The mainstream media is typically diplomatic when it comes to covering entertainment, especially in K-ent when so much is written with the involvement and consent of the subjects. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours two-way street. Critiques tend to be softer and more roundabout, and even the flops can get a write up solely on the things that did work. With that said, the news media feedback on the the just premiered new KBS drama Blood have been pretty bloody in very direct ways that is rare to see. I’ll just translate one of many Korean newspaper articles discussing the reasons for the ratings flop of the premiere two episode with the same critique. Click here for the original article if you read Korean.
The article analyzes why Blood was met with such low ratings and directly lays the blame with the poor acting of the two leads Gu Hye Sun and Ahn Jae Hyun. First the article discusses Gu Hye Sun’s bad acting, specifically describing the problem being her limited overacting expressions and dialogue spoken like she reciting memorized lines. It then goes into a discussion of how Gu Hye Sun became famous after the back-to-back successes of Pure 19 and Boys Before Flowers, leading her to both act was well as do many other types of projects such as singing, directing, art, etc. Since it’s just the first two episodes, the article leaves possibility for improvement to come, whether her irritating character develops better or Gu Hye Sun’s acting improves in this role.
The article then discusses newbie leading man Ahn Jae Hyun, first mentioning his meteoric quick rise to leading man status within a year of debuting as an actor in You From Another Star. Unfortunately his acting in Blood has been met with near universal audience disdain, especially the scene in episode 1 when he was shot, the feedback has been mockery of his poor affected acting. The article discusses a positive with the casting of Ahn Jae Hyun as a vampire in that his looks make him a perfect visual for a vampire, skinny and tall with very white complexion and red lips.
The article then quotes the PD of Blood responding to the torrent of criticism of the acting of the two leads – the PD understands that it’s risky to cast a relative unknown like Ahn Jae Hyun in the lead and finds the criticism of bad acting acceptable, about what Gu Hye Sun was criticized for when she first debuted nearly 12 years ago. I wish the PD could say more about what the production is going to do to address the criticism going forward. With just 2 episodes aired out of 18, statistically it’s too early to call it quits and just let this drama stay in the ratings crap hole. The production has the responsibility to right a sinking ship, if it’s possible to do so.
Since the leads can’t be switched out and it’s too late for acting lessons, I suggest greatly toning down the terribly abrasive and smug personality of Gu Hye Sun’s character. Calm her down so she’s not shrieky, which will also calm down Gu Hye Sun’s overacting if her character starts acting like a professional doctor would and not a petulant valley girl. The PD also needs to cut the posturing filming around Ahn Jae Hyun, make it more natural rather than capturing every shot of him like he’s posing on a runway. It amplifies his limitations and makes him look even more preposterously unqualified to be a male lead at this stage in his acting experience. Of course, a big boost would be to make sure the script has more plausible medical story lines with less surgery battles. Just my 2 cents.
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Gu Hye Sun's problem lie with the fact that she is over compensating. I read somewhere that she took to heart criticism about how she pronounces things and she tries to make her pronounciation better. The results is she over pronounciate and it sounds like she is reading the phone book. They critisized the way she walks now she changed her walk to a point it is awkward. The critisized her eye movement and so on.
I think all actors should want constructive critisim, but in her case I would say it is best that she ignores all critisims and just do what works for her. Trying to please too many people leaves her confused and it shows on screen.
Yeah, agree. Maybe she's trying a bit too hard and it's coming off unnaturally. Ahn Jae Hyun doesn't looks like a vampire to me. He looks like he belongs in Junior High. No fault of his own, but he was definitely miscast. This role just isn't for him.
I'm really starting to like this two leads.. Just because they have become the victims of all this mess.
I disagree with Koala before watching the episodes but after watching I was not convinced because thought episode 1 was great until I reached the true mess that is episode 2 and seriously just walked away from that episode but however I think we should give them another chance and wait until something changes..
I say lets support this show and show them great support despite everything
They are not victims. The drama is the victim of the acting mess
HAHAHA!!! Best comment ever.
Seriously i pity the writer and the pd nim. This drama isn't that bas but the apparent embarrassing acting is the main problem here
haha yeah it's like they killed the drama but get to play the victim because they got criticised.
