Skip to main content

1% possible

It's time once again to write about trivial topics, ha ha.

I mentioned this K drama, 1% of Anything, sometime back. The title is grammatically odd but it is what the show is about - that even if there is a 1% possibility of something working out, there is that possibility of things turning out well in the end. I kind of like that storyline. It is a 2003 production, making it a contemporary of Stairway to Heaven and All In. Rom-coms weren't quite in yet at that time so it must have been quite a change from the usual fare then.

This show will appeal to die-hard romantics and anyone interested in watching the precursors for many later rom-com scenes. I recognised so many scenes here that were copied in shows like My Girl, Goong, etc. (For all I know, maybe this show copied those ideas from elsewhere.) The show also has practically all the elements you would expect in K drama - rich family versus poorer family, blind dates and match making, best friends, one girl and two suitors, love contracts, younger brother, grandfather... It even has some TVB ideas - cruel stepfather and kidnap!

Nevertheless, I did find it entertaining (though 26 episodes is way too long) because it had some quirky takes on those stock ideas. Like there is often a scene where the guy is pestered by another girl and the girlfriend happens to come by and overhears only part of the conversation and thus misunderstands everything, right? Well, here, the girlfriend happens to come by at the right time and thus sees and hears everything and so there is no misunderstanding. Then there is the time when the girl's dad spings a dating contract on the guy. Funny.

Also, it was nice for a change to have a guy who makes up his mind about the girl very fast, unlike many heroes who take about half the series or more to decide/realise that they like the girl.

And there was a nice soundtrack. I can still hear the song in my head. The last time that happened was when I watched Love Revolution. And I can still hear Ken Hirai...

The main girl, Kim Jung Hwa, is beautiful. The guy, Kang Dong Won, should have had a better haircut but his character was rather endearing.

Han Hye Jin, of Be Strong, Geum Soon and Jumong fame, is here as a secondary character, the best friend. These must have been her early days and I can see why she became a top choice for later dramas. Her acting overshadowed that of all the main characters.

My friend A says she has gone off K drama because she is tired of how everything is fake and made up. I do agree with her on this. Apart from Han Hye Jin, I would say the other people acted fairly competently in a textbook sort of way - they delivered their lines and played their characters in the most 'correct' way they could. Hence the 'fakeness'. And, of course, the cast is, as usual, telegenic and you suspect everyone has had some work done on their faces, teeth, etc.

So I was really glad when Ariel and Joe came back on TV in They Kiss Again. More on that another time!
Pictures from here
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A lesson in love

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. -Mother Teresa Most of the time my eyes just glaze over when I see article upon article of football news. One caught my glazing eye over the weekend, though - 'De la Cruz - Mother Theresa in boots' , because of the familiar name. Mother Teresa, that is. It was the first time I’d ever heard of this de la Cruz guy, an EPL player who hails from Ecuador (GNI per capita US$2,630; as a comparison, Singapore’s is US$27, 490 – source: BBC country profiles ). His is a great story to illustrate that famous Chinese saying about not forgetting your roots. According to the article, ‘Each month a proportion of that salary (about S$150,000) Reading pay him - be it 10 per cent in January or 20 per cent in February - goes direct to the village’ (where he grew up). (Picture and profile from here ) Here's what he has been credited for: 1. 'The 2002 World Cup,' de la Cruz reflects, 'finan...
4 comments
Read more

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...
3 comments
Read more

When the best man doesn't win

Speaking of 'sway' spurned lovers, the latest one I've come across is in Love Revolution ( only 12 episodes!), a J show I recently watched. Heroine of the story is pretty, 30-ish Smart Doctor, who is dying to fall in love and get married. She meets Aspiring Actor and Broadcast Journalist (right). She falls for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks. It's obvious from the start (to the audience but not to her) that Aspiring Actor is nuts about her. But... she has fallen for Broadcast Journalist like a ton of bricks already. No doubt, Smart Doctor and Broadcast Journalist must be given credit for their love that stands the tests of time, separation and misunderstanding, but the one who loves most in the show is undoubtedly Mr Aspiring Actor. What he does/does not do because of his undying love for Smart Doctor: Y does not pursue her at first because he is still struggling to survive in this small-time drama group and he knows he doesn't have much to offer Y resp...
Post a Comment
Read more