The Prisoner of Zenda would be fun as a K-drama remake. The ML playing both the mediocre prince, and the heroic replacement ( They are doppelgangers of each other). And then of course the bittersweet end- I won't spoil it for you, go read the book. But lots of great emotional beats.
Also sword fights, romantic love interests, bad guys, royal (or could be chaebol) heirs. Its a great plot.
A K-drama version of the Murderbot diaries. They have just recently filmed an English version which I haven't seen, but Murderbot is a great character- who also happens to be addicted to soap operas/weekenders. They could have a lot of fun with the meta references and have a second cameo cast for the weekender
A K-drama version of any of the Penric short stories ( or a few of them) ( Louis Mcmaster Bujold). Heroic guys, horses and swords, fantasy, beautiful women, demons.....

You're right. That's an important distinction. But his father also told him he should've just stayed single, when just a short time ago, he was giving him a hard time about that. Sometimes there's no winning with parents! Not the same situation, but I had discussions with my mom where she couldn't accept my viewpoint and only saw it as me blaming her.

I feel for Jihyuk. Really, the more I think about it, this is giving more of a glimpse into his way of thinking. His dad also blew up at him in the flashback about taking his room for the grandparents. Yes, sacrifices need to be made, but he was a child and he should have received support then, too, not be made to feel like he, his dreams, and the things in his room didn't matter.

I was really touched by Eunoh's flashback to him giving her the colored pencils and other supplies and boosting her confidence. He was doing what he wished someone had done for him.

Yes, Heyer is what I immediately think of when I think " why don't they adapt..."

@ghostoftim

Thank you!

“ Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body" AB

30 th country. Yay!

Thanks, @lovepark for your recap that as always captures exactly my reaction, and I think the reaction of everyone to this show. The underdog sports theme is, as always, appealing, the coach, if differently written with a lot less noble idiocy) could have been appealing as well, as as could have Yi-ji's character

But the whole thing is undermined by not spending enough time fleshing out , and wasting too many minutes on trivial things like the “good luck” rituals, plus showing too many computer visualizations of shooting targets. The feeling will be at the end is that “I wish there had been more episodes” when In fact 12 episodes would have been more than enough if it had been decently written.

Also, has often been said, making the Vice Principal and the shooting coach absurdly villainous in a way that is completely unrealistic, This is high school education, after all, not a ruthless corporation. There are plenty of competitive, totally self-centered people in education, as I well know, but they have to at least pay lip-service to student welfare, as these two do not. In particular, the shooting coach would have had to have been enormously successful in the past with other student athletes to get away with anything like the abuse he’s shown, but we've been shown no evidence of this past success.

And, as I've probably said, as a high school coach of a couple of sports for several years, who dealt with driven sports parents, AND then as a (not so driven and obnoxious) sports parent myself the reaction of Woo-jin’s Mom was so unrealistic, I started ranting at the T.V. Absolutely NO sports parent would put up with this abuse, and downplay the injury to her child because the evil coach promised her, AFTER BADLY INJURING HER, that he would get her a professional contract, especially if the mother herself had been a national team athlete.

I can tell you the IMMEDIATE reaction of a driven sports parent would be to either 1. transfer her daughter, while also suing the coach Or. 2) have your daughter go pro immediately, using your connections as a professional athlete.

It just shows that the writer(s) never have encountered sports parents, but also,they just aren’t very good writers.

Of course, I'm going to finish the show, with only 2 episodes left, but as a fan of even the most trite sports dramas, I'm pretty disappointed.

PupmomAnnie, you are so right about Ji-hyeuk apologizing over and over again even though he had done nothing wrong.

But that was not really what made the father angry- it was that Ji-hyeuk was refusing to admit that he had the wrong reasons for the marriage. Father was offended that son refuses to follow a strict romantic script in getting married and took it as a direct criticism of the father's own life decisions. Ji-hyeuk intended no such criticism but his father refused to listen, and refuses to recognize ji-hyeuk's right to make different choices. That was what he was really angry about- that Ji-hyeuk refused to admit that he had been wrong.

@wonhwa

It brings tears to my eyes just thinking how Koreans could adapt it. To have such a powerful insight into the medieval period as seen through the eyes of a woman (from everyday life to landscapes to diseases and wars and rebellions to marriage and motherhood) — the hairs on my arm stand up. But I’d also be curious how would they reinterpret The Cross — it leans heavily on Catholic religious themes, and it was the least favorite for me in the trilogy.

Agree re the father being horrid/actor being good.

I'm also finding it interesting to think about how things like this are written in the US. When little sister was going to bat for Jihyuk with little brother, she made some really good points about Jihyuk paying them allowances out of his college job money, even as they got older. We often see oldest siblings wind up somewhat resentful because they gave up part of themselves to help with the younger siblings.

