• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Bringing the Drama

Bringing the Drama: Big

August 3, 2012 by Anna N, Emily Snodgrass, Eva Volin and Nancy Thistlethwaite 6 Comments

Big: Not as charming as one would assume from this promotional image

ANNA: For this episode of Bringing the Drama, we are going to talk about Big, which is notable because it is the new show from fan favorite creators the Hong sisters and it also features the return to television of Gong Yoo, who was previously so excellent in Coffee Prince. The series is available on Dramafever and Hulu. Big‘s title and plot is a reference to the classic Tom Hanks movie of the 1980s but in execution the show might provoke more flashbacks to Freaky Friday. Gil Da Ran is studying to be a teacher, and her life seems to be going fairly well because she is engaged to be married to a doctor, Seo Yoon Jae. Yoon Jae doesn’t always seem to be able to find the time to spend with Da Ran, and a shady female colleague wants to break the couple up. Da Ran has an encounter with an overly precocious and slightly obnoxious teenager named Kang Kyung Joon. Kyung Joon and Yoon Jae get into a car accident with each other, and when Kyung Joon wakes up, he’s in the older doctor Yoon Jae’s body! Kyung Joon’s teenage body is stuck at the hospital in a lingering coma. What is Da Ran going to do, with a teenage boy in the body of her attractive and reserved fiance?

What were your reactions to the first few episodes?

EVA: I’m getting more and more used to Korean comedies starting off in tragic ways. Unrequited love! Orphaned children! Accidental drowning! What fun. But this one actually is. I completely bought Gong Yoo as both the doctor and the teenager (in fact, it took me until about halfway through episode three before I gasped and shouted at the computer, “It’s that guy from Coffee Prince!”) and Lee Min Jung’s reactions to both versions of Gong Yoo’s character is convincing. I’m impressed at how well the two actors are pulling this off.

EMILY: The first thing I noticed about Big is that it has a different feel than the other Hong sisters dramas I’ve seen. They usually go for the screwball comedy right from the get-go (just look at the beginning of You’re Beautiful) but this time they went with a more serious first episode. There were hints of humor, but in general, episode 1 plays things straight and sets up the premise of the story. Things start to get funnier in episode 2, but even then, it feels a bit toned down.

I like Gong Yoo in pretty much everything I’ve seen him in. Really, he could just sit there and read the phone book, and I’d probably tune in. In this drama, he faces the challenge of playing two characters- the adult doctor, Yoon Jae, and the teenager-trapped-in-an-adult-body, Kyung Joon. We don’t really get to see him in his role of Yoon Jae for very long, so it’s difficult to get a handle on the character. When he starts acting as Kyung Joon, he really lights up. I think he does fall into that trap, at first, of acting TOO childish, when trying to act like a teen, but he gets over it quickly and settles into the role.

I’m somewhat disappointed in the heroine, Gil Da Ran. She seems like such a cliched naive Kdrama heroine. I like how she acts around her younger brother- feisty and in charge- but everywhere else, she seems to have some doormat tendencies. While she isn’t quite as blindingly naive as Minam was in You’re Beautiful, she still scores high on the unbelievably-innocent scale. I have no problem with the actress playing her; it’s the character that feels a bit weak.

I love Da Ran’s family. They have a wonderful dynamic, one that almost mirrors the situation Da Ran will eventually face. Da Ran’s father is about 12 years older at least than her mom. In fact, they were teacher-student. Yet in spite of the age difference, and lots of parental drama they hint at, they have a successful and loving marriage. Something for Da Ran to keep in mind, perhaps, as she will no doubt become confused by the presence of Kyung Joon’s soul in her fiance’s body.

Thank you, Hong sisters, for all those bare-chested-post-army-body-fanservice scenes of Gong Yoo :)

One of the better things about Big: Gong Yoo and his abs

NANCY: I’m about eight episodes into the drama now, and I still don’t know what to make of it. It is not “Big,” for those who care about those kind of things. I would call it…a half-assed Secret Garden. Harsh, but…true.

I agree with Emily that Gong Yoo acts too childish for a 17-year-old (18 in Korea), and to top it off, his acting in no way resembles how Shin Won-Ho (the “real” Kyung Joon) interpreted the character. Kyung Joon is treated as such a child by Gil Da Ran that it’s impossible to view him as a romantic interest for her. So then is Yoon Jae her romantic interest? But he’s never around, so we have no idea what he’s like. It’s great that the viewer is unsure about Yoon Jae’s true feelings just as Gil Da Ran is—that is what makes the plot interesting—but it doesn’t work beyond that.

