Author Archives

Michaelhttp://lanier4john.wordpress.com

Gentlemen’s Dignity

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Before I start, I want to introduce a guest writer, a co-author if you will. Hey, if Thundie can do it, why can’t I? Seriously, C.J. Park is my favorite cousin. Yes, I say that to all my cousins, but she really is the one. She and I grew up together, so she embodies what Korea means to me, namely gim-bap (rice wrapped in seaweed), jjim-jil-bang (Korean public sauna), and no-rah-bang (public karaoke place), you know all the things in life worth living for. I left out so-ju (Korean liquor), I know, but still I think it sounds better than baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet. I absolutely couldn’t have written this without her. The vast majority of the asterisks in this work are from her, not to mention her indispensable help with many conversations that I’ve had a devil of time catching. So, please give a warm welcome to a new addition to the Thundie’s family, CJ!

Oh, and only because I’ve always wanted to say this: With collaboration of C.J. Park, Michael and Thundie Incorporated is proud to present the world premier of…

The Gentlemen’s Dignity

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M13

Dong-Yi: A Love Story

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[I'm sure you're just as thrilled as I am to see a new post from Michael. Whether you have watched Dong Yi or not, this is one review that's going to have you smacking your lips in delight. Happy reading! —thundie]

I initially wrote about 90% of this almost 2 years ago, but as much as I loved Dong-Yi, I couldn’t help but drag, procrastinate, and rationalize to delay the inevitable because I generally don’t feel as comfortable watching or translating sah-guk (사극, historical drama). Why? Because it feels like writing about a foreign film when I don’t quite understand the foreign language fully. So what, you say, because that’s how most of you feel watching Korean dramas? Well, that’s because you don’t have to decipher old Korean language into English. I was, and still am, suffering from lack of confidence as to whether I’m correctly translating the old Korean into English. So do cut me some slack and let me down gently when you (you know who you are – a few of you out there who are sah-guk virtuoso – yes, dramaok, that means you, too) see any glaring mistakes.

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M12

Lie To Me: A Love Story

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I was pretty certain that I had to wait at least a few years after Secret Garden before I chanced upon another drama in a romantic comedy genre worth raving about. After all, there were similar intervals between My Girl (2005), Coffee Prince, First Shop (2007), and Secret Garden (2010).

But it was the kiss, one of many I might add, that told me loud and clear maybe I didn’t have to wait that long this time. The telltale signs were all there because I found myself watching certain scenes over and over again without becoming tired of them. But this obsessive-compulsive phenomenon didn’t happen until the end of the fifth episode, when the first kiss occurs. Does this mean this drama is not worth watching until the episode 5? Hardly.

The participants in this momentous kiss appear in a new SBS drama Lie To Me starring Yoon Eun-hye as Gong Ah-jung and Kang Ji-hwan as Hyun Ki-joon. The kisses have enjoyed such acclaim, even before they were aired, that they even have their own names: the ice cream kiss and the cola kiss.

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M1

The Secret Garden, the 19th & 20th episodes

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As if we really need an introduction. Our lovebirds lived happily ever after about says it all. With three adorable rugrats no less. And not in a poor house, either. Just not in his mother’s house. JW gets his memory back and more. And we get a classic ending to beat all endings. And after twenty episodes, I give the Secret Garden its final personal rating, 8 out of 10, which places it at the same pedestal as the previous classics such as Coffee Prince First Shop and My Girl.

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M2

The Secret Garden, the 17th & 18th episodes

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As we near the end of this sweet and yet suddenly angst-filled roller coaster of a drama, we again come back to romantic love, and, boy, do we ever. The sob-fest, as wits calls it, plays out like Love Story and West Side Story intertwined but with a distinct Korean flavor and intensity and hopefully without the fateful ending. And oh, what a love story it is. As JW is writing the letter to RI which could be the last one he writes as a living human being, he sobs uncontrollably, not because he’s afraid of dying, I think, but because he feels RI’s pain of having to live without him and his without her. And later RI contemplates the same selfless act of love as she sobs holding the very letter against her heart, just as JW did with her Little Mermaid declaration of love “letter.”

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