God of Study

This is such a fun K-drama. The premise is, of course, completely zany: an idealistic lawyer decides to turnaround one of the worst high schools in the country. But the writing is sharp and the actors, including all the kids, totally adorable. It's best not to think about the plot too much and just enjoy the ride as one hysterically weird teacher after another is introduced.

God of Study is also known as Master of Study and Lord of Studying. Yeah, the English translation of the Korean title doesn't really work.

Update: The Economist has an interesting interview with Korea's Minister of Education Seo Nam Soo. It explains a lot of what's going on in God of Study. 

Food, That Glorious Metaphor

In Korean dramas, food is everywhere. Eating is just what Koreans do. Round-the-clock. Home after all-night clubbing, first thing a twentysomething does is make instant ramen and eat it right out of the pot, using the lid as a plate. Straight after school, kids hit the local dukkboki house. A guest makes a surprise visit and a plate of cut-up fruit instantly appears. In such a foodie culture, a heroine not being able to afford a roll of kimbap says everything. So what does it mean when someone eats with a fork and knife at every meal, preferring steak and pasta to kimchee and rice? This is a person who has lost their soul. This is a person who is no longer a real Korean.

I've seen food used symbolically like this over and over again. Food as a metaphor for cultural identity. In Korean dramas, real Korean families eat rice for breakfast, not bread. Real Korean families still eat sitting on the floor at low-lying tables, not at Western dining tables with chairs. If you're rich and a parasite, raping the economy with shady, underhanded deals, you go to fancy Western restaurants, drink French wines at home, have a designated dining room. All signs that you have lost your Korean identity. Which means you have lost your humanity.

In drama after drama, the first step in regaining your humanity is befriending someone poor (usually your future spouse). This poor person will eventually take you to a street market where they will make you eat fish cakes on a stick and dukkboki from a food stand. In Couple or Trouble, the Queen of Bitches loses her memory and regains her humanity by eating an insane amount of chajangmyon, the commoner's ultimate snack food.

Hollywood used to use food like this too. In movies from the 30s and 40s, the rich, depraved capitalists ate solemnly, silently, in exquisite dining rooms with chandeliers, napkins impeccably on their laps, hidden by French linen tablecloths, course after course of Frenchified food being served by a butler or maid. In contrast, true Americans ate noisily, at large tables surrounded by salt-of-the-earth kin, napkins tucked in their shirts, momma hollering, "Come and get it before it's all gone!" The food is stacked high on humongous platters: fried chicken and biscuits or roast beef and buttery rolls. No French wines—no alcohol at all. Just good, healthy American water and plenty of gravy. (Strangely, no vegetables either, except for tubfuls of mashed potatoes.) The message is clear: there's plenty of food—there's plenty of love—this is the life worth living.

Food isn't used like this anymore. Like in Korean dramas, U.S. dramas still share that fantasy of families eating together at a dining table. But the food is rarely the focus except on Thanksgiving shows. Even then you hardly see people eating at all. The dining table is just an excuse to sit and fight and show a family's inner demons. There's no joy in eating, no joy in food. I suppose it's the culture. These days, Americans are told food is evil—it makes you sick—it makes you fat. Not in Korea. Food is joy. Food is healing. At least if it's real Korean food.

The Greatest Love

Finding a fresh and lovely piece of drama is as hard as finding a piece of fresh and lovely fruit. When I do, I'm startled—almost too startled to enjoy it. I'm really enjoying The Greatest Love. Watching it, I'll burst out laughing (rare for me). Watching it, I'll get all teary-eyed (not so rare). It's just a love story, but told with wit and reflection.

Here's the story:

Ae Jung was once the leader of an all-girl Korean pop group that mysteriously broke up at the height of their popularity. Everyone, including the group's manager, blamed Ae Jung. Ten years goes by. Ae Jung has grown more and more unpopular, even reviled because of a love scandal. She's desperately trying to make a living appearing as a D-list celebrity in game shows that make her do horrible stuff like eat chajangmyun while on a rollercoaster ride. But she's game, smiling and eating. One day, at a gas station, she has a strange encounter with Dok Ko Jin, an A-list celebrity. Ko Jin is much loved by the public—he's a master of seeming angelic in public. But really, Ko Jin is an ass and treats Ae Jung like she's dirt. Of course, he begins slowly falling in love with Ae Jung's spunky goodness, because, after all, this is a love story.  But all the while, there's a real nice journey of contrasts: Ae Jung trying to regain her public footing, Ko Jin discovering his awakening heart (part of his heart is artificial—it's a long story). I'm only on episode 7 so I don't know if the show will have a satisfying ending, but I hope so. I'd like to continue laughing and crying and rooting.

