August 2, 2012

  • Another kdrama disappointment

    (spoiler-rific for multiple kdramas)

    So I just finished another korean drama, Big. (The main girl is from Smile, You. The main guy is from Coffee Prince. One of the side characters is from miss A, a kpop group that I like). I was hooked from the start. The main characters had good chemistry, the side characters were ok and even funny sometimes, and there were multiple love triangles. There are 16 episodes and there weren't really any "filler" episodes, more or less every episode had a purpose. Up until the final episode, it had been good, not really disappointed, and I was very curious as to how there were going to resolve the love triangles & other issues. So I'm watching the final episode, eying the playtime counter basically the entire time, basically thinking "ok, they've got xx amount of time to wrap all this up....". The typical kdrama formula is some kind of partial resolution, then a fast-forward to some point in the future to see how everything played out.

    Well, this kdrama was no different. And just like the last 4 kdramas that I've watched (Dream High, Smile You, Creating Destiny, and My Fair Lady), I was not satisfied with the ending. They really didn't resolve anything and they didn't wrap up any of the side stories. They basically left a lot of loose ends, and I thought it was crap, probably the worse ending since My Fair Lady, which also had a crap "ending". Dream High's ending was ok, but not really happy. Smile You had an ok ending, but was HELLA drawn out (they could've cut out the last 15 or so episodes). Creating Destiny's was ok, but was hella rushed (exact opposite of Smile You).

    It's partly my fault, but mostly the writers fault. It's my fault because I guess I set my expectations kind of high, but that's a direct result of the writing. If the writers didn't write most of it to be interesting & compelling to get me initially hooked and emotionally invested, I would've lost interest and stopped watching, like I did with Hello Miss, Cinderella Man, and Miss Ripley.

    There are only a few kdramas that I like everything about. Soulmate and Couple or Trouble are probably it. I happen to own both, and they are my #1 and #2 fav romantic comedy kdramas (I have different list for the cry-cry-cry kdramas). Princess Hours is my #3, but it was waaayyy too long. More than half of it was filler episodes.

    I'm probably not going to stop watching kdramas, so I hope they get better, or at least start ending better.