With all that Queen Inhyeon's Man havoc and I Need Romance 2 in upcoming section, and with all comments and tumblr wars, I started to think if there is maybe something wrong with me?
Yoshimoto Banana, well-known modern novelist, said once and I always repeat her words during classes, that when her new book is out, bookstores have to get rid of all her previous novels. On shelves there should be only the current one during promotions. This shows how clever she is and how great sense of literature she got. This can be applied to many situations as well. I bought a pair of shoes yesterday (finally!!), but it took me few weeks, because I so liked my old ones, I wanted to find a pair exactly like them. Even though a guy in some store said that they're an old model and I won't find any. My stubborn human nature of loving what's familiar prevailed and I wandered around the city to find exactly the same. Yesterday I decided to let go.
The same is with dramas and music too.
I came to my own theory and methodology in watching dramas and listening to the music. I have favorite ones, everyone has. But I don't make my favorite one a paradygm for the entire "drama-sphere", no. It shows the stubborness that is a great part of conservative thinking. If we want to enjoy things, we need to be fantastic elastic (fuck you SMent and your sick English!!) instead of an iron rod. Iron rod can beat someone (something) to a nice pulp, but it's not the greatest pliable material. Unless it's hot... it's too early for that...
Comparing Rooftop Prince and QIHM got on my nerves when both dramas were airing just because of the time-travel motif. Oh you know, in Babyfaced Beauty there is a working woman and in Queen of Reversals there is a working woman. Those dramas are soooo similar! Plus, and I'm gonna be hated for that, I dropped QIHM and I finished RP. Fact that the latter had Yucheon helped, but it was not the prevailent element in it. I do understand where all the love for QIHM comes from - romance. Hot, sizzling, faithful, painful romance that every girl dreams of, squeeling in front of her PC. I'm not the exception, I like to see cuddling, fondling and love too, but when there is nothing at the background, the romance starts to annoy me. This is why I love Dangerous Beauty movie (well, Mr. Sewell helps a lot), there is "l'amour impossible", love that passes through social and political difficulties. But here's the thing - there was not only love shown in this movie, but also war, plague, politics, women's stand, trial, poetry, betrayal etc. This made it rich (not as intense as the book, but rich anyway). On this terms, QIHM started to look thin to me.
RP had completely opposite problem - they threw so much into this and along the course they forgot about the half of problems. Yet I had more pleasure in watching this than QIHM. Sue me.
The ending of RP left me scarred, depressed and numb for a long time. It was so pessimistic and irreversible. Even the silly ending with omuraisu and mp3 player of Lee Gak's idiotic shenanigans couldn't ease the horrible reality of the RP ending. There was no miracle of coming back. Their love that bloomed so nicely couldn't let them meet, it connected only PH with YTY and that's all. But even though, it was Lee Gak that she fell in love with, it was Lee Gak she had the memories of, it was Lee Gak who never came back again. No silly "memories eraser" which was a major turnoff as for me in QIHM.
I don't believe she started to date YTY that easily even if those looked alike, personality also counts, and even if YTY was "meant for her", that doesn't change the fact it wasn't him PH loved. It wasn't him who comforted her, helped her and had fun with her.
This is why I love RP's ending despite it's a razorblade love. It's one of the saddest endings, yet it made sense. The whole RP bore also some Baudelaire's air for me - sick, stale, dense smell of rotting with sudden angel image that can't do anything.
Un Ange, imprudent voyageur
Qu'a tenté l'amour du difforme,
Au fond d'un cauchemar énorme
Se débattant comme un nageur,
Qu'a tenté l'amour du difforme,
Au fond d'un cauchemar énorme
Se débattant comme un nageur,
Et luttant, angoisses funèbres!
Contre un gigantesque remous
Qui va chantant comme les fous
Et pirouettant dans les ténèbres;
(Baudelaire: L'Irrémédiable) translation right here. Contre un gigantesque remous
Qui va chantant comme les fous
Et pirouettant dans les ténèbres;
I'm done with ranting about this, although I could do more about RP.
Another topic is this eternal dissatisfaction with dramas I read on tumblr. Oh people, you know, if you don't like it, don't watch it, but stop forcing your view on others that this-and-that drama has so many flaws, this part is idiotic etc. I don't watch dramas for their documentary values. I don't watch dramas to see the life-like situations, I can look out of the window (tumblr people probably don't know what window is) and see the real life. Drama has its own mythology, and mythology is never illogical. Even the most idiotic/illogical happenings fall under the myth's rules. If someone is born out of the dragons' egg - it's perfectly normal within mythology boundaries. The fact this doesn't happen in real life is absolutely no reason whatsoever to deem myth as idiotic and illogical.
OK, so some fangirls watched Heartstrings or whatever "highly admirable" drama of such sort and now compare everything to it!
So they say "he is too old for her, he has wrinkles!". Oh honey, unless you inject some botox when you're 40, you WILL have wrinkles too. The amount of miaouling and whining about dramas irritate me.
So they say "he is too old for her, he has wrinkles!". Oh honey, unless you inject some botox when you're 40, you WILL have wrinkles too. The amount of miaouling and whining about dramas irritate me.
As I said before - if I paid too much attention to any detail, cliche or used motif that appears in every damn drama - I'd stopped watching them long time ago. So what if we know from the first episode who will end up with whom? We can't enjoy the ride? I surely can! Motifs are for a certain use - to make us comfortable and cozy while seeing them. They can also be twisted or shown from another, fresh side.
So once again regarding what Yoshimoto said - when a new drama is out, it's better not to compare to our all-time favorite, but see it as a completely closed environment without ties to others. Because, ultimately, even the drama we love the most, may be hollow and dry for someone else. I started to implement this specific thinking into my watching routine, and surprisingly, my enjoyment has elevated.
And no, fairy princesses - Love Rain is NOT the best drama of 2012.
