Working through the formula: Kdramas

Best Love: A love story set in Korea’s TV/film industry. The hero, an egotistical actor, figures out he loves the heroine, a down-and-out singer, by measuring his pulse.

I like watching Korean dramas. They’re usually fluffy romcoms, with enough melodrama and separation that drives viewers mad but not away. (I say usually because there is something called A Love to Kill – beautiful to see but extremely tough to watch).

These shows usually work within a paradigm. Most of them are love stories of a rich, emotionally-stunted hero and a poor but heart-warming heroine. Of course, there are usual suspects - the side hero who love the poor girl but has a fatal flow (he’s her brother, is the best of the lot); the side-heroine, who has her agenda but is deep down a kind person. For the pair to get together in the end, there are obstacles like the hero’s stern family, the heroine’s always-broke dad, etc.

 
Gloria: This show had all the familiar trappings of a K-drama. A closed-up hero who only knew how to express himself through getting beat up and a heroine who raised her older but mentally-challenged sister by doing 10 jobs a day.

So within this age-old formula, which works wonders in all cultures, it is always difficult to establish an OTP (one true pairing) that can sustain a) their own character flaws b) family outbursts and machinations and c) ratings! The first one is extremely negotiable, though.

Goong/Princess Hours: A classic trope loved by all, the forced marriage, with the added bonus of being set in a royal household, Goong is much-liked by all. The story is shaky but there are spots of good acting. Mostly, the OTP wins hearts. 

In any case, while the formula is constraining and limited, the possibilities of experimentation are huge. The same story told through different lens, with things changed here and there, just fuels the fancy of viewers. While Gloria added the theme of revenge to the story, Best Love became a story told through metaphors and symbols.

While I haven’t watched many Kdramas, I’m still waiting to see them try some Japanese police/detective shows like Trick. Can someone make that somewhere?!

A week’s worth of films

Here are some of the films I have this new year. Nothing recent and nothing spectacular or off the charts. Some just sounded interesting and some were critically-acclaimed.

1. Dressed to Kill
Last year I finally saw Scarface. I thought another Brian De Palma film wouldn’t hurt, especially one whose synopsis from IMDB read :A mysterious, tall, blonde woman, wearing sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she's after the prostitute who witnessed it. 

2. Leon the Professional
This movie is always floating in IMDB lists; so finally picked it up. While watching it, I loved the music, especially juxtaposing it with the continuous massacre in the film.

3. Paths of Glory
I am making an effort to watch war films. I haven’t counted but this might be my third war/anti-war film.
Paths of Glory is an anti-war parable, mostly about how war is not about the macro-picture but just about individual ambitions trumping over the lives of feeble soldiers. I was appalled and shocked at the right moments and Kirk Douglas was a revelation! Also Stanley Kubrick as the director ain’t bad either! 

4. The Social Network
I avoided this film on purpose. It’s difficult to see this film as an objective viewer. I’ll post a very apt blog entry by Filmdr who says that after watching this film ‘two ironies emerge’:
a) A shy, anti-social young man electronically seduces the world by appealing to everyone's social instincts.
b) Goaded on by sexual rejection and class resentment, Zuckerberg invents the ultimate club that establishes its own kind of exclusivity by allowing only members with the Harvard.edu address, but then he gradually lets everyone join. Like a bunch of lemmings, we do.

5. The Bad Seed
What makes a child go bad? Is it nurture or nature? I think the film tried to answer the question by introducing us to a child who acts perfect but is a basket of killings waiting to unravel. The film is a precursor to Children of the Corn, The Omen’s Damien but at a small, household level.

6. The Hurt Locker
In my attempts to watch War films, I came across this Oscar winner. I liked the film; the tension is palpable and loved the first words of the film:  The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug. There is no rush and there is no fast—paced action. Just the strain of getting out of anywhere alive. The film flowed like a poem, and ended where it began.


7. Winter’s Bone
I had heard a lot about the film but no names had popped up. The film’s story is nothing great, a girl who is hunting for her father; but the cinematography with the bleak and desolate land and a futile search kept me hooked. A thriller story set in the neo-noir country, the film creeps up on you. Just goes to show you that a good film can be made with less resources.

Around the year, again

What’s new about the year?
It’s just figures, ain’t it?
Another number to bear,
Makes me older and you know it!

Under the moonlight and the sunshine,
it’s the blinding beam all over again.
Tired and dead,
We all fall down the drain.

Fighting crime from the ivory tower

I guess when you’re spending a lot of time marathoning The Closer and Law and Order, you also start to notice things like this. I’m not surprised the city isn’t safe – it’s not new. What I am surprised at is things like this:

I thought this was a known fact (or is it just because of television?).


C’mon paper! The headline sucks!! And apart from being sexist, are you saying that one day you’ll be able to say that the city is safe? Is there any city that is??