The Newest Thing: Park Shi Hoo
After watching the Princess’ Man, I really liked Park Shi Hoo. I wasn’t in love with his character but I really really loved watching him. So I started making my way through his old series, which has been a pretty fun.
First up was Family Honor, which was a 54 episode family drama from 2008-2009. I’ve watched a couple Korean family dramas, but this was definitely my favorite. I really loved it! I loved the whole set-up of the very traditional, good hearted (but screwed up) family versus the nouveau riche, amoral and selfish one. The characters were all nicely drawn and the actors were mostly good to great (minus the pathetic stalker daughter – oh, I hated her and every minute of her story). However, truth be told, I fell in love with this series because Park Shi Hoo’s Kang Suk and Yoon Jung Hee’s Dan Ah were amazing in terms of chemistry and romance, as the predatory business man and the very good daughter of a very traditional family who fall in love while he’s stealing her family’s company. What made it extra great for me is that Dan Ah is a widow who remains devoted to her dead husband’s memory, and Kang Suk is gone for her long before she has any feelings for him. My very favorite romantic trope is guy hopelessly in love with girl who remains oblivious to him, and this series served that one up quite nicely. And Park Shi Hoo was so good at playing it! He was a perfect combination of little boy cuteness and adult desire as Kang Suk. All the times that Kang Suk would observe Dan Ah and his feelings were written across his face, all his attempts to get her to pay attention to him, to be jealous of him, to respond to him – smoking. And that was another thing – for a kdrama and especially for a family drama, this romance was quite steamy. Not because you ever saw anything much, because come on, kdrama and family drama. But because of that restraint, it was all in the performance and the writing. Kang Suk watching Dan Ah bow for a memorial service, or holding his coat after she cleaned it for him after a spill, just became incredibly charged moments where Kang Suk’s desires and feelings were laid bare. It was all unspoken and for the most part un-acted upon, but wow, it was passionate, which is what kdramas go for a lot but rarely achieve IMO. And most of it was based on PSH taking those moments and delivering big-time. I liked him in the Princess’ Man, but I really fell for PSH in this series – his ability to go from adorable to steamy is whew, pretty awesome. And he could be funny too, which he didn't get a chance to show very much in the Princess' Man.
Unfortunately, the whole intensity lessened for me once they got into the fake dating relationship, which went on too long for my taste. What really annoyed me, however, was that the final conflict in the relationship wasn’t about Dan Ah’s feelings for her dead husband and whether she could finally let go of him, but whether Kang Suk would follow through on his family’s ruthless plans or turn things around out of love for Dan Ah. I really didn’t like that, because I loved Dan Ah having the power in the relationship. I wanted them to get together because she chose it, not because he did. And after episodes and episodes of Kang Suk’s conflict over what to do, he finally turned things around for Dan Ah’s sake (of course), and she said yes to his proposal and good bye to her dead husband in like a single episode. Frustrating! Although the whole process of them coming out to both families was fun, after that point it settled into the traditional family drama trajectory of convincing the families to give their consent/going through the whole engagement/big wedding/settling into married life. Nice and fun to watch, but that exciting tension was definitely gone. Sometimes the kdrama affection for matching goofy pajamas for newlyweds just makes me want to cry – way to kill the fun, Korea. Although, there was a bit of a high point when both Kang Suk and Dan Ah got injured by a crazed former victim of Kang Suk’s ruthlessness, and led to a great moment of Kang Suk losing it after Dan Ah is stabbed in front of him. I’ll never say no to a little melo to spice things up.
But those quibbles aside, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and well written family drama. It served up so much in terms of humor and wonderful family interaction, with lots of different relationships and all the characters having individual but entertaining journeys to take. I loved everyone, but particularly the outspoken, hilarious 40 something great-aunt and her commentary on the various family crises. Of course, most everyone ends up married and with babies at the end, but so what else is new for a family drama? It was awesome, and Kang Suk and Dan Ah have remained my favorite of the Park Shi Hoo romances I’ve seen.