Clichés in Korean Dramas

Today is my rant day.  And today's victim is Korean dramas. So...

Must someone always throw themselves into a river to escape capture in every action/historical drama? And must royal babies always disappear only to reappear 20 years later?

Must the heel of a girl's shoe always break off at an important function in every modern romance?

Must each episode of a court drama act like a murder mystery?

Must a divorce couple always reconcile?

Must every ajumma with an adulterous husband become some kind of celebrity? (In My Rosy Life, the ajumma dies from cancer, which is just the other side of the coin since death by cancer turns an ajumma into a saint.)

Must Ryu Tae-Jun lose the girl every time? (He's totally hot. How can he lose the girl even once? OK. In Hwang Jin Yi he was a little evil, but...he's hot...and in period costume!)

Must Dong Chul get beaten up at the end of every episode of East of Eden? By episode 25, the guy should be suffering from some degenerative brain disease from all that trauma.

Must implausible coincidences always drive the plot?

Why are we always at the airport at the beginning of every last episode of a modern-day series?

And what's with the endings on these dramas? How come they suck so much? The only decent ending I can think of was in Couple or Trouble. Stars Falling From the Skies, too. Now that was a cute drama with a great beginning, middle and end. Of course there was that coincidence thing...

Lee Soon Jae

Is Lee Soon Jae the best actor ever? I'm beginning to think so. I first noticed him in a Korean drama called Merchant of Choson. In this fascinating period piece about commerce where I learned more than I wanted to about Korean red ginseng, he played a mega evil CEO who'll do everything and anything to make a buck (he learns the error of his ways after being beaten to a pulp by Fate). He was pretty scary. So I couldn't believe it when I saw him in Mom's Dead Upset, playing the noble, gentle patriarch! At the moment I'm catching him on Yi San (playing a hard-ass king) and Beethoven Virus (playing a dapper oboist going through Alzheimer's).

He's pretty amazing in Beethoven Virus. The way he fights his illness, trying to find clarity by putting rough pebbles in his shoes, his denial and then slow descent into dementia, first traveling back in time, and then forgetting the self completely, even in the posture of his body.

It's not the kind of acting that's appreciated here in the US, where the cult of personality is everything. Famous actors play basically one character their whole careers and acting is just being able to pull out an emotion on cue. Cary Grant famously played Cary Grant, and you have to reach all the way into the early 1930s to see him as an actor. It's not really the actors' fault — after all, they're being paid to play that one act over and over again, with any variation rarely appreciated by a paying audience.* In other countries, actors are allowed to grow, cast sometimes in minor roles, allowed the freedom of acting on stage, film and TV. In Korea, it isn't surprising to see the same actor in two or three dramas a season. This is in part because most dramas end at a specified number of episodes. They don't keep going on and on and on, the duration dependent on ratings.

Below is a clip from the comedy High Kick, where Mr. Lee plays an irascible son-of-a-gun who makes life hell for his poor wife. Go to 6:20 for an example of his subtle comedic skills.




*One of my favorite US actors is Harriet Sansom Harris, most famous as Bebe in Frasier. She's so perfect as Bebe, you think that's just her. But then watch her as the blind president in the old Sci Fi series Space: Above and Beyond. I'll never forget the one speech she makes for why they must continue the war: absolutely chilling.

Summer Watchin'

At the moment, I'm not finding anything to love on terrestrial TV or cable. Well, except maybe Wipeout (I can't believe I just admitted that! — but nothing on TV makes me laugh as hard as seeing those poor people bounce from obstacle to obstacle in such an overly optimistic way — I mean, is this THE metaphor for life or what?). Okay, it is the summer season, but even at the height of ratings season, there wasn't much, was there?

So, what's a TV addict to do? Watch Asian dramas on the Internet! So far, here's what I can recommend.

Knock Knock Loving You (Taiwan): explores that perennial dilemma — do you chose the dull but cute guy who takes you for granted or the charismatic business shark who loves you for who you really are (even though you have like zero self-esteem)? Knock Knock is very cleverly written (if you don't count the last episode or two) with a great lead in Maggie Wu as Yao Zi Wang, a sharp-tongued business gal who just wants her daddy to love her!