This is a romantic comedy without the romantic comedy. There is no couple to root for. I have no idea where this drama is going, and I feel like the drama itself doesn’t know where it’s going either.

EVA: See, here’s where it shows that I’m the noob here: I have no idea what Secret Garden is. But, yeah, this is nothing like Big and kinda-sorta like Freaky Friday.

It’s also clear that I’m (at least with this show) willing to cut the actors more slack than Emily and Nancy are. Yeah, Gong Yoo isn’t portraying the Kyung Joon character the same way Shin Won Ho did. But I was having so much fun with the character the way he decided to play it that I didn’t care. Heh.

ANNA: Actually having no idea where the show will go is mainly what appeals to me for this drama. Being unsure of which couple to root for actually seems somewhat refreshing. I’m sure that there will be a happy ending, but right now I’m not sure what to expect. I honestly am not sure if Gil Da Ran would be better off with Kyung Joon in in Yoon Jae’s body or the real Yoon Jae. She seems to have built much more of a solid friendship and companionship with Kyung Joon, even though she does treat him like a little kid. She really didn’t know Yoon Jae very well, despite being engaged to him. I agree that Gong Yoo’s frenetic little kid act settles down a bit a few episodes in. I’m afraid I’m too much of a fangirl to be all that critical of Gong Yoo’s performance or interpretation of the character, because he’s just so appealing as a lead character.

I feel like I have to give a shout out to Jang Ma-Ri, Kyung Joon’s ex-girlfriend who shows up and quickly suspects that something is wrong. She’s basically like The Terminator with ridiculous hair fashion accessories, and she injects a comedic element into the series that is definitely needed.

Ma Ri: Making Hair bows Menacing!

NANCY: I agree that Suzy as Ma-Ri is a great addition to the series! At first her interpretation of what is basically a sasaeng (crazy stalkers of kpop idols) scared the hell out of me. But once she stops acting like a freak, we see a loyal person who is trying to right a past wrong. She’s charming, and I also feel for Da-Ran’s brother.

Basically I’d like this series a lot more if Yoon Jae would just wake up to fix the plodding pace of this drama. :p

EVA: Ma-Ri is awesome. Once we got past the crazy stalker stage she became, fittingly, the most American of the characters — no noble idiot here. If she wants something she goes for it and damn the consequences. She may be incredibly annoying to the rest of the characters, but to me she’s a breath of fresh air.

I’m still only seven episodes in, so hearing that the show turns plodding is not good news. Emily, is there hope for a turn-around?

EMILY:
I finished the series this week, and was extremely disappointed with it. I still love Gong Yoo, and think he did a fantastic job with what he was given, but the writers really dropped the ball here. They just went in circles for so many episodes. There were so many pointless scenes. Heck, all of episode 15 is a waste of time. Even Ma-ri becaume a useless plot contrivance in the last episode- I can’t believe she got away with what she did, good grief. I also can’t believe this is a Hong Sisters Drama. I really enjoyed so many of their other shows (You’re Beautiful, Greatest Love, My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, etc) that I can’t understand what they were thinking when they came up with this series. I am usually very easy to please, but in this case, I was just left scratching my head and wondering what the hell I just watched. *sigh*

Still, this has been a good year for dramas over all. I LOVED Queen In-Hyun’s Man, I’m still enjoying A Gentleman’s Dignity (in spite of 1 episode of stupidity, the rest of it has been pretty solid), and there are a bunch of new shows coming that look like they will be fun. That’s the nice thing about the Korean and Japanese TV systems- if you don’t like a show, just wait 3 months, and a whole new crop of shows will start :D

ANNA: Oh, I was hoping it would get better by the end! I was stalled out at episode 10, but I was thinking that the Hong Sisters would somehow be able to pull off the show. My tastes in drama generally tend to synch up with yours, do you think the show is worth finishing, or should I switch over to A Gentleman’s Dignity for more satisfying drama watching?

EMILY: Personally, I would switch. Apparently, the Big ending was a let down to a LOT of people, judging from the flurry of blog posts I am seeing today. Granted, it’s not the worst ending I have ever seen in a drama (that honor goes to the K-drama “Let’s Go To School, Sang-Doo” and the J-drama “Cheap Love”) but it is extremely weak and leaves lots of questions. And important events happen off screen. So annoying.

ANNA: How quickly my excitement over a new Hong Sisters’ drama has turned into crushing despair! If we aren’t going to recommend that people watch this one, what should people watch instead? Coffee Prince, to experience the glory of Gong Yoo in a series with much better writing? Secret Garden, if people are looking for a series about body switching that is less maddening?

