Retrospective: Dr. Stranger Ladies Kang Sora and Jin Se Yeon Are Pretty Lookalikes in Last Year Pictorials
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I remain so utterly perplexed by the ship wars in Dr. Stranger. Unlike last year’s flaming death match in Answer Me 1994 between Trash and Chilbong, I really don’t see any narrative support for the existence of a ship war in DS. The character in the middle between the two ships has to have feelings for both sides to actually sustain a ship war because it’s clear then the choice can go either way. When it’s one-way only then a ship war becomes fans of one character or actor/actress fanning the flames of a besotted fantasy rather than in alignment with the narrative thrust of the story. It’s the same way Marry Him If You Dare tanked, so many fans of the second male lead, whether of the actor or simply liking his character more, kept clamoring for him to get the girl when all along the leading lady only ever liked the male lead. The writing went to pot for the sake of that fandom and the rest is epic failure history. I really really hope the same doesn’t happen here in DS.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed that none of the leads look their best in this drama and I’ve a mind to remind the costume department what great canvas they have to work with. Bad haircuts, pasty makeup, bizarre clothing choices, it’s been so haphazard even from a superficial angle. Sometimes Kang Sora looks like a rich wife and other times she’s a teenager masquerading as a medical doctor. Short hair Seung Hee does not suit Jin Se Yeon and her various mini-skirts scream hoochie more than double agent spy master. I found a cache of older pictorials with Kang Sora (for InStyle Korea) and Jin Se Yeon (for Arena Homme) that make them look so much like pretty face-twins. The picture above is Jin Se Yeon, not Kang Sora. Eerie, isn’t it? Their lookalike visage also gave me a great idea for another DS plot twist. Have Soo Hyun and Seung Hee/Jae Hee be long lost sisters! One grew up in the North and one in the South, that’ll drag Soo Hyun into the main conspiracy story line if her sister is involved, plus toss in an additional “I’m in love with my sister’s man” angst! This drama definitely can use more crazy, right?
HOLY MONKEY BALLS! Koala, I really thought that the first pic was Kang So Ra.
I shall surrender my JSY fan card now.
It’s an awesome picture because she looks just like Kang Sora, and then when one keeps staring like one of those Rorschach tests then eventually she only looks like Jin Se Yeon. LOL, I swear DS cast these two to secretly toss in a long lost sisters twist at the end. When one sister dies, the other one marries the man and they mutually comfort each other’s loss. The End.
awesomeeeee eeeriiieee lookalikes at least in their photos <3 yes, I super want that twist in drama angst!! let them be sisters!!! that would make Doctor Stranger.. more strange and exciting in a positive way!! <3
Same here. She definitely looks like Kang Sora. But I would totally forego the whole sister plot. The less of Soo Hyun I see, the better.
I do agree with you on JSY’s clothes on DS because I get the impression of a female escort from her skirts alone. The short dyed hair isn’t helping either because it closely matches the color of KSR. I can imagine JSY’s character to be wearing sharp suits, not those dreary “lawyer” type suits. On the other hand, KSR looks like someone plucked her out of a family oriented drama into a “spy-thriller” show. She doesn’t fit well into the image of DS that I keep reminding myself that she’s a doctor, and not some sort of trophy wife.
LOL, if the writer goes to that extent of craziness of making Soo Hyun and Jae Hee lost-long sisters, I’ll lose my wits and I’ll fly to Korea just bitch slap him. But, too bad that I don’t have the same amount of care as I did from the beginning. I jusf want to see if this crazy train will reach it’s final destination in one piece or in scraps.
I think there’s nothing perplexing at all about shipping wars. You see it all the time in almost every dramas so its nothing new either. Different people want to believe in different kinds of love. We all have a different mindset of what type of relationship we want and like. Same goes of which character we like in dramas as well. There will always be a situation where people would choose one character over the other. In my opinion, most people shipping unlikely couples containing the second lead character is because they like the character so much that they want them to be happy by hoping that they’ll end up with the lead. Eventhough, they are probably at the are at the short end of the stick and are unlikely to end up together. I, personally, am usually a victim of this situation. But hey, its harmless shipping so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Every individual is entitled to their own opinions about what they like and dislike. Sure, some of the shippers comments can be rude and unnerving however you ,yourself, have the choice and ability to ignore those comments that counter your choice of shipping. I ,however, love to read comments about other ships because I love a pretty good debate. All I can say is that, to all those involved in the shipping wars as well as the observers, just let them be and refrain from judging their choices. Respect & don’t judge. That is all 🙂
Agreed! Personally, I don’t want to involved myself to another shipping war after the horrifying end of my Chilbong ship. Plus I don’t want to go through that again. However, it gives me a sadistic pleasure from seeing other people battle it out with their respected ships. May the winds be in your favor! =)
Of course there is nothing wrong with a ship war. What’s perplexing isn’t that audiences can’t pick a favorite character, it’s when audiences do so in an insistent vacuum devoid of framing within the drama. That ruins the conversation around said drama by hijacking the discussion to be about the shipping OVER AND ABOVE what is happening in the drama. That’s what perplexes me. Liking a character so much to want them to be happy is fine. A fixated faction of that point of view ends up torpedoing the ability to have substantive discussions about the plot development. I can personally ignore anything, the sadness is the mood around the drama experience is already shadowed by it.