Satomi Hakkenden (Japan): only for those of us who love stories about brotherhoods of knights and the black magic that tries to stop them. Lots of silly business about women who have to kill themselves for the greater good of mankind. And I do mean mankind. I just love the glamorous animae-inspired hairdos on the samurais though! Worth the whole movie. Spoiler alert! The great thing is that in the end, the villanesse of the story is rehabilitated in the afterworld and all her evil blamed on men! How about that, girls!

Hwang Jin Yi (Korea): fictionalized drama about the legendary courtesan, Hwang Jin Yi. The story itself is pretty silly, but I'm riveted by the performances of the head courtesans: Ha Ji Won (Hwang Jin Yi), Kim Young Ae (Yim Baek Moo), and especially Kim Bo Yun (Mae Hyang). And it's proving to be a good primer about Korean folk art. Also, for a TV series, it's absolutely gorgeously filmed. And the music is fantastic (what is it about Korean dramas? they have the best, most unforgettable theme music).

He Who Can't Marry (Korea): Korean remake of a highly popular Japanese series, it's the story about an obnoxious 40-something male who's finally humbled by love. I wasn't really sure about this one after the first episode, but it's really growing on me. I like the natural way all the relationships are forming, not just between lovers but female friends. The second episode was hilarious in the way it talked about the politics of eating alone at a restaurant (I've eaten alone at many a restaurant, in several different countries, and I have to agree with every one of their points! And I wish I was confident enough to eat alone at a grill!). And the setup is pretty funny too: slowly falling for the woman doctor who performed surgery on your hemorrhoids. I mean, after that, what more does a woman need to know about you, anyway?

BTW, Yang Ja Jeon plays mom — she also played granddad's sweet girlfriend on Mom's Dead Upset. The two performances are so spectacularly different, it took me four episodes to place her!

Joshi Deka (Japan): female detectives! I think that's what Joshi Deka means, and in the series, it's always used as a derogatory phrase. Anyway, it's all good fun, mostly because of Izumi Pinko. I could watch her in anything! (She's also in Satomi).

Antique Bakery (Korea): based on a Japanese manga and involves pastries, serial killers, kidnapping, blah, blah — just watch it! It's fun, with really cute camera and graphic work. Joo Ji Hoon, who played the sad prince in Goong, is the lead character — totally different performance — he's a bit louche with lots of physical comedy. Can't wait to see him in Love Kitchen.

Around 40 (Japan): 40-something women and their mid-life crises. This is a sweetheart of a series with so much heart! As a woman, whatever choice you make always seems to be the wrong one! Amami Yuki is so wonderful.


All of these shows are available on mysoju.com. I can't believe how good the subtitles are, too! Much, much better than what you get on KBS or MBC. And sometimes with really good explanatory footnotes about language or culture. And usually from viewers who took the time to translate. I love the Internet!

If, Dear Reader, you have any other recommendations, please share! I'm still hungry!

Boys Before Flowers, Reflections

I've made my way all the way up to episode 18 and I'm surprised by how each episode is slightly better than the last. Which is odd, because each episode is basically the same episode: Jan Di gets into trouble, Jan Di gets rescued, sometimes by Ji Hoo, sometimes by Jun Pyo (in Macao, she actually gets saved by a girl!). And while all this repetition is slightly irritating, I keep watching and enjoying myself because it's really like listening to a favorite song over and over and over again. Which, nonetheless, doesn't stop me from asking this question: how come a plucky girl who can deliver a death kick is always so helpless?

Ah, love triangles. Or love quadrangles? I think what makes Boys Before Flowers so fun is all the likable characters. Not just the main three or four, but every single daffy character, from Jan Di's know-it-all little brother to Jun Pyo's sister, the Charisma Queen. And each character has a heartbreaking story, sometimes implied like with the Charisma Queen, sometimes slowly developed like with Yi Jung. Even the flunkies are great. Like the Wicked Witch's henchman, who follows her orders but without losing compassion or heart. What a great moment that was, when Jun Pyo is in tears at the Macao airport, watching helplessly as the girl he loves goes off with his best friend, and the henchman holds and comforts him like an older brother. The witch has cast her spell and the prince is unable to speak or act, except alone or with her henchmen. I have to admit my heart broke a little when Ji Hoo gives Jan Di the shoes instead of Jun Pyo. Man, life sucks.

Granted, there isn't much depth or realism here but, at times, the show does get some things so right. Like that when you truly love someone, you find yourself doing unfathomably unselfish acts for your beloved, even at a great cost to you, even if your act will never be recognized or even misinterpreted, even if that act will hurt you. And it translates so well certain feelings, like that horrible, sick feeling you get when you see someone you love with somebody else and there's nothing you can do, not even hate the girl he's with because it's not really her fault and, gosh, she's awfully nice, so all you can do is grin and hope that no one notices that tears are welling up in your eyes, not even you.

I'm really glad they made Jan Di's rival a fun girl who's genuine about her love for Jun Pyo. Rich, nasty girl rivals are so last century.

Update: I've decided Lee Min Ho (Gu Jun Pyo) has the world's best smile. If there were a beauty contest based on smiles alone, he'd be the clear winner. Even when you can't see his eyes, you can see so much happiness in his smile, that deep, internal kind of pure emotion, almost without self. Whether this is just a quirk of his physical build up or a demonstration of his acting, who's to say? And his acting is pretty darn good in the role. With Lee Min Ho as selfish Gu Jun Pyo, you really do believe a sane girl would fall madly in love with him, rich or not. Go, Lee Min Ho! Fighting!

Boys Before Flowers

I'm watching the Korean TV adaptation of Boys Before Flowers, the grossly popular Japanese shojo manga* about a poor high school girl who gets entangled with four rich bullies, and I'm finding myself really having a fun time. There isn't much to the story—it's the typical Cinderella fairy tale, with one of the bullies being forced by the plot into becoming a prince charming—of course, only after the girl proves her worth by withstanding all his punishments. Sure it's total escape into lollipop land, but hey, after a month of total stress worrying about work and money, why not? More fun than an Ambien cocktail, almost as powerful as an endless prescription to Demerol.

And I really like the way the show's directors have totally embraced the shojo manga genre, cutely translating the facial expressions, the body positions, sound effects of the cartoons. I often wonder why Hollywood hasn't discovered and used shojo mangas the way the rest of Asia has. BBF would translate into any culture. But then, I suppose it begs the bigger question of why shojo mangas themselves haven't made it big in the US. My feeling is that it's simply a question of exposure. In the US, most people think comics are the territory of geeky boys who like fantasy adventures. There are, of course, very sophisticated adult cartoons like the Optic Nerve series by Adrian Tomine, but these comics are almost like secret societies and you usually have to hang around in comic stores to stumble across them. Things are very different in Asia. For instance, the Sweet Valley High series would never have been published there as a book—they'd be shojo mangas. If you've never been inside a Japanese book store, go inside the next time you see one, and head straight for the shojo manga section. Your head will spin at the miles and miles of colorful spines. And don't be afraid to peek inside the covers. Even if you don't speak Japanese, they're very amusing.

*Shojo mangas are Japanese comics aimed at teenage girls.

Windy City Jumps the Shark

Okay, Windy City totally jumped the shark today with the whole loan shark business. The manager goes alone to a loan shark on company business? And gets beaten up? And is found by his mistress? Give me a break!

This hasn't been a great season of Korean dramas. So many started off well and went stupid or boring: My Precious You, The Iron Empress, Again My Love, Good Bye Solo. Even The Road Home has quickly become tedious and now I'm just left wondering who's going to get leukemia because someone always get leukemia in the Land of the Brain Dead Dramas (that horrible drama You Are My Destiny had two cases of leukemia!). I really had high hopes, too. But did we really need characters getting beat up by homosexual husbands and keeping pregnancies secret? And yet another rich brat? Again, My Love also seemed interesting, and then it just got hysterical, just like My Precious You. Even the acting is just too much. About five years ago, the height of bad acting in the US was that clenching of the jaw — yes, every time a character got angry, the actor clenched his or her jaws like some kind of pantomime. Now, in Korean dramas, any time a character gets angry, it's that camera shot of him or her clenching the fist into a tight little ball of fury. Don't the producers think the music is enough anymore? Because it used to be that every time someone got angry on screen, the angry music came on. Or the lust music or the sad music. Windy City is the worst offender in the music category. Like the romance between the manager and his young, pathetic subordinate isn't gross enough, they have to go and add that nauseating music on top of it. Ughhhhh!

Now my rant is over, I should mention two dramas that I think are working. Both, interestingly enough, take place in the last century, My Dad Loves Trouble and Splendor of Youth. The backdrop of My Dad Loves Trouble is the Korean War, but it's not about war at all. It's not even a drama but a comedy, about a young girl who has the most obnoxious, irresponsible dad in the world. How can you love a dad who only cares about himself, abandoning you and your family in the middle of a war so he can go off and have a good time? The girl decides you can't, until her father does something pretty splendid to regain her faith. Splendor of Youth is a drama and is much harder to encapsulate. It takes place in the 60s, in a small town, focusing on several families who are bound together by a rivalry between bus companies. Most of the central characters are young, thus the title, but the drama isn't Gossip Girl. Family is really its interest. And while there are rich girls being bratty, the characters are a tad more rounded than the typical dramas, so the stories more interesting. There's even gender exploration, girls beating up thugs, boys sewing clothes for girls. All in the 60s!

What's With the Subtitles on Windy City?

There's really nothing too remarkable about the Korean drama Windy City. It's a nice soap opera about a bunch of unhappy people becoming even more unhappy. In fact, the only thing that stands out for me is how really, really bad the English subtitles are, even for a Korean drama. I thought the subtitles at Arirang TV were bad, but nothing like what I'm seeing on Windy City.

Now, I can forgive the occasional proposition error like using "for" instead of "to". You have to be a native speaker to get the nuances of propositions. Propositions are so cultural and never make sense. But outright stuff, stuff that looks like it was spat out by some computer program, is just not right. Examples:

"She's going to hit the buyers at their 20s with the outfit."
"It was senseless of me to rain abuse."
"It still has lots of memories." (This is in reference to the memory card on a digital camera. Although, I have to admit, I thought this mistake was kinda cute.)
"We're going to take photos of yours." (For "We're going to take pictures of you.")
"You're such a counterfeit."

When things get really laughable is when Windy City tries to be hip and use slang. Like using "got" inappropriately.

"You still got a cold." (This from an elderly lady. Even senior managers end up sounding like home boys, saying things like "I got my lunch".)

My favorite was when an elderly parent called his son a prick. The insult was unintentional, let me tell you.

And the translators seem to be completely unaware of how to deal with pairs and couples. Like whenever they have to talk about a couple, they end up with something really mangled like "the Jeongmi and Wook-Hyun Seo couple" when they should have simply said, "the Seos". I mean, that has to be coming from a software program. A really bad software program.

I've never really understood why Koreans are so sloppy about subtitles and translations in general. Even products shipped to the US have the worst translations. Before the economic collapse, there was all this talk about the Korean Wave and how Korea was going to push its food and culture around the world. Well, if you can't get the small details right, like language, you're just going to end up looking like a joke. Try substance over hip, the basics over slang. It's stupid how many times I've seen Korean dramas misuse "my bad". Look, "my bad" is complete slang used by a small population of people, usually for comic effect. It is not appropriate coming out of an elderly patriarch during a sobering apology! Unless the elderly patriarch is an alien played by a muppet!

Come on, Korea! Get your act together!

Asian Historical Dramas

At the moment, I'm enjoying two Asian historical dramas, the Japanese drama Tenchijin and the Korean drama The Iron Empress (these links have trailers). They're such interesting compare-and-contrasts. Both center on real historical figures, samurai Naoe Tenchijin of the Takagawa period and Empress Chun Chu of the Goryeo period. Both are so leaden with historical facts and personages that it's too hard to even remember the central characters names much less what's really going on (it doesn't help that the central characters' names keep changing). Both speed ahead pretty quickly, too, the characters going from youth to mature characters within a couple of episodes (presumably, we'll see them die [I'm still watching the early episodes]). But somehow, I think Tenchijin works better as a drama. Mostly because the story sticks pretty firmly with Tenchijin's development. The Iron Empress seems more lost, following a variety of historic people in an effort to be epic*. And it has that problem so many Korean historical dramas have, that persistent need to show endless discussions among competing factions, a clumsy way of explaining background plot which only drowns the story. If I had my way, I'd put Korean screenwriters in a room and make them watch endless hours of The Sopranos. ;)

