Ever Bethany

WGM: savior of K-Dramas?
( K-Pop Talk Lies Within )

Anyway. Heartstrings is kind of fun, I don't know whether I'll stick it out but for now I'll keep looking at it when I've run out of City Hunter and other things. During the first two episodes, I'm totally shipping the wrong man. :| Remind me to tell you about how cute Myung Wol the Spy is going to be sometime, too! I'm on the OTP ship like whoa for that one, and I've only read the recap for the second episode, since it's not subbed yet...

Oh, Mike He.

I so want to believe in you.
But you look like your Calling Big Star character--worn out on acting. Doing it for the career.

I will hold to my hope that soon someone will hand you something exciting again.

Meanwhile, skimming lightly over Sunny Happiness,

I remain,

provisionally yours



P.S. I note you are 28 now, and maybe just looking older. BUT don't make those excuses. I've seen Lee Sun-Gyun and he's always been older than that. And yet he's on FIYAH.
*cough*
Sorry. But yes, this is a threat.
Love and doubting, Bethany P.

I'm rewatching Coffee Prince, since it's been a long time and MANY dramas since I did the first time--and man. This is a really good show.
( Why this show's writers deserve prizes and hugs... )



Hero loves his granny. Gotta fall for that...

And I hadn't noticed, but like physical contact, the whole people-singing-to-each-other element starts in the second episode, if not earlier. So when later it's a big emotional moment, it's not some pretty heart-tugging out of nowhere, but just an element of the reality.

That's the kind of set-up that made this a masterful piece of TV writing. The jostling and fighting is set up so that scenes where it escalates feel natural. Wah.

To think, if this hadn't been one of my first shows, I might not be here today...

There's a particular shojo subgenre or at least trope, of being trapped by circumstance in proximity with a guy who is both attractive and evil to the main character.

I talked a lot about Playful Kiss/Itazura na Kiss--it neatly fits the "forced to live together" trope subset. Marmalade Boy is so similar in basic elements that I really wondered if it wasn't another mangaka trying to do right by a story that was so abused by its own art.

I read much more of Marmalade Boy than the other, and watched most of it's Japanese show, too. One of the main differences is that the guy pursues the girl first, though he often pretends she's reading too much into it, as Japanese boys-in-manga are so wont to do. The other main difference is that the art is not physically painful.

Completing the Golden Triangle of Mutual Rip-offs, or whatever the phenomenon is, we have Akuma de Sourou:



Which has it's flaws as far as art goes (rhinemouse  claims the hair hurts her eyes) but has two notable trumps over Itazura...
~ It's unique in its flaws
~ It's mostly actually good

If you look at the three of these works (Itazura, Marmalade, Akuma de Sourou) they really do make one wonder who is borrowing from who-- it could practically go in a circle if you went by themes in two and not in all three. This is a question that I could theoretically find an answer to on Wikipedia with a simple look at publishing dates, but that excludes all the manga from previous generations I have not read, and would therefore be simplistic.

And I'm not so interested I'd research, perish the thought.

Anyway. Of all the actual storylines, I like Akuma de Sourou best. The *forbidden romance* comes in not just because they're young and in the same house, told not to date, but because their parents want to marry each other. Stepsibling love is in nowise uncommon a topic in Japan (with allure primarily because I think not many Japanese *have* stepsiblings) and Marmalade Boy trumps everything with having the parents swapping partners mutually. It then handles the issue like a big sitcom routine, so the heroine's angst feels unfounded.

Akuma De Sourou does not take any of the issues it brings in to complicate the course of True Love lightly, which makes for a very good story. Especially since all those complications have been Seen Before. Treatment is important.



This picture neatly summarizes the relationship dynamic, and also represents the only drama-version I've found of it.

Devil Beside You

The girl is played by Rainie Yang, the guy by Mike He. Both are Taiwanese Idol Drama Superstars, for good reason.
Rainie is adorable, even when playing the most outrageous characters (yes, Miss No Good, you know who you are), so that the fact that she is often overacting has no space to bother me.
Mike He in this drama is cursed with being filmed stalking away a lot. When he walks slowly or runs he is all that is suave, but his storming is a bit awkward--he's a little short-gaited. This is made up for by the fact that this drama does not stint on the kissing, which is where a lot of K-dramas fail, and where Mike He makes Taiwanese drama look much more romantic.

But enough about that.

This Taiwanese show doesn't get the gorgeous sets and filming of K-dramas (Bullfighting, which starred Mike He as well, did better) and has some of the same sound-quality weak points, but the strength of the story (from the manga) in the supporting characters, even the antagonists having their own sense, makes it one of my favorites to rewatch.

The manga is actually stronger in characterizations, I think. The girl has two contrasting friends of familiar types, but who feel 3-dimensional. And the guy has friends too! A whole gang of them, actually.




"Akuma de Sourou" is translated as "The Devil Does Exist" (though I don't know if that's accurate).

Storyline summary is this: Kayano's young widowed mother has fallen in love...with her principal? And Kayano's just handed his son a love-letter for someone else--which has made her his victim of choice for teasing. Soon he's coming over all the time, for meals, looking pathetic about being all alone at his own house. But Kayano knows he's really just torturing her--though he's her junior at school! If only he wasn't so cool sometimes...

It has a lot more violence and basketball than normal shojo manga does, which I always love.

***

Interesting note, and any theories on why this is would be welcome:

High school manga in Taiwan are recast as being set in college. Maybe because they aren't supposed to date as high school students? The only exception I've seen is It Started with a Kiss--and that's because the manga's story transitions into college after the first arc anyway.