To be or not to be evil in High Society

53 June 3, 2015June 3, 2015

by javabeans

We’ve got one last promo push for High Society, which premieres next week with the story of a young chaebol woman (UEE) who puts on the guise of an ordinary woman, hoping to find love with someone who values her for herself rather than her riches.

There are a couple of new posters out as well, and I’ll just let y’all scroll down to enjoy the Engrish. It’s actually just cheesy enough to be hilarious, though perhaps inadvertently. Hey, I’ll take my hilarity however it comes! And at least the photobooth collage poster is very cute, showing the four main leads in varying stages of flirting and aegyo — I hope that cuteness carries over into the drama itself. It’s hard to tell from the previews, which are skewing more dramatic, but I’ll have my fingers crossed that High Society settles into a lighter chaebol romance once the setup is in place.

In the teaser, UEE’s character Yoon-ha is accused of being responsible for someone’s death by her shrill mother, who wails at her to die in their place. This must be her older brother, the expected successor to their father’s large corporation. Her father recognizes that Yoon-ha is smart and competent — compared to her Paris Hilton-esque older sisters, for instance — but the company was to pass to the son… until that’s no longer an option.

Meanwhile, Yoon-ha’s mother has always treated her coldly, and she’s the least like her mother and sisters, going as far as to work part-time at a food company and hide her family background. Sung Joon is the non-chaebol who worked his way to his current success, but is constantly aware that he’s at a disadvantage because of his humble roots. In the teaser, he says cynically, “The way to become a rich man is to be born rich. If you’re poor, you can never be happy.”

It looks like they begin a cute romance — until he sees a news article online with a picture of her family, identifying her as a chaebol. Ack, is that why he ends the teaser asking her to date him? Don’t be evil, Sung Joon! Even if you want to be! Annnnnd I guess I’ve just legitimized the Engrish posters with my reaction.

On top of that, it appears the second leads may have cute chemistry of their own, with Park Hyung-shik playing a third-generation chaebol and Im Ji-yeon cast as an ordinary woman who becomes friends with the heroine when they both work at the same food market together. In the clip she drunkenly marvels at seeing a chaebol in the flesh and prods at him in wonder, and he wonders suspiciously what she’s up to. Ha, well her character description tells us she’s sweet but not that bright, so the real answer is likely not much. She’s just like that naturally!

High Society premieres on Monday, June 8.

Via Mk.co.kr

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26 korfan

June 4, 2015 at 1:25 AM

I can't believe I'm actually mentioning this, but the sleeves on Lee Sang-woo's jacket are a tad too long.

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27 zsa

June 4, 2015 at 1:44 AM

Who is this im.ji yeon?

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salmon poke

June 5, 2015 at 7:43 AM

She's the lead in Song Seung Heun's ero-melo last year (or the year before).

I'm actually looking forward to her and Hyungsik's loveline more than the main couple hahaha.

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28 Stuart

June 4, 2015 at 2:01 AM

Am I the only L1 English speaker who doesn't find anything remotely "Engrish" about the phrases on that poster? Unless javabeans is accusing Google of using Engrish in its now-infamous corporate slogan?

ALL of the phrases shown are valid English in grammar, syntax and vocabulary, with the exception of a minor typo in "Want to be kind and generous But I am a boss!" Obviously, it should read "I want to be kind and generous. But I am a boss!" but if an omission of that sort makes it Engrish then I write nothing but Engrish all the time.

"The good is the best policy" does have an awkwardly archaic, stagey kind of ring to it. But stiffly old-fashioned and formal != "Engrish"

Setting aside the derogatory and pejorative nature of that ugly word "Engrish", the more relevant problem here is that it's just plain wrong - there's no Engrish to be seen.

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Requiem

June 4, 2015 at 2:31 AM

Speaking as someone who has parents who speaks Engrish this totally sounds like Engrish to me.

It's partly the choice of words that's used along with the fact that really, no one who speaks English natively would say something like this.

And Google's slogan is correct usage of the imperative tense. It's telling its employees to not be evil. Who is this poster telling to "want to be kind and generous?" That doesn't even make sense as an imperative.

Really they should have just left the sayings in Korean or had them well translated instead of going half-assed on it.

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Stuart

June 4, 2015 at 2:45 AM

As I said in my post, the only error with the "kind and generous" phrase was that they omitted the pronoun "I" at the beginning. That's an error that many native English speakers can make too, for reasons that have nothing to do with shaky grammar. It really should have been caught in editing, but one simple typo does not make the phrase "Engrish". Especially when the fact is that adding the "I" makes it into the sort of phrase that many L1 English speakers WOULD say and HAVE said: "“I want to be kind and generous. But I am a boss!” is both grammatically standard AND natural English. I've heard very similar phrases and constructions from my boss more than once.

