Ever Bethany

Noona is one of those brilliant words that will never quite translate into another language, it's so tied up in its culture's own dynamics.
It sounds a little funny on the English tongue, but you hear cute young Korean boys say it enough times and all those objections to double "oo" sounds...
down the drain.



Noona means "older sister" but it also can mean "foxy older lady" by way of being a term of affectionate respect from a younger male.

Girls call older girls "unni" which also looks and sounds misfortunate in the context of English and even in Japanese, my other language, where it strongly savors of fish, if not worse. Again, it's super-cute sounding in the context of the actual Korean language.

So noona romances are the ones where an older woman gets together with a younger man, or at least thinks about it..
Do you know Kimi wa Petto/You're My Pet? That's a noona romance.

hairwashing: sexy or maternal? different every episode!

I find these dramas very therapeutic. Usually the younger man is closer to my age, and the older woman is 30 or above. And yet, of course, I identify with these older women.

They're single* at an age where they're expected to be at least going on matchmaking dates, hopeful to have something more exciting in their lives but also wanting to know their futures are settled securely...

*the ones where women of middle age who have been married are caught up in a new romance are ajumma romances. "Ajumma" sounds just the same in Korean, where it means mother-aged woman, basically.

can I handle this kind of flirtation at this advanced age?!

Anyway. The kinds of wish-fulfillment involved is geared toward the mature woman. The guys tend to be less perfect (I mean, except for the second-lead guys, sometimes barfingly ideal, just like in any k-drama) because half of the tension is in "NO NOONA CAN'T" feelings.

I've watched *several* of these lately, and I haven't really reviewed all of them. So here's a little round up.



( Scent of a Woman )



( What's Up, Fox? )

( ETC )
Next on my list is darkeyedwolf 's highly recommended Dal Ja's Spring. Which has a siren call, shipwrecking my queue...

We watched the beginning of Nausicaa today--until the DVD failed us. There are scratches on it more typical of being left reading-side-down and left to scrape against something, rather than much use. Which is sad.

But this was my first time rewatching it, and the gorgeousness of some of the images is just fantastic. Miyazaki's way of thinking outside the frame...

It's interesting, too, to see in his first original film, basically, all the characteristics of a Miyazaki film.

A strong, somewhat enigmatic woman of ideals. A woman in power with a compelling air on the other side of the conflict. Monster-movie monsters that become sympathetic, and a detailed attention to the life of common people in the created worlds.

And that ecological world-building like in my favorites, Mononoke, Spirited Away.

Also some style characteristics used later in similarly themed Mononoke--flashback sequences with a dream-like horror to them.

***
Having given up on this DVD, I went to watch Black & White, which the mysoju.com version was not loading, and I went to dramacrazy.com and...

There's a GORGEOUS version. And it's the one that's not subtitled. The others are all in 240p definition. T____T

Practically inhumane, I say.

I speak two whole words of Mandarin, and I think my tones are wrong...

Today: spring cleaning while the sun shines

Writing Stats, in brief:

So. I knew I'd sent out more poetry this year than last, I guessed about twice as much? But I couldn't remember exactly.

Last year: 32
This year: 130

DANG Y'ALL.
That's a lot more. It's not really that huge of an amount of submissions, where I counted each poem separately, but...

There are now TWO poems that I have no idea when they're coming out in the queue, but I have a nice magazine hard-copy where my poem "Returnee" appears, and I KNOW that in spring there's a set date for another.
And that's not really important, it just...bugs me. Heh.

Drama Bulletin:

The one thing the Taiwanese drama of Skip-Beat! has going for it is that it's playing by the book.
It's a little weird for me, though, to see a familiar, beloved story playing out in a completely different medium that is likewise familiar.

Almost the whole cast of lead and supporting actors (even some bit players) are faces I know that don't jar in the context of Taiwanese dramas, but...as characters I already have vivid in my mind? Yashiro is probably the only one I find spot-on. Kyoko isn't too bad either...

I watched the opening episode of "Extravagant Challenge", the Skip-Beat! drama being broadcast in Taiwan. Despite my many reservations. And while a lot of those reservations are spot on, I think it's going to be a decent rendition. That...I will skim liberally if I watch any more of it at all.



It made me think, though, about why the opening of Skip-Beat the comic didn't really speak to me at first, and yet as it's continued, the follow-up has made this series my favorite.
Because the screenplay is written backward toward the cliche. I can see what Yoshiki Nakamura was doing, in context of knowing more about that cliche now...

