Saturday, March 05, 2011

A Star's Lover in Pictures


No matter how maudlin, humdrum or disappointing a drama may turn out to be, people would often walk away from them remembering a specific thing that either struck their fancy or something that came off as somewhat odd or irritating. It might be a touching scene, a memorable line, an outrageous outfit or a striking motif; a person might eventually forget about the structure of the story or struggle to remember every detail of how things unfolded in the course of the series, but he will never forget something that captured his heart, more so, if that something rankled his nerves and even made him regret investing so much time on a drama that failed to deliver the goods contrary to expectations. Dramas viewed five or eight years ago might seem like a distant memory but key scenes and images do linger on. They remain vivid and strong, as do the emotions they invoked upon one's encounter of a memorable episode.

Who here can forget the quiet longing of Commander Hwangbo for his lowly servant, Chae-Ok in Damo? Or that kissing scene between Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo in Beautiful Days that signaled an OTP change? Who could forget Rain's colorful array of v-neck shirts that scandalously dipped down his chest in Full House? Or how some of the set pieces in Jumong shook every time a stuntman took a tumble, or how a whole army could be concealed behind sparse foliage without being discovered?

Love 'em or hate 'em, kdramas do have a way of leaving behind pretty pictures and sickening music tracks that go on and on in your head. No matter what the outcome, they leave quite an impression, so I decided that instead of dwelling on the long, exasperating and technically uneven journey that was  A Star's Lover, I'd rather focus on the parts of this series that piqued my interest and celebrate the creative touches that I would [or  rather should] remember in years to come.

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When A Star's Lover came out in 2009, a part of me was curious to see it because it featured two actors you rarely see on television and yet a part of me was also apprehensive upon learning that the drama itself would be another adaptation of Notting Hill. Having seen Star no Koi a few years ago, I already could imagine how difficult it would be to stretch the material culled from a 2-hour movie to a full length series, and while true enough that the Japanese version was not without its own charm, the story staggered towards the finish line mid-season. I[t] barely made it.

So imagine my surprise when I learned that the Korean re-imagining would span 20 episodes instead of the usual 16 and that it would have the reigning queen of hallyu dramas in the pivotal role... well,  let me tell you, it didn't look very promising.

Not quite ready to miss out on Yoo Ji-Tae's return to television, I checked to see the writer in charge of the said series and found out that it was Oh Soo Yun, who's best known for Autumn in My Heart and Winter Sonata. Right then and there, I knew that A Star's Lover was a bad bet. Known for producing overly sentimental dramas dipped in angst and despair, this writer owed much of her success [abroad] to the gravitational pull of the stars featured in her works and her ability to engage audiences with simple, heartfelt scenarios. And though not the best when it comes to developing a story (anyone who's seen an Oh Soo Yun drama knows that the conflict in them often defy logic and are dragged on till kingdom come)---she can be credited  for  drumming in memorable sequences by craftily setting up scenes accentuated by a central theme, a design, even a product placement.

A boy who became a clump of weed and a girl who became a star in the heavens. Two persons, living at two ends of the world. Will they have the opportunity to be able to recognize each other?
So disregarding the agony that her "Season Dramas" brought me and keeping in mind fond memories of little Joon-suh and Eun-suh riding their bikes in the country, along with that scene wherein an overaged Bae Yong Joon tried to pass himself off as a high school student, playing First Time to Choi Ji Woo in an empty classroom, I checked out A Star's Lover thinking I'd at least have 3 to 6 decent episodes to work with before the whole thing  proceeded to torture its viewer (i.e. me) with recurring issues that would eventually be resolved through the simplest of means. As it turned out I wasn't far off the mark, seeing that all they needed to wrap up the story was to declare their love to each other before the paparazzi and they chose to accomplish this towards the end, around the 19th episode tsk tsk.

