Sageuk and Splash Splash Love (A Review)

Being a Sageuk fan can wreak havoc with one’s moods. 

Sageuk are Korean historical period dramas, which are usually quiet lengthy, agonizing, emotional roller-coasters, not to mention confusing since they usually only relate to actual historical facts as much as American T.V series usually do… meaning not much.

Apart from loving Korean historical dramas, I actually also adore watching any Asian historical T.V series, therefore even Japanese and Chinese ones. Lately I have watched two very good, but also very long and sad Chinese dramas. These were ‘Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms’ (also known as Eternal Love, or To the Sky Kingdom) which consists of 58 episodes, and ‘Empresses in the Palace (also known as The Legend of Zhen Huan), consisting of 76 episodes, all of them around an hour long per episode.

Craving a break from so much history, I watched ‘The Beauty Inside’ after these (the review can be found here), which is a modern Korean drama. Unfortunately for me, although all of these dramas were VERY good, they were also quiet heavy, meaning that I ended up using rolls and rolls of tissue paper to stem my flow of tears hehe.

So, what to watch when you are still in the mood for historical drama, but want one which is light-hearted and SHORT? Enter – ‘Splash Splash Love’!

This gender-bender time-travel Joseon love story is cute, funny, and historically incorrect. Perfect for those who look forward to two hours of entertainment. It is in fact, only 2 hours long.

Without giving any spoilers, the plot of this South Korean drama follows high school studen Danbi, who is stressed because she is about to take her final examinations. Danbi falls into a rain puddle and is transported to the Joseon era, where the King and all his officials are praying for an end to a 3-year drought. Confusion ensues as Danbi disguises herself as a eunuch and realizes that in medieval Joseon, her very low level of mathematical knowledge is considered to be pure genius. She befriends the king… and well… I’d better not divulge the rest.

Of course, being a fan of Sageuk, some things did jar a bit. For example at one point both the King and the Queen simply run away from the Palace, with no guards or retinue, and spend the night outside (separately) without anyone knowing where they went. A day after, they return to the Palace, and no one even mentions it, as though nothing has happened. Anyone who watches historical Asian drama knows that Royalty NEVER went outside the Palace unsupervised and alone, especially the Queen! How could both the King and Queen just disappear for over 24 hours without anyone noticing?? Surreal lol

However I wasn’t watching this particular drama because I wanted historical accuracy was I? So, I tried to ignore all that, since it was precisely what I needed a break from. 

By the way, if you liked ‘Love in the Moonlight’, you will love this one too!

Personal rating – 3 on 5 stars

The Beauty Inside – A Review

Would you have fallen in love with your significant other if s/he had had another face? Would you be able to love someone with a physical disability? How about someone who, though not visually impaired, was still not able to differentiate faces? Is one’s identity tied to one’s face and appearance?

If you had another face, would you be a totally different person inside as well?

These are all questions the audience cannot help but ask itself, while watching ‘The Beauty Inside’. This very good Korean drama in fact, tells the story of two people whose very difficult situations color their lives in multiple ways.

Han Se-gye is a well-known actress, yet for some mysterious reason, when she is 20 years old something happens to her and she starts to transform into someone else for a week every month. Each time, she transforms into someone different. It could be an old man, a child, an older woman on a wheelchair. Age, race, gender, physical abilities – all change without warning, causing her to break down both mentally and physically.

On the other hand, there is Seo Do-jae, a man who suffers from Prosopagnosia due to having broken his cranium in an accident. Prosopagnosia, also called ‘face blindness’ really does exist, and is a cognitive disorder caused by acute brain damage, whereby a person looses the ability to recognize people’s faces, including one’s own in the mirror. After his accident, Seo Do-jae spends years learning how to recognize people using other individual clues instead. The way they walk, the way they dress, their voice, their scent… no wonder he is the only one who can actually recognize Han Se-gye, even when she wears a different face…

This K-drama is very different from any others I’ve watched, not only because of its very interesting take on mental and physical health and disability, but also because although it is a love story, the focus is not on the dating game itself, but rather highlights the fact that before one can really love and accept others, one must first of all learn to love and accept one’s self.

The supporting cast of characters is pretty impressive too. There are many funny and endearing moments, and also many sad ones. Prepare your tissues!

This T.V series is made up of 16 episodes, all of which are approximately an hour long. If you don’t mind watching them with subs (since obviously, the language is Korean), you can find all of the episodes online for free on various websites.

My personal rating is 5 on 5 stars.

There is also a movie with the same name, with basically the same story-line but different actors.

Enjoy!

Interview?

If someone asked you to give a short interview on a T.V channel, and talk for ten minutes about a book of your choice – which book would you choose?

Currently I’m reading a terribly predictable short novel by James Herbert called ‘Lair’. One of those horror+soft porn mish-mashes which leave absolutely no room for surprise, and whose pedantic prose tends to drive me away from the pleasure of reading, straight into the waiting arms of yet another Korean drama (yes, I’m a K-drama fan). Which further leads to the prolonging of the torture of reading said novel.

Incidentally, the plot revolves around a group of man-eating gigantic mutant rats, led by a two-headed overweight monstrosity living underground… people get killed and eaten while our main character, a lonely rat-catcher with no seeming past or ties of any kind, begs the powers that be to take action, but instead gets mired in tedious bureaucracy while innocent farmers and children in the surrounding countryside get bitten, mauled, gnawed upon, and turned into pulp.

Not the sort of thing one talks about during an interview with one of the organizers of the Malta International Book-fair on an educational channel – viewed by children and families, and espousing a wholesome and ‘respectable’ attitude.

So, which book to choose? One of the Classics? How about Pride and Prejudice? Shall I wax lyrical on how mamas ‘used to’ fish around for the richest bachelor for their ‘tender damsels’ in need of husbands? Used to… yeah right.

How about Jane Eyre? Ugly, poor, unwanted girl leaves school and travels to a beautiful mansion with gothic undertones, to work as the governess of a perfect doll of a French girl with an attractive, rich, single uncle who’s VERY interested in the main character… hmm the theme of P&P seems to be hidden in this one, but still present.

Something more modern then… George R.R Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire – most commonly known as Game of Thrones? Nah – that one’s been reviewed, blogged, vlogged and analysed ad nauseum.

Umm.. shall I give the interview a feminist flavor with Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and preach against racism, rape and domestic abuse? Hmm might open a can of worms with that one.

How about trying to impress and mentioning Nobel Prize winner for literature Orham Pamuk and his My Name is Red? Better not = I tried reading that one and to be honest the style of writing did not ring my bell, so I did not even finish it *cringe*…

Rowling? Auster? D.H Lawrence? Wilde?

Well, fretting is pointless. I’m too shy to appear on T.V anyways so I’m telling the guy no. Thanks very much but no. I’m not the kind of person who likes to be in the spotlight. Quite the opposite actually. So, panic-mode averted and introvert mode reinstated.

So much for that hehe.