You're Beautiful/Handsome
Thursday, December 10, 2009
This may sound incoherent, because I am typing in the same way as I talk.
Okay, I need to defend myself. Just to clarify things a bit before everyone thinks I’m a weirdo. But seriously, it just seems wrong to ogle at a bunch of boys, init? I’m not a pedophile! I guess that’s the main reason why I gave up on Detective Gukuen Q after 1.5 episodes. It felt so wrong to watch a bunch of kids running around pretending to be Sherlock Holmes, and the cast of 15 year olds makes the drama seem… juvenile.
That’s why, I am alright with the A.N.Jells (HAH angels), precisely because they are all older than me, and the charismatic lead is 3 years older. :D Still, it is a tight fit (the female protagonist is merely one year older, dear me), and I am beginning to feel old (?!!), as it dawned on me that the current batch of idols seem to match my age or are even younger than me. -.- SERIOUSLY. While I stay at home, gawping at the screen, wasting my life away as an Otaku (or Hikikomori, whatever that means), people of my age are out there in the real/reel world competing with adults, exposed to stardom, living their dreams. It unsettles me.
N’uff of that. Anyway, the past 3 days were spent on watching You’re Beautiful (as if the whole world doesn’t know already). I’m quite proud of myself this time round, well for one I am watching this without the tingling feeling of guilt at the back of my head (I have this peculiar habit of getting addicted to dramas during exam periods), and more importantly, I actually watched this drama in chronological order, without skipping right to the final episode halfway through to see how the ending plays out (as I ALWAYS do. Yep I love spoilers. :D) Isn’t that an amazing accomplishment! Incidentally, it is also the only show I’ve watched without rooting for one character right from the beginning (think Zhong Zong, Koda, Snape etc). Perhaps this is so because all the characters are likable, be it the demure Shin-Woo, the cute Jeremy or the cool Tae-Kyung. Well if I really HAVE to choose, I would go for Tae-Kyung, Jeremy a close second. Shin-Woo doesn’t appeal to me, as in the case of his parallel, Ji Hoon, from Boys Over Flowers. WELL at least I find Shin-Woo alright, and at times even pity him; hated Ji Hoon in BOF. Oh and Manager Ma’s hilarious antics and wild imaginations never fail to crack me up! :D And President Ahn’s (in)famous lines, ‘Go go go!’, ‘Fantastique!’, ‘JACKPOT!’. Some credits must be given to UNEE, cast as the supposed villain in the show [nicknamed ‘fairy’ by the fans for her ahem beauty and HEH ‘gentle soul’. (Wassup with all the mystic references, anyway? We’ve got 4 angels, and now there is a ‘devil-fairy’. Corny!)], does not piss me off too much, since all her attempts to expose Gu Mi Nam fail in the end, thanks to the protection by the ‘angels’ (or rather, A.N.Jells =.=).
Although the drama is full of clichés and parts borrowed from other shows, it manages to put a twist to all these clichés to make it a refreshing watch. Sometimes, I even get the vibe that the script writers are trying to poke fun of the clichés. The parodies are classic, MadTV style. The show manages to capture the current idol scene in Korea rather accurately, IMHO, like the mass of anti-fans, the need for publicity and exposure, the crazy fans, and most hilariously, the slash fanfics of the trio!!!!!!!! They actually re-enacted the whole scene out of a slashfic of the orginal A.N.Jells hahahahaha! (Not that I like slash fics, but I love reading good Galileo and Snape fics.)
I love the rabbit-pig! It is so adorable. Loved it when Tae-Kyung did the operation on two different soft toys to get the hybrid (a symbol of Gu Mi Nam, since he calls her rabbit-pig, after two animals he hated). His punch kiss was cute, and loved it whenever he smirks/pouts/twitches his mouth. Jeremy is so adorable, and it was heartbreaking to see him cry. Well Shin-Woo… Didn’t feel much about him (reasons stated above), yes he is nice and all, but lacking that bit of charisma. Prefer him strumming the guitar on stage. THAT’S WHY I find YAB much better than BOF. 2 is company, 3 is crowd, and 4 means that the last guy has a non-existant and non-consequential role in the drama, which is so pointless. And the lack of parallel storylines make YAB even more endearing (didn’t like the Kim Bum’s character Yi-jung’s side story with Ga-eul, thought it complicated things way too much). It enables more plot development in other aspects, like the crazy fandom and the hilarious spoofs/crazy imaginations of Manager Ma, Jeremy, Tae-Kyung and Mi Nam! LOVE it when Tae-Kyung smiles or thinks out loud or draws on a piece of blank paper with his pencil. The classic was Gu Mi Nam (Gemma) with fireworks appearing over her head, and the cherubs in place of naked men.
I don’t like idols in general (A.N.Jell is an idol group), nor do I like idol dramas much. BUT I enjoy being an onlooker, standing at the sidelines laughing at the bunch of idols (stars as Gemma calls them – her Thomas, Julian and David XD) and taking a glimpse of their colourful lives (as opposed to my boring one).
Okay I think I will rewatch it some other day, as I do for all the dramas I like (Galileo, Good Luck!!, Beauty and Beast, DCJ, BOF… you name it :D). But I don’t really feel compelled to watch the dramas by the same few actors/actresses. Maybe only the ones with Jung Geun-seok (the male lead)? XD
BTW: read from dramabeans that Jung Geun-Seok and Park Shin-hye (Gu Mi Nyu/Gu Mi Nam) were heavy contenders for the roles of Gu Jun Pyo and Geum Jan-di in BOF! Now I wonder how it would turn out if the pair replaced Lee Min-Ho and Gu Hye-sun… (BTW their recaps are great, spent one whole night reading through all their YAB posts.)
WOW look at the polls! Apparently BOF is not faring well, init? You’re Beautiful is leading in all the polls by a large margin, great job! (:
--愛做夢的傻瓜--
10:47 PM