I agree with you somehow but they are not at fault as much as the director, producer and the writter because there is something NGs. why dosen't they just use that over and over again until they remove these cringeworthy moments and unnecessary over acting.
Seriously they should be called out for there lack of judgement. I have no film-director experience but I know what is awesome and what is not. The director is at fault here guys for basically lack of judgement and providing us scenes that should have been No-Gos
I agree with you on this. It seems as if the 2 leads have become convenient scapegoats for the shortcomings of the drama.
Viewers will notice only the bad acting of the leads but they won't question what the production is doing in terms of quality control to prevent such scenes from being put on screen.
Why should a poorly made show be supported? If it's bad, it's bad and it should NOT be supported so that dramaland would not make similar bad dramas again.
I just started to look into k-media recently (few months), having fallen in love with BigBang and was looking through tons of old and new articles. I realized that k media and k netizens are much harsher and unforgiving compared to what I was used to when I read other countries's entertainment news. This made me appreciate how necessary Pinnocchio was in terms of social commentary in Korea, and I've also learned to respect some korean celebrities more for fighting their way through these hardships in pursuit of their dreams. Just my two cents.
Disclaimer: I have not and will probably not watch Blood, so I'm not trying to say who's right or who's wrong here on this topic.
Sorry for the typos. Hard to type on phone
"surgery battles" AHAHAHAHA. OMG THAT NIGHTMARE. I hope it doesn't happen at all.
The actings are terrible along with the non sensical medial terms. There are still 18 eps to go and i hope they will improve. GHS needs to loosen up...,she is not that bad. Idk what' s gotten into her in this drama
Even though I didn't understand korea, ghs acting is quite cringeworthy when she speak. How to believe this drama when the acting is not believable
I am actually really enjoying Blood. It's not THAT bad. GHS and AJH are mediocre at best, but if you ignore their scenes together the show itself really is quite entertaining. Ji Jin Hee is definitely this show's strength, so hopefully it will beef up his storyline and lay off of the scenes with the two leads together. I realize that GHS and AJH's characters are supposed to fall in love, but at this point that would just be torture for the viewers.
Yes.. The forbidden love romance btw them will be so cheesy with the acting. I esp don't get any chemistry btw them
This is comment is fantastic. If you ignore the leads, the show is great!
20 episodes is way too ambitious for this drama. I have a strong feeling it's going to get cut shorter.
I feel like I don't really have a right to comment since I only saw clips. From what I've seen... it's terrible, really terrible. Suffering hard from second hand embarrassment. I thought Goo Hye Sun finally improved after Angel Eyes. But then after this I knew it was just her character that saved her.
Generally speaking, do horrible actors/actresses ever watch themselves? Like... Don't they know how awful they look on screen? I've been following Kill Me Heal Me real close. I often watch BTS takes. Jisung is an amazing actor, not only does he ask to make another take if he doesn't like the previous one, he'll even give suggestions to the director on how he thinks that scene should be laid out. Blood needs a Jisung.
My God. if it's jisung who act in Blood, it'd turn out to be awesome. Shin se gi alone makes me melted, how i'm supposed to deal with him as a vampire doctor? lololol
but as long as there's ghs as his partner, i'm glad that it's not him who's act in that cringe-worthy drama. xD
Yeah, when I saw every BTS I got a feeling that JS is directing LOL. But Ji Sung has been acting since 16 years ago, AJH is still very green in terms of acting though that's not an excuse to be bad at it.
They could just work her overreacting as an advantage I guess.. That's what they did with Suzy... Go Hye Mi wasn't supposed to be robotic they just made her robotic because Suzy's acting can only go that far at the time...
yeah, episode 1 and 2 had Hye Mi in scenes where she had to emote and Suzy was just blank. But Dream High had a writer who was good enough to adjust to the poor skills of the actress as best as she could, I don't know if Blood has the same.
The production thought it landed a good thing with the cast for marketing to other Asian countries. The story should be the center stage, then the setting, and lastly the acting to bring it all to life imho. This turkey falls on the shoulders of the PD and writer. Cut the losses and reduce this lemon by four eps. And stop having a dignified surgeon chew gum in meetings unless it is known WHY he's chewing gum. You know like, "it's a special gum he created", to curtail the desire for blood sucking or something. A viral infection, gum, whatever.....