Thinking back, the series started out quite nicely. I've never seen Choi Ji Woo quite as luminous or Yoo Ji Tae so attractive. Heck, this was the first series wherein Choi Ji Woo actually looked confident and comfortable in her own skin, and perhaps the only series where she had leading men who towered above her and made her look more feminine. The scenes shot in Asuka, Japan were beautiful to say the least and it was obvious that attention was placed into making each encounter between regular joe Chul Soo and superstar Mari extra special to complement the fairytale finish. There was an undeniable chemistry between the leads, a sense of familiarity and comfort that would make you root for this OTP. It's quite unfortunate though that they tried to stretch and complicate such a simple story. The fluffy, dreamy appeal of this series soon disappeared as the whole business on ghostwriting kicked in and auxiliary characters figured their way into the story. Indeed, it was quite a journey. I would not have been able to make it through without my remote in hand.

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And though I was wont to let this series go, without breathing so much as a word, I also felt it necessary to commemorate the fact that I finished watching it after stalling for two years.

Seeing that I have the tendency to remember stupid, frivolous things about kdramas like how Hyun Bin was sweating through his pink shirt at the last episode of My Name is Kim Sam Soon or how Jo Hyun Jae had a small band-aid stuck under his eye for the majority of One Mom and Three Dads, I figured, why not make a list of things that I would remember about A Star's Lover instead of straight out ranting about the disconsolate route it took to see its ending? I mean, people out there would probably do a better job at writing a review or discussing the finer points of this series, so why not revel in the bits and pieces that made me go "ooh", "ahh" and "grrrr"? 

 So here are 6 things that stuck out for me in this series:


1.) Chul Soo and Young Hee

Given its plot, I didn't expect A Star's Lover to begin the way it did. The series, in fact, opened with a vignette; a thoughtful commentary on how love was the most common and yet the greatest of all sentiments, and how the ever changing world made the notion of loving someone more complex as society progressed. Deriving inspiration from the movie Amélie and the defunct American series Pushing Daisies, the kdrama was able to establish a dreamlike atmosphere, albeit without the same touch of whimsy, in telling the backstory of Chul Soo and Young Hee.

The overall concept was to make the series out into an urban fairytale, unfortunately, the narration and visual styling of the first few episodes did not make its way to the end of the series. It got watered down and subsumed into the existential drama that devoured the characters that by the time I reached the last episode, I almost forgot about its unique opening sequence. 


2.) Learning to Cross that Line

Young Chul Soo, being the ever obedient son, did not dare cross that line that his mother drew on the ground. With tears in his eyes and a crumpled bill in his hand, he failed to chase after his mother because that line created an invisible barrier, one that no human being could cross...until the gorgeous Lee Mari, in her pretty black boots, stomped her way through and taught him how easy it was. So yeah, I reckon it was used to show how Chul Soo was a straight-laced individual and how he was the type to color within the lines, but the very idea of him drawing a line on the ground to prevent both Mari and Eun Young from getting close to him was just a load of crap.


3.) The Color of Sadness

If one were to  go by this series, the color of sadness and longing would be a mix of sepia, auburn, sienna, and burnt amber with touches of  indian yellow, set against a murky shade of cadmium red and vermilion. Yes, old memories came with a color scheme. No one's allowed to look into the past without a change of color.


4.) A Room Full of Books

Chul Soo must have been one lonely boy. There were books everywhere---they were on the shelves, on the floor, they lined his walls. Was there ever any reason to doubt how literate and well-read our humble hero was?


5.) Vanilla Ice Cream

Ah, the Yonsama look-alike that disappeared after going out to get vanilla ice cream...Who would have thought that a frozen dairy product could cause so much pain and torment? (Hm, serves her right for sending her lover out in the dead of winter for vanilla ice cream.) Believe it or not, this little story device had a very brief appearance. Aside from being mentioned like 4x, Mari's fixation with it melted when Chul Soo came around. It served its purpose the moment the man Mari was fated to be with appeared before her, carrying 32 flavors and then some.


6.) Pride and Prejudice

So Chul Soo reluctantly travels to Japan to ghostwrite Lee Mari's travel diary and what book does he bring with him? He brings the tv-movie tie-in paperback edition of Pride and Prejudice. Yep, the one with Keira Knightley's face on it. Ach, the horror! Major fantasy overload! Can anyone say overkill?