I also wonder if Tenchijin doesn't work better because it's drawn from the novel by Masashi Hisaka. There was already a compelling construct for the scriptwriters to work with. Whereas The Iron Empress seems to have been the brain child of a director desperate for new subject matter to sacrifice at the temple of Light Entertainment. Thus a dubious attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Empress Chun Chu. Apparently (and this is from a preview show) Chosun scholars liked to portray Chun Chu as a greedy, lascivious bitch (she had one long-term lover, for god's sake [and only after her husband had died]). But that's Chosun men for you, with their silly Victorian penchant for liking their women mute and long-suffering (god forbid they should own anything, like a personality). It also didn't help that Chun Chu was pretty anti-Confucian, but what sane woman wouldn't be? In any case, there isn't a great deal of historical data on the poor woman, from what I understand, so the screenwriters were pretty free to create whatever they wanted. And what they came up with is a warrior empress with a heart of gold. Which is okay with me. Only did they have to insert all that ridiculous Hong Kong-inspired martial arts crap?

Tenchijin and The Iron Empress are blessed with some pretty outstanding actors. The child Tenchijin is played by the most adorable, beautiful child, Seishiro Kato. He breaks your heart with his pouts and tears. And Lord Kenshin Uesugi is played by the amazing, charismatic Hiroshi Abe, who really does seem like the living, walking embodiment of a war god (I am so in love with him, and I don't even like Alpha males!). Over at The Iron Empress, Ban Hyo Jung plays Chun Chu's regal and scary grandmother, the Queen Mother Shin Jung Hwang. Ban Hyo Jung was a fantastic choice. She can out regal even Hiroshi Abe. Was she born with all that gravitas? Just hearing her voice, you jump to attention. I imagine the devil must be just like her because no matter what she's plotting, she draws you in with magnetic warmth and you can't help loving her.

*I'd like to point out that Gone With the Wind only had a handful of characters.

Nouvelle Vague

I'm talking about the French band. Their music is everywhere. In movies, ads, TV shows, runways, and yet, not too many people know who they are. Nouvelle Vague music is even featured in Korean dramas ("(This Is Not a) Love Song" is the anthem for Soulmate).

Maybe because Nouvelle Vague remakes old songs like "Dance With Me" and "Too Drunk to Fuck". Maybe because their music is so laid back that they merge seamlessly with whatever they're paired with. Maybe because their covers are more mood than music so it goes directly into the subconscious. I don't know. But I do love their covers: "I Melt With You", "Making Plans For Nigel", "Human Fly"...

nouvelle vague ....dance with me .... from bande a part

Can Korean Dramas Make an Impact in the US?

I was delighted to find out that the "Mom's Dead Upset" entry was recently mentioned in a book review at The Learned Fangirl blog. One of the books Fangirl reviewed was Mark James Russell's Pop Goes Korea and TV Kitty gets involved when Fangirl questions Russell's statement "Korean television also travels poorly to the West, coming across as histrionic soap operas. … But for people used to C.S.I. and The Sopranos, there are only so many stories of separated twins and dying lost loves that one can take."

Fangirl points out that more and more US audiences are being attracted to these "histrionic" shows. That got me thinking and I'd like to bring out some more points. Korean soaps and dramas do tend to strangle themselves with the same bag of tricks: orphans, incest issues (mainly the cultural ban on in-laws marrying in-laws), obsessive love, poor girls marrying rich boys, rich girls making poor girls miserable, the mother-in-law from hell, etc (did I mention orphans?). But US soaps and dramas have their own bag of tricks, so nothing new there. And, if you've been watching the latest wave of Korean shows, you'll see that even Koreans are getting sick of those cliches. One of the reasons I loved Mom's Dead Upset was precisely because it wasn't the usual Korean drama. And the same can be said of so many of the latest popular Korean dramas and comedies: Princess Diaries, a.k.a Goong (a wonderfully imaginative story that asks "what if the Korean royal family were still around?", adapted from a comic book), Women of the Sun, Couple or Trouble (a remake of the US movie Overboard, but so much better), Windy City, etc. There's even Worlds Within (a dramedy about the Korean TV drama factory) which basically pleads with all its heart for more innovative Korean dramas. The Korean TV industry is in the middle of a huge creative drive, probably inspired by the drive in the Korean film industry.