Next I watched 2010-2011’s Queen of Reversal. This was a 31 episode office drama about a driven business woman, Hwang Tae Hee, whose career goes off-kilter when she gets married. Her marriage breaks up, and Park Shi Hoo is her boss AND the hot younger son of the chairman, who falls totally and completely in love with her. So you know, a look at the real world ;-). Apparently the show was meant to end at episode 20 with HTH reuniting with her husband, but Park Shi Hoo was so popular that they extended it 11 episodes and re-wrote it so she fell in love with him instead! Obviously the correct choice. ;-) Let me just say – I hate office dramas. I work in an office; I don’t want to see it in my entertainment! I especially don’t like Korean office dramas, where apparently if you’re not willing to work to 11 PM every night, you clearly don’t deserve your job. It’s a good thing our leading lady’s mom was around to raise her kid, because that child never saw either parent during daytime hours, the way both of them worked. And my goodness, but these office dramas go out of their way to dress the ladies as dowdily as possible. Just the helmet hair makes me cringe, and if I never see another lace bow tie shirt again, it’ll be too soon.
However, my love for Park Shi Hoo is strong, and he was again hitting my favorite trope – guy hopelessly gone on love interest who is oblivious to him. And they certainly dressed him well, as he was the eye candy of the show. So I watched, but only from episode 14 on, once her marriage broke up, and fast-forwarded all the office politics. It was primarily Hwang Tae Hee’s story, how she goes through adversity and ends up with a good career and true love, but I was just watching for the romance, so I got through the whole thing pretty quickly. The romance was cute and PSH again totally nailed the very cute, very funny and very hot trifecta. I really liked that his character never wavered in wanting to be with Tae Hee, and the relationship with his room-mate Manager Mok was totally endearing. And I liked Hwang Tae Hee’s steely determination and unexpected gentle side.
But this is not my kind of drama overall. In addition to my general dislike of office dramas, I was especially annoyed that Tae Hee comes up with all the great ideas, repeatedly, and everyone else, including her loserish ex-husband, ends up higher up the career ladder than she does at the end. Why couldn’t she have been the one to start her own company instead of PSH? Let him work for her, since she’s the brilliant one. As positive as the series was in showing that two good people could divorce and move on fairly amicably, there was a real thread of male chauvinism running through the career paths of the women of the series. The two leading females start off running things and both end up working under their future spouses, who are clearly less talented than they are. The most powerful woman in the company is the evil bitch who loses everything – whereas as far as we know, PSH’s evil brother who’s done just as much bad, loses stock but apparently remains in his previous position as higher up. And how rotten was PSH’s father? Marries his wife, who loves him, for money, cheats on her and has PSH, then acts all put upon because his wife and older son don’t support his every attempt to give the company his wife’s family funds to his illegitimate son. Oh, I hated him. Thank goodness PSH was all “thanks but your choices stink, so no thanks” by the end. But even though I didn't love the series, I did love PSH and his character's heartfelt devotion, so I was happy when the couple finally got together -- cause PSH just wanted her so darn much.
It’s been fun watching the PSH series, in part because it’s like tracing an actor's classic rise through the kdrama ranks. He’s gone from supporting and second lead roles to first lead in a family drama, to male lead in female-centric dramas (i.e., the hot love interest), to finally the Princess’ Man, where he headlines a big romance/action fusion costume drama and even gets to be the title character at last. And yet funnily enough, while The Princess’ Man is what got me started on PSH and he was certainly good in it, particularly in the action and romance, I much prefer when he gets the chance to be adorable and little boy and then steamy and hot-blooded. Less political action, more action…action, IOW. But I did like the sword fights and dark avenger stuff an awful lot too. So I hope PSH has another series coming up soon that he headlines and does more swordfights and rescuing of ladies in distress (or the modern day equivalent), but ALSO gets to be hopelessly in love with someone who’s oblivious to him and adorably awkward and funny about it. Cause really, he’s SO made for that trope.
Next up in the Park Shi Hoo series is either Prosecutor Princess, which everyone seems to love but I’m avoiding because I don’t like legal dramas either, or How To Meet A Perfect Neighbor, in which PSH apparently once again manages to snag the leading lady despite being the second lead. Do not doubt the power of PSH’s cute/hot combo. He can even break the laws of kdramas. But I might need to take a break and watch some action or thriller dramas, in which no one works in a corporate tower or is a messed up chaebol. I know, who am I kidding?!? ;-)