There's nothing remotely "half-assed" about the English in this poster, three phrases out of four are perfectly correct, devoid of even the slightest error.The entire poster is being dismissed as "Engrish" on the strength of missing one letter, the pronoun "I".

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emilie

June 4, 2015 at 5:46 AM

I don't think javabeans is necessarily referring to grammatical errors. You cannot deny that the phrases are totally awkward-sounding. Take for instance, "Want to be kind and generous. But I am a boss!" How does "I am a boss" relate to wanting to be "kind and generous"? It's also true that "the good is the best policy" isn't grammatically wrong, but it's weird. Not "stiffly old-fashioned and formal". It's just plain weird and it makes you want to cringe in your seat.

To quote Requiem, "no one who speaks English natively would say something like this". It's not about removing the pronoun from your sentence. That is evidently NOT a "typo"; people do that all the time. However, you're arguing for the general case even though here it's obviously the diction.

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alua

June 4, 2015 at 6:07 AM

No, I don't agree. If you take each phrase individually and look at the grammar, they generally correct (with one exception). However, they are presented as one poster and we read them together – and the immediate context of a phrase matters.

Don't be evil! and I can be evil! are placed right next to each other so the latter seems like a response to the first. As that, it sounds unnatural. Not ungrammatical, but not like natural response, because there is nothing in the "Don't be evil!" that is about ability. More natural responses would be "But I am evil!" or "(But) I will be (evil)!" or even "But I can be evil!". (Relevance theory in linguistics would probably explain this best but I'm not versed enough in it to explain it properly...) Actually, if they had inversed the order ("I can be evil!" followed by "Don't be evil!") that would work much better.

Want to be cool and generous, But I am a Boss. --> as you acknowledged, we've got a missing "I" so grammatically speaking the subject is missing and the sentence thus incomplete. There's also confusing spelling as "But" and "Boss" are capitalised. This is probably for emphasis but it doesn't follow spelling conventions, rather you might be look at this and interpret as a title (titles have different spelling conventions), except that it isn't worded like a title (it's too much like a full sentence). It also contrasts the three other posters in terms of the spelling (more confusion).

The good is the best policy, This is grammatical but it sounds awkward – it's more conventional to say "Being good is the best policy" and "Being a good person is the best policy". Strangely enough the phrase on the poster ends in a comma, which is also incorrect.

These are minor deviations individually, but taken together they accumulate – hence the sense of "Engrish".

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Requiem

June 4, 2015 at 10:05 AM

What emilie and alua said.

Also, the "want to be cool and generous. But I Am a boss" quote seems extremely weird. Why can't you be cool and generous even if you are a boss?

Maybe it's supposed to be "but I am the boss?" Which still doesn't really make too much sense but at least you can kind of frame it in a way that makes sense by saying that since he has to be "the boss" he can't be nice to his "employees" which is everyone?

Basically, while generally grammatically correct, in this context, a native English speaker would be confused as to what the poster is trying to convey. But if you think of them as translation, you can actually get the gist of the meaning. Hence engrish.

I mean "all your base are belong to us" is grammatically correct assuming the person just forgot an "s" or is poor with dealing in singular and plural (and there are a lot of those types who speak only English), but it's one of the classic Engrish examples.

The point is context, not grammar.

By the way, what's an L1 English speaker?

alua

June 4, 2015 at 10:07 AM

L1 = Language 1, as in first language / native language.

L2 = second language, that you learn later in life (not native speaker)

Requiem

June 4, 2015 at 10:13 AM

Oops, I'm not quite right with the "all your base" analysis. The verb should be "belonging." Still, I've seen worse on the Internet from native English speakers. We just think they're inarticulate among other thoughts :p.

29 C.W.

June 4, 2015 at 5:14 AM

is there a sponsor from a gym? those work out photos..

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30 anon

June 4, 2015 at 9:34 AM

The story looked like it had potential .. but I think it will fall short. UEE has always played snobby characters. I know these are just acting characters, but I still can't drop my prejudice against her .. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. I couldn't even watch Hogu's love. As for Hyungsik, he does better in lighter roles. I don't think he is ready for a Chaebol role. He seems awkward in this teaser. and as for the female friend! Good grief, I don't know anyone who would find dealing with a crying drunk humorous. There is nothing worse than a crying sloppy drunk. I'd rather deal with a puker.
and if Sung Joon whines the entire drama about his birth status ...and not his successes.. it's going to get old. So much for optimism!