Feelings about All About My Romance
Jun. 11th, 2013 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSo! I finished "All About My Romance" today.
It's definitely not as well made as Coffee Prince, it's patchy and cheesily cliched in parts and I didn't like the characters or the main romance as much. Still, it was funny and likeable most of the time and the central story is interesting one and mostly works despite the flaws: two politicians from opposite sides have to figure out how to reconcile falling in love with their beliefs and the practicalities of political life.
These self contained little 16-17 episode shows are a nice length to tell a rambling romance with lots of fleshed out side plots, and by the end I was very invested, it even made me cry.
And now for some spoilery feels, because the ending left me...feelings-y. Even though chances are NOONE WILL READ THIS EVER.
Oh god when I realised the pause wasn't just going to be for a couple of months or even just a year, and that she might never come back ;_; ALL MY SADS. The happy ending after that needed more hugs and kisses and YES WE ARE HAPPY AGAIN for me, "date happily for ages, the have a separation, then get together quickly at the end" plots really don't work for me because people and feelings change! I need to be convinced that they still care!
Overall I wasn't convinced enough of No Min-Young's feelings for Kim Soo-Young. I mean, I know intellectually, but not at the same gut level I got from all of his soppy smiles. When he was pursuing her at the start it made me uncomfortable and it made me sad for him at the end, I wanted a bit more active "YES I CHOOSE YOU" from her.
It took me a while to get a grip on Kim Soo-Young's character. And then I was all "Oh my, she is the ONLY PERSON HE HAS EVER LOVED" and got all feelings-y and was more forgiving of him being a jerk to everyone else and so weird to her. I like to imagine him slowly learning to love others too (especially Song Bo-Ri! I can't see him ever being as much of a father figure to her as Song Joon-Ha but I think they could learn to be friends)
Asides from that: I wish the plot had let her stay in politics. The way things were set up I can see why she quit, and I'm really glad that Ko Dong-Sook stayed. But (a)The writers are the one who created that situation and (b)She quit for her family...then married and had kids with a politician? Yes, things hopefully won't be so bad by then but...why not go back into politics herself at that point? Asides from it causing her a lot of stress, but it stresses Kim Soo-Young out too! Maybe she DOES go into politics again.
I realise it would have been hard to do but I wish we'd seen teenaged Song Bo-Ri playing with her itty bitty cousins.
Poor An Hee-Sun, I wish she'd been more explicitly happy at the end.
The political stuff was interestingly handled, it made me happy enough as a lefty with some sympathy for bipartisan discussion but I wonder how others would feel about it, especially Koreans. I am very glad Moon Bong-Sik and Kim Soo-Young both left the Greater Korea Party, bunch of creeps, it was only by telling myself that there was no way Kim Soo-Young would still be the Korean equivalent of a Liberal/Republican by the end of the show that I could ship him with No Min-Young. Not that Moon Bong-Sik entirely grew on me even so, he was still a selfish ass. It was interesting seeing how the talking points of a left/right divide differ. When Kim Soo-Young sincerely argues against freedom of speech omg! And I didn't really get the context for the internationalism thing.
I loved No Min-Young and Ko Dong-Sook, sensible competent women working together to change the world :D :D And the way No Min-Young just cannot let even tiny injustices slide <3 <3 Ko Dong-Sook for Korean President! She would have great fun working with Leslie Knope.
Ok I think I can go on with my day now.
It's definitely not as well made as Coffee Prince, it's patchy and cheesily cliched in parts and I didn't like the characters or the main romance as much. Still, it was funny and likeable most of the time and the central story is interesting one and mostly works despite the flaws: two politicians from opposite sides have to figure out how to reconcile falling in love with their beliefs and the practicalities of political life.
These self contained little 16-17 episode shows are a nice length to tell a rambling romance with lots of fleshed out side plots, and by the end I was very invested, it even made me cry.
And now for some spoilery feels, because the ending left me...feelings-y. Even though chances are NOONE WILL READ THIS EVER.
Oh god when I realised the pause wasn't just going to be for a couple of months or even just a year, and that she might never come back ;_; ALL MY SADS. The happy ending after that needed more hugs and kisses and YES WE ARE HAPPY AGAIN for me, "date happily for ages, the have a separation, then get together quickly at the end" plots really don't work for me because people and feelings change! I need to be convinced that they still care!
