And We're Back! Marriage Contract Korean Drama Review

Sooooooo I don't know if you noticed, but we disappeared for a while.

(This is where you nod empathetically like "Oh yes, I totally noticed that this random K-drama blog that only blogged intermittently anyway started blogging even more intermittently." Just humor me, okay?)


In a nutshell, my life exploded (in the best possible way), and then Coco's life also exploded.

Between suddenly switching jobs, adding 3 hours/day to my commute, spending my free time spackling stuff and washing baseboards so that I can sell my house and NOT spend 3 hours/day commuting, and trying not to panic about where we're going to live when our house actually does sell, something had to go—and that something was blogging. And showering. But mostly blogging.

To be honest, I kind of took a breather from all dramas for a while. There weren't many shows that I was dying to watch over the last few months, and I had been living and breathing dramas for so long that when everything else in my life suddenly went into flux, I kind of needed a palate cleanser in my entertainment as well. I made halfhearted attempts to start a few shows, but nothing really captured my attention.

(For the record, Entertainer was the worst. I want those two hours of my life back! Do you know how much grout I could have scrubbed in that time? SO MUCH GROUT! ...Aaaaaand this is how you know you've officially gone crazy. You count your hours in Grout Standard Time.)

The point of this very long exposition is this: I did manage to finish one show in the last three months, and that show is Marriage Contract.  Here's why:

The Good

What it's about: Marriage Contract is about young single mother Kang Hye Soo (UEE), who finds out she has terminal brain cancer and agrees to marry rich heir Han Ji Hoon (Lee Seo Jin) and give him her liver in exchange for boatloads of cash.

For the record, this plot is the kind of thing I generally avoid like the plague. It sounded like the most ridiculous K-drama melo clichefest of all time, and the plot didn't really have any massive surprises that deviated from that expectation.

Just look at this poster.
 It screams "We're rich and soon to be sad," my two least favorite K-drama cliches.
Image source

So how, of all things, did this end up being the only drama I watched to the end? The answer rests on the cast, but primarily UEE.

Lee Seo Jin is incredibly charming, and he had many moments where I just wanted to pat him on the head and squish his dimpled cheeks, but this was UEE's show, and there aren't enough words to state how much she blew me away in this role.

I always thought UEE was good for an idol actress, but no. In this role, she was phenomenal as an actress. Period. Her portrayal of Kang Hye Soo was vulnerable, strong, and completely heartbreaking all at once. Above all else, Kang Hye Soo felt like an actual human, not some plucky-but-downtrodden K-drama heroine-bot.

I'm not crying—YOU'RE crying!
....Fine, I'm bawling my eyes out.

As I said above, Lee Seo Jin wasn't exactly a slouch either. Before the drama aired, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not these two could pull of believable chemistry in spite of their 17-year age gap. It's something that initially concerned me about the casting, but once the show began, it didn't even cross my mind.

Aside from the central couple, I also really, really, really loved Eun Sung, Kang Hye Soo's daughter. Most television shows and movies, both Korean and Western, tend to include oddly precocious children. It's like no one knows how actual kids act, so they just write adult characters, shove them into tiny child bodies, and pretend it's cute.

What I love about Eun Sung as a character is that she acts like a 7-year-old girl. I read some initial complaints about how people thought Eun Sung was "bratty" or "annoying," but I have to wonder if those people ever spent any time around actual 7-year-old girls. Even if you believe your kid is the most well-behaved angel on the planet, I'm sorry to tell you that ALL kids throw tantrums sometimes. Then take into consideration that Eun Sung only really acts out in response to stressful life situations, and you can't really blame her.

Dear TV writers: This is what a child looks like.
You might be confused because she isn't spouting off words from the dictionary or talking about fossil fuels.

I love how genuinely playful Eun Sung is, and I also love how both Hye Soo and Ji Hoon embrace her childhood. They talk at her level without being patronizing and encourage her to be a kid, playing along with her games. They don't let her run wild, but they also respect who she is as a person, even if it's only a 7-year-old person.

