K-Drama: Run On (7.9/10)

My feelings are torn about this drama. I watched it until the end so I definitely enjoyed it. That said, I have to share my controversial opinion that I disliked a good bit about the main leads. and even fast forwarded a few of their scenes.

Here is a summary of the show:

Ki Sun Gyeom is a sports agent who was once a popular sprinter on the national team but was forced to quit due to legal issues. Oh Mi Joo writes translated subtitles for movies. She was thrilled to see her name listed among the credits when she first started. Ki Sun Gyeom had just quit sprinting when he encountered Oh Mi Joo, who felt that destiny most certainly brought them together. Seo Dan Ah is the CEO of a sports agency and rightful successor to the Seomyung Group. Despite this, she is held back from advancing in the company due to her gender. She fiercely wishes to reclaim what is rightfully hers and lives her life accordingly. Lee Young Hwa, a university art major who enjoys movies and drawing soon enters her life. (via AsianWiki)

If you know me IRL my reaction probably isn’t surprising. I hate when people are rude. And I especially hate when people pretend to be great, likable people while being impolite jerks because I dislike hypocrisy most of all in this world.

In the first episode the main female lead is annoyed and bored at a dinner and shares her frustration out loud for the guest of honor and others to hear. Then she escalates a situation that could have been resolved much more easily – and politely. Of course this was a plot point that needed forwarding in order to create the situation for her to meet the male lead and get to know him better, but still.

Throughout the show the female lead continued to state her mind in all situations. I appreciate a strong woman, and appreciated her sense of humor, but she was also tactless. And she insinuated herself into the family drama of a family that wasn’t hers. She did this because she supported the male lead whose family was dysfunctional, but she never knew or asked for the back story to their problems and basically put her nose into things she knew nothing about..

The male lead had some good qualities, like a sense of justice and the type of bluntness and social anxiety that is often reserved for people on the autism scale. This was endearing BUT he was also a spoiled brat. He was one of the neverending k-drama lead rich boys who didn’t receive enough love from his parents and doesn’t know how to handle it as an adult.

He was angry at his parents, which was fair considering their inability to provide him and his sister the love and support they needed, but he wouldn’t maturely talk it out with them, Instead he repeatedly rebelled, had temper tantrums and stormed off. He also had no need to work because of the money he received from his family. He spent a good amount of the show lazing around doing whatever. In my opinion, if he hated his parents so much he should have cut himself off and become self made. Or taken one lump sum from them and left the family, To take their money while yelling at or humiliating his parents every time he saw them was a bit rich.

Basically the leads annoyed me with their lack of manners and filial piety.

What I did like in the show was the pace of the romance, which was not too fast or slow, and the leads took a number of factors into consideration while deciding whether they should be together. The plot was also somewhat quirky, which I always appreciate. And I loved the second female lead. She was rude and tactless too, so why would I love her and dislike the leads? Because she owned it 100%. She was her authentic self at all times and did not pretend she was good or thoughtful. She also peppered her insults with compliments, making her meanness much less cutting. And she was very funny.

I liked the other characters too, such as the second lead who was clearly good hearted. The professor was awful, but funny. The male leads parents who could have been easily dismissed for their awfulness had enough depth that I could not hate them completely. I really liked the second male leads friend and his sister, along with the butler and the female leads only(?) friend too.

Those characters and the overall plot, plus the lack of stressful love triangles helped to cushion my dislike of the leads lack of manners.

K-Drama: Just Dance

I held off on watching this drama for YEARS because there is nothing I love more than a dance competition story. For instance, Dirty Dancing is my favorite movie of all time I also adore stories about kids who accomplish more than most adults expected of them. Especially when they are based on true stories. My very favorite is Stand and Deliver. Just Dance combines both so I was basically saving the best for last, or at least for a moment when I could reward myself.

Now if only I had known it would be a darker look at the human condition… I still would have watched it, but maybe I wouldn’t have been expecting lighthearted montages of dance practice and memorable lines a la Bring It On like “It’s already been broughtin.”

Instead, I think I went through a whole box of tissues while watching Just Dance. And that’s because it focuses on life in a small town full of what people in Seoul consider “hicks” where shipbuilding is the major industry. The lead, Kim Shi Eun is a girl with good grades and big dreams, constrained by her upbringing. She is the daughter of a widow whose husband died under dubious circumstances. Her mom continually tells her not to strive for too much, pushing her to graduate from her technical high school and get a job on the island.

