Good afternoon, Erin.
Well, as I promised, because I had
finished True Beauty, and because you
had been out sick and, thus, unable to immediately guide me to where I should
spend my time, I found myself once again seduced by the allure of old friends
who caught my eye: Touch Your Heart
has Sunny and Mr. Death from Goblin
playing the romantic leads—how could I say no to that?
“But Daryl, you notoriously
malfunctioning divining rod,” I hear you say, “why would you take that risk,
knowing your track record, when I’ve given you a perfectly good list that you
know you can follow?”
Well, Erin, I’ll tell you: very
recent history would indicate that I’m cursed to only make the wrong choice,
so, even if I were to assume your list was tantamount to your specific guidance
(which it totally is), the universe would re-write itself to make what was once
a perfectly entertaining show become a total flop that would not only ruin your
recommendations batting average but also—undoubtedly—sour my outlook on life and
my place in it. And I’d hate to have any part of that blame fall even
tangentially on you.
(Also: Sunny and Mr. Death! How bad
could it be? Right?)
As with all previous Daryl-picked
shows, I’ll keep my thoughts general, even though I assume you have seen every
k-drama under the sun. And, regardless of spoiler-y stuff, there’s no sense
boring you with minutia about shows you haven’t seen when I have all that
opportunity to bore you with minutia about shows you’re confirmed to have
watched.
So, with that in mind…
1. Let’s start with our traditional
list of folks I spotted from elsewhere using my world’s greatest detective
powers that I have from being the world’s greatest detective:
·
Mr.
Death as the male lead
·
Sunny
as the female lead
·
The
gray-clad ghost “friend” from Goblin
as one of Mr. Death’s co-workers
·
Homeroom
Teacher from True Beauty as Sunny’s
manager
·
Snooty
Girl from All of Us are Dead as one
of Mr. Death’s clients
2. It took me all of about 15
seconds to declare—loudly—in my notes that the Front Desk Girl at the law firm
was going to be my favorite, for being both hot and sassy…and so, of course,
she had basically nothing to do and no lines after that point, so she was, in
fact, not my favorite, in the end.
Despite her being, I think, the hottest lady on the show. (Which feels like a
fundamental writing flaw, but maybe I’m misremembering my Strunk & White.)
3. Actually, to that point, I’d say
the show suffers, a bit, from Mr. Death and Sunny being arguably the least
interesting characters on the show, and it’s a shame that Front Desk Girl and a
handful of other characters weren’t given their own space to have adventures or
more emphasis on character development. I think that would have filled a lot
time better than…other, um, time-filling segments of the main story.
4. …which is not to say Sunny and
Mr. Death were bad or anything, just that they were much more rote than the
rest of the characters. This series probably would have been better as an
ensemble show, in my opinion. And not just because I wanted more Front Desk
Girl. Just mostly because of that.
5. That said, there was something
very satisfying about how our main duo comes together as a couple, in that it
was very mundane: they meet, they spend time together, they fall in love. Nice
and simple.
5A. …which is not to say things
don’t get more contrived and hectic as the show goes on in an attempt to fill
the episode allotment, as so many shows do, but still. Starts off great.
6. While we’re on the topic of Mr.
Death and Sunny: smooching gets a 9/10. Starts off kind of…okay, but then it
heats up, near the end.
7. Subway sponsorship! Ugh, I love
it so much.
8. They really, really, really don’t want to give me the
satisfaction of having any of the characters drive Hyundais. BUT…someone forgot
to cover one of the background cars’ logo, so…guess what made its way into the
final cut? #BestShowEver
9. Before they get together, Sunny
is worried about Mr. Death being seduced by his old crush, who is one of the
prosecutors they deal with, and…y’know what? She totally should have been
worried. Because she was a prosecuter, if you catch my drift.
9A. …‘cus she was cute? Get it? (I
really liked her. I’m sure 99% of everyone would tell me I’m wrong and that I
should be #TeamSunny, but…no thanks. I’ll take could-totally-meet-her for $200,
Alex.)
9B. But, seriously, I quite liked the
prosecuter character. She’s another one who didn’t get as much time as I think
she should have, even if I really enjoyed her particular subplot as it stands.
(Which, honestly, could probably have been its own show.)
10. But, having said all that,
#BestGirl is undoubtedly Gray Ghost from Goblin,
who was hilarious and ridiculous and (along with her male counterpart) had the
best and most memorable moments in the show. I liked her when she was in Goblin, and I loved her in this. She’s
got such a great face—and I don’t mean she’s pretty or whatever (though she
is), but that she’s got such an expressive face, partly because she’s got a
large face with equally large eyes and mouth, and she draws the eye so well.