The Quibbles

First of all, episodes 1–4 were an honest snoozefest. I'm glad I continued, but if the beginning doesn't compel you, keep going.

Second, most of the side characters, even our second leads, were pretty unnecessary. We got some emotion from Ji Hoon's mom and I loved Hye Soo's supportive bestie, but for the most part, all of  the secondary stories felt empty. Does anyone really feel like they were super invested in what happened to Hye Soo's childhood admirer or Ji Hoon's harp-playing ex? (You can say yes, but you'll be lying.) What about all the rest of Ji Hoon's family and their cartoonish villainous antics? So boring. I can abide villains, but I have to draw the line at boring villains.

The last quibble—and this is a big one—is that episodes 10-13 tanked Ji Hoon's character and nearly made me stop watching the entire drama. When a woman says "You're making me uncomfortable. Please stop contacting me, or I'll call the police," it is UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES OKAY to keep following her. When a drama takes a woman clearly expressing her discomfort and then frames it to say that she's just hiding her true feelings and true love means never giving up, no matter how many times she says no, that's the very definition of rape culture. I don't care if she kissed you one time and now you've gotten it into your head that she secretly loves you. If she says no, that means leave her alone, and any drama that says otherwise deserves a swift kick in the family jewels. 

AHSDIFHSOIDHFOIWHEGUHBRGSDJFBSLJ SO ANGRY!

I'm really angry about episodes 10-13 Ji Hoon, but it all felt so out of place that I'm just going to assume the writer went on a cocaine bender for a week and snapped out of it after while.

But What about the Ending? (Spoiler-free)

I don't want to ruin it, but I will say that this genre of drama usually ends in one of two ways: either they milk the tears and make it feel emotionally manipulative, or they end with a magical reversal of fate that feels unrealistic and cheap.

Heading into the finale, I had no idea which way Marriage Contract would go. Somehow, it managed to strike a balance between the two, giving viewers an ending that was satisfying without being overly saccharine.

Conclusions

The plot may not be fresh, and it's certainly not without its flaws, but incredibly compelling acting and a warmhearted story elevate Marriage Contract above most dramas of its genre.

Where to watch Marriage Contract

DramaFever

Viki

  

And We're Back! Marriage Contract Korean Drama Review

Miss Korea Korean Drama Review (Final)

I already did a halftime review of Miss Korea, and pretty much everything I said there still holds now that I've seen the rest of the series. I'll just add a few more thoughts now that the series is done.
As I said before, Miss Korea threw me for a loop at first. I didn't really know how to categorize it in my mind, and I eventually realized that it had a documentary-like feel to it. That feeling held out until the end of the series. I never felt like it was moralizing or forcing us to interpret characters in a specific way. Aside from a couple of side villains (the Ba Da Cosmetics guy, the elevator girl supervisor, and the gangster overlord), the characters all felt fleshed out and real. This is a slice-of-life drama if there ever was one, and once I settled in for the ride, I quite enjoyed how thoughtful and quiet it was.

What surprised me most about Miss Korea was its strong feminist undercurrent. For every drama watcher who cringes at wrist grabs and shouts at the screen at wilting female leads, this is the drama for you. At its core, this show is about a woman who has lived her entire life surrounded by men telling her what she should and shouldn't do with her life and her body. From her well-meaning male family members to her boyfriend to her boss at the mall, her life is dominated by male figures pulling her in different directions.

None of your business if she farted or not!

While the Miss Korea pageant--filled with absurd standards of beauty and femininity--might be an odd place for Ji Young to take her stand, it actually works because it's the opposite of what everyone expects from her. Her family members drool over the pageant, and yet they insist that it would be improper for her to enter the pageant. Her elevator boss doesn't believe that she deserves to be Miss Korea. It's Ji Young's chance to choose what she wants to do for herself, and if that means becoming Miss Korea, it's her choice.

