seraphcelene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seraphcelene) wrote2011-01-03 07:36 pm
seraphcelene) wrote2011-01-03 07:36 pm
Entry tags:
kdrama: The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry (2010)
You expect rom-com's to be romance and comedy thrown together for a fun, light-hearted, improbable romp down the path to coupledom. You do not necessarily expect it to be full of complexity, emotional subtlety, and best girlfriend awesomeness! The Woman Who Still Wants to Marry was surprising and fulfilling in a way that I haven't encountered since The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince.
34 year-old "spinsters" Lee Shin Young, Kim Bu Ki, and Jung Da Jung are career women at the heart of the story. Their friendship is of the awesome variety. They support each other in everything, providing a shoulder to cry on, awesome advice courtesy of the fabulous Bu Ki (aka Boogie Woogie), and a makegeolli drinking buddy at any hour of the night. Shin Young and Da Jung also want to get married and that wish is becoming problematized by their age (30 in Korea is apparently getting over the hill). Bu Ki is completely comfortable with her single status, having dumped her fiance four years earlier when she realized that she was destined to be a slave to the in-laws. The women are all successful, and they all LOVE their jobs (reporter, restaurant consultant, and interpreter, respectively). That was something that I really loved about this drama. The girls were true friends, sharing and supporting each other, and they were people outside of their relationships.
Shin Young's romance with 24 year-old Ha Min Jae, played by the adorable Kim Bum, is sweet icing on an already awesome girlfriend cake. Their relationship gets paralleled by a secondary older woman/younger man pairing when Shin Young's ex-boyfriend falls for Min Jae's 44 year-old mom. It really should be weird, but it's surprisingly not as odd as I'd thought it would be. Mostly I was rooting for Sang Mi to get over being afraid and damaged and jump into an affair with Sang Woo with both feet first. However, I totally get her reticence considering her back story. Watching Sang Mi blossom, come to appreciate and value herself was also way with the awesome. She becomes sexier and more self-possessed as the drama unfolds, and I liked watching her expression open up. Sang Woo, I was astonished to find, was much less hateable once he got over being a prick with Shin Young and met Sang Mi.
Da Jung falls for Min Jae's hyung, Ban Seok, manages to get married and discovers that being married isn't the fairy tale that she imagined. The ladies have to learn how to deal with their expectations, the expectations of society, and their desires for love and a career. For Shin Young part of that equation involves figuring out how to deal with being in love with a man who is 10 years her junior and his mother who is barely 10 years her senior. It's not that they necessarily want different things, at least not in the way that this drama stages it, but they see life differently. Min Jae is full of passion and righteousness, full steam ahead, both barrels blazing. Shin Young has experienced disappointment, and understands that not everything goes your way and sometimes you have to dig in for the long haul. I liked that Min Jae had to work for Shin Young, she wasn't just buying into this younger man-older woman relationship. I also liked that she really pursued her career despite the relationship because it was what she wanted.
Bu Ki was just all around awesome. I want to be Bu Ki when I grow up.
Ha Min Jae totally adorable. Kim Bum is charming and totally suited to being a "noona-killer" in a way that fits much better than the playboy oppa in Boys Over Flowers. I guess we could attribute some of that to aging, but BOF was filmed maybe two years earlier. I loved the sleeping over scene in episode 15(?), the dying of the hair, and the way that he fell harder and faster in the beginning then Shin Young. Kim Bum with the shattered pieces of his heart in his eyes, is a pretty, heart-clenching sight to behold. I also missed the grey hair when it was gone.
Da Jung and Ban Seok were too cute, but I also loved how Da Jung's fairy tale happily-ever-after gets a shot of serious reality. As comic relief, they were teh awesome, but Da Jung facing the realities of life with the in-laws, and her realization that marriage involves compromise between his expectations and hers made her story that much more fulfilling. She grew. Ban Seok realizing that he loved her no matter what, even if she didn't love him as much, was pretty awesome, too.
Overall, I thought the drama was pretty damn awesome. How many times CAN I use that word? Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. The story arcs were followed to some pretty natural conclusions, but with just enough injected fantasy that it made for a very satisfying ending (unlike some dramas I could name. A Love to Kill, I am looking at you).
