The front runner for worst K-drama of the year wrapped up today in I Summon You, Gold. For 50 episodes this sucker was like a surreal trainwreck of epic proportions, easily out-classing other wacky or pointless recent weekend dramas such as The Best Lee Soon Shin or Hundred Year Inheritance, or painful and unpalatable currently airing ones like Goddess of Marriage. There are absolutely worse dramas than ISYG out there, but for the sake of not turning this into an empirical analysis of various levels of crap, let’s just say this one stinks in every which way it possibly could and then takes one final soak in manure on its way out. It’s a weekend drama about a rich dad that owns a diamond conglomerate, he has three sons with three women (first wife kicked out, second mistress rules the roost, third mistress off to the side), all three sons are married or gets married in the drama to women that are shrewish, scheming, or a useless wet blanket, and into this mess comes a poor family with the eldest daughter being used and abused like a pack mule. This drama consisted of 48 episodes where people behaved poorly in every conceivable way possible short of physical torture. The exception is the saintly Mary Sue of an aspiring jewelry designer heroine Mong Hee, who turns out to be the long lost twin of the shrewish wife Yoona who is married to the male lead Hyun Soo.
Forget that for 36 episodes Yoona was out of the picture and Hyun Soo and Mong Hee fell in love, the second the drama revealed they were twins the entire romance did an about-turn and Yoona was whitewashed, Hyun Soo and Mong Hee easily fell out of love after a one year time jump, and everyone went back to their original positions happy as clams as if nothing supremely awkward had just happened. As if that wasn’t unpalatable enough, in the end none of the horrid human trash, like the second mistress who was the root cause of all the bad things happening to everyone and the ambitious wife to the second son who gave up her own child to marry rich, got their comeuppance or even paid a price for their sins. This drama tied up every single loose end with it “smile and be happy!” ethos and resolved every single conflict easily as if people didn’t spend the last 20 episodes scheming to cling on to victory in each battle. To say I’m appalled is an understatement, and even if viewers in South Korea and internationally watch this drama and cluck over its ridiculous moral code and don’t subscribe to it, I still think it was a giant fuck you to put this on the air and waste the talents and effort of the entire cast and crew. If something is pure hate bile, I see no need to even package it as brainless entertainment and hope no one actually uses it as some sort of life lesson. A big hug to Han Ji Hye and Yeon Jung Hoon (and the rest of the hardworking cast) – may you all get good karma for being professional through a truly distasteful cinematic experience. I open this thread up as a recovery support group for ISYG viewers and as a forum to warn people away from ever watching this. This drama gives K-dramas a bad bad name.
A couple of better titles for this drama include “I Summon You, Brain Fart!” and “I Summon You, Ethical Hellhole”. I suppose the only consolation for leading lady Han Ji Hye was that she got double most leading lady screentimes by playing twins, and at least she didn’t get slapped around each episode like she did in May Queen.
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I can't believe the writer didn't anticipate the corner she was writing herself into --- Mong Hee and Hyun Soo would never have been allowed to have a relationship because of their cultural milieu, so why devote so much damn time to their story? Making Yoona even mildly sympathetic instead of Anna Wintour on crack would have softened the blow somewhat.
Never watching anything by this writer EVER again.
At first when I heard that Han Ji Hye and Yun Jung Hoon were a couple in this I did a happy dance, after the heartbreak I had during East of Eden.
I honestly liked Yoona more than Mong Hee simply because she seemed to be a more layered character (and I am kinda happy she and main guy ended up together), and I could have easy believed that main guy loved his wife all along and only fell in love with the twin because they look alike, but narrative wise it made no sense.
Yeah, I would have loved to believe that Yoona was meant for Hyun Soo all along but I just never got that vibe from the drama until it tried to play catch up in the last few episodes.
seems like mexican soapopera la usurpadora... lol
loved that one, but in the end the good twin and her ex-husband from her twin sister get together thank god.
