SPOTLIGHT ON Art/Literary - May, 2024

Her Private Life

An enemies-to-lovers rom-com about a feisty curator and her new boss who is a painter-turned-gallery director.

Good Things

• Park Min-young and Kim Jae-uck’s insane chemistry both on screen and behind the scenes

• Ryan and Deok-mi are both walking green flags and they have one of the healthiest, most communicative relationships in K-Drama Land

• Ryan is open-minded, non-judgmental, readily apologizes when he’s in the wrong, unafraid to be vulnerable with those he trusts, and fully embraces Deok-mi’s passions, whether it be a K-Pop idol or her family or her career

• Deok-mi is incredibly empathetic and supportive and always attuned to Ryan’s needs, whether it’s a hug, a violent game of Go Stop, or some space to process things

• As a couple, their support of one another is unconditional and they help each other grow both personally and professionally. When they face an issue, they do it together. When they have a disagreement, they actually sit down and talk things out and there are no silly misunderstandings, Ep 15 break-ups, or noble idiocy. And while Ryan may be Deok-mi’s boss, theirs is a relationship of true equals. Ryan even quits his job and moves to NYC with her when she gets the new curator position.

• PMY and KJU were very comfortable together and it shows. The director gave them free rein to beef up the script and they ended up re-working or improvising more than half of their scenes and adding a bunch of unscripted kisses and skinship. Some of the scenes they dreamed up include the scorching scarf-untangling scene, the butterfly-inducing drunken-whispering scene, and the adorable sujebi-cooking scene where they’re just cracking each other up the entire time; this is some of the BTS footage which was 100% ad-libbed; the script just said, “You have fun together.” KJU said they wanted to make viewers’ hearts flutter and boy did they ever.

• After they get together, they actually act like a real couple, with lots of natural, believable physical affection, much of it initiated by Deok-mi; no awkward manner hands, stiff hugs, or dead-fish kisses for these two

• Thoughtful handling of LGBTQ plotlines

• Interesting explorations of fan culture and overseas adoption. This American K-Adoptee wrote a spoilery piece on HPL’s handling of the adoption storyline.

• Stellar supporting cast, including Park Jin-joo, Kim Mi-kyung, Kim Sun-young, Ahn Bo-hyun, Kim Bo-ra, and One

Not-So-Good Things

• While the supporting actors are strong across the board—Kim Sun-young is particularly hilarious—their storylines are a bit underwritten and the show only truly shines when Ryan and Deok-mi are on screen; fortunately, they’re on screen a lot

• As written, Ryan’s adoption storyline doesn’t entirely make sense because the writers failed to explain that for many years, overseas adoption was a huge illegal money-making scheme for corrupt Korean orphanages and a lot of kids were unofficially “sold” without their families’ knowledge, as detailed in this recent New York Times article. The writers were also too vague about the length of time his birth mother was unconscious, which would’ve better explained why she was unable to locate him when she finally recovered.

• The second half of Ep 15 gets a bit bogged down by revelations about Deok-mi’s childhood which are unnecessary IMO, although it’s wonderful to see the way Deok-mi and Ryan handle these challenges together

• Some of the fan-girling scenes are too cheesy, particularly in the first few eps

Spotlight On Because

HPL tackles some interesting topics (fangirling, LGBTQ relationships, overseas adoption), introduces us to a green-flag ML who is truly boyfriend goals, and features one of the loveliest, healthiest, swooniest OTP relationships in K-Drama Land. Sadly, HPL is underrated and tends to be overshadowed by hugely popular rom-coms like What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Touch Your Heart, Strong Woman Do Bong-soon, Business Proposal, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, and King the Land. It’s not the best written drama but it’s my go-to comfort drama because it grabbed me in the feels and hasn’t let go. Highly recommended!

[My MDL Watchlist]

Because This Is My First Life

• Good Things: This is my favourite drama of all time. I absolutely adore Jiho's characterization (the FL) . She's tough and resilient but also sensitive and naive. She yearns so deeply, Jung Somin's performance is masterful. Sehee (the ML) is a great foil for her because while she is expressive, he's built many walls around himself. And then also I love Jiho's two friends. They drink and chat but also have their own side romance plots that are kept up throughout the whole drama. Together the trio really explores all aspects of marriage from multiple perspectives.

I love the OST as well, plus there's a cute kitty.

• Bad Things: I like Kim Mingyu but I found the character of Boknam to not have a ton of depth. He serves a very mechanical purpose and then doesn't do much else.

