Beanie level: Jang Geu-rae

Me while watching episodes 1-4 of No Gain, No Love: “Man, I usually find Kim Young-dae’s acting distractingly dull but with this long-haired, glasses-wearing, casually-dressed character I can kind of forget my biases and accept him as his character instead of as… Kim Young-dae”
End of NGNL ep. 4: *makes him look like a normie k-drama lead*
Me: “BI–”

The showrunners are a bunch of COWARDS. Like, sure, the fact that they tried to pass him off as anything but good-looking with that get-up was laughable, but I can appreciate it when a k-drama male lead doesn’t look like very single other k-drama male lead.

So, anyone have any recs for shows (especially rom-coms) where the drama lets the atypical-looking male lead (read: not constantly k-drama levels of impeccably dressed and styled) stay atypical? None of this makeover nonsense, ugh. Let the men look just a liiiiiiittle bit schleppy for once. Even if it’s schleppy in a polished, k-drama way.

6
7

    It’s funny because normally I would complain about women having to look picture-perfect but I actually think k-dramas give their female romantic leads more opportunity to look a bit messy/unconventional than their male romantic leads.

    3
    0

    The Atypical Family. ML looks how he looks the whole time. It’s probably not what most people would call a rom com, but it’s definitely the first I thought of.

    8
    0

    Convenience Store era Ji-uk was A Look for sure

    Atypical Family is what came to mind first too. I still haven’t finished Like Flowers in the Sand but the ML is a ssireum wrestler and it’s not a romcom so I don’t think they’d do any sort of makeover. And I can’t really recommend this one haha, because the writing is almost impressively all over the place, but for romcom’s there’s Frankly Speaking

    3
    0

    _ Psychopath Diary (very good, but it’s a “com” without “rom”).
    _ 12 Nights (imo it’s not very good, but it’s interesting and different. It’s a… slice-of-life without comedy. Great OST).
    _ Shopping King Louis. Definitely rom-com. And I loved it.
    _ You raise me up (it’s not a very good drama but ML’s acting is great and he looks “ugly” most part of the time).
    _ And Atypical Family, as other beanies have told you. And it’s very good.

    1
    0

    I also preferred convenience store Ji Uk to the “upgraded” version (but then I have a thing for guys with shaggy hair and glasses). In terms of shows that don’t glam up their male leads, Ruler of Your Own World is my personal favorite, and despite its age, one of my all-around top K-drama romances as well.

    1
    0

    My Holo Love he looks pretty disheveled until the final ep

    Otherwise, definitely Atypical Family

    1
    0

    Also, I definitely agree that he was more interesting before the makeover

    1
    0

When you open your computer and see you have 9 message notifications from the same person

8
10

    Comment was deleted

    1
    1

      Here is another one 🤣
      So sorry, I had a few problems today with this writing system. I couldn’t find the damn words that were illegal here even though they were cooied from wiki. They also put me on moderation and I saw it only later.

      1
      0

    @seeker does this to me all the time, but I love her for it. She makes me feel seen and appreciated on here ♥️

    6
    1

      Yes it’s lovely to see multiple notifications from @seeker!! 🥰

      3
      1

        @bebeswtz @HopefulRomantic

        Also 🙈

        4
        1

          Err, post-specific context Beanies. 😂

          (Tho I too love my Cera notifications 🙂

          4
          4

            Yeahhhh getting nice notifications is very different from getting a whole bunch of messages trying to tell you that feminists are responsible for women hating men and not wanting to get married is evil and they’re turning our children gay and transgender and making them have abortions, all from a person who thinks that the Me Too movement was feminist propaganda ruining Hollywood!!! 😭

            4
            0

            mdiary like most Beans I too come to DB to entertain and be entertained!! It is a great stress buster. So let us all laugh and dance and be merry. 😘❤

            And send each other happy happy notifications. 😉

            3
            0

            @mdiary
            Not Hollywood, if they ruined it that’s a good thing. 🤣 But MeeToo movement had other negative outcomes if you look at the whole picture, but I do not want to continue on this subject.
            I know it’s a lot to digest and I understand your annoyance with me. I was where you are a few years ago. But please, be sure that it comes from a place of love for women, I do have a daughter also that is very independent, I just understand things different than you or than I did few years ago. My positions are as center as one can be. It never hurts to get out of the buble and hear others point of views.