EMILY: Watch Coffee Prince for Gong Yoo, Secret Garden for awesome body-swapping, and You’re Beautiful/Greatest Love/Girlfriend is a Gumiho for better Hong Sisters efforts. ^_^

At least we can all cherish our memories of Coffee Prince!

Filed Under: Bringing the Drama Tagged With: Bringing the Drama

Bringing the Drama: You’re Beautiful

February 13, 2012 by Anna N, Emily Snodgrass, Eva Volin and Nancy Thistlethwaite 14 Comments

ANNA: To start out this new feature on Manga Bookshelf, I thought that You’re Beautiful would be the ideal show to discuss, because I think it would be a good first series for anyone to try who isn’t familiar with Korean dramas. There are plenty of plot points in You’re Beautiful that manga fans can appreciate, due to the cross-dressing reverse harem scenario that the heroine has to face.

You’re Beautiful is the story of a novice nun who has to impersonate her twin brother and join a boy band, cross dressing as an idol singer. It is available for streaming on Dramafever and Hulu.

What about You’re Beautiful do you find compelling?

EVA: Of the four of us, I think I’m the newest kdrama watcher. I’m still learning the conventions, quirks, and tropes of Korean television, so many of what you all take for granted I still find either hilarious or perplexing.

What brought me to You’re Beautiful was, if I remember correctly, you and Emily chortling about it on Twitter, then Emily and Nancy coveting the stuffed pig-rabbit that came with the deluxe edition of the DVD set. (I may have my time line a bit skewed. It was a while ago that all this took place.) I figured anything that had all three of you so excited must be worth giving a try.

What kept me going past the first three episodes (I’ve learned that kdramas don’t often get started until at least episode four) was how deliberately silly the show is. Even as a novice viewer it was easy for me to spot many of the things the show parodies. From our heroine’s first appearance on screen as a ditsy nun (a trope that usually drives me crazy), to the boy band decked out in lace and guyliner, to the evil arch-rival plotting against them all, there is nothing about this show that takes itself seriously.

ANNA: I was also inspired to watch You’re Beautiful after seeing Emily post about it on twitter. For me, it was the first drama that I’d watched that wasn’t a manga adaptation, and it ended up being a bit of a gateway drug because I promptly immersed myself in watching many more dramas after finishing it.

Minam is tortured by cute idol singers. Tortured!

Minam is tortured by cute idol singers. Tortured!

I think that You’re Beautiful’s silly tone is one of its strengths. It isn’t cynical at all, which is quite refreshing in today’s world. Even though the characters do plenty of ridiculous things, their actions totally make sense when you consider their personalities. When sheltered Minam has to face entering a locker room filled with undressed men, the mental gymnastics she puts herself through in order to maintain her disguise result in one of the most hilariously surreal scenes I’ve viewed in a TV show.

A.N.JELL lead singer Tae Kyung might be an emotionally distant OCD case with an odd obsession with cowl neck sweaters, but compared to how he might have turned out considering his harpy of a mother he’s actually not so bad. Poor Jeremy wanders around like a lost puppy, wondering why he keeps having visions of his new band mate eating fruit in slow motion, and Shin Woo’s penchant for quiet observation and on-demand emotional support doesn’t further his goals of romance.

So even though there’s plenty of guyliner and ridiculous scenarios, the core cast is remarkably sympathetic in the midst of all the silliness. When the characters do goofy things like pondering the dangerous nature of bidets or getting trapped on a moving truck, they aren’t ever really the objects of ridicule for the audience.

Chibi A.N.Jell

NANCY: Kdrama is the new shoujo manga! At least for romantic comedies. This drama was written by the Hong sisters, who definitely brought the “shoujo manga” aesthetic to this series. There are even chibi versions of the members of A.N.JELL (the fictitious kpop band in the show) that can be seen on merchandise in the drama itself. And that pig-rabbit is merchandising gold–I still want one! Unfortunately it wasn’t included with the YA Entertainment release here.

At the time this came out, I think I was still a bit hesitant about many of the TV dramas because they can reach high levels of tragedy sustained over many episodes, which can be grueling to watch. Like Eva, I wasn’t keen on the “Sound of Music” beginning with the hapless nun, but by the end of the first episode–with its super-shoujo ending–I was hooked.

Tae Kyung, King of Guyliner


EMILY: I’m a huge fan of shoujo manga, something that is chock full of ridiculous situations, unrealistic characters, and romantic comedy. There are also quite a number of series featuring cross dressing idol singers. Therefore, when I heard about a kdrama that embraced these same themes I’m so fond of, I was all over it. As an added bonus, You’re Beautiful is by the Hong Sisters, a writing duo whose work I have previously enjoyed (Fantasy Couple, Delightful Girl Chung-hyang, My Girl) so I had high hopes it would be good. I was happy to find myself hooked rather quickly. You’re Beautiful is silly, and the characters are all so exaggerated, but it’s so much more fun that way.