He was charming enough as the literature professor who thwarted his student's advances by correcting/editing the love letter given to him as if it were a test paper, but was it really necessary to depict him as someone engrossed in Jane Austen? And in public no less. I don't freakin care about what people say about the character being sensitive or romantic but (darn it!) grown men do not lug around Pride and Prejudice. He has a room full of books to choose from and he picks Pride and Prejudice?

So okay, maybe he was reading it in preparation for a class or something but considering the series went on and on about how cultured and well read he was, dropping random book titles from The Great Gatsby to Eugene Onegin, would it really have been too much to ask for him to read something safe and appropriate by say, Hemingway or Dostoevsky?

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You know what's sad about all this is that I'll probably end up forgetting numbers 1-5 on this list but I'll always remember Yoo Ji Tae pretending to read Pride and Prejudice

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad you made out of this one! I saw episode 1 of A Star's Lover and didn't proceed further. I thought it looked very pretty and liked the sepia color tone, but had a feeling that the plot progression would eventually go around in circles so I settled for reading recaps instead. Towards the middle part, even going through the recaps was a drag.

    LOL @ Yoo Ji Tae and P & P! Funny how our memory works. For me, out of the list, I think I'll remember the vanilla ice cream. Maybe it's because it's fricking ice cream, sometimes people eat it to cheer themselves up, and for the writer to have Mari associate it with a sad event is uncool.

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  2. Good call, doozy. Yep, the first episode was pretty and the following ones were okay as well what with the two characters clashing and getting to know each other. The whole thing hits a speedbump after that, it's as if they ran out of material to make the drama.

    For me, out of the list, I think I'll remember the vanilla ice cream. Maybe it's because it's fricking ice cream, sometimes people eat it to cheer themselves up, and for the writer to have Mari associate it with a sad event is uncool.

    Oh my, you're right! It is weird that the writer made out ice cream that way. It is a reverse scenario. Lol. x)

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  3. Yay, thank you for dedicating a post to this series!

    Or that kissing scene between Lee Byung Hun and Choi Ji Woo in Beautiful Days that signaled an OTP change?
    ^^Ah... hells yes to THE VICTORY RECORDS KISS!!!!!! Lee Byung Hun + Choi Ji Woo >>>>>>>> Bae Yong Jun + Cho Ji Woo.

    But after A Star's Lover, I'm kinda thinking it could possiby be:
    Lee Byung Hun + Choi Ji Woo = Yoo Ji Tae + Choi Ji Woo.

    I dunno, mebbe it's because Beautiful Days was so long ago, but, as you know already, I did LOVE the chemistry btwn Princess Ji Woo & Yoo Ji Tae (btw, if I had a lecturer who looked like that back in my uni days, there is NO WAY I would've EVER skipped a class to watch any doramas lol.)

    I'd actually forgotten about the opening sequence until reading you post lol. The start was definitely far, far stronger than the finish- I really wish they had carried on with the ethereal dreamlike, whimsical atmosphere you alluded to. But oh well.

    but the very idea of him drawing a line on the ground to prevent both Mari and Eun Young from getting close to him was just a load of crap
    ^lmao, but I am totally nodding my head. And why Eun Young decided to play along with the dodgy game is beyond me. If I think about it, to me, the line was kinda like this emotional guard that Chul Soo has put up from the moment his mother abandoned him. Mari steps in & voila, saves him.

    Btw, the fact that Chul Soo was readig THE MOVIE version of Pride & Prejudice did make me laugh & temporarily question his credibility... but yah, than his monstrous collection of books convinced me again^^;

    Oh the Yonsama lookalike!!!!!! I seriously thought it was THE YONSAMA making a cameo (like Ji Jin Hee) but the smile wasn't as beaming.

    P.S. Bi's colorful array of v-neck shirts that scandalously dipped down his chest in Full House <<<lol. Don't look down on me, but I think I remember liking them -_-. From memory, I think I prefer Lee Young Jae's wardrobe to what Prince Lee Shin had in Goong^^;

    P.P.S. Vanilla ice cream is the bomb xD,

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  4. P.P.P.S. Forgot to say, I love all the caps too (esp the ones of YJT xDD) Thanks for sharing!

