By Sharon Stern
As fall-into-winter drama season picks up, we have a big variety of choices, not only in subject matter, but also where to watch our dramas. Fantasy, crime and legal dramas (including another Japanese/Korean collaboration), vampires, office rom-com/rom-drams, the pressure and horrors of the college entrance exam all hit our screens this month. And there are several dramas that look really intriguing that have yet to announce a US streaming service or work through licensing for the US. Fingers crossed we will see them appear soon!
I do want to mention that November is when the KBS Drama Special series drops. We don’t know where it will stream yet, though past seasons have been on Kocowa and Viki. These really excellent single-episode dramas, or essentially short movies, are usually in the must-watch category. This year’s theme throughout all of the individual dramas is music, so I will definitely be tuning in when they are available and giving a summary.
I also want to mention a film that came out in South Korea in September that premiered at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and is headed for the Oscars in the category of Best International Film. It is called Possible Love. It began to show in arthouse movie theaters in the US in October and I'm sure it will become more available as Oscar season approaches. Keep an eye out for it. It follows the story of two married couples — a laid-off worker and his spouse, and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse — crossing paths to film a documentary and facing their different lives and hidden desires.
I have to admit when I’m wrong about something. I write much of what I say about K-dramas before they have actually aired, so I rely heavily on what the producing channels say about the dramas in advance, sites that have more advanced knowledge and access and trailers. That said, last month I made a comment about the gender disguise role in Love in Disguise that is currently streaming on Prime Video. I said that the makeup was incredibly good for the girl-hiding-as-a-boy, but when she opened her mouth, it was soooo obvious she was a girl. Well, it turns out, that is an underlying, repeated joke in the drama. Absolutely everyone knows she’s a woman when she opens her mouth and the way they play with that is pretty funny and kind of cute. Nice job of taking a trope and having fun with it.
Now. Here’s my last commentary before diving into the dramas for this month. A film and a drama have been viciously and vitriolically attacked by “critics”, electronic and real, anonymous and not, because of their storylines. I believe it’s important not only to enjoy the dramas we are fortunate to see in the US, but also to understand their impact at home.
The movie The Assassin(s) debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The film has been widely viewed in South Korea and beyond and praised for its intensity and story build up. The focus of the film is the story surrounding the assassination of First Lady Yuk Young-soo in 1974 and the three days immediately following, when the murder was first being investigated. Yuk was shot by an ethnic Korean from Japan while he attempted to shoot the president, Park Chung-hee. It was considered a stray bullet that hit Yuk. She wasn’t the intended target. Conspiracy theories at the time and afterward pointed a finger at Park Chung-hee being involved in his wife’s death because the assassin had entered the country on a forged passport and used a stolen gun from the Japanese police, which were two things not easy to accomplish at the time. The film leaves viewers wondering if Park was involved, but does not say this directly. For context, if you need it, Park Chung-hee was a dictator who grabbed power in a coup in 1961, implemented a new constitution that granted sweeping powers to himself and gave him the ability to suspend the constitution and rule by decree. Many brutal atrocities took place during his regime. This was not a wonderful human, though the country saw enormous economic growth during his reign.
A complaint filed to police against the director and producers of the film was made by a conservative former city councilor, accusing them of defamation against Yuk and Park and of spreading false information. A hate campaign of very personal attacks against not only the director and producer, but the actors and any famous person who said the film was good or was even seen going to the film was frothed up. Bots were used to create hateful social media messaging towards the actors and calls to boycott all of their activity were numerous. A public request to suspend the screenings of the film was issued. Conservative groups staged protests outside of actors’ homes. Concerns for the safety of people involved in the film have caused police intervention. Public events to promote the film have been cancelled. This was the first ugly incident. The film is set to appear in specific locations across the US, so watch for its appearance near you.
On October 9, the K-drama Doctor X: Mafia in White premiered on SBS TV and is available in the US on Netflix. The series is a remake of a Japanese series from 2012. It is a medical drama that depicts a skillful surgeon as she maneuvers in a bureaucratic and corrupt medical system. The series looked like a pretty typical medical drama and definitely began that way. That is until episode 6 aired on October 24th. This episode features a character with a bullet lodged in his head 46 years ago during the Gwangju Uprising and Massacre that causes him pain and hallucinations. Our Doctor X agrees to operate on him.
If you don’t know about this historical incident, you can read about it in our past newsletter here and here
It is also the subject of Han Kang’s book Human Acts that we have discussed in the Dosan Hakdang Book Club
The uprising and massacre took place in 1980 in Gwangju starting May 18 through May 27 and was an incident where hundreds of unarmed citizens were killed for protesting martial law after the assassination of Park Chung-hee. The army fired on citizens from a helicopter as well as on the ground.