Overall I wasn't convinced enough of No Min-Young's feelings for Kim Soo-Young. I mean, I know intellectually, but not at the same gut level I got from all of his soppy smiles. When he was pursuing her at the start it made me uncomfortable and it made me sad for him at the end, I wanted a bit more active "YES I CHOOSE YOU" from her.
It took me a while to get a grip on Kim Soo-Young's character. And then I was all "Oh my, she is the ONLY PERSON HE HAS EVER LOVED" and got all feelings-y and was more forgiving of him being a jerk to everyone else and so weird to her. I like to imagine him slowly learning to love others too (especially Song Bo-Ri! I can't see him ever being as much of a father figure to her as Song Joon-Ha but I think they could learn to be friends)
Asides from that: I wish the plot had let her stay in politics. The way things were set up I can see why she quit, and I'm really glad that Ko Dong-Sook stayed. But (a)The writers are the one who created that situation and (b)She quit for her family...then married and had kids with a politician? Yes, things hopefully won't be so bad by then but...why not go back into politics herself at that point? Asides from it causing her a lot of stress, but it stresses Kim Soo-Young out too! Maybe she DOES go into politics again.
I realise it would have been hard to do but I wish we'd seen teenaged Song Bo-Ri playing with her itty bitty cousins.
Poor An Hee-Sun, I wish she'd been more explicitly happy at the end.
The political stuff was interestingly handled, it made me happy enough as a lefty with some sympathy for bipartisan discussion but I wonder how others would feel about it, especially Koreans. I am very glad Moon Bong-Sik and Kim Soo-Young both left the Greater Korea Party, bunch of creeps, it was only by telling myself that there was no way Kim Soo-Young would still be the Korean equivalent of a Liberal/Republican by the end of the show that I could ship him with No Min-Young. Not that Moon Bong-Sik entirely grew on me even so, he was still a selfish ass. It was interesting seeing how the talking points of a left/right divide differ. When Kim Soo-Young sincerely argues against freedom of speech omg! And I didn't really get the context for the internationalism thing.
I loved No Min-Young and Ko Dong-Sook, sensible competent women working together to change the world :D :D And the way No Min-Young just cannot let even tiny injustices slide <3 <3 Ko Dong-Sook for Korean President! She would have great fun working with Leslie Knope.
Ok I think I can go on with my day now.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-11 07:37 am (UTC)How was the politics in All About My Romance handled? TV tends to simplify politics a little, but IDK, there's a sliding scale. Was it very lulzy suspension-of-disbelief, or could you actually go, "yeah, these are valid ideological differences, also everyone is competent enough to not get insta-fired if they were working irl"?
no subject
Date: 2013-06-11 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-14 05:22 am (UTC)Yeah I can definitely understand stopping! Glad to be able to help, it's so annoying not to know how things end.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-14 05:27 am (UTC)Was it very lulzy suspension-of-disbelief, or could you actually go, "yeah, these are valid ideological differences, also everyone is competent enough to not get insta-fired if they were working irl"?
A bit of both: the actual issues covered seemed legit, but the individual politicians were pretty buffoonish a lot of the time. From my incredibly ignorant perspective it felt like they were going for vague perennial left vs right issues and avoiding anything very topical or sensitive.
I think I asked you this already, but any recs from your own watching?
no subject
Date: 2013-06-15 09:40 pm (UTC)For other Asian dramas: Love Shuffle is a pretty good + funny rumination on modern life and love in Japan, and it has so, so many possibilities for multishipping (premise is that a group of floormates switch partners every week and try out relationships) and an actual trufax bi character. Black and White is excellent if you love police procedurals and badass female characters (Taiwanese dramas tend to have stronger female characters overall, imho) and Hana Yori Dango's spinoffs are all good with the exception of the latter half of the Korean one.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-17 04:53 am (UTC)Thanks! I'm focusing on K dramas for now since that's all they seem to have on Hulu but once I've sucked them dry intend on seeing if I can find some other places to get stuff from.