The Hong Sisters have a way of taking cliched situations and putting just the right amount of spin on them to bring unexpected results, or a surprise laugh. They are masters of parody. And what can I say, I love seeing surly heroes like Tae Kyung (king of all guyliner) be taken down a peg or two, be it from falling for Minam, or being chased by a wild pig.

Shin Woo in a clever disguise!

ANNA: That’s funny that Emily and Nancy were commenting on the similarities of You’re Beautiful to shoujo manga, because for me it was my first time getting sucked in to the kdrama staple plot of the second lead guy’s hopeless romance with the main girl. I really wanted Minam and Shin Woo to end up together even though I knew that wasn’t likely to happen. The Hong sisters really packed this show full of interesting supporting characters and plot lines.

Other than the romance of the main couple, what were your favorite supporting characters or stories?

NANCY: I have to say I was always a fan of the leading man, Tae Kyung, snarls and pouts and all. Jang Keun Suk is captivating, even when his acting is deliberately overblown. I also have a soft spot for Lee Hong Ki, who plays Jeremy. Jeremy is the one who keeps finding his bandmates in suggestive situations with Minam, whom he believes to be a boy. This drama also includes one of the best tongue-in-cheek nods to female fandom. There’s a scene in which Jeremy reads slash fanfic about the band in an online forum, and he then goes on to imagine how it would play out. You then see the three male leads reenacting a love triangle.

Minam’s online test to become an official fan of A.N.JELL is another gem. I feel that I can’t talk about Jung Hong Hwa (Shin Woo) or Lee Hong Ki without mentioning that their bands (Hong Hwa’s C.N. Blue and Hong Ki’s F. T. Island) will be holding a joint concert in Los Angeles on March 9.

pig rabbit

Who wouldn't want a slightly toxic pig rabbit?

EVA: Hahaha! I love how Nancy’s unabashed love of Kpop sneaks its way into every conversation.

It’s hard not to love Jeremy. The adorableness of everything he does is almost cuddly. And the scene Nancy described is one of the standout scenes from the entire series. But my favorite side character is Minam’s archenemy Yoo He Yi, played by Uee. The Evil! It Burns! She’s so effective as the villain because she really, truly thinks she’s in the right, that Minam is the bad guy (girl), and that Tae Kyung just doesn’t understand. Her love is pure, by golly, it’s pure!

EMILY: I’m generally a first-lead fan, so I was Tae-Kyung/Minam all the way. Shin Woo was nice, but was waaaay too passive. It’s funny how he kept trying to be a shoujo manga-type prince, doing all these secretly sweet gestures, but he should have realized that with a heroine as dense, er, naive as Minam, he needed to be a bit more outgoing to make her notice. I felt bad for him, but it also sort of felt like he was stringing her along and getting more personal kicks out of being the secret helper. He put himself on the sidelines, so he shouldn’t be surprised if he ends up there. I think my favorite supporting character was Jeremy. He managed to be really sweet and considerate and likable in spite of the strangeness of his hair. (Seriously, what was up with his hair? Poor guy). And yes, the BL fanfiction scene and Jeremy’s support of it is one of the best moments in the series :)

Jeremy, confused by fruit.

NANCY: Caught by Eva!! I enjoyed Yoo He Yi as well (and Uee happens to be in the kpop group After School–ha ha ha!). I also agree with Emi that Shin Woo was too passive. In a way I feel Jeremy got robbed because most of his time was spent with Angelina Jolie, his golden retriever. He never got the chance to be a serious contender for the heroine, but his scenes are a joy to watch.

ANNA: I totally understand why you’d say Shin Woo was too passive – setting up elaborate scenarios and expecting Minam to guess his feelings was doomed to failure. One of the nice things about the way the Hong Sisters wrote You’re Beautiful is that it is possible to enjoy the supporting cast even when they are portraying characters that might be unsympathetic like Yoo He Yi.

But how do you feel about some of the other characters who are a little more villainous?

Even though Minam’s aunt was a focus of comic relief, she’s pretty much a hypocrite for seeking out her nephew only when she discovers that he’s in a boy band. What about Tae-Kyung’s mother? I pretty much wanted to drop her down a well for her selfishness, even though she is given plenty of back story to explain her motivations for being the Worst Mother In the World.