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  5. if I had a lecturer who looked like that back in my uni days, there is NO WAY I would've EVER skipped a class to watch any doramas lol.

    Haha, same here. You know, I really liked Beautiful Days but after A Star's Lover my equation runs more in favor of the YJT and CJW pairing, thus: YJT + CJW > LBH + CJW > BYJ + CJW. :)

    I don't know if it's because CJW is older but she just seemed more comfortable with YJT than any other leading man I've seen her with.

    About the opening sequence, I honestly forgot about it as well. I was watching the last episode with a big "duh?!" plastered on my face, lost in the sequence of events...which is why I decided to revisit the first ep.

    And why Eun Young decided to play along with the dodgy game is beyond me. If I think about it, to me, the line was kinda like this emotional guard that Chul Soo has put up from the moment his mother abandoned him.

    Couldn't have said it better. I bet the audience got the fact that Chul Soo had his guard up all the time after having been abandoned like that as a child but did it have to be a literal line? I know it was probably done for dramatic effect but I couldn't help but laugh when YJT bent down and drew a line on the ground saying, "don't cross that line" and CJW was like, "I will, I want to..." and then Eun Young went, "You crossed that line, didn't you? I never crossed that line..." LMAO x)

    Oh and I loved Ji Jin Hee's cameo. Heck, I love him, period. His turn in He Who Can't Marry as the neurotic bachelor was regrettable but I would always remember him as Janggeum's Naeuri. It's quite unfortunate, but he's also the reason why I checked out Dong Yi. x_X

    Bi's outfits in Full House are now a kdrama classic. They're downright iconic and I guess way more acceptable than Prince Shin's polka-dotted shirts and bow ties. I think you can still catch Korean boy groups wearing bits and pieces of Lee Young Jae's wardrobe today.

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  6. I don't know if it's because CJW is older but she just seemed more comfortable with YJT than any other leading man I've seen her with.
    ^^I think it was a nice change seeing Ji Woo shi fully embracing her womanhood- in the past I always saw her as a bit too girly, a bit "princessy," a bit fragile but while she was still gracefully feminine in A Star's Lover, she also emitted this kinda intimate confidence. Would like to point out also that Yoo Ji Tae looks good with most of his leading women (ALL in fact from what I have seen thus far ;) )

    I couldn't help but laugh when YJT bent down and drew a line on the ground saying, "don't cross that line" and CJW was like, "I will, I want to..." and then Eun Young went, "You crossed that line, didn't you? I never crossed that line..." LMAO x)
    ^Oh don't worry. I was LOLing with you. I'm like, did the writers have to make the symbolism so glaring? To be honest, it was a little unsettling & upsetting for me seeing such a manly man in Yoo Ji Tae stoop to such levels ><;

    They're downright iconic and I guess way more acceptable than Prince Shin's polka-dotted shirts and bow ties.
    ^Wait, you didn't think Shin's outfits were attractive??? haha. My least favourite of his was probably in the final (?) eppy when they are in Macau & on the top half he is all polished, dressed in a perfectly ironed black shirt & white tux blazer combo; but then on the bottom half, he was wearing frayed denim shorts & flip flops. It just look like he ran out of time to get changed properly -_-;

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  7. Ach, sorry for the late reply, had a ton of reading to do and came down with the flu. Still have a cold though but I'm back on line...sort of.

    Would like to point out also that Yoo Ji Tae looks good with most of his leading women (ALL in fact from what I have seen thus far ;) )

    I have absolutely no reason or cause to refute this statement. As for the whole drawing that line on the ground, that was just too silly. Can't believe people get paid to write this kind of stuff for t.v. And I can't believe that I watched it. Oh, Yoo Ji Tae next time pick a better drama to work on, please?

    ...top half he is all polished, dressed in a perfectly ironed black shirt & white tux blazer combo; but then on the bottom half, he was wearing frayed denim shorts & flip flops.

    Ahem, did I say they were unattractive? I believe I was wearing a variation of Prince Shin's final outfit to the supermarket the other day. After all, a girl has to be prepared--that way you can run out and get a half-body picture for a formal occasion and then go take a leisurely stroll on the beach after that. haha! ;)

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