            0
            0

            @seeker
            Well, that why I joined in, to talk about My dearest. I was mesmerized by talks of full moon tracing all the way to the 1600’s and I got to learn a lot reading kiara. Well, you know how that went 🤣
            The thing with me is that I do not start to talk about the issues I care on my own, I do not post articles about them. Mostly I respond to what I believe are outrages takes. As newcomer it was overwhelming the discussions that I read here, to put it nicely. I don’t know where you guys live or what you read or watch, but in my real life things are normal if you don’t look through the lenses of the media. I see happy couples, old couples that are still in love and support eachothers, I see mothers that are having carriers and families with very supportive husbands, I have had mostly female bosses being in healthcare. I have encouraged every female that I worked to to continue their education, to get ahead in their careers. Things are not that dark as you all talk about it here. Men are not evil, most are just trying really hard to be be good husbands and fathers. Maybe because I work in a field that is dominated by females is that I got to also have really bad female bosses, maybe more than the few men bosses I had. If you look only at people with a bias, you will eventually find some small thing to reinforce your beliefs.
            I hope there is more tolerance and understanding about everyone and not only the ones you are told or what is socially acceptable now. I know we, women, are better than that.

            2
            0

Seeing Javabeans and Mary around the site again makes me feel like a kid again in the best possible way. Like stepping through a time machine.

19
5

I decided to have a movie night tonight and was drawn to the 1995 film A Single Spark, which tells the true story of famous labor rights activist Jeon Tae-il, who self-immolated as protest against inhumane working conditions in 1970. It’s powerful stuff without being overly dramatic, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of Korean labor rights. I feel like it is something featured fairly often in dramas, but a lot of international viewers aren’t aware of just how important these movements are to recent Korean history and Korean identity. It’s something I myself am slowly learning about. While I don’t think all art needs to be (or should be) overtly related to social justice, whenever I watch something that is I am reminded once again of the power of art–even if it’s done poorly!

The Korean Film Archive channel on YouTube is an absolute goldmine for any Korean film buff, by the way. Definitely check it out if you haven’t. There are quite literally hundreds of films from 1920 to 2000. Some are good, some are bad, and many are somewhere in between, but they’re pretty fascinating in their own right to anyone interested in Korean film.

Saying this makes me sound a little crotchety, and maybe it’s survivorship bias at play here, but it sometimes seems that Chungmuro has lost some of its edge and its heart even as it has gained international prestige and booming production values. But it very well may be my nostalgia-tinged glasses making me feel this way.

Anyway, I’m feeling the beginnings of a thematic kick here and plan on finally getting to dramas like Special Labor Inspector and Awl. If anyone else has any other drama, film, or English/Spanish-language literature recommendations on the topic of Korean labor rights, I’m all ears!

6
8

    Great resource diary, thanks!

    3
    1

    The history of Korea in the last 50 years is fascinating to say the least. From dictatorship to democracy due in no small part to the labour and student movements is nothing short of spectacular – and that progressive element is still so necessary for the modern day Korea.

    Thanks for sharing @diary. Your observation about Chungmuro losing some sparks is quite spot on. The lure of big budget, international exposure is far too much to ignore.

    6
    1

      I completely agree.

      I confess to not being super interested in sageuks, but any drama set around the time of Occupation or after has my interest.

      2
      0

    Is drama you are referring to called Special Labour Inspector Jo that was the only one I could find. Awl I started some time ago but I couldn’t bookmark it then forgot where I was watching it and couldn’t remember the name. Thanks I now have both lined up. ☺️

    1
    1

      Yes, with Kim Dong-wook! I started it last night and am quite enjoying it!

      3
      0

    I love both those shows! They tackle the same topic so you can just pick which mood you’re in for: gut-wrenchingly realistic or fantastically fun. I’d say watch both but I’m biased. >:D

    2
    1

Don’t remember the last time I so hated a male lead. Was glad our girl didn’t let him get away with it without literally punching him in the face, but it’s gonna take some hard work from the drama to get me on board with him.

Sticking around for Jeon Jong-seo.

It seems like polite convention here is to post multiple gifs under the cut, so feel free to look there for a couple more.

7
7

    Always when you’re on screen.

    This is just a visual I loved.

    6
    1

      Jeon Jong-seo 😍 ♥

      Thank you for your hard work in preparing the gifs. 😊

      4
      1

        No prob! Honestly, I use a few actions in photoshop and and it doesn’t take long at all. Used to be a machine at it when I was on tumblr back in the day.

        5
        1

    Love these gifs, thank you! I’ve just watched the punch gif so many times 👊👏

    1
    1

Currently RecapPing

back to top
Follow @dramabeans: