Korean films and dramas
Nov. 15th, 2002 02:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirAd Mundo Exteriore,
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tryogeru seems to be listening to the soundtrack from "Yupgi Girl," which I've never heard of before, but now that I know the movie's Korean name (Yupgi jeogin yeoja...er, I really don't know how to romanize), I may pester my father about it. Anyway, while I was trying to find out what on earth this film was about, I also came across an English site, koreanfilm.org, which gave me the name to that beautiful Korean animated film that I saw on Video Journalist (Korean news show). It's called "My Beautiful Girl, Mari," which is not really that great a translation. (It's called Mari iyagi, which is "Mari's Story.") What's amazing is that the person who made it did it entirely on Adobe Illustrator and Flash. ::pauses:: Oniichan, we've got to get our hands on this film!
Also, they have the review of The Way Home, which both Mother and I want to see. (Charming tale of little boy at his grandmother's house--superficially, it sounds like "Yi-yi," but knowing Koreans, I have a feeling it's going to be quite different.)
Urgh. I found this site on Korean dramas, and there's a picture of Han-bi, the baby from the last drama that aired on KTV, prominently displayed on the first page. That one was so awful! In fact, the last few dramas were quite terrible. KTV didn't show "Winter Story," which might have been cliched, but at least was beautifully done and pulled your interest. "This is Love" was not only bad, but also was boring. Yuck.
The author of the web site is pretty good about Korean culture though. I wonder if she's actually Korean-American? (By the way, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to blow my nose at the table. Oops. Apparently Father isn't very good on table etiquette.)
"People with the same surname who come from the same ancestral hometown are not allowed to marry each other. This is because they are considered family members, even if they are only distantly related. Consequently, when people are attracted to a person with the same surname, they typically will ask for that person's ancestral hometown right away."
This is very true. I remember the Terrible Two of AP Biology last year kept asking me if I was related to another boy in my class who had the same last name. (Which was ridiculous, because they knew it was unlikely.) So I explained to them about the hometown thing, and they went asking all the Koreans in the class about it. What was weird was that the boy in question said he was from the same hometown. (I say clan, but it's the same thing.) Of course, if he was from the same branch of the clan, that is, if he traces his ancestry back to the same person, then that'll be really weird. I remember being really disturbed by this, because I've known this boy for six years, and I had no idea. Actually, I think I may have just heard wrong, because I come from a very small clan. Unlike my mother, who comes from the largest clan of the Yoons, one that was quite wealthy and prestigious too, before the Japanese colonization.
"The first birthday is celebrated by placing the child, dressed in traditional Korean clothes, in front of a table with food and objects. The child is urged to pick up one of the objects. Depending on which object the child selects, one supposedly can foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up money, he will be rich. If he picks up a book, he will be a scholar. If he picks up food, he will be a government official."
I picked up a brush. That also means that the child is going to be a scholar. There's this very large photograph of a one-year-old me sitting in hanbok with a writing brush held up in my hand. My parents felt it was very appropriate. I have the feeling that neither of my parents picked up money. Oh, and if the child picks up string, it means they're going to have a long life.
Currently, KTV is showing "To Be With You," in which one of the sisters is terribly wicked and bad, a real yeo-u, while the other is angelic and saintly. I've just realized something though. My obsession with filial duty has only been magnified by the example of all these good Korean girls who give up love in order to obey their parents. Although there are exceptions, the best heroines always are good daughters, and in Romeo and Juliet situations, the two lovers almost never have a happy ending. Case in point, "First Love," which was a major blockbuster. Boy from poor family, girl from rich family. End of movie? Rich girl resigns herself to rich boy who has always been in love with her, and poor boy marries poor girl who has always been in love with him.
In this current drama, the saintly, angelic girl is almost about to get married to the love of her life, when the mother of the groom, who hates the said angelic girl, threatens to put her parents in jail if she doesn't call off the marriage. (The girl's parents had picked up a black pearl that had fallen from the boy's mother's ring. Instead of returning it, they sold it and used the money to buy a house and open a store.) Angelic girl decides, just as she is supposed to enter and walk up the aisle, to send her ring instead, with the message, "There are some things more important than love, oppa." Growing up with this kind of propaganda, how can I not develop the value system that I have now?
(By the way, one minor error on the Korean dramas information site is that it says that girls will sometimes call their boyfriends "oppa." This sentence is misleading. Oppa means older brother in Korean (not derived from hanmun, I mean), and girls use it to address their actual older brothers, older male cousins, and any male friend who is older than them. In fact, I refer to the seonbe (senpai in Japanese) at my school as onni and oppa when I mention them to my parents. Well...not if I know them very well or if they're very close to me in age.) Boy, that was a long parenthetical comment, neh?
All right. I'll stop boring you all with this soap opera nonsense. I'm going to see if there are any interesting dramas from other broadcast networks. Seriously, KTV shows all the bad ones. Yuck.
