Two much talked about Mon-Tues K-dramas ended today and I’m not going to say “I told you so” to those who stuck around for the entire journey, but even in my jaded and zero expectation left imagination I could not possibly have come up with more inane and unsatisfying endings than what these two delivered as a one-two punch. Spoilers after here, you are forewarned. Gu Family Book couldn’t even stick to its kindergarten level narrative and let the two leads Kang Chi and Yeol Wool skip off into the moonlight holding hands and frolicking under the stars. Nope, the drama actually killed off Yeol Wool without any compelling reason other than some monk foreshadowing from the beginning of the drama. It then time skipped 422 years into the future where the immortal Kang Chi is now living in a penthouse apartment and driving a fancy sports car and looking like Lee Seung Gi after a particular bad day picking out an outfit for a night out (black and white geometric print shirt?). Kang Chi meets up with Yeol Wool’s reincarnation (and earlier a bunch of other folks also showed up in modern incarnations) under the dang peach tree again, she’s a police officer and he recognizes her immediately. The end.
Put aside how utterly terrible this ending is, since modern Yeol Wool has no memory ergo she is NOT the same person, the incompetent writer of GFB (who also wrote Baker King Kim Tak Gu and Man of Honor, let’s not forget), not only ripped off Takahashi Rumiko’s epic Inuyasha but in totally lame ways, she also ripped off bits and pieces of Takahashi’s immortal The Mermaid Saga in this ending. HEADDESK. I want to go all Emperor Yongzheng and steam this writer….metaphorically, of course. I wrote the second the concept came out about GFB being a half human/half demon boy seeking to become mortal and wrestling with his mixed heritage that this was as K-drama rip-off of Inuyasha, one of Takahashi’s top-3 mangas and one of the modern classics of shonen fantasy manga. All this writer has to do was rip off Inuyasha entirely to have a great drama but by using her ineptitude to revise it she sucked all the intelligence and emotional depth from the journey. In the end, she posited the same Inuyasha delimma, the original love (Yeol Wool as Kikyou) is dead and the modern version comes into his life (modern Yeol Wool as Kagome). Except in Inuyasha the entire story was about him realizing they were different women and ending up accepting that he loves both but one is gone forever. GFB? This just sucked and blowed.
Oh yeah, Jang Ok Jung, Live in Love also ended. Jang Ok Jung died. Like in history. By poison. Blamed for a shaman ritual to curse Queen In Hyun, who died in the last episode and thankfully didn’t have to stick around until the bitter end. I wish I could say more, but there was no way Ok Jung could live. Even as a revisionist take on history, it can’t actually change history to the point where dead people are allowed to live because then SBS would actually offend all of South Korea rather than just the sticklers who were annoyed at this revisionist take to begin with. I wanted this story to have depth and nuance, to have delicate sensibilities and proper period sense. In the entire second half it had nothing other than painfully overwrought and unbearable to watch plotting and backstabbing. The drama made Jang Ok Jung just a woman who would do anything for love, but destroyed any semblance of her character for having her own dreams and hopes and wishes beyond loving Lee Soon. It started off so promising only to go off-the-rails so spectacularly. Her death felt like a release for poor Kim Tae Hee, who I now adore because she bravely took on this role and soldiered to the end like a dedicated actress. Now she can go off and have weekend dates with her man Rain whenever he’s got whatever is the equivalent of Korean military shore leave.
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Gosh.... I waited so long for the ending just to see Kang Chi with that freaking printed shirt...... Disappointed : (
I didn't see that printed shirt coming. It's magic, there were whites, blues and boom! a crazy printed shirt. yay!!!
Pimp shirt LOL. aaahhh I knew I was setting myself up for seeing GFB through but I was at least hoping for a decent ending, sadly it did not deliver. Just for you LSG, just for you.
Oh I have to say I did like the eps with Choi Jin Hyuk in it. Now that's one hot papa gumiho.
