Snow Queen, ep. 07-16
Tue, Dec. 9th, 2008 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI watched the first eight episodes last year around Christmas and was not particularly inspired to finish until my group did a kdrama parody skit for Korean class.
To recap: Han Tae Woong is a genius mathematician who turned boxer and renamed himself Deuk Gu after the suicide of his high school friend. Kim Bo Ra is a rich, spoiled, somewhat suicidal woman living with chronic illness. They meet, and she is cold and bitchy, though he manages to melt her exterior in scenes involving many references to "The Snow Queen" story. So far, I think there have been several Big Misunderstandings, several cases of mixed-up identities, three suicide attempts, one instance of kneeling at your parent's feet, and two instances of waiting in the rain. (I may be a little off, because I watched eps. 7-8 a year ago.)
In these 10 (or 8, see above parenthetical) episodes, we add a major case of identity reveal, a tragic wasting illness, running away from home, more kneeling at your parent's feet, lying to your loved one and hurting them for their own good, and about 5 changes of heart. Sadly, there is no secret incest, cross-dressing, or amnesia (the one trope we forgot to put in our parody skit).
But! There is almost incest, since she's the younger sister of Tae Woong/Deuk Gu's suicidal high school friend Jung Gyu, who killed himself because he was bested in a math competition and couldn't stand the pressure from his father. He can never tell her! They can never be together! There is additional angst because Jung Gyu was going to introduce the two, never mind that Tae Woong was in high school and Bo Ra was still in elementary school (or maybe a very young middle schooler)! Not knowing that the two had met before and Tae Woong had broken his promise to meet wee!Bo Ra in the rain because her brother was out committing suicide and blaming it on him!
So Tae Woong does what is most practical under these circumstances, which is to say he completely disses Bo Ra and her announcement of love, insults her, tells her he was only nice because he pitied her, and cries and looks moody and sad when she's not there and either a) insults her more, b) gives her the cold shoulder, or c) gets his face beaten into a bloody pulp while boxing when she is there.
But then she finds out! He confesses that he loved her all along and it hurt him horribly to hurt her but now he's hurting her anyway, so he will disappear from her life! This is probably a slightly better plan than the one above, as at least she has announced she never wants to see him again.
Unsurprisingly, in the next episode, she decides she does actually want to see him again, but her father finds out who he is! He forbids them to be together! They promise they will never be together out of respect for Jung Gyu, but Bo Ra's father wants Tae Woong to leave the country, but Bo Ra offers to leave instead so he can stay with his mother (recently reunited with) and continue his genius mathematician-ness. But! She runs from the airport and decides she cannot fly away and leaves home to live a life among the poor boxers and suffer all those hardships cold rich girls suffer when they give it all up for love.
Then there's the tragic wasting illness, except it's not so much a tragic wasting illness so much as a rapidly advancing, completely undetected until absolutely too late cancer! She is mean and cold to Tae Woong because that's always better than telling your loved one that you're going to die! He goes to the hospital anyway and goes into a screaming fit at the ICU doors and must be restrained by the staff! Her dad forgives them and allows them to go off and spend their last days together! They go on their first date, and she falls asleep (dressed in a white floaty dress to maximize angelicness and angst) and dies in her sleep!
There are more tragic references to "The Snow Queen" and a journey to Lapland. Thankfully, Tae Woong does not commit suicide from a mountain in Finland, although I was fully expecting him to at that point.
As you can probably tell, there is no redeeming feature in this whatsoever. The plot is horribly hackneyed, Hyun Bin has about two expressions and horrible hair (although he's at least dressed better than he was in Kim Sam Soon), the actress who plays Bo Ra has about two expressions, everyone develops undying grudges then forgives and forgets as the plot dictates, there is the merciless tugging of heartstrings, and mean, cold Bo Ra turns into a saint. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Still, it has a cold heroine whose heart is thawed by the Power of Love (and maybe by Hyun Bin's facial scruff), references to "The Snow Queen" (the manhwa tagline: "Gerda came for Kay, but who will come for the lonely Snow Queen?"), and I loved every second of it and cried buckets until I could not breathe through my nose even as I was snorfling at the nineteenth cliche the writers were piling in on the last ten minutes.
So: not recommended, but damn, that was fun.
To recap: Han Tae Woong is a genius mathematician who turned boxer and renamed himself Deuk Gu after the suicide of his high school friend. Kim Bo Ra is a rich, spoiled, somewhat suicidal woman living with chronic illness. They meet, and she is cold and bitchy, though he manages to melt her exterior in scenes involving many references to "The Snow Queen" story. So far, I think there have been several Big Misunderstandings, several cases of mixed-up identities, three suicide attempts, one instance of kneeling at your parent's feet, and two instances of waiting in the rain. (I may be a little off, because I watched eps. 7-8 a year ago.)