...Tari
tryogeru seems to be listening to the soundtrack from "Yupgi Girl," which I've never heard of before, but now that I know the movie's Korean name (Yupgi jeogin yeoja...er, I really don't know how to romanize), I may pester my father about it. Anyway, while I was trying to find out what on earth this film was about, I also came across an English site, koreanfilm.org, which gave me the name to that beautiful Korean animated film that I saw on Video Journalist (Korean news show). It's called "My Beautiful Girl, Mari," which is not really that great a translation. (It's called Mari iyagi, which is "Mari's Story.") What's amazing is that the person who made it did it entirely on Adobe Illustrator and Flash. ::pauses:: Oniichan, we've got to get our hands on this film!Also, they have the review of The Way Home, which both Mother and I want to see. (Charming tale of little boy at his grandmother's house--superficially, it sounds like "Yi-yi," but knowing Koreans, I have a feeling it's going to be quite different.)
Urgh. I found this site on Korean dramas, and there's a picture of Han-bi, the baby from the last drama that aired on KTV, prominently displayed on the first page. That one was so awful! In fact, the last few dramas were quite terrible. KTV didn't show "Winter Story," which might have been cliched, but at least was beautifully done and pulled your interest. "This is Love" was not only bad, but also was boring. Yuck.
The author of the web site is pretty good about Korean culture though. I wonder if she's actually Korean-American? (By the way, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to blow my nose at the table. Oops. Apparently Father isn't very good on table etiquette.)
"People with the same surname who come from the same ancestral hometown are not allowed to marry each other. This is because they are considered family members, even if they are only distantly related. Consequently, when people are attracted to a person with the same surname, they typically will ask for that person's ancestral hometown right away."
This is very true. I remember the Terrible Two of AP Biology last year kept asking me if I was related to another boy in my class who had the same last name. (Which was ridiculous, because they knew it was unlikely.) So I explained to them about the hometown thing, and they went asking all the Koreans in the class about it. What was weird was that the boy in question said he was from the same hometown. (I say clan, but it's the same thing.) Of course, if he was from the same branch of the clan, that is, if he traces his ancestry back to the same person, then that'll be really weird. I remember being really disturbed by this, because I've known this boy for six years, and I had no idea. Actually, I think I may have just heard wrong, because I come from a very small clan. Unlike my mother, who comes from the largest clan of the Yoons, one that was quite wealthy and prestigious too, before the Japanese colonization.
"The first birthday is celebrated by placing the child, dressed in traditional Korean clothes, in front of a table with food and objects. The child is urged to pick up one of the objects. Depending on which object the child selects, one supposedly can foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up money, he will be rich. If he picks up a book, he will be a scholar. If he picks up food, he will be a government official."
I picked up a brush. That also means that the child is going to be a scholar. There's this very large photograph of a one-year-old me sitting in hanbok with a writing brush held up in my hand. My parents felt it was very appropriate. I have the feeling that neither of my parents picked up money. Oh, and if the child picks up string, it means they're going to have a long life.
Currently, KTV is showing "To Be With You," in which one of the sisters is terribly wicked and bad, a real yeo-u, while the other is angelic and saintly. I've just realized something though. My obsession with filial duty has only been magnified by the example of all these good Korean girls who give up love in order to obey their parents. Although there are exceptions, the best heroines always are good daughters, and in Romeo and Juliet situations, the two lovers almost never have a happy ending. Case in point, "First Love," which was a major blockbuster. Boy from poor family, girl from rich family. End of movie? Rich girl resigns herself to rich boy who has always been in love with her, and poor boy marries poor girl who has always been in love with him.
In this current drama, the saintly, angelic girl is almost about to get married to the love of her life, when the mother of the groom, who hates the said angelic girl, threatens to put her parents in jail if she doesn't call off the marriage. (The girl's parents had picked up a black pearl that had fallen from the boy's mother's ring. Instead of returning it, they sold it and used the money to buy a house and open a store.) Angelic girl decides, just as she is supposed to enter and walk up the aisle, to send her ring instead, with the message, "There are some things more important than love, oppa." Growing up with this kind of propaganda, how can I not develop the value system that I have now?
(By the way, one minor error on the Korean dramas information site is that it says that girls will sometimes call their boyfriends "oppa." This sentence is misleading. Oppa means older brother in Korean (not derived from hanmun, I mean), and girls use it to address their actual older brothers, older male cousins, and any male friend who is older than them. In fact, I refer to the seonbe (senpai in Japanese) at my school as onni and oppa when I mention them to my parents. Well...not if I know them very well or if they're very close to me in age.) Boy, that was a long parenthetical comment, neh?
All right. I'll stop boring you all with this soap opera nonsense. I'm going to see if there are any interesting dramas from other broadcast networks. Seriously, KTV shows all the bad ones. Yuck.
...Tari