I could relate so much to the lead. I was born to parents who have little in the way of ambition and though they love me, they have not been interested in assisting me in meeting my goals, which have always been loftier than their own.

My experience is also laid out in this show which lays out its theme very clearly in the last four or so episodes. The theme is happiness and whether it is tied to achieving dreams or simpler than that. Basically what does it mean to be happy, is it attainable and will it be lasting.

This is told through the stories of Kim Shi Eun who wants to get out of her small town and direct films and the ragtag group of girls who ended up on their schools Dance Sport team. Girls who were the children of people with big ambitions for them, no ambitions, alcoholics, grandparent guardians and parents who were worried that their kids would leave for the big city and never be back.

It was also about Mr. Lee the dance sport teacher whose purpose was to help as many girls as possible in whatever ways he could, although he was a supporting character throughout.

There was also a love story between the lead and a boy whose dad was her moms superior at work whose families had drama between them (because it wouldn’t be a k-drama if that wasn’t in it lol). In my opinion the lead boy was adorable. He was sweet and kind and loved the lead as much as any teenager could love someone. Kim Shi Eun, on the other hand was awful to him a lot of time. It is something I loved and hated about this show.

I really appreciate that Kim Shi Eun was not a typical character in a drama. She wasn’t particularly nice or fun to be around. She was sometimes depressed, an elitist, a bad communicator and made some really stupid decisions. I think this was a unique approach and welcome it for its uniqueness and its tru-to-life’ness. It was definitely better than having a lead character who the plot says is amazing but in actuality is not.

On the other hand I was basically yelling at the screen when she was at her worst. Even though I knew it was a show I was so mad at her for the way she would treat her friends and a boy who so clearly loved her despite all of her flaws.

Overall I really liked this show. The theme really resonated with me since I think we all struggle with what happiness is and whether we are truly happy, and if so how happy. I also liked the underlying themes around class and the issues facing people who are just trying to get by since as a single parent that has absolutely been me. It is also the vast majority of the worlds population.

The dance practice and competition parts were nice, but it really was more the glue that held the story together rather than the main theme. As a result, I enjoyed it but it wasn’t the thing that kept me watching. I watched to see what would happen next with the characters, especially Kim Shi Eun, her mom, the boy who loved her and the outcast rebel Park Hye Jin who I would watch a whole show about on its own.

Overall, Just Dance was pretty depressing, definitely not the Christmas cheer I was expecting, but it was because it was so realistic. This show was also interesting, sometimes funny, unique, thoughtful, and very, very smart. If you don’t mind that it’s not sally sunshine than I wholly recommend it. Sometime soon I will be watching the original documentary the show is based on, assuming I can find it with eng subs.

J-Movie: Tori Girl

I adore this movie and highly recommend it. Tori Girl aka Tori Garu! is everything good wrapped into one. It’s lighthearted and funny, with a great protagonist. And it possesses something that I love about Japanese movies and shows, which is a plot that is about people working hard towards their goals, which is always motivating.

The movie is about a girl, Toriyama Yukina, who enters a college of science, which she is excited about, until she realizes that most of her classmates are dorks.

She gets dragged to a meeting for a “human powered flight” club. For anyone, who like me had no idea what that is, it’s basically a plane made with bicycle parts that runs when the pilots synchronize their pedaling. (Note: It is very similar to the extreme sport Flugtag).

Yukina is not particularly knowledgeable about or interested in human powered flight until… she sees the club president who she immediately likes, especially after he tells her she should join because “she has a good body.” After that, Yukina joins right away, excitedly training to ride into the sky with the club president.

Only, Yukina soon learns that there is another pilot that the President rode with before, who he is also trying to recruit. A big jock like fellow, who spends his time drinking beer and looking mean, named Sakaba Taishi. The two do not hit it off, and spend most of their time squabbling. Squabbling that is extremely entertaining to watch.

Yukina and Sakaba end up having to fly together, just the two of them. Despite their never ending disputes, they somehow manage to perform in the human powered flight competition.

By the time their bike-plane took off, I was so sucked into the movie, and rooting for them, that I realized I was actually holding my breath. And their time in the air was not only suspenseful, but sweet, slightly heartbreaking, and very funny.

This movie is not especially deep or romantic, but it is great. To put this into context, I will only re-watch films or shows after years have gone by because I don’t see the point in seeing something I recently saw. But, I’ll be making an exception for Tori Girl, and will probably watch it again soon because I like it that much.