In these 10 (or 8, see above parenthetical) episodes, we add a major case of identity reveal, a tragic wasting illness, running away from home, more kneeling at your parent's feet, lying to your loved one and hurting them for their own good, and about 5 changes of heart. Sadly, there is no secret incest, cross-dressing, or amnesia (the one trope we forgot to put in our parody skit).
But! There is almost incest, since she's the younger sister of Tae Woong/Deuk Gu's suicidal high school friend Jung Gyu, who killed himself because he was bested in a math competition and couldn't stand the pressure from his father. He can never tell her! They can never be together! There is additional angst because Jung Gyu was going to introduce the two, never mind that Tae Woong was in high school and Bo Ra was still in elementary school (or maybe a very young middle schooler)! Not knowing that the two had met before and Tae Woong had broken his promise to meet wee!Bo Ra in the rain because her brother was out committing suicide and blaming it on him!
So Tae Woong does what is most practical under these circumstances, which is to say he completely disses Bo Ra and her announcement of love, insults her, tells her he was only nice because he pitied her, and cries and looks moody and sad when she's not there and either a) insults her more, b) gives her the cold shoulder, or c) gets his face beaten into a bloody pulp while boxing when she is there.
But then she finds out! He confesses that he loved her all along and it hurt him horribly to hurt her but now he's hurting her anyway, so he will disappear from her life! This is probably a slightly better plan than the one above, as at least she has announced she never wants to see him again.
Unsurprisingly, in the next episode, she decides she does actually want to see him again, but her father finds out who he is! He forbids them to be together! They promise they will never be together out of respect for Jung Gyu, but Bo Ra's father wants Tae Woong to leave the country, but Bo Ra offers to leave instead so he can stay with his mother (recently reunited with) and continue his genius mathematician-ness. But! She runs from the airport and decides she cannot fly away and leaves home to live a life among the poor boxers and suffer all those hardships cold rich girls suffer when they give it all up for love.
Then there's the tragic wasting illness, except it's not so much a tragic wasting illness so much as a rapidly advancing, completely undetected until absolutely too late cancer! She is mean and cold to Tae Woong because that's always better than telling your loved one that you're going to die! He goes to the hospital anyway and goes into a screaming fit at the ICU doors and must be restrained by the staff! Her dad forgives them and allows them to go off and spend their last days together! They go on their first date, and she falls asleep (dressed in a white floaty dress to maximize angelicness and angst) and dies in her sleep!
There are more tragic references to "The Snow Queen" and a journey to Lapland. Thankfully, Tae Woong does not commit suicide from a mountain in Finland, although I was fully expecting him to at that point.
As you can probably tell, there is no redeeming feature in this whatsoever. The plot is horribly hackneyed, Hyun Bin has about two expressions and horrible hair (although he's at least dressed better than he was in Kim Sam Soon), the actress who plays Bo Ra has about two expressions, everyone develops undying grudges then forgives and forgets as the plot dictates, there is the merciless tugging of heartstrings, and mean, cold Bo Ra turns into a saint. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Still, it has a cold heroine whose heart is thawed by the Power of Love (and maybe by Hyun Bin's facial scruff), references to "The Snow Queen" (the manhwa tagline: "Gerda came for Kay, but who will come for the lonely Snow Queen?"), and I loved every second of it and cried buckets until I could not breathe through my nose even as I was snorfling at the nineteenth cliche the writers were piling in on the last ten minutes.
So: not recommended, but damn, that was fun.
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(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:16 am (UTC)On the other hand, Capital Scandal is awesome! I'm going to give a shout-out to you in my review because there is a cold-hearted, intelligent courtesan involved. And she has this awesome scene with the traditional, patriotic bookshop owner/revolutionary and I hyperventilate from the awesome.
I know!
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:16 am (UTC)AWESOME.
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:38 am (UTC)SHope, have you seen MARS yet?
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 09:51 am (UTC)This was back in my no dramas phase this autumn, though.
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 13th, 2008 01:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:44 am (UTC)Also, I ditto
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 09:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 09:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 10:01 am (UTC)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/Shewhohashope/capital%20scandal/vlcsnap-2571666.png
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/Shewhohashope/capital%20scandal/vlcsnap-2571666.png
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/Shewhohashope/capital%20scandal/vlcsnap-2571666.png
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/Shewhohashope/capital%20scandal/vlcsnap-2571666.png
I'm making a screencap post right now.
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:38 am (UTC)Oh man I love Kdrama. And Twdrama. ALL DRAMA!
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 04:54 am (UTC)Oh, guess what? I'm in Taiwan! I'm a short MRT ride outside Taipei in a great suburb called Hsin Chuang/SinJhuang/Xin Quang. (Damn triple romanization system.)
(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 09:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Dec. 10th, 2008 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 13th, 2008 01:03 am (UTC)