Great for comedic stuff. And…they have her dressed in suits. Like, whatever the
version of men’s suits cut for women is called. And I…just…I’m a sucker for a girl
in a tie. I can’t help it. And let’s not ask questions about why.
11. There’s some quality “this is
what office flirting is” scenes in here—complete with classic “stuck in the
elevator” and “in the stairwell where the cameras can’t see” meet-ups. (And
special bonus points to Sunny for the ingenious employ of heart-shaped post-it
notes. Innocuously girly, as per her character, but also suitably suggestive
for her purposes of crush-inducement. Very impressive.)
12. It’s good to know that oppa causes as much misunderstanding and
consternation in Korean as suki does
in Japanese.
12A. Speaking of—and I’m sure I’ve
said this before, but when have I ever turned down a chance to repeat myself—subtitle
translations that choose to approximate these terms which have no direct
structural correlation in English rather than keeping them (in this case, the
somewhat ambiguous oppa being
replaced with the character’s name) make it harder to get those moments of
misunderstanding across. To say nothing of noting the difference between usually
calling someone seonbae and then
switching to Seo-jun as a sign that
the tone of a situation has changed.
13. There’s no time skip, but there
is a montage of time progression, which is somehow a difference that doesn’t
make me angry.
14. Someone made a reference to Kim
Yu-na—and I know who that is! Because my sister loves figure skating. To
paraphrase her: “There’s good, then there’s great, then there’s Yuna Kim.”
15. Y’know, I deliberately changed
the ringtone on my phone because I kept reaching for mine every time someone’s
phone went off, on these shows…and then Sunny’s goes off and it’s the new
ringtone I chose. Which totally defeats the purpose, Sunny! I thought we were on
the same page!
16. This is the second show I’ve
seen that’s mentioned Klaus Schwab and his transhumanist dystopia vision
of the future. I’m not sure if this is because Korea’s a tech-driven
[culture/economy] and is, therefore, much more sensitive to world elites loudly
advocating for people becoming part computer…or if the writers just do a quick
internet for “trending tech world news” and all happen to catch the same
headlines.
17. A guy gives a girl a piece of
cheesecake, in one episode, as a means of currying favor, and it doesn’t work
on her at all. Which, I mean, good for her, ‘cus a piece of cheesecake can sway
me to just about anything. As can Reese’s peanut butter cups. And Oreos. And
mint ice cream. And…I’m starting to think I should have used Lent to work on my
resolve.
18. Okay, so, this is the second
time I’ve seen Sunny in something, and her character is again lamenting her age. How old could she possibly be that this
has happened twice? [checks internet]
Oh, she’s…she’s …huh. Well. I mean, hey, she looks great, though, right? Isn’t
that all that matters?
18A. I sort of alluded to it in
both Goblin and Our Beloved Summer, but I am not a fan of the pop-star look—and
they absolutely want Sunny in glammed-up pop-star mode, for this show.
Which…fine, I get it, both in terms of the character and the appeal, but…I
mean, there’s a scene where she deliberately dresses more like a “typical”
office secretary, and I thought she looked amazing. Just saying.
19. And one last thing about Sunny:
I typically find it hard to judge an actor’s performance—good or bad—in foreign
language stuff, and Sunny’s character is supposed to be a bad actor, in this.
Now, I don’t think Yoo In-na is particularly good (she’s not bad, just not noteably
good), but let me just say…she nailed
seeming like a bad actor. The scenes where her lack of talent was supposed to
be on display were fantastically bad. She did such a good job with that. Which takes legit talent, let me say.
Good for her.
So, yeah, that’s just some stuff I
felt like telling you. The show’s fine, really: nothing to write home about,
but also not a waste of time. I enjoyed it well enough.
Anyway. I’m sure you’ll be much
more excited to read the next one, given that it will have chatter about your
k-drama boyfriend. Not that I think you find these exciting, of course, just
that, comparatively, your level of not-excitement should be better with the
next one.
…unless it’s not. In which case…
…um…
--Daryl
PS – I almost
forgot: you were in my dream, the other night. And you were very, very mean to
me. I woke up feeling bad and was bummed out all morning—it was that level of
mean. BUT…not to worry, Erin, because the very next night, an ex-girlfriend
from about a decade ago was in my dream, and I woke up feeling infinitely worse.
I moped for the better part of a week, after that. So, dream-you and I are
comparatively fine, now. Which I’m sure is a great relief to you.
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