The fact that this horrible time in history was brought into a K-drama was deemed by conservatives as inappropriate material for the K-drama format and cries to take it off the air ended up as a formal petition to the government. They claim that K-dramas should not touch politics nor veer from their primary storylines. Huh? I guess never mind the 2021 K-drama Youth of May that takes place entirely in Gwangju during the uprising and massacre, right? Critics argue that the original Japanese version didn’t contain anything similar and that political issues shouldn’t be present in a medical drama. Hmm. Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature for talking about it. As criticism of the Doctor X episode grew, the executive director of the series shared a social media post with the caption “No Fear.” The real message by conservatives was, “don’t surprise interrupt my mindless evening entertainment with past tragedies that the government created and that I don’t want to remember or talk about.”
Why should the art forms of film and TV dramas be restricted from exploring ideas? Acting, directing, screenwriting are art forms. Is everything on TV or screen high art or profound? No. But isn’t the meaning of any art to explore what it is to be human? Isn’t creating a story about either true events or fictional events or a combination of both and their impacts on the people that live through them doing exactly that? Why is it controversial, then, for one particular kind of art to do these things? If you don’t like the subject matter, turn away. Don’t watch. But people should not be attacked in personal and hateful ways for saying something you don’t agree with for a fictional portrayal of a real moment in history. News flash: all history dramas do this because, last I checked, no one recorded every conversation that took place over 500+ years in the palace of Joseon, as an example.
OK. Onto this month’s dramas…
The Remarried Empress – 재혼 황후
Starring: Shin Min-a, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk, Lee Se-young
Genre: Pseudo-historical, romance, fantasy
This drama is tagged as historical, but it really is a fantasy of a non-existent place prior to the present time. The series is based on the webtoon of the same name by artist Alphatart. Alphatart has remained completely anonymous and there is almost nothing known about them. This series had a seven-year run as a web novel and has continuously rated near the top of all web novel series for much of that time. It was a breakthrough for Alphatart’s career. It has been licensed in several languages and making it into a live-action series elevates Alphatart’s career even further. Alphatart is praised in this series for focusing on female empowerment and political strategy rather than traditional romantic tropes. They have a second series, Men of the Harem, currently being produced as a live-action series for Netflix.
Navier (Shin Min-a) is the Empress of the Eastern Empire. Everyone finds her smart, clever and elegant. She is married to Emperor Sovieshu (Ju Ji-hoon), but is not romantically attached to him, though she does consider him a friend. They have known each other since they were children and both want to build a great empire.
Everything changes for Navier when Sovieshu brings a runaway slave, Rashta (Lee Se-young), into the palace as his mistress. Sovieshu had promised her when they married that he would never take on another woman. He wants to divorce her so he can marry Rashta.
At the same time in the Western Kingdom, Prince Heinrey (Lee Jong-suk) is the heir apparent to the throne. The clan that Prince Heinrey belongs to has a secret – they can turn into birds. Prince Heinrey transforms into a bird and goes to the Eastern Kingdom to spy on what they are doing. When he gets to the Eastern Kingdom, he meets Empress Navier and falls in love with her.
Empress Navier decides to not just accept what the emperor is doing and aligns with Prince Heinrey and asks for permission to marry Heinrey. Navier wants to overpower her ex-husband and regain her throne, but she has to navigate the complex world of palace politics to do so.
This is a very strong cast and with the top ratings of the web novel and political intrigue at its center, the series should be interesting and entertaining. In online comments about the web novel, there is criticism that the Rashta character is made to be a villain because her father had sold her into slavery to pay off his crimes, making her very much a victim. Maybe the complexity makes the character more interesting. We’ll have to see!
Francesca Next Door – 옆자리, 프란체스카
Kocowa
Starring: Han Soo-a, Kim Hyun-jin, Lee Seung-gyu
Genre: Youth, fantasy, rom-com, rom-dram, light horror
There are two vampire/sort-of-horror series starting this month, but only one of them has announced a US streaming service and that is Francesca Next Door. This is a spin-off of the 2005-6 series Hello Franceska, which was about vampires in Romania sent around the world, but one group got on a ship and ended up in South Korea by mistake.
In this series, Vampire Pi Na Young (Han Soo-a) leaves Romania (so, why does she have a Korean name??) to learn how to navigate in the human world. She ends up in high school in South Korea, but has no idea how to behave and has no (human) common sense. She’s not evil at all, but she keeps causing problems at school because she is not adapting well to human rules. She meets Jang Wu Ju (Kim Hyun-jin) and initially finds him annoying, but when she feels her heart pound, she doesn’t know what that is supposed to mean. Wu-ju is the first human that Na-young meets that she doesn’t want to bite. Wu-ju is focused on getting into medical school and is roped into helping her acclimate to her new country.