That's not to say that the male characters become sad doormats, either. I found the Ji Young-Hyung Joon relationship refreshingly balanced for a Kdrama. If you watch it, you'll notice the number of times Hyung Joon asks Ji Young, "Is this what you want?" After he starts to move away from his initial jerk phase, he starts to focus his actions around supporting her in her quest for independence. Similarly, she supports him in his hardships, even when he tries to refuse her help. 

Possibly my favorite moment of the whole thing was her response to his noble idiocy. He tried to leave her for her own good, and she was just like, "Okay, sure. Try to leave me, but I'm not breaking up with you, so too bad." I might have done a little fist pump of victory in that moment.

FINALLYYYYYYYYYYY!

I could go on and on and on about all of the minor characters in this show. I really liked all of them, from the fashion directors to the contestants to the Vivi team. I eventually warmed up to the Hwa Jung/Teacher Jung relationship, but Teacher Jung always made me feel just a little uncomfortable the whole time.

Does this mean that Miss Korea was a flawless specimen of Kdramas? Not at all. It was a quiet drama, but sometimes "quiet" can be code for "boring." Sure, it was refreshing to have a drama filled with real things that could happen to real people instead of ending every episode with an absurd cliffhanger, but after watching both Miss Korea and Pasta, I think these writers need to understand their limitations a little bit better. If you're going to write slice-of-life dramas, do it in a more concise manner! Frankly, I had a little bit of a crisis around episode 15 when I realized I still had five more hours to watch. Sixteen episodes would have allowed them to pick up the pace at the beginning and the end of the series without sacrificing much. 

That being said, I found the last episode quite satisfying. The final scene was the perfect way to wrap up what easily became my favorite series of the last drama round, in spite of a rocky and confusing start.

Miss Korea definitely won't be the right drama for everyone, but if you're looking for something sincere, realistic, and full of heart, look no further.

Where to watch Miss Korea

DramaFever

Viki

Other opinions on Miss Korea:

1 2

Miss Korea Korean Drama Review (Final)

Pencil Skirts, Presentations, and a Whole Lotta Heartbreak: Queen of Reversals Review

I'm someone who gets bored really easily after the couple initially gets together in Korean dramas. (Why do the parents suddenly want to kick him out of the company?  How did she JUST decide that she wants to go study abroad for two years?  Do we really need some new plot twist about an unexpected half-sibling in a random three-episode arc?)  That's why taking on a 31-episode drama like Queen of Reversals was a monumental step for me.  That's almost twice as long as my preferred 16-episode series length.  Prior to QoR, the only other long-ish drama I had watched was Goong/Princess Hours, which clocked in at a solid 26 episodes.  Considering that at least 10 episodes in the middle were made up of some montage of the evil ex-queen lady looking devious, the grandma being startled at a new scandal, and Yoon Eun-hye staring into space, obnoxiously crying, and/or being socially awkward, I was a little nervous to try another lengthy series.

The only reason I was able to even start this series was because I read a spoiler about the ending ahead of time.  I'm going to go ahead and assume that spoilers will help other people get through, so don't even bother reading if you don't want to know what happens! Also, I'm giving advance warning that this post will be long--because the series itself is absurdly long.

The Basics

This series follows Hwang Tae-hee, ice-cold power female extraordinaire, as she falls in love, gets married, falls out of love, gets divorced, and finally pulls her life together.  This is going to sound absurdly cheesy, but more than that, it's a show about second chances and learning to change. (Yeah, that sounds even cheesier now that I type it, but I'm standing by it!  People change! Personal growth!  Hope for the future! Hold hands and sing!) Hwang Tae-hee may be the title character, but maybe a better title would have been Office of Reversals because the show is really about all of the characters turning their lives around. Even the minor co-workers had a chance to really grow before the last episode, and the process was endearing to watch.  If you don't connect with Tae-hee, you will at least connect with someone by the end.