The drama of the situation is where I knew JIW would shine, and he's not disappointed me.

I'm wondering if his repeated muttering of "fool" is him speaking of himself, or is he thinking that of Eunoh and Seongjae? I'm also wondering the same when Eunoh was walking back to the cafe after the wedding that wasn't. She thinks about her moments with BoA and Jihyuk jilted at the altar and says, "Loser". Was she direction that at him, or still beating herself up a bit?

I agree regarding the father's treatment of Jihyuk. Jihyuk apologized multiple times, and seemed absolutely sincere every time. Then his dad cries to the mom "that if he'd only apologized, I would've given him hug and a pat on the back, told him it was no big deal" !!! I wish the mom would've called him out on that instead of being taken aback by her husband's drunken crying fit.

@qingdao Nice places! I liked Jeju but it was quite frustrating how they drive slowly in Korea 😅

Jeju, Seoul, Busan.

Go Wonhee was indeed wonderful in WAIKIKI- as was Jung Insung, our FL in this drama.

I hated the treatment handed out to Ji-hyeok by his father and I did not find it dramatically plausible at all. I cannot explain it as a cultural difference given that Ji-hyeok's reasons and purpose for the marriage actually conforms much more with traditional views of marriage in Korea than the things being said by his father- it is actually the father who is spouting the more western romantic view of marriage. In any case the fault for what happened is clearly on BoA's shoulders and insisting that somehow the jilted groom is to blame amounts to a complete denial of reality. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a very bad call by the writer- a good drama rings true in describing the human condition, but this part of the story was definitely a false note.

I’d watched the OG Taiwanese version— the one starring the late Barbie Hsu, Peter Ho, and Huang Xiao Ming— and don’t remember much of it except that I came out of it creeped out by Huang Xiao Ming, scared of Peter Ho (who later redeemed himself as a sweetheart in another drama of his I later watched), and feeling heartbroken for Barbie Hsu 🥲

Episode 6 opens with Eun-oh talking to BoA at the moment she gets a text from her friend who is honeymooning in Australia (in Melbourne which is a really nice place). Friend sends a picture of her lover who is working there. We now know that BoA did not plan this in advance (I suspect that her Daddy knew that the young man had gone to Australia- hence the rushed wedding). Naturally, BoA runs off to Australia. But, hey, at least she texts our ML to let him know that she has to go.

What was disgusting to me was the infantile treatment meted out to our ML by his father when Ji-yeuk came home. Nothing could be less appropriate than yelling at his son and calling him a fool after Ji-yeuk has literally been left standing at the altar. What sort of a father does that? One who only thinks about his own pride. Sure, it was awkward for the family but how much more awkward is it for the jilted groom? Making his son have to apologize for this? Telling him how much he disapproved of Ji-yeuk’s reason for marrying? He effectively ran his son off and what followed was lengthy scenes of a depressed Ji-hyeok doing day labor in another city. We spent a year with weekenders featuring awful mothers- now we get an awful father? I really do not like him.
Dear Dad: It used to be that people got married for many reasons, not just romance. The non-romantic ones were at least as likely to be happy as the romantic ones. Imposing your narrow opinion on your kids is not appropriate, in fact it is tyrannical. Look what happened to your younger son who was so caught up in your fantasy that he could not see what was happening with his girlfriend. If you insist that there can be only one way then someone like your younger son will be so blinkered that he cannot see reality because he can only see what you taught him to see.

Seong-jae learns that Ji-won is unemployed- this is someone he can trust to drive his sister so it looks like he will now have that job.

What a treat---Jung Il Woo in a tux!!!!

Episodes 5/6: The same scenario in a non-korean/western drama--with a bride leaving the groom alone, onstage, in the spotlight (the director made the light glaring on Jung Il Woo's face)----the absconding bride would have taken all the blame. I can't even write the names she would have been called----but many come to mind. Ji Hyeok would not have needed to apologize. All sympathy would be towards him. That made episode 6 really interesting to me, and truly uncomfortable. I found the father unbearable in that moment (as an actor he is quite wonderful here).

I believe the writer for this show likes to investigate emotional themes---and I would imagine that is one reason she and Jung Il Woo are working together again (previously 49 Days). Depression? Mental health? Forgiveness? Living a meaningful life? We still need to learn so much more about the characters.

I wonder if we will see our runaway bride again? I hope she comes back. I miss her already (I have a soft spot for any actor that was in Welcome to Waikiki!).

I was interested in this anyway, but now it’s looking more likely than ever that Seo Ji-hoon will actually end up with someone he loves and who loves him in the end!? Where do I sign up?

Thank you for the title, I'll have to watch "Clueless".