Fantasy Couple, ep. 01-04

Anna is a filthy rich woman who has spent several years (or most of her life? I can't tell) in the US. She's recently moved back to Korea, much to the dismay of her browbeaten, bullied husband, who married her for her money but who also seems to have loved her once. Jang Chul Soo is a handyman trying to pinch pennies, since he's raising his dead brother's three sons. They anti-meet-cute when he helps her with her car, and she mistakes him for a murderer and beats his head in with a shovel.

Eventually, she gets amnesia (my first amnesia drama! a milestone!), and he ends up convincing her she's his girlfriend to save on housekeeping bills and to get back the money she owes him.

Normally, this premise would have me hating the hero from the get-go. While I wasn't very fond of Jang Chul Soo in the beginning, I at least don't want to whap him multiple times because of his scheme, largely due to the slapstick tone of the drama. In the beginning, the humor is extremely broad -- Anna's snobbiness and meanness is hugely exaggerated, to the point where even I didn't like her, and I usually like "bitchy" women (scarequotes for problematics surrounding use of "bitchy" as descriptor, not to imply the women aren't actually mean). I have some problems with this, namely that the heroes of kdramas seem to be allowed to be alpha male and aggressive and often plain mean in a way heroines aren't; if heroines are, it has to be shown as being wrong. I was also completely unconvinced of the viability of Anna and Chul Soo as a couple, and I was (and am) bored by her husband's storyline.

That said, the third and fourth episode either improve tremendously, or I got used to the broad humor and started to like it. The entire thing with Anna knowing so little about housework that she makes things worse and not better is totally expected, but I still thought it was funny, largely because of Chul Soo's expressions. That, and the very cute laundry-in-a-tub scene.

Chul Soo's softening much faster than Anna is, despite Anna's (very few) moments of weakness, and that while the joke seems to be on Anna most of the time, it always ends up being on Chul Soo. Well, that, and they're hilariously cute when they bond over finding money. I am even growing fond of the snooty way she tosses her hair.

Am having the same class issues with this one that I have had with most of the other series I've seen (moral uprightness of being poor coupled with fetishization of the filthy rich lifestyle), ditto with race issues (socializing with white people as sign of breeding and wealth, knowledge of English as shortcut to coolness). But it's making me laugh, so I will probably keep watching.

Also, this show makes me crave jajangmyeon like crazy, even though I have only had it once in my life. Must find restaurant around here with it, so I can have some, though may settle for zhajiangmien if I can't find jajangmyeon.

(no subject)

I think both my current mainlining of kdramas and actual, home-cooked Chinese food for Thanksgiving and Christmas have gotten me into an Asian comfort food kick.

Prior to that, I was on an American comfort food kick and craving mac and cheese, pie, casseroles, more pie, burgers, chocolate cream pie, corn dogs, and even more pie.

Currently, I have been eating a lot of ramen (my favorite is butter corn, sometimes sans butter); Chinese bentos with their wonderful sides of stir-fried cabbage, tea eggs, seaweed, and dofugan; zhajiangmien; garlicky pea shoots; chicken and salty fish fried rice; dumplings (pot stickers and boiled); and jook. I think if it weren't winter, I would also be craving pearl milk tea. Aaand now that I mention it, I want hot pearl milk tea and hot grass jelly, though all the places with hot grass jelly here aren't so great.

I also want but have not yet eaten: zhajiangmien, jjajangmyeon, Korean spicy tofu stew, bibimbap, onigiri and/or yaki onigiri, Japanese-style curry, my mom's spicy eggplant, beef noodle soup, onion pancakes, pa jun, okonomiyaki, tuna and corn crepes, pretty much any donburimono, and I wouldn't turn down pie either.

I keep meaning to write something about class and comfort food and race, but my brain is dead today. So instead, tell me what comfort food you have been craving lately!

I have strange holes of knowledge

Dude! I just discovered people make Chex mix! Like, with ovens! And not just dumping stuff in a bowl like I thought! Like, with melted butter and Worcestershire sauce! Like, it doesn't just come out of a bag at a grocery store!

Suddenly all the conversations about Chex mix I heard back in college make so much more sense! I am so boggled by this!

this is one of those things everyone else in the world knew, isn't it?