The ending of GFB doesn't really bother me because dramas love their reincarnation (who looks exactly like the old self) endings - see Yoochun's Rooftop Prince. And, if done right, that sort of concept can be a lot of fun (Telugu movie Magadheera, the main characters of which are reincarnations, is one of my all-time faves). This said, it seems out of keeping with the generally breezy tone of GFB. Oh well...
(I loved Baker King, which was insanely addictive and wore its makjang proudly on its sleeve, and loathed MoH. Gu is sort of in the middle between the two, for me).
hey....are you from India??
Nope, just love Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood (I was born in Russia, where Indian movies were popular).
Wow, I didn't realize that anyone who was not Indian would look past Bollywood movies...on top of that, Indian movies are popular in Russia? Mindblown.
@Anonymous
Yup, they were considered 'women's flicks' when I was growing up. I got into Tollywood and Kollywood a few years after I rediscovered my love of Bollywood as an adult and have enjoyed both industries' output immensely (especially Tollywood - those flicks hit all the right spots as far as I am concerned, plus the men are yummy).
hey, im not indian n nt from russian n i love bollywood movies!
Hi from another Bollywood lover from Germany. Fav actor is Aamir Khan.
@Dangermousie: I'm actually Tamilian myself, so it's kind of neat to see non-Indians enjoy the movie culture from my state. I'm curious as to what kind of movies you watch, because I've never really thought of those movies as "women's flicks" before.
Thank you for actually appreciating Gu Family Book.
Hey, Dangermousie, привет! I like old Bollywood movies, not so much modern ones. I think, reincarnation in Indian movies looks way more natural, because this knowledge is inseparable part of Indian culture.
I love old Bollywood (if by that you mean 60s and 70s). Tbh, Bollywood post 2008 or so has lost me - hence my interest in Tamil and Telugu flicks.
@ Anonymous.
Yeah, my parents say there was a popular joke in Russia: "Movies can be of 3 kinds: good, bad or Indian". :)
Hmmm I loved Magadheera as well ....who could forget Anushka's acting?
She was good, though I was too busy drolling over Ram Charan Teja to really appreciate it :P
Drooling, not drolling, LOL
Anushka in magadheera? either u got the movie name wrong or actress name wrong. But I agree magadheera is the best reincarnation movie ever.. they should have had something like this for gu family book you know..
I couldn't help and read the ending for GFB, even when I'm on ep 11.....but I don't think I'll watch it anymore....
I'm surprised that the same writer wrote Dalja's Spring, which is an awesome show and I'm watching it parallel to GFB and there is soooooo much difference in narrative quality between the two.
SO True. I can't believe this juvenile fluff, this huge pile of steaming s(tupid), was penned by the same author as Dal Ja's Spring. Dal Ja's characters were quirky, smart, flawed, and believable, the plot had fun twists but it all made sense. None of that is true for Gu Family Book. Some of the issues you can blame on the ham-handed directing, some can be placed on the severe limitations of Suzy as an actress (she can do cute, and she can do ... more cute), but by far the blame for this mess has to be laid at the foot of Kang Eun Kyung. I am going to avoid her work from now on, same as I have put a red "avoid" signs over anything by Park Jung Ran, who wrote A Thousand Kisses, and Choi Soon Sik, who wrote that abomination Oohlala Spouses.
Ooooh, other people make 'no go' writer lists, too! After years of kdrama watching, I've realized that no amount of good acting or cinematography is going to compensate for an awful script, so I made a no-go list too.
Park Jung Ran is on the list, so are Yoon Ji Ryun (BOF) and a couple of others.
Yeah it's so weird. Dal Ja's Spring is a great rom com and actually reverses a ton of kdrama tropes, and yet for all the writer's subsequent projects she's relied on contrived makjang and stock characters to tell her 'story'.
The same writer wrote Dalja's Spring? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? Wow...
I am surprised as well. WOW, maybe this writer had a writer block after Dal Jas Spring or maybe she got dual personality...
LOL wtfuckery.
GFB -- The peach tree is such an annoying thing for them to go back on -- history repeating itself? Nobody wants to see history repeat itself if this is what viewers get in the end.