What is perplexing for me is the insistence of a ship to bend and twist the drama to conform to their respective agenda. I can ignore their comments, but when 1/3 of the discussion revolves around one-liners of how happy they are to see one ship flourishing and detest the other “boring scenes” (that happens to be tied with the other ship) which only naturally spark the other ship to respond for another good 1/3 parts of it defending their own, what we’re left with therefore is 2/3 shipping war and the rest of the unconcerned 1/3 who are lost in the noise. Those who are not even interested in shipping and just want to discuss the drama and things that are NATIVE to the narrative–not some bizarre hallucinations of how the writer can distort the story to see that certain fans will get their shipper happy ending–will naturally feel just as perplexed, and rightfully so.
Just as Koala mentioned, it would be one thing if the focus of the narrative revolves around the OTP, and in this case, the ultimate choice of one of the characters which is actually of great importance for the plot to make sense or move forward–as is the case with Reply, then perhaps the shipping war can be ‘justified.’ But that’s not what Dr. Stranger is about, in fact, the love triangle is a largely foreign element to it, that interjecting it only serves to muddle the story and demands that certain characters to behave unnaturally and inconsistently to favor that ship. Dr. Stranger is already inconsistent as it is, spare us the thought of lobotomizing character(s) just to satisfy your whims and demands.
And people DO take this shit seriously, as in they’re campaigning and swamping the PD’s instagram/twitter/insert social network here with demands to keep their precious OTP hopes alive. It’ll be fine and even hilarious to know how much effort they put into their shipping if only it were to remain benign and innocent enough that it has no lasting effects to the story. But it does, that’s the entire point of live shooting. And as per Koala’s retrospection, is what happened to Marry Him.
I respect your choice as shippers, but if only your fervent support can actually be channeled to encourage the drama to do better, then I might just see the praiseworthy qualities of your faction. Other than that, every mention of your ship just leaves a bad after taste in my mouth.
@ockoala & Scientia,
I think I can see what you guys meant. But for me, I find those group of insistent people ludicrous rather than perplexing. I think that’s a better word of how I would describe the situation from my point of view. But I guess its really because of my own personality. I don’t really like being too serious about things that have nothing much to do with me. So instead of finding those shippers destroying my drama-watching experience, I pretty much just laugh it off and it kinda adds on to my enjoyment of the drama actually. I guess I am pretty similar to lorda with my ‘sadistic pleasure’ as well. lol.
But I guess I can see what you guys meant and I totally respect that. 🙂 Cheers!
Wait.wait.wait. That’s NOT Kang Sora?
What?!
So I heard somewhere on Dramabeans that Koala was a Jae-Hee/Hoon shipper and hauled myself over to see the recaps. By and large, I agree with everything you wrote. And it’s crazy but I was never a JSY fan (more like LJS’s fan) and yet I came out liking her character the most in this whole drama. She was, as you eloquently put it, the most straightforward/consistent character even though she had the most bipolar elements. I could understand her pain of trying to protect Hoon while being pressed under the thumb of the enemy and losing the trust/support of her boyfriend. Talk about being a loner.
Regarding shipping wars, normally I’d be able to ignore them but they’re way too influential in changing the direction of the drama, especially in a way that undermines and contradicts everything. And I blame the writer for setting up the shipping wars by hiding away Jae Hee and developing Soo Hyun in the beginning.
IMO, Koala has the most neutral DS recaps and comments over the other, altho i think she’s more of HoonHee regarding the ships (and thats because of the narrative plot), still she is trying her best to balancing the comments between all the characters here IMO and not to mention one of her reason to recap DS was bec she adores both PHJ and KSR..
Meanwhile, in DramaBeans, its as clearly as the blue sky that the DS recapper dislikes the actress play SeungHee aka JSY since the very beginning, and it really effects her recaps and commenting regarding her character, so yeahhh i choose to avoided DB for less headache :/
btw, do you know where i can find the recappers that most handling to Han Jae Joon/PHJ ? He is my most fav among the leads *sigh*