Vampire Yu-hyeol (Lee Seung-gyu) is a dark vampire who comes in only to provoke her vampire desires, making Na-young’s thirst for blood hard to avoid. As Na-young starts to fall for Wu-ju, her life is pretty out of control, because if a vampire bites a human, they will die within a year and she doesn’t want Wu-ju dead.
The drama does have bloody scenes, which is why I called it light horror.
One-of-a-Kind Romance – 유일무이 로맨스
Kocowa
Starring: Joy, Kim Hyun-jin, Shin Hyun-soo, Kang Na-eon
Genre: Rom-dram, youth, slice-of-life
Premieres November 9 | This drama is based on the Naver Webtoon by the same name.
Kong Yu-il (Joy) is looking for a job as her friends all find theirs, is ghosted by her boyfriend and struggles to live in her rooftop apartment. She needs cash and rents out her rooftop as a filming location. The shoot includes Tak Mu-I (Kim Hyun-jin), Korea’s biggest star. He had a traumatic experience with a stalker and so he mistakes Yu-il as a stalker, making Yu-il want nothing to do with him. However, when Mu-I was down and out after the stalking incident, he read a novel that was written by Yu-il that comforted him and helped him through his troubled time.
As these two become connected, they share a mutual fandom for each other, but that turns into an unexpected romance. Add to the mix Ju Da-hong (Kang Na-eon), an independent and spirited actress who has always admired Mu-I, forming a challenge to Yu-il, and a star chef named Kang Hui-su (Shin Hyun-soo) who hides something mysterious.
What a Boss Wants – 보스의 노골적 취향
Viki
Starring: Sung Hoon, Oh Se-young
Genre: Rom-dram, rom-com
Adapted from the web novel What a Boss Wants (보스의 노골적 취향) by Sikeukeu
Premieres November 11| Kwon Do-hyuk (Sung Hoon) is the CEO of SY Entertainment. He’s rich and a tech visionary. However, he has chronic insomnia and PTSD and is emotionally empty. His business partner betrays him, leading his father to threaten him if he doesn’t save the company. Do-hyuk decides that he will develop an AI-powered entertainer. He begins searching for a person to base the character on.
Do-hyuk ends up going to a psychiatrist to try to deal with his insomnia. The psychiatrist tells him to seek out a voice that can calm his nerves. He has a voice in his mind. When his father drops an album on his desk by an indie singer named Soo (Oh Se-young), he matches that voice to the voice in his mind and wants to find her, both to cure his insomnia and as a muse for his AI-entertainer.
Soo is actually Eun-chae. She works at a call center during the day and has her vibrant alter-ego persona of Soo that she performs with at night. Do-hyuk and Eun-chae have several awkward encounters as Do-hyuk tries to approach her. Do-hyuk is able to find out some secrets about her that she would not want revealed and he uses the information to blackmail her into working for him for three months (why is it always three months in the dramas? What is that?) What happens during the three months is not expected by either one of them.
Descriptions use words like “thrilling” and “melodramatic”. Hmm. That would definitely make it a bit more complex than a simple rom-com.
Crash 2: Fury Road – 크래시 시즌2: 분노의 도로
Viki, Disney+
Starring: Lee Min-ki, Kwak Sun-young, Heo Sung-tae, Lee Ho-cheol, Moonhee, Park Ji-sung
Genre: Comedy, crime, action
Season 2 upgrades the team and their tasks. You can catch Season 1 on Disney+
Premieres November 16 | The first season is based on the idea of the stories behind South Korea’s true traffic crime statistics. The plot lines of the different episodes are based on real events. A group of detectives work tightly as a team, using unconventional methods and exposing systemic corruption as well as finding dangerous criminals on the roads.
At the end of the first season, the team transitions from a local division to the National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency. They now tackle nationwide traffic crime cases. With criminals becoming more cunning and operating on a larger scale, the team embarks on relentless investigations that promise to deliver more cathartic justice. This season is pact with more intense action scenes
Good Partner 2 – 굿파트너 2
Starring: Jang Na-ra, Kim Hye-yoon, Park Hae-jin, Pyo Ji-hoon
Genre: Drama, legal
Season 1 is available on Viki
Premieres November 20 | This series, in both its seasons, follows unlikely partners in a law firm.
In Season 1, Cha Eun-kyung (Jang Na-ra) is a well-established, well-known divorce lawyer who is dedicated to her high-profile clients. And then her own marriage falls apart, making her look deeply at what she does for a living. A new hire in the law firm, Han Yu-ri (Nam Ji-hyun), comes in with a different attitude of idealism and devotion to justice. The two clash at first, but end up in aㅜ elder/younger, mentor/mentee relationship as they solve challenging cases with ethical and moral consequences and figure out how to be “good partners”.
In Season 2, Cha Eun-kyung left her law firm to create her own firm. She recruits Kang Hye-seong (Kim Hye-yoon), an experienced lawyer, to join her firm. Through various difficult cases, they find their rhythm to become “good partners”.