Really, my heart only goes out to kang chi who had to wait a freaking 400+ years just to see his reincarnated version who may or may not remember her past. This writer thinks leaving it to be open-ended would have more profound feelings but that's the least of this show's problems. So many loose threads and things promised but never full-filled. Weakest part of GFB was writing, with directing being a close second. Even Baker king had a better ending than GFB, imho.
JOJ -- I have no words for a show that sucked this badly to the very end.
You know that I laugh it off a whole night, even any airen can't avoid that. WTH writer!!
Oh boy. i love seung gi but even he couldn't keep me going through this show t_t.
@ilikemango:
My dear, my tips and trick after episode 14: fast forwarding except Kang Chi-Gon, Kang Chi-LSS,Kang Chi-Seo Hwa, Kang Chi-Gong Dal and Kang Chi-MBC..
GFB is bland storywise and the ending is unimaginative, but I did finish it. JOJ failed after a deceiving great start, but KTH impressed me too, though I abandoned ship.
Since my drama thirst is quenched by Cruel City, I Hear Your Voice and Monstar, no impact from the 2 shows ending.
I hear you.., how cares when you have Doctor's Son!
<3
Still gotta check Cruel City but I'm with you with the last two.
GFB ended at ep21 for me.
It's such an amazing short story if it was only Ep 1,2 & 21.
KangChi's story COULD have been so many sparkling possibilities...
But now the parents' story totally wins the whole show.
I hate they put too much effort in first two episodes and then let the rest be wasted
Agree, so disappointed!
Strategy to win the viewers over. :P
Man the first episodes were SO GOOD.
Everything about it was just AMAZING.
I would even watch it if they'd make a remake movie of it.
I stuck with "Jang Ok Jung" until the bitter end. It's a pity that somewhere along the line they lost focus of what the story was about. I mean, I'm not complaining about the shippy scenes with our OTP, but all the other interesting plot points were gone. I did gain new respect for Kim Tae Hee though.
"Gu Family Book" - I abandoned that sinking ship right after the first episodes and only skimmed through the rest. But that ending... REALLY?! Writer-nim, I am so disappointed in you. This drama was such a bad choice for Lee Seung Gi... it was like a step back in his career.
Yeah, i told myself i would stick through JOJ to the bitter end because i loved it so much(dropped after ep 12) -- and that was before JOJ started making me NOT care for its characters. I'll stick to a show if it has at least one or the other; Good story + emotions detached, or emotions attached + bad story. JOJ evidently had none after ep 8.
GFB was a hit domestically and internationally so I don't think it's so much his career being a step back since i'm sure alot more CFs will be flooded his way as if he wasn't King of CFS already...
It just sucks that he had to choose a project that (for us personally) is just not good qualitatively. Compared to K2H, yes, that would definitely be a step back.
My goodness! The writer behind GFB is totally going on a downhill spiral! I actually liked Baker King (although I would have changed some aspects of it) but Man of Honor was a mess and GFB is a total train wreck... I'm so glad I dropped it early on. Who has time to waste on bad dramas nowadays, I certainly don't! >.<
Ended GFB in 2nd ep, gave up on JOJ at ep 12...
now back to fantastic ep 10 of Cruel City MsK!
Koala, would you consider making some Baby Recaps for "Heartless City"? I really want to hear more of your thoughts on each episode!
Also, are you watching "She is Wow"? It's such a hilarious drama that makes fun of itself!
Or open threads for Cruel city would be pretty cool too.
i have absolutely no place to vent my feelings for this awesome show.
Twitter.., I know huge No of ppl who adore show beside me.
There is usually a thread for ep discussion for the amazing CC at omonatheydidnt.livejournal.com
You can also find squeecaps at The Problematic of the Unproblematic. They're quite fun :D
http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/2017874/current-drama-2013-cruel-city-%EB%AC%B4%EC%A0%95%EB%8F%84%EC%8B%9C/p110
http://akikosmorningcoffee.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/heartless-city-episode-10-recap/
Thanks all for the reply! :)