That was my novela when the first version aired. Except for the fact that it was actually kind of good. While ISYG was a mess. Plus Twin #1 was truly an evil bitch that did not care about her husband & kids. She was the one that found her twin and made her take her place.While here Yoona was just a spoil brat with family issues.
A kdrama of the lowest of low on moral values, principles and human dignity. HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED. The title to this drama should be "I AM AN EVIL MISTRESS AND IN THE END I WON BIGTIME". or "I AM AN EVIL MISTRESS & I GOT AWAY WITH MY EVIL DOINGS" OR "HOW TO BE A DOORMAT".
I'll edit or add after a few days stewing over the ending . Which I can't bear to watch as a I saw the screen caps. I honestly do not know how to even comment about showing the lead female alone and watching the 3 rich couples frolic in the water. I mean how do you describe such tasteless, insensitive,clueless and just vomit inducing writing?
You stupid writer you made Hyunsu and Monghee fall in love and it bloody well looked like a love story for 38 episodes. Then she b****y resolved it with MH just giving in and calling him bro in law. Gosh. Even if she got shafted the writer didn't even give her a good ending. But made her remember moments with Hyunsu at the end . When she was on the same camping trip with them- HS and Yoona. What kind of writing is this?
It's not even if it's makjang or not . It's the fact that the writing is insane . That's one of the most badly treated female leads in a Kdrama. Don't even mention the morals/ethics of the dad and MH's adoptive mum.
Moral code of this drama: Level alien.
Feel good factor: Not bad if you're a compulsory polygamous husband or a psycho ahjumma.
Fan service: Very little, for all the wrong reasons.
As a viewer, as a woman and as a human being, I felt insulted by that ending. (The first 12 eps with the forced cohabitation were good.)
Really, the cast did a good job with what they were given. HJH played the 2 sisters perfectly (+ the symbiotic version of the last episodes...). Hyun Soo was charismatic at first then became an amnesiac wuss. I hope oppa was well paid for that crap. A little thought for Lee Tae Sung who will go to MS after that dud: Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. We all need to forget & pass to something else.
This was officially my last 50 eps family drama of 2013 (they all sucked!). If I start one next year, I'll wait for it to be over & positively reviewed: As much as I love a cast, ain't nobody got time for that kind of "entertainment".
This was so much of a mess.
I have to believe that someone/something forced the writer to change trajectory 2/3 of the way through the series. Not that it made any sense before they decided to switch leading woman from Mong-hee to Yoona.
I did not watch this drama but it seems Ms. Koala that the word of the week for several K-dramas was crap (or various synonyms for the word). I th
surprisingly the rating got better in each episode...
the worse it gets, the more people watch it.
I know few people that think ''this is a mess, a big fucking mess, now I have to watch it until the end to see how this mess will end...''
Yeah, the fact that the ratings steadily went up as the WTFness of the writing increased is what I find the most depressing.
Thanks for the well-deserved rant. *passes puke bowl around*
It was so bizarre! If they were going to make Yoona the end game then they a) shouldn't have made her disappear for 2/3rds of the drama and b) shouldn't have let HS and MH get so entrenched in each others lives for so many episodes.
Even storylines that I liked HT and MHyun could have been so much better - those 2 have a lot of chemistry and the Mina character could have been used for so much drama but was totally dropped.
And don't even get me started on the lack of responsibility/repercussions for, frankly disgusting behaviour. The stepmum was the epicentre of EVERY characters misery and was basically rewarded for being a terrible human being, the father was horrendous and the sister-in-law got pregnant in the end, which is code for forgiveness and reward in Korean family dramas. And the behaviour of Shim Duk toward the orphaned daughter-in-law was appalling - totally unreasonable! It boggles my mind that an adult essentially threw a 10 episode tantrum that everyone pretty much just accepted!! WHAT THE EFF.
And that final scene! Never before have a I seen a more appropriate use of #foreveralone.
I cannot believe how angry this stupid show made me! It does not deserve a SECOND MORE of my time.