Although I do tend to watch more of one genre of K-dramas than many others, I like individual dramas from all genres. Because the focus of legal dramas changes from episode to episode, the challenge in this genre lies in the depth and quality of storytelling within each episode. What is compelling about legal and crime dramas is that human stories are complex. Guilty and not guilty almost always contain shades of gray and even if they are solidly black or white, the backstories muddy everything. That changes not just the lives of the people on trial but the lawyers and judges as well. We want to understand what it is to be human and what motivates us to do things. Divorce cases are even muddier because they take us through commitment and betrayal, monetary pressures that push us into unloving decisions, past traumas that prevent people from fully invested in another person. The first season of Good Partners told some pretty good stories. I am expecting season 2 to not disappoint.
The Blue Road – 푸른길
Starring: Son Suk-ku, Eita Nagayama, Kim Shin-rok, Choi Sung-eun, Jung Jae-young
Genre: Crime drama
Adapted from the comic “Blue Road" (푸른길) by Keisi Edogawa and Kwon Ga Ya (에도가와 케이시, 권가야). This series debuted at the 31st Busan International Film Festival at the beginning of October this year.
Premieres November 20 | A twisted and mutilated body is found in Tokyo with a message written in blood in Korean. Soon after, a twisted and mutilated body is found in Seoul with a message written in blood in Japanese. A Korean detective, Kim Seok (Son Suk-ku), and a Japanese detective, Inose (Eita Nagayama), join forces to try to solve the crimes. As time rolls on, they realize they are looking for a serial killer. The two detectives have wildly different styles and face jurisdictional challenges, but their discoveries point to a complicated network involving a Korean-Japanese businesswoman, Lee Yun-ok (Kim Shin-rok). Seok and Inose are forced to unravel the clues of a dark, international conspiracy.
The Substitute – 대리수능
HBO Max, Viki (presumed to be streaming on the platform, but to be updated)
Starring: Bae Hyeon-seong, Cha Kang-yoon, Park Yoon-ho, Uhm Ji-won, Park Hyuk-kwon, Baek Ji-won
Genre: School, thriller
Premieres November 23 | This drama focuses on the CSAT (College Scholastic Ability Test) – South Korea’s infamous college entrance exam. You might want to draw parallels to the SAT or ACT, but that would be underestimating the importance of this exam, both to students and to their families and those families’ expectations. The exam determines which universities students can get into and essentially sets the forward path for a student’s life – what jobs and careers are available to them. South Korea is not the only country with a system like this, but it is famously the most intense. When the exam is scheduled each year, air traffic, construction, military training, bank trading are all halted. The exam covers a variety of subjects, including history, Korean (reading and literature), English, mathematics, and elective and subordinate subjects. The real-life intensity of the exam and everything leading up to it really cannot be overemphasized and many families start working toward that exam from the time a child is very young.
Nam Jae-yeop (Bae Hyeon-seong) is a good student with very good grades from a rich family who tries to act the part of what his family expects. He starts to stray from his father’s plan for his life and his life starts to completely unravel. Kang Geon-tae (Cha Kang-yoon) is a low-income student with a special (gifted) scholarship to Jeonggyeong High School, where Nam Jae-yeop and countless other rich kids attend. Jae-yeop is feeling increasingly inferior to Geon-tae and Geon-tae is able to maintain consistently high marks, despite his background. However, he has no friends at school and, as all scholarship students seem to be, is constantly picked on. In order to literally survive (as in live), Geon-Tae makes a choice and that choice becomes his weakness. Meanwhile, Jae-Yeob grabs Geon-Tae's weakness and blackmails him to take the CSAT on his behalf.
As if the subject matter of the CSAT isn’t intense enough, the drama created by out-of-control Jae-yeop makes this entire scenario even more intense.
Nine to Six – 나인 투 식스
Starring: Park Min-young, Yook Sung-jae, Go Soo
Genre: Office, romance
Premieres November 25 | Kang Yi-ji (Park Min-young) is a workaholic senior manager in the legal department of Chronic Motors – an automaker. She doesn’t oppose the idea of marriage, in general, but thinks dating and marriage are just hormonal reactions. She prefers a quiet and rational life focused on work.
Han Seon-u is a jewelry designer, but went to law school. He’s good with his hands – both in making jewelry and cooking. His demeanor is relaxed and down-to-earth. He joins Chronic Motors legal team and quickly earns the department’s trust because of his sharp thinking.
Park Hyun-tae (Go Soo) has been newly appointed the director of Chronic Motors. He values Yi-ji immediately, based on her abilities.
Yi-ji is overcome by those hormones she bad mouths and is torn between down-to-earth and emotional Seon-u and ideal and rational Hyun-tae.