But going back to Mr. Russell's statement, I find there's something very basic that he's not getting. He mentions CSI and Sopranos and how that's changed the viewing tastes of Americans. I'd dispute that. I'm always surprised by how popular shows like Brothers and Sisters and Two and a Half Men are. Nothing innovative about these shows. Brothers and Sisters could have been made in the 70s — just replace the gay relationships with interfaith or something. And what about Privileged? Poor girl, abandoned when young by mom, gets job tutoring rich girls and falls in love with a rich guy. Gee, sounds like a Korean show. Her mom even defrauds the rich guy — a classic Korean plot device (what's a Korean show without someone running away with a chunk of cash). Also, aren't shows like CSI and Sopranos mostly watched by men? And as a man, isn't Russell completely dismissing the female demographic? Just like Hollywood has historically done to its detriment? Korean TV dramas and comedies attract women viewers. Winter Sonata was hugely popular with women all across Asia. And if you go into US message boards about Korean dramas, it'll be mostly women posting. Guns, blood, dead bodies and slick who-done-its are the kitsch of men. Long lost loves, torn families, Cinderella stories are the kitsch of women. Go figure.

And I'll tell you one thing I like about Korean shows versus American shows: there's this unabashed, uncynical love of sentimentality. These shows say there's nothing wrong with wearing your heart on your sleeve. And how wonderful is that?

Mom's Dead Upset

I'm finding it's impossible to write about a show I really love. It's too hard to pin down in a couple of sentences something that affects the heart. Like trying to reason why I love someone, teasing love apart when love only exists as an entirety.

That's the dilemma with Mom's Dead Upset. It's a Korean comedy that's phenomenally popular in Korea. I catch it on KBS World where they do lovely subtitles for almost all their shows. Literally, it translates into "Mom's On Fire". And boy, is she.

At first Mom's just a slowly smoking pile of old embers. And who wouldn't be after serving her family for over forty years as cook, cleaner, miscellaneous-errands do-er? But when her children embark on one disastrous marriage after another, long-suffering Mom explodes into a roaring fireball of fiendish proportions.

See, you're Mom and this realization is seeping into your head: year by year your life has become more and more dreary, more and more cheap and the only dim light to all this misery is your children and your children look at you like you're stupid and forget your birthday and only call you up when they need a babysitter (and what's your son doing knocking up some old maid anyway) -- that's when you explode, high and bright like the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. So what's left? Well, there's you. And that's the Zen moment of truth: Mom can't save her children but she can save herself.

On the face of it, this is a really simple comedy-drama. Unlike Desperate Housewives or Samantha Who? or Pushing Daisies, there are no clever turns of plots, no soft porn, no dramatic murders, no supernatural powers, no aliens. There isn't even any clever dialogue or witty repartees. It's just a simple family drama about simple people of no importance, no wealth, no extraordinary ambition. The only glamour in their lives is this vague hope that one day, a real estate developer will come in and swoop up the whole neighborhood, making them modestly rich. But otherwise, as long as they have a few bucks left at the end of the month, they're modestly content.

But saying this show is a simple comedy-drama is like saying War and Peace is a nice book-of-the-month selection. I'm simply in awe of the writer, Kim Su Hyeon. Her touch is sharp, compassionate, precise, touching: every life is a painful tragedy and a hilarious comedy, whether it's the life of a foolish son who knocks up his girlfriend and can't tell his family even though she's the love of his life, or the life of a dignified but poor patriarch who only finds love in his eighties, too late to marry and have children with his soul mate, but not too late to share a cup of tea every afternoon. Kim Su Hyeon gives children dignity and clarity. She gives women complexity. And she has this way of building and building, so quietly, you don't notice, until all she needs is that one word to convey a lifetime of hurt or longing.

The actors on Mom's Dead Upset are incredible, too. They look, dress and walk in total truth with Kim's words. Every detail is right, from the silly head band the son wears to the grand, quick gestures of the acerbic sister-in-law. I could probably do a thesis paper analyzing each actor, but I think my favorite is Jang Mi Hee. She plays the youngest daughter's brutal mother-in-law. Beautiful and elegant only in appearance, Jang Mi Hee's character has the maturity of a three-year old and terrorizes her family with compulsive mood swings and self-induced insomnia fits. She's even trained a bird to scream out orders so that the bird is a live manifestation of her id. And yet, like her victimized daughter-in-law, you can't help feeling sorry for her, finding compassion in all your outrage. That's how brilliant Jang Mi Hee is. Towards the end of the series, she does become a bit too clownish in her Taming of the Shrew act -- but that's really a small fault.

Did I say Mom's Dead Upset makes you appreciate your own life? Your own family? I suppose in so many words I did.