Time-traveling from Joseon to Seoul in Lady Durian
by solstices
We finally get a glimpse into what this perplexing title is all about, though I have to admit I’m still left scratching my head. Billed as a time-slip fantasy melo, TV Chosun’s upcoming drama Lady Durian (previously Durian Fairy) merges Joseon-era melancholy with modern-day opulence.
Love ft. Marriage and Divorce veteran Park Joo-mi stars as our hanbok-clad heroine, who pensively wonders, “Are you living well, born in a better place?” The dull shadows of her room reflect her dismal emotional state — though she’s an aristocratic yangban lady, it seems as if her marriage either never came to fruition or ended in tragedy.
Meanwhile, over in the present time, Choi Myung-gil (Red Shoes) is dressed to the nines at an extravagant dinner event. Flanked by sharply-dressed men as she walks through a crowd of starstruck guests, she’s the picture of regal elegance.
Since the drama’s synopsis describes not one, but two time-traveling Joseon ladies, it’s safe to say that Choi Myung-gil’s character also comes from the past. Remember those men who were accompanying her? They’re the very people whom our two leads will get entangled: Kim Min-joon (Was it Love?), Jeon No-min (Law Cafe), and Ji Young-san (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce 3).
There’s certainly lots of drama in store — we see a lost Park Joo-mi wander through a sprawling mansion, coming face-to-face with a confused Han Da-gam (The All-Round Wife). Then the teaser cuts to Yoon Hae-young (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce 2), locked in a passionate kiss with a man.
So, why and how did our leading ladies fast-forward to the future? Will their love be able to transcend time? And where does the durian fruit fit into all this? It may not be clear yet — but with intertwined fates, beautiful sets, and numerous makjang veterans attached to this project, we’ll be in for an entertaining ride.
Directed by Shin Woo-chul (Melting Me Softly) and written by Im Sung-han (Love ft. Marriage and Divorce), Lady Durian is slated for a June premiere.
Via TV Chosun
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Tags: Choi Myung-gil, Durian's Affair, Jeon No-min, Ji Young-san, Kim Min-joon, Park Joo-mi
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1 ladyjaye
April 16, 2023 at 5:05 PM
I really enjoyed Park Joo-mi as the evil Jang Nanjung in THE FLOWER IN PRISON, so I'm excited to see what she can do here
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2 💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
April 16, 2023 at 5:22 PM
So many time-slip dramas this year huh... RIP me.
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LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
April 16, 2023 at 7:12 PM
If it makes you feel better, it's going to an awful Makjang one that won't make any sense so...
I'm not sure why that would make you feel better.
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💜🍍☠ Sicarius The Queen of Melonia ☠🍍💜
April 16, 2023 at 7:25 PM
😂😂😂 oh I certainly won't be watching this one.
I'm only suffering a few (like... two) for very specific reasons and don't have high hopes for making it through either 🤣
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kiara
April 17, 2023 at 12:26 PM
This is my mom's kind of show. I'm just going to get her a tissue box and leave her alone. 😂
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3 DancingEmma
April 16, 2023 at 5:25 PM
By the way, fortunately, “Durian” is pronounced closer to “Turian” in Korean so distinguishes it from the stinky but very nutritious fruit popular in South East Asia.
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Wise
April 16, 2023 at 7:09 PM
Thanks for the explanation because I was really confused why those stinky fruit is mentioned in the title 😂 I thought she at first she will be time travelling from modern southeast asia to Joseon.
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DancingEmma
April 16, 2023 at 7:34 PM
@stranger: If this drama ends up being a stinker, we should deviate from the correct pronunciation and call it ”Lady Durian” with a D!😂
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sooyi
April 18, 2023 at 11:43 AM
Comment was deleted
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sooyi
April 18, 2023 at 11:50 AM
'Durian is pronounced with the 'd' sound in Korean (even in Hangeul, it's written with a 'ㄷ', not a 'ㅌ' which is the equivalent of the 't' sound).
Regarding the fruity choice for the heroine's name, writer Lim Sung-han loves giving the most unique names to her characters, like Ja-mong ("grapefruit" in Korean) in Princess Aurora.
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DancingEmma
April 18, 2023 at 12:21 PM
No. It is at the beginning of a syllable block hence it is closer to a T sound. I didn’t say it is identical. I said “closer”. Perhaps you didn’t understand that. The letter itself has a unique sound between “d” and “t” as this video explains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JztOjV_VfSs
It is certainly not a “d” sound as you have insisted.
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DancingEmma
April 18, 2023 at 12:49 PM
In English, the ‘t’ sound can be both soft and hard depending on where it is placed. The ‘ㅌ’ sound is much closer to a hard ‘t’ sound in English and the ’ㄸ‘ is a tensed one which doesn’t exist in English at all. In the video above, one can clearly hear the instructor pronouncing “ㄷ“ at the beginning of a syllable block as a soft “t”, not a “d” sound in English and contrasts it with the sound of ‘ㅌ” which is closer to a hard “t” in English.
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sooyi
April 23, 2023 at 11:54 AM
I'm sorry, I was hasty about my answer. I was thinking in terms of romija (not in phonetics; I later saw that the phonetic spelling is written with a /t/), which was why I said "durian" is pronounced with a "d" sound. I only know how things are pronounced, but I don't know the science behind them, so when I hear "ㄷ", I automatically associate with with due to the similarity between the two sounds.
