Weekend K-dramas Preparing to Unleash a Double Dose of Makjang
One would think Han Ji Hye would’ve learned her lesson by now and stay the heck away from weekend dramas where she singlehandedly set some sort of record for being slapped around in May Queen. But alas, she either has a developed a fondness for poor suffering abused heroines, or else the script for I Summon You, Gold (Call Forth Gold) is way more than its makjang synopsis makes it out to be. Taking over the slot from the low-rated Rascals Sons on MBC will be the aforementioned I Summon You, Gold (don’t ask me what it refers to, I dunno), where Han Ji Hye plays a poor plucky jewelry designer with a street stall AND a same-faced unrelated rich daughter in-law-law to a chaebol family. I can’t even snark anymore. What mildly resurrected me was learning that Yeon Jung Hoon was making his network return in 3 years as the male lead, which reunites him with Han Ji Hye from when they played first loves in East of Eden. Their love was thwarted in that drama when she was forced to marry her rapist played by Park Hae Jin, and eventually those two got a happily ever after. Yeah, not exactly a very good role model of a story.
Back to this upcoming fight fest, also joining this drama is Lee Tae Sang and Lee Soo Kyung, playing a married couple and the antagonists to our hero and heroine. Lee Tae Sang is the younger brother to Yeon Jung Hoon and there is succession issues looming in the family business, while Lee Soo Kyung is friends with Han Ji Hye but later rivals when she enters the family. I feel like these weekend dramas are just a game of pick a stick out of five buckets to make a slightly different story. At some point some drama is just going to literally recycle every aspect of a previous drama, except with a different cast. Not to be outdone in potential makjangness, rival network SBS has the upcoming weekend drama Birth Secret (The Secret of Birth) starring Sung Yuri and Yoo Joon Sang. As stupid as the title is, I don’t even know why this drama is called Birth Secret when its about a woman with memory loss and should be called Amnesia instead. It’s going to be impossible finding this sucker when you try Googling “birth secret and Korean drama” in one search. What makes it worse is knowing the writer of Birth Secret did Cinderella Unni, Spring Days, and Robber. Le sigh.
Sung Yuri and Han Ji Hye are fast becoming staples of the weekend genre. While Han Ji Hye did the terrible May Queen last, Sung Yuri fared not much better with Feast of the Gods which set off quite a firestorm of shipping wars, which happened naturally when a well-written and acted second male lead just seems so decent that its hard not to pull for him. Despite all my mockery of these two upcoming dramas, there is a chance it can be watchable and I’m always happy when that happens. But I’m not holding my breath here.
I think Birth secret has an interesting premise…or at least the potential for one…it sounds similar to 18 vs 29 except for the birth secret and all (har)…also both Cinderella Unni and Robbers were great in the beginning(at least for me) before everything went to makjangy hell (for the latter and just boredom for the former)….so the real question for me is if the writer has learnt anything about following through in these intervening years
when your hot people want you and May Queen was a ratings win for the network. Most of the actors jumped right in to new projects. Weekend shows are like soaps so I dont mind the crazyyyy story lines .
May Queen was a ratings winner, really? It was a mess! Birth secrets are overdone and boring. I don’t think Han Ji Hye is a very good actress.
Sounds not so interesting. I watched may queen and feast for the gods. I liked feast of the gods more.
Might consider to watch I Summon You, Gold.
Heard that Baek Jin Hee is casted as one of the leads’ sister but I’m not sure if she’ll play a big role in this drama. I SUPER LOVE HER!
.. and Lee Soo Kyung too but why is she the antagonist? :/ and not really a big fan of Lee Tae Sung to do any shipping here. *sigh*
After reading this, I now have an issue with the actress Han Ji Hye and her management team especially in the selection of materials that she receives to work with. All her characters that we have seen so far have been abused either violently (slapped/worse) or emotionally. Does she not get tired of being type-cast as a victim/heroine (with the typical has to go through all sorts of abuse in order to be loved or accepted etc. etc. etc.). This is a complete turn off for me as the heroine with all that so-called great personality etc. just to prove that she is “strong” becomes unlikable (these characters are not interesting at all) and since I am not a fan of makjang, I will skip it. Though I do not know her personally at all I also wonder about her true personality the constant question is – “If this was her own real life, would she accept all this type of crap being done to her”. I sincerely hope that this is not confirmed and that she does not picks up the project. Even its a minor role (there can be growth), prefer she does something else which does not require her receiving or giving this treatment. For once, do a character that can be truly liked without having to go through this. Han Hi Jye is a fairly decent actress, I’m sure that she can do much better than this and hopefully she does.
We are aware that k-drama is entertaining and at most times is fictional & beyond realistic/logical but with this constant abuse of both physical and emotional nature of the victim/heroine it brings to question as to is this how they (the country) see and really treat their women. Are they (women/abuser) really that accepting of those forms of treatment and for what purpose (I’ll stop here).
I will not watch a show where the main character receives or gives that type of abuse especially when its unnecessary to the story. In this case, its unnecessary, its just being done for ratings. So its DUMP IT for me.
As for the other – I like Sung Yuri from Hong Gil Dong days, she’s not a bad actress at all.