One of the major selling points for me going into this series was that the second male lead becomes the first male lead halfway through. Yeah, you heard right--THE SECOND MALE LEAD GETS THE GIRL.  Now, lest the plot stray too far from k-drama-dom, the second male lead also happens to be a rich chaebol's son with a tragic past that prevents him from initially connecting with people.  Blah, blah blah. You know how it goes.

Just how can you tell that he's rich?
Ascot? Check.

Fur coat?  Check. Check. Check.

And, in case anyone missed it, THE GOLDEN BEDROOM. Check!

My one complaint about this character was their first kiss.  I know that it was supposed to be passionate and spur-of-the-moment, but if you slap a man for putting the moves on you and then he kisses you again, he deserves a swift kick to the groin, not a spinning camera of romance.  I don't care HOW rich he is.

The Length: Worth It?

As I indicated by my weird love of A Gentleman's Dignity, I'm kind of a sucker for shows that just show normal life.  Just like that one, this one was filled with adults doing regular ole adult-y things. With the exception of the Cruella deVille boss who loves to hold grudges almost as much as she loves to wear absurd red lipstick, the characters are all the kinds of people you could meet in real life.

The major advantage of the 31-episode format is that they really get to dig into the depths of the relationships in a way that I don't think I've ever seen on a television show or movie. At the beginning of the series, I thought there was no way I would be okay with the divorce; then I thought there was no way my heart wouldn't be broken for Joon-soo in the end; then I thought there was  no way I would be remotely okay if Baek Yeo-jin won her man. Every single time, my feelings changed as gradually as the characters' did, and suddenly I found myself understanding why they made the choices they did. When most shows milk divorce for some quick tears, this one really really broke my heart, and I appreciated the gravity that it gave to something that shouldn't really be an easy plot ploy.

The second advantage to the length is tied to the first one: the extended format lets the male actors really shine with subtle, gradual character development.  I already knew that Park Si-hoo was a solid actor from Prosecutor Princess, but I have to say that Jung Joon-ho as Bong Joon-soo really stole the show for me.  He played that character with an amazing empathy that really pulled the series together.  I thought I would hate him, and I ended up feeling more connected to him than to anyone else.

Not to get off-topic, but if we've already mentioned men in suits,
we need to pause for some appreciation here.  Ok, carry on.

I'm sorry to say it, but the women were seriously lagging behind the men in this drama as far as acting goes.  Chae Jung Ahn only really has three faces in any series I have ever seen her in (flirtatious, perturbed/scheming, and crying), and while Kim Nam Joo did pretty well, her surprised face could really use some work.

Tae Hee's normal dinner conversation face...
And Tae Hee immediately after she finds out that her husband used
to date her enemy and lied about it for five years.  See the difference?
Also, that helmet on her head?  How does it stay so stiff and swoopy?

Now, this isn't to say that the show didn't get draggy over 31 episodes.  In fact, I chose one or two subplots that I fast forwarded entirely and didn't feel the least bit guilty over it.  For me, it was everything with Goo Yong-shik's mom.  I know that it was supposed to add this whole element of emotion to his character, but I could tell where it was headed from the beginning.  Here's my pro tip: fast forward until the last 10 seconds of every scene and you'll get the entire gist without the long, dramatic pauses.  Kdramas love to repeat important stuff at the end of the scene.  They also love to do flashbacks for really important stuff, so you really won't miss anything.

Because of the workplace setting, you'll also notice a lot of repeated plot elements over. and over. and over.  (Oh?  Need some tension?  How about a high-stakes PRESENTATION?  What?  The bad guys sabotaged it?  How shocking!)  The business atmosphere also allows for ten million angsty elevator scenes.  You know the ones--the doors slooooooowly close (and they usually show this happening from four camera angles) as the leads stare at each other.  Yeah, that happens about once every episode. 

Overall, I had my highs and lows of this show. I couldn't speed through it and sometimes I didn't think I could make it to the last episode, but it had some really strong emotional pulls that make it worth it for those brave souls who aren't afraid to use the fast forward button like a champ.

Pencil Skirts, Presentations, and a Whole Lotta Heartbreak: Queen of Reversals Review