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Feb. 14th, 2013 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSince it's Valentine's Day, I might as well write up a romantic kdrama I have been meaning to talk about for ages!
So these are the leads of Queen In-Hyun's Man. In case you are wondering why our hero Kim Boong-Do's hat looks like it has tons of hair stuffed up inside it, that's because Kim Boong-Do usually looks like this:
Yes, this is a TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE.
The basic premise is that Kim Boong-Do -- a mild-mannered scholar deeply involved in political intrigue based around restoring the deposted Queen In-Hyun to power -- has come into possession of a magical talisman that conveniently shoots him three hundred years into the future whenever he's about to die.
Meanwhile, he bumps into Choi Hee-Jin, a rookie actress who has just gotten her big break in a historical TV series where she plays -- guess who?
Hilariously, while Hee-Jin thinks her possibly-delusional time traveling friend is super foxy from the get-go -- and is totally happy to make up BS "futuristic customs" about kissing, because lady's got needs, man -- Boong-Do is politely incredulous that Hee-Jin could be considered as much of a beauty as she claims to be until he actually sees her styled like a lady of his century. Suddenly, he gets it! BECAUSE STANDARDS OF BEAUTY CHANGE IN 300 YEARS.
In general, while I came for the wacky acting hijinks -- of which there did not actually turn out to be that many -- I stayed for the AMAZINGLY well done time-travel. The first two episodes were a bit slow for me, but after that it picked up fast and fantastic.
Kim Boong-Do is, hands-down, the smartest Past Dude In The Future that I've ever encountered in fiction! No comical flailing and lulzy misunderstandings for this guy; as soon as he sees people wandering around in pants and sweatshirts, he ditches the robes, finds an appropriate hat, and is off to observe the customs of this new place without attracting attention. It takes him all of like ten minutes to figure out that he's in the future, and then it's off to the LIBRARY to determine exactly the best way to use this to his advantage. It's not that the show ignores the significant cultural differences between past and present, because it totally doesn't -- it's just that Kim Boong-Do is very intelligent, and very adaptable, and it gives him a huge intellectual thrill to realize how much bigger the world is than he'd thought.
One example of just how smart Kim Boong-Do is: once he has mastered time travel rules, he allows a political enemy to exile him across the country, then TIME TRAVELS to the future, TAKES A PLANE back to the capital, time travels BACK, and then cheerfully pops in to pull a political coup on his totally unsuspecting enemy. The coup de grace is when he reminds the bad guy that if he tries to tell anybody what just happened, Kim Boong-Do has the best alibi ever: he was seen across the country yesterday, and he'll be back there tomorrow, and as everyone knows, it's not humanly possible to get back in less than like three weeks!
SMARTEST. TIME-TRAVELER. EVER.
Hee-Jin is also really great; it takes her a little while to get used to the situation, but she's super charming and funny and playful, and she knows what she wants and is not at all afraid to go after it. And their romance is adorable, full of sweet mutual trolling. It is, also, like, the only kdrama romance that I have ever seen that eschews the Standard Kdrama Romantic Wrist-Grab! (At least from the hero; I think Hee-Jin's Jerk Ex might use it once or twice, but, I mean, he's the Jerk Ex.) Kim Boong-Do continually respects Hee-Jin's agency and never acts like a controlling douche ever at all! IT'S AMAZING.
But I also really appreciate that the appeal that the future has for Kim Boong-Do isn't just rooted in romance. It's not a story about Boong-Do wanting to GIVE IT ALL UP FOR LOVE. There's this great moment when he's explaining that after being in the future, and reading the history, the past feels like the past to him now; he feels trapped by it, he wants to live without that artificial knowledge. And -- yeah. Of course it would.
REALLY SMART TIME TRAVEL is so rare, guys. I mean, I feel like it's rare, anyway, I dunno. What are your favorite time travel stories?
So these are the leads of Queen In-Hyun's Man. In case you are wondering why our hero Kim Boong-Do's hat looks like it has tons of hair stuffed up inside it, that's because Kim Boong-Do usually looks like this:
Yes, this is a TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE.
The basic premise is that Kim Boong-Do -- a mild-mannered scholar deeply involved in political intrigue based around restoring the deposted Queen In-Hyun to power -- has come into possession of a magical talisman that conveniently shoots him three hundred years into the future whenever he's about to die.
Meanwhile, he bumps into Choi Hee-Jin, a rookie actress who has just gotten her big break in a historical TV series where she plays -- guess who?
Hilariously, while Hee-Jin thinks her possibly-delusional time traveling friend is super foxy from the get-go -- and is totally happy to make up BS "futuristic customs" about kissing, because lady's got needs, man -- Boong-Do is politely incredulous that Hee-Jin could be considered as much of a beauty as she claims to be until he actually sees her styled like a lady of his century. Suddenly, he gets it! BECAUSE STANDARDS OF BEAUTY CHANGE IN 300 YEARS.
In general, while I came for the wacky acting hijinks -- of which there did not actually turn out to be that many -- I stayed for the AMAZINGLY well done time-travel. The first two episodes were a bit slow for me, but after that it picked up fast and fantastic.
Kim Boong-Do is, hands-down, the smartest Past Dude In The Future that I've ever encountered in fiction! No comical flailing and lulzy misunderstandings for this guy; as soon as he sees people wandering around in pants and sweatshirts, he ditches the robes, finds an appropriate hat, and is off to observe the customs of this new place without attracting attention. It takes him all of like ten minutes to figure out that he's in the future, and then it's off to the LIBRARY to determine exactly the best way to use this to his advantage. It's not that the show ignores the significant cultural differences between past and present, because it totally doesn't -- it's just that Kim Boong-Do is very intelligent, and very adaptable, and it gives him a huge intellectual thrill to realize how much bigger the world is than he'd thought.
One example of just how smart Kim Boong-Do is: once he has mastered time travel rules, he allows a political enemy to exile him across the country, then TIME TRAVELS to the future, TAKES A PLANE back to the capital, time travels BACK, and then cheerfully pops in to pull a political coup on his totally unsuspecting enemy. The coup de grace is when he reminds the bad guy that if he tries to tell anybody what just happened, Kim Boong-Do has the best alibi ever: he was seen across the country yesterday, and he'll be back there tomorrow, and as everyone knows, it's not humanly possible to get back in less than like three weeks!
SMARTEST. TIME-TRAVELER. EVER.
Hee-Jin is also really great; it takes her a little while to get used to the situation, but she's super charming and funny and playful, and she knows what she wants and is not at all afraid to go after it. And their romance is adorable, full of sweet mutual trolling. It is, also, like, the only kdrama romance that I have ever seen that eschews the Standard Kdrama Romantic Wrist-Grab! (At least from the hero; I think Hee-Jin's Jerk Ex might use it once or twice, but, I mean, he's the Jerk Ex.) Kim Boong-Do continually respects Hee-Jin's agency and never acts like a controlling douche ever at all! IT'S AMAZING.
But I also really appreciate that the appeal that the future has for Kim Boong-Do isn't just rooted in romance. It's not a story about Boong-Do wanting to GIVE IT ALL UP FOR LOVE. There's this great moment when he's explaining that after being in the future, and reading the history, the past feels like the past to him now; he feels trapped by it, he wants to live without that artificial knowledge. And -- yeah. Of course it would.
REALLY SMART TIME TRAVEL is so rare, guys. I mean, I feel like it's rare, anyway, I dunno. What are your favorite time travel stories?
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Date: 2013-02-15 06:43 pm (UTC)