I streamed it over at Drama Fever, but Hulu is hosting the Drama Fever stream, too. Go watch! Prepare yourself for ... you guessed it ... teh awesome.
34 year-old "spinsters" Lee Shin Young, Kim Bu Ki, and Jung Da Jung are career women at the heart of the story. Their friendship is of the awesome variety. They support each other in everything, providing a shoulder to cry on, awesome advice courtesy of the fabulous Bu Ki (aka Boogie Woogie), and a makegeolli drinking buddy at any hour of the night. Shin Young and Da Jung also want to get married and that wish is becoming problematized by their age (30 in Korea is apparently getting over the hill). Bu Ki is completely comfortable with her single status, having dumped her fiance four years earlier when she realized that she was destined to be a slave to the in-laws. The women are all successful, and they all LOVE their jobs (reporter, restaurant consultant, and interpreter, respectively). That was something that I really loved about this drama. The girls were true friends, sharing and supporting each other, and they were people outside of their relationships.
Shin Young's romance with 24 year-old Ha Min Jae, played by the adorable Kim Bum, is sweet icing on an already awesome girlfriend cake. Their relationship gets paralleled by a secondary older woman/younger man pairing when Shin Young's ex-boyfriend falls for Min Jae's 44 year-old mom. It really should be weird, but it's surprisingly not as odd as I'd thought it would be. Mostly I was rooting for Sang Mi to get over being afraid and damaged and jump into an affair with Sang Woo with both feet first. However, I totally get her reticence considering her back story. Watching Sang Mi blossom, come to appreciate and value herself was also way with the awesome. She becomes sexier and more self-possessed as the drama unfolds, and I liked watching her expression open up. Sang Woo, I was astonished to find, was much less hateable once he got over being a prick with Shin Young and met Sang Mi.
Da Jung falls for Min Jae's hyung, Ban Seok, manages to get married and discovers that being married isn't the fairy tale that she imagined. The ladies have to learn how to deal with their expectations, the expectations of society, and their desires for love and a career. For Shin Young part of that equation involves figuring out how to deal with being in love with a man who is 10 years her junior and his mother who is barely 10 years her senior. It's not that they necessarily want different things, at least not in the way that this drama stages it, but they see life differently. Min Jae is full of passion and righteousness, full steam ahead, both barrels blazing. Shin Young has experienced disappointment, and understands that not everything goes your way and sometimes you have to dig in for the long haul. I liked that Min Jae had to work for Shin Young, she wasn't just buying into this younger man-older woman relationship. I also liked that she really pursued her career despite the relationship because it was what she wanted.
Bu Ki was just all around awesome. I want to be Bu Ki when I grow up.
Ha Min Jae totally adorable. Kim Bum is charming and totally suited to being a "noona-killer" in a way that fits much better than the playboy oppa in Boys Over Flowers. I guess we could attribute some of that to aging, but BOF was filmed maybe two years earlier. I loved the sleeping over scene in episode 15(?), the dying of the hair, and the way that he fell harder and faster in the beginning then Shin Young. Kim Bum with the shattered pieces of his heart in his eyes, is a pretty, heart-clenching sight to behold. I also missed the grey hair when it was gone.
Da Jung and Ban Seok were too cute, but I also loved how Da Jung's fairy tale happily-ever-after gets a shot of serious reality. As comic relief, they were teh awesome, but Da Jung facing the realities of life with the in-laws, and her realization that marriage involves compromise between his expectations and hers made her story that much more fulfilling. She grew. Ban Seok realizing that he loved her no matter what, even if she didn't love him as much, was pretty awesome, too.
Overall, I thought the drama was pretty damn awesome. How many times CAN I use that word? Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. The story arcs were followed to some pretty natural conclusions, but with just enough injected fantasy that it made for a very satisfying ending (unlike some dramas I could name. A Love to Kill, I am looking at you).
I streamed it over at Drama Fever, but Hulu is hosting the Drama Fever stream, too. Go watch! Prepare yourself for ... you guessed it ... teh awesome.