about their feelings. The only thing that hinders them from turning their friendship into a romantic relationship is that they value each other so much that they can't afford losing one another if the relationship didn't work out. That, of course, is completely understandable considering they have an ongoing 30 years of strong friendship.

    One thing I love about their friendship is that they can be really mad to each other at one moment, then completely forget whatever happened after a minute or two, like a real siblings. They don't need that "say sorry or i wont speak or look at you" stage, they just automatically forget it all. They can still talk about all things (like talking about their current boyfriend/girlfriend) and can still play their "im-his/her friend" role despite confessing feelings to each other. I think that is really awesome.

    It always makes me smile, though, whenever they have that -my-heart-is-beating-really-fast-now-i-might-be-really-loving-you-i-cant-take-it-anymore moment, which always happens whenever they're serious and their eyes met. It just makes me swoooooooon, really, because it feels like I am witnessing how much they feel for each other so far. A bystander like me is happy seeing all that, just like this:

    I also love how this drama also points out how age gap makes it hard for a relationship to last longer (Nan Hee's boyfriend is a college baseball player who is 8 years her junior), as well as the status gap (Hyung Tae's girlfriend is a renowned classical guitarist). The drama shows that these, along with right timing, affect relationships.

    Anyway, the best thing in drama? It is villain-free! One thing that people don't know about me is that I prefer villain-free dramas. Why? Because it is more realistic. I just really don't think people who are rejected (in love) are overly clingy and revengeful. Real people have self respect and little pride in themselves that plotting to kill or making other people's lives miserable seems so unrealistic to me. I mean, broken-hearted people don't have time to think about other people's lives because they can't even think straight for themselves. Sigh.

    And yes, the main leads' chemistry is also off the chart! I love them both! ♥

    *all photos from google