In the drama opening Our Heroine, betrayed, cries before she breaks into maniacal laughter. This is NOT what happens in the manga. Though it may seem a small difference, it was very deliberate that she goes straight to that crazed laughter.

Having Kyoko refuse to react as expected isn't just a wink and then proceeding as usual---the whole story revolves around this different reaction she has to a very common shojo element. It's what sets her apart as she pursues acting, and what makes following her and seeing her deal with problems exhilarating.



I spend a lot of time being disappointed in manga and anime and dramas, because I have a knack for picking out the trope-busters to start with. I then end up filling in my knowledge of the original cliches while looking for other things to read...

I spent the bulk of yesterday trying to detangle a laceweight skein of yarn while watching Hana Kimi.

laceweight: any yarn obscenely skinny for creating lace-pattern knits. Think .5/.7 size pencil lead thickness.


the cheerleading sequences... omg, especially since I know Japan has a very manly traditional cheer tradition

I started with a rewatch of the J-Drama, after having read the rainscene review of it and remembering it's crack-filled glory... then realized I really needed to get back into the Taiwanese one.


...I'm back into it.

T-version Dr. Umeda? Somehow the best thing in supporting characters since Han Solo

And MAN, it blindsided me with Jiro Wang.

I actually looked him up the other day for my suitdistracted Tumblr, and realized he's a total Sean Bean* to me, a man-crush that isn't about being attracted to him, but just admiring his abilities.

The way he plays adorably earnest, self-confusing and yet jock-arrogant Nakatsu is just awesome. Even with the over-the-top comic acting. He can play the exact type of character that usually annoys me most and carry it off with charm. He did this in It Started With a Kiss, too.



In fact, if you pitted either drama-Nakatsu against manga Izumi, I'd be off the canon ship like shipwreck. He has the fairly common shojo-hero's problem of doing nothing to deserve the heroine's love, while second-lead labors for it...
But Oguri Shun's Izumi has a voice, omigosh I'd forgotten Rui's voice, and Wu Chun's has a playful, teasing personality that actually has real interaction with the heroine and is actually more aware of her and her needs than ----> that.




*Sean Bean: fabricalchemist and my still-developing term for a platonic-or-not on a guy who you want to BE, as opposed to wanting to be with

Though I hate to admit it, I have now watched enough Taiwanese drama to watch most of Rainie Yang's career.
granted, I kind of watch these Taiwanese shows because she's in them... BABY RAINIE

Unlike my post about Mike He, disappointed that he seemed to be as much of a tired pop idol as one of his recent roles (where he was much more fetching than as yet another rich snob to be won over, like his latest), I am watching one of her recent projects and seeing so much growth and new depth in her acting. (Their careers run parallel, in several ways.)

Her role in ToGetHer was the last I'd seen, where she played a very different kind of character than her usual quirky, physical comedienne. In fact--she played someone who was rather dark and suppressing. This was definitely not playing to her strengths. She makes overacted comic moments sparkle. I know I'm watching Rainie Yang rather than a character sometimes, but since Taiwanese dramas tend to love the slapstick (or, reversely, the melodrama), that's not such a bad thing.

look, it could be the greasy old men overacting. They tend to show up anyway

In "Musta Been Drunk To Love You", her character is also a little more mellow, a pretty standard "hard-luck-story but overcoming through hard work" perky heroine, but she gives off this vibe of competence at her job, and so much more nuance in the complicated emotions that a lot of shows would have to work in via voice-over.



And I think that act comes from a place of knowledge. Capable, still learning, and able to find the nuance of situations. The spot her character's in is very uncomfortable, with conflicted feelings and things she must do. And you can see that.

It's really good to see her in a project that's showing her off, giving her a chance to be a little more subtle.

It's also good to see someone who's made it big for a while now able to keep improving. It's reassuring. I need more examples like this for the good of my soul.

Also, she's two years older than me, which is comforting in a different, non-art-related way. ;)

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 realized last night that when I'm upset, I tend to want to post something on my blog, but never about what I'm actually upset about. I usually get lost in the maze of other things I could post as substitutes, realize I'm too ruffled to write well, and then give up and go to bed.

Just thought I'd note why there are never rants on my LiveJournal. I've found it weird myself...