• Interesting Things: So, a big thing in the discourse about the show is the final arc. This partially ties in with the spotlight section so I won't go too far here, but in short the FL needs to leave the ML for a few months before committing to him, and I think the show does enough to justify it. Many viewers of course hate it when MLs go through pain because of the choices of FLs so it is a big thing.

Also, there's an accusation of plagiarism of a Japanese drama We Married As a Job that also did a contract marriage premise, but I've watched both and they are fundamentally different shows with fundamentally different characters, tones, and themes. WMAaJ is, like the name implies, primarily a show that analyses marriage through the lens of employment. BTIMFL does not have that dynamic at all. It's really about the progression from roommates to love, while also keeping up the fake marriage creates situations that comment on real marriage.

• Spotlight On Because: The reason the spotlight appears is that writing is central to the story. Jiho's job at the beginning of the story is being an assistant writer for a show. After an attempted sexual assault by a co-worker and having her big break become a project written by someone else with a totally different story, he quits. It's a very sobering depiction of naive dreams being crushed.

But the literary subject matter doesn't stop there. Major Thematic Spoiler Warning As a writer, Jiho is well-read and quotes literature. The most important text is the short story To Room 19 by Doris Lessing. In short, room 19 is a hotel room a housewife secretly escapes to for hours each day until she eventually commits suicide in the room. It's a story about female independence in a society that does not allow it.

In BTIMFL, Jiho has her own perspective on the story. I think the most concise summary is that someone's room 19 is the deepest corner of their heart, and love is sharing room 19 together. That's why she must see Sehee break down the barriers he's put up because of past trauma before she can fully commit to him. That's why she leaves him temporarily, in addition to also wanting to restart their relationship on an equal footing rather than as tenant and landlord.

Overall, I highly recommend BTIMFL to anybody who enjoys slice of life slow burn romance with a lot to say thematically. Every episode has its own thematic question laid out in voice over by Jiho, so it is quite dense thematically for a Kdrama.

Romance is a bonus book

Good Things: The story is a light romance mixed with a comedy. It made my heart feel warm from the intersections between the leads and I laughed in every episode. Bonus is Lee Jong Suk is ML.

Less good things : The way they depicted women at work, especially moms. The way the Korean society is cruel and very judgmental makes those parts a bit sad. And what's sadder is it's probably not that far stretched either.

Spotlight on because : ML is a novelist and the drama is set in a publishing company. I highly recommend this drama as it's one of my favorite. I've rewatched it twice, which in itself shows how great this drama was (I never rewatch the same series).

It's Okay Not to Be Okay: An orderly at a mental health hospital and his autistic brother (who is a talented artist) are plagued by past trauma that has them moving annually. A (sociopathic?) children's book author not only happens to be the brother's favorite author, but a childhood connection and a shared love of drawing bring the brothers and the author on a collision course.

Good Things: The author's books/illustrations are sumptuous and interwoven throughout the narrative. Incredibly compelling performances by the actors bring to life the flawed characters' internal and external worlds. The writer eschews easy tropes making it difficult to predict multiple resolutions. The cinematography is eye-candy, even when framing the macabre. Most laudable is Oh Jung-se's character (the autistic brother). Moon Tang Se's autism is incidental representation and his autism is not the totality of his characterization; he is a fully realized and developed character and his neurodivergence is not played as a trope. The chemistry between Kim Soon-hyun and Seo Ye-Ji is some of the most electric chemistry I've seen between a male and female lead.

Bad Things: There is a compelling argument around representation to be made here. Oh Jung-se is a neurotypical actor playing a neurodivergent character when the role could have potentially gone to a neurodivergent actor. However, I have listened to critics from the neurodivergent community praise the actor's embodiment of the character and well as praise the way in which the writer has crafted the complexity of his experience. There are some truly uncomfortable visual and emotional moments in the narrative that may not be for everyone.

Spotlight On Because: While we come to KDrama for a certain amount of comfort in the familiarity of genre semantics and syntax, this is a truly unique narrative that will get under your skin and stay on your mind long after you finish it. And while flawed characters aren't everyone's cup of tea, these flawed characters' journeys embody so much of why we love KDrama across the different genres- finding healing and identity through connection. A major theme/symbol throughout is the role of art and artistic expression to heal the mind, and the symbol is lovingly actualized through visual aesthetic and the inclusion of the author's work (often book-ending episodes). Full disclosure, after watching the first two episodes I muttered to myself, "What the actual f@*& am I watching?" and almost stopped. But I pushed through and I'm beyond thrilled that I did as this series has remained solidly in my top five for quite a long time now.

And for Queen of Tears fans, Kwak Dong-Yeong has a narrative arc with Kim Soon-hyun that is very "brotherly"!