But I do think that Lim Sung-han did name her heroine after the fruit because both of their names are written and uttered in the same way in Korean, unless people (including myself) are mispronouncing the latter word.
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4 kiara
April 16, 2023 at 5:42 PM
Leave it to the smaller cable channels to cast more mature actors for 1/2 sageuk. I love Choi Myung-gil.
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5 Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
April 16, 2023 at 6:59 PM
🍿 You couldn't pay me to watch this, but I will probably follow and snicker from afar and await the inevitable explosion in an unrefrigerated durian packing plant if it gets recapped.
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missvictrix
April 16, 2023 at 7:11 PM
Don't tempt fate!
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DancingEmma
April 16, 2023 at 7:46 PM
@elinor: I’m not familiar with this writer’s work. I gather stinking is a theme here as well?
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Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
April 16, 2023 at 8:24 PM
You can read all about her here and here, if you have the stomach for it. Offscreen, her life seems as nuts as her dramas and not in a good way - among other things, her husband committed suicide and she kept his death a secret for weeks.
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DancingEmma
April 16, 2023 at 8:41 PM
@Elinor: Thanks and yikes.
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indyfan
April 16, 2023 at 10:07 PM
Oh wow. Her personal life...right out of a makjang.
It may not pass a legal check, but it could inspire a meta makjang in which a scriptwriter's makjang drama is going off the rails in the same spectacular fashion as her personal life.
So bad it'll be good.
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john
April 16, 2023 at 11:45 PM
Elinor, wow, thanks for the background. Interesting that dramaland hires her once more .
1. I miss Javabeans
2. The show killed off the dog, the twelfth target of Im’s Death Note 😢
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indyfan
April 17, 2023 at 8:03 PM
Newbie here. Where are the original beanies?
kiara
April 17, 2023 at 12:38 PM
But there is going to be drama outside the drama. Choi Myung-gil is not a diva, but I don't see her putting up with Im's crap like our sweet Kim Hae-sook.
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6 LT is Irresistibly Indifferent and reminded of the slow march of death
April 16, 2023 at 7:11 PM
Here it is @egads
The first example ever!
A show where women get to travel into the future, rather than just men.
And it looks... terrible.
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egads aka Dame Maggie
April 16, 2023 at 7:15 PM
OMG! This looks wretched! I can't wait.
Any bets that it turns out they were originally flung into the past and then brought back? I hope I'm just being pessimistic. I hope we are finally getting women traveling to the future even if it is terrible. It's a start.
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indyfan
April 16, 2023 at 9:23 PM
Yes, weren't we all saying in a recent thread how interesting it would be to see Joseon ladies traveling forward in time for a change?
Of course, we were thinking of its thematic potential. How many things have improved for women, but in some ways, not at all. Not the makjang this promises to be. (That score on top of everything else!)
I will be watching a few episodes tho. I can't resist at least hoping.
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7 jerrykuvira
April 17, 2023 at 5:09 AM
My first Park Joo-mi watch was Flower in Prison, and I'm sure she'll rock this one as a leading lady😋.
Bring all the pomp, artistry and galore of the fusion of two worlds.
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8 bong-soo
April 17, 2023 at 11:00 AM
This is the first I have heard of this project. I am of a mind to let this ‘time-slip, fantasy melo’ beam right past me. Hi! Bye!
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9 ladynightshade wants her own ryu sunjae
April 17, 2023 at 11:57 AM
The presence of not one, but two time-travelling Joseon women foolishly and very stupidly made me think for one hopeful second that this might be gay. Until I realized this is TV Chosun. And the writer is literal human makjang woman Im Sung-han. And there are men billed as co-leads.
My imagination must be stopped.
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Elinor, Team Glasses team co-captain
April 17, 2023 at 12:48 PM
Or given a large budget, a hand-picked cast, and the greenest of green lights - with this writer banished to a basement in Busan.
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ladynightshade wants her own ryu sunjae
April 17, 2023 at 3:24 PM
Alas, if only. But sadly, I don't think there's a large enough audience out there for an angsty time-travelling romance starring two middle-aged Joseon widows nor a kdrama writer bold enough to write such a story to translate onto our screens.
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sooyi
April 18, 2023 at 12:07 PM
Surprisingly, she did have a gay male character and a bisexual male character who were in love in Princess Aurora, but the latter settles down with a woman later in the drama and the former becomes straight due to self-imposed conversion therapy (I had to have a double check reading all this information).
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ladynightshade wants her own ryu sunjae
April 18, 2023 at 2:01 PM
...Self-imposed...conversion...therapy. Oh, Im Sung-han. Why am I not surprised?
I suppose the acknowledgment that bisexual men are capable of falling in love with and having deep emotional/romantic/sexual relationships with a woman is accidentally very progressive of her, given the sort of harmful stereotypes Western societies have about bi men (i.e. "they're gay men but refuse to accept it" or, as Sex and the City so offensively put it, “I'm not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it's just a layover on the way to Gaytown.”). Although that's certainly not the actual intent of the writing.
TFW you're so homophobic you accidentally become progressive.
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sooyi
April 19, 2023 at 4:27 AM
😂😂
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10 sooyi
April 18, 2023 at 11:58 AM
Lim Sung-han's dramas have a fantastical edge to them (hello ghost posession), so I'm not surprised she decided to tackle time-traveling for her latest project.
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