***

Gallery of Shows: What I'm Watching Now


cutest scene ever in My Princess
should have some new episodes to watch now! Basically, this is a really good, well-written show. You should try it if you've ever loved even one Korean comedy.

And can I say (ETA as I watch ep.4)? The dynamic of two leads who aren't fighting and aren't falling for each other but getting into each others shenanigans like natural friends is a DELIGHTFUL refreshing mood. :many hearts:



They even mostly dress like this, for real, in Magicians of Love.
I'm really wanting things to work out for Ming Dao's character to be happy, and to see the heroine level up in her skills.
The secondary characters we're following mostly don't interest me, though, they feel too much like their own types.

The plot tries to make me worried that the local barber shop catering to business men and soldiers, doing calls to the prisons and nursing homes, will be swallowed up by the new salon of high-fashion makeovers...and I'm really having a hard time suspending my disbelief. This may end up a "watch the fan MVs to get the plot overview" case, because it's boring me when the two main characters aren't on the screen *together*.



Another strike against it is Dream High.

I can watch several great shows at a time, but watching a mediocre one is nigh impossible when you have others that are really awesome already splitting your attention.

Dream High is another one currently on, about kids getting into an arts high school, and the returning director who has found it turned to a show-biz idol factory in his absence to launch a branch school. I both love and hate it when the cutest character is a middle-aged authority figure--mostly because in shows like this, he won't be ending up with any of the heroines. :dashed:

Or...? I've only seen the first episode. I need to see the next two before I can say for sure. XD
***

Third topic makes a lopsided post at least systematic...

I'm currently completely  e't up with a stupid story with a particular character dynamic and setting, which is going to be a novella, and ALSO completely useless except as some kind of exercise.

But. I have yet another take on the superhero genre that seems to be forming at the back of my brain.

I'm thinking that my current novel project, Archivalist, is just a slow-bloomer, and the fact that I haven't plunged into it yet is a sign of it's natural pace. Because predicting I still have something terribly off in my mind about it is just too sad. AGAIN.

I wanted to see the first episode of My Princess, but the subbing team had the "STOP!" avatar up, which means they're mid-process on the next episode.

So I went to one I'd bookmarked in earlier browsing that had looked fun: 18 vs. 29

Premise:

On her way to bitterly file divorce papers from her high-profile actor husband, Hae-Chan gets in a wreck and loses her memory, back to the day when she hit her head as a high school senior. She wakes up married to the classmate she hates, a housewife taking care of a show-biz figure rather than in show-biz herself, and an ancient 29 years old.

I was feeling a bit in the mood for a rewatch of Couple or Trouble, the Overboard! remake, so this slotted in perfectly. Not sure what's up with the amnesia trend lately--I know it's cliche and unrealistic, but the dynamic of people being thrown together is so much fun...



Anyway, I'm several episodes in, and enjoying the way they bring up something during the episode, where the husband is trying to explain how things develop, and she's not buying it--and they have the actual event shown at the end of the episode, so you're getting some of the evolution of how things came about. It would probably drive me crazy to be stuck with her questioning all the time without that.

The actress is adorable, and manages so well to look like someone child-like. Her way of crying really looks like a child melting down--and the scripting is so her crying is always justified. She just is completely overwhelmed at points, and the very basic detail of holding her hand palm out over her face as she cries makes her so sympathetic. It's the way a toddler cries, actually--and some of the details of her seeming childlike are a bit less like a high-school senior than a younger child, but only as reminders of how at sea she is.


This theme of child-like acting brings us to Prince Turned Frog



This is Dang-Ou.



This is Jun-Hao.

The amazing thing is watching this actor at the cusp between, when he may or may not be remembering a bit about his experiences as the more uncomplicated Dang-Ou (who was never simple, just less entangled) but definitely is coming to feel the same things, under the same influence, if more unwillingly.

The Jun-Hao who is assuming, and consumed with his company and his own image, is starting to melt, and his expressions open up the way he looked as Dang-Ou. It's adorable, and also heart-breaking, in the context.

I completely forgive this guy his stiff and nasal voice. CHOPS. He has them.

He has this trick, as Junhao, of fiddling with his cuffs--except, he's just touching them, not allowing for any restless movement that would show weakness. More a habit of adjusting the lay of them (they're cufflinked, a detail that is quite apt) and yet, when he draws himself up, one hand on that cuff, you know it's him. That's he's probably under attack in some way, but he's acting bored enough to be adjusting his suit.