EMILY: In regards to the villains of the series- they are all so totally selfish!. Tae Kyung’s mother gets ranked high up there on the evil kdrama mom scale. She is even worse than the stereotypical evil kdrama mom type that always tries to bribe the poor girl to stay away from her rich son. In this case, she doesn’t even care enough about her son to go that far. As for the idol angel He Yi, she was a good obstacle in Minam and Tae Kyung’s road to true love, but I did get annoyed at how little she actually had to work to be that obstacle. All this great ammunition kept falling right into her lap without her having to do any snooping or conniving! I would have liked it if she had to work harder to be evil :)

ANNA: I agree that the villains could have used a bit more nuance. Maybe it is just the dramas that I’ve watched, but I’ve found that there isn’t a whole lot of subtlety to be found in the antagonists. I’m not sure what all the evil kdrama moms indicate, perhaps many of the drama writers have mommy issues.

NANCY: I think the evil mother was in there merely for Tae Kyung’s character development and to show why he was a cynical guy in the first place. I did worry a bit that You’re Beautiful would follow the lines of Winter Sonata with his mother’s obsession with Minam’s father, but thankfully that did not come to pass.

EVA: I guess my last question on this topic is: What, if any, kdramas have you watched as a result of watching this one?

I tend to follow actors and actresses I’ve come to enjoy (which is easy with kdramas, since there seems to only be 27 different actors/actresses in the whole country who just rotate around the various channels and genres). I think my viewing flow went something like this: I saw Kim Myung Min in Bad Family, so I followed him to Beethoven Virus. In Beethoven Virus I was introduced to Jang Geun Suk, so (after I heard you all talking about it) I followed him to You’re Beautiful. In You’re Beautiful I was introduced to Hyun Jyu Ni, so I followed her to IRIS where I was reunited with Jung Joon Ho who I had loved in Last Scandal.

Do you three do the same? Or do you have other ways of finding new shows to watch? Which show would you suggest as a follow-up to You’re Beautiful?

ANNA: I went on a major kdrama binge after watching You’re Beautiful, and I can’t trace my viewing flow as exactly as Eva does. But on what next to watch after You’re Beautiful, I think you have the options of following either the actors or finding something similar in tone. I haven’t watched many of the other Hong Sisters’ dramas, but I did enjoy Greatest Love quite a bit, which has the same satirical take on show business with the benefit of having adult as opposed to teen characters.

I did watch Heartstrings solely because of wanting to see Jung Yong Hwa and Park Shin Hye together again, but while it was fun to see them overall I thought it was a tad on the inert side dramatically. For a similarly funny drama, I’d actually go with Protect the Boss, which is a hilarious show about a juvenile delinquent who gets a job as a secretary for a spoiled young company heir.

You're Beautiful

You're Beautiful

EMILY: I don’t have an easily followed chain viewing pattern like Eva either, but I do mainly watch dramas for actors I like, and genres I like (romantic comedy), then creative staff. I enjoyed the dramas the Hong Sisters made after You’re Beautiful– My Girlfriend is a Gumiho and Greatest Love. Both were wonderful in different ways. Once again, the Hong sisters take common kdrama cliches and twist them around a bit to make something refreshing. In particular, Greatest Love takes another look at the show business world from a different perspective than You’re Beautiful and manages to have a lot of excitement even without a specific ‘bad guy’ character.

For other crazy romantic comedies, I have to agree, Protect the Boss is fantastic. I love how everyone in it is just a bit insane, plus it has awesome bromance.

Another series that deals with teens trying to make it in show business is Dream High.

Two other series that have a ‘girl masquerading as a guy’ theme are Sungkyunkwan Scandal and Painter of the Wind. Both of them are historical dramas. Sunkyunkwan Scandal has a more fusion-historical-idol-pretty-boys-hijinks-ensue sort of feel to it, while Painter of the Wind is more dramatic. I keep hearing that they are planning to make a kdrama version of Hana Kimi, but I have no idea if it will ever happen.

On a random note, I’ll watch anything with Park Shi-hoo in it because he is the amazing second lead guy who can actually get the girl (he has stolen the girl from the first lead at least twice now).

NANCY: I did watch some of Marry Me, Mary as a result of this drama (also starring Jang Keun Suk), and I may finish it someday. Keun Suk is also in a new drama Love Rain, which I will check out. I usually find kdramas by what people are talking about on Twitter, though I do watch shows with kpop stars too. (Iris is on my list. T.O.P ;))

I think if you like You’re Beautiful, you’ll like the kdramas based on shoujo manga like Boys Over Flowers, etc.

Filed Under: Bringing the Drama Tagged With: Bringing the Drama, kdrama, you're beautiful

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework