Korea – Page 7 – With Eyes East

K-Drama Report: Hello, My Twenties! Part II

August 25, 2023

I’d also recommend Hello, My Twenties! but I can’t yet because we have the rare second season to contend with. So to cap off the first, I want to start with something a little bit different, which is to review the show’s character dynamics. It’s an assertion on my part that they’re the heart of the series, but that may or may not be true. In the meantime, they at least set parameters for my expectations going forward. (Because I love them so much!) … More K-Drama Report: Hello, My Twenties! Part II

K-Drama Report: Hello, My Twenties! (2016)

August 19, 2023

A couple of years ago, I started seeing clips online for a K-drama entitled Work Later, Drink Now, starring Eunji from Apink, and I was frustrated because it never showed up on any legal streaming platforms. I really liked the idea of a show that centered on a group of women, in a more casual setting than the workplaces of, say, Search: WWW. And somehow this led me to Hello, My Twenties!, but I think it was probably just that clip of Ryu Hwa-young planting one on Han Seung-yeon, and I’ve got both shows mixed up in my head. But when it came time to choose which one to watch first, the occasion of my 30th birthday made the decision easy: I will start watching the show called Hello, My Twenties! … More K-Drama Report: Hello, My Twenties! (2016)

The Oldboy and I | A Comedy on Purpose

August 19, 2023

Oldboy is one of the key titles from a time in my life when I watched movies a lot. Not a breadth of movies, but a small selection over and over again. I was studying to be a moviemaker myself, so I was doing a lot of director commentaries, and I doubt I was absorbing much. Actually, there’s this lesson you learn early in film studies, that anything substantive can be gleaned from watching bad movies. False! Sure, it’s a kind of deconstruction, and it’s easy to see the mistakes. “I won’t make a mistake like that,” you say, and then dream about what you’d do instead. But it’s harder to visualize what you’d do, especially once you’re in it, suddenly realizing that this successful execution of a payoff doesn’t make for an actual scene, as that’s an entirely different step. First you set everything up inside the broader structure, and then you have to ask, “What might be cool?” It’s a process of construction, and this is a separate discipline. … More The Oldboy and I | A Comedy on Purpose

08/12/2023 – Pop-Pop the Champagne

August 12, 2023

It’s been With Eyes East tradition on August 12th to celebrate the birthday of Bomi from Apink, but this year, I actually wanted to pivot a bit – not too far – from Apink to Red Velvet. From what I can tell, their 2022 release “Birthday” is considered one of their lesser singles, and it is indeed an oddity like “Zimzalabim” or “RBB.” The video is a total-war assault of bizarreness, without the slightest threat of context for the events or landscapes or creatures. We have a cyclops guy like a Tohl Narita Ultraman monster, a yeti guy from, you know, yetis, and the Gingerbread Man but as a king? It’s like a weird, terrible remix of things that we can sort of place, as if assembled by AI or sheer accident. This is what the K-pop channel looks like within the Videodrome signal. … More 08/12/2023 – Pop-Pop the Champagne

Two Gods

July 16, 2023

It’s news to me that a Godzilla movie is releasing this year. Now, typically, this has been cause for indigestion, being no fan of the Legendary MonsterVerse. Granted, that new movie bears the title Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, which is just goofily sincere enough. Not for me to see, but for something. No, a Godzilla movie is coming down from Toho Studios as well, and it’s entitled Godzilla Minus One. Sounds a lot like the proposed title for the third Jaws movie (Jaws 3, People 0), but there’s a weight behind it. Taking place immediately after World War II, we find Japan at “zero,” and Godzilla’s arrival will bump them down to the negative. I’m not 100% certain, but I believe this is the first Godzilla period piece, and that’s already exciting. … More Two Gods

Siren: Survive the Island – Final Report

June 12, 2023

Boy, that Physical: 100 finale must have left scars on all of us. In the back of my mind, there was such a sense of “contestants vs. producers” throughout that, in the end, it was easy to blame everything on the anonymous, unseen puppet masters doubtlessly manipulating every frame of this so-called “reality” programming to whichever nefarious ends. By the time I’m writing about its spiritual sequel Siren – hoping to give it any kind of boost – proper accreditation never enters my mind. The contestants, sure. Those ladies are badass and I love them. But the bloodsucking producers? No! And I find myself now winding toward an apology not just because the creator of Siren is also a woman, though that certainly helps. Her name is Lee Eun-kyung, and with Siren: Survive the Island, I think she’s done something really great. … More Siren: Survive the Island – Final Report

Park Yeon-jin’s Evil Faces

March 16, 2023

As yet another teaser for a potential feature on Lim Ji-yeon’s acting, here’s a quick look at how many evil faces she makes in just one scene. The above image is from a YouTube thumbnail for her show Welcome 2 Life, which we can use as a reference. She’s expressing anger, but it’s a comedic scene. There’s a measure of indignant shock tempering the threat. … More Park Yeon-jin’s Evil Faces

Casual vs. Stressful Viewing

March 10, 2023

Today is The Glory Day, everyone, which I’ve been excited about for at least a month. I watched the first new episode this morning, and wow, was it scary. I’ve been meaning to write something more substantive about Lim Ji-yeon, because she was so impressive in Part 1, but now having seen her play a kind-hearted character — a doofus, even — in Welcome 2 Life, her transformation here is astonishing. She’s so evil, I just want to sing her praises all day. … More Casual vs. Stressful Viewing

Physical: 100 – Final Report [PODCAST]

February 22, 2023

Join Donovan and I in our second discussion of Physical: 100, covering episodes five through the season one finale. We talk about the increasing difficulty of the challenges — and whether or not they’re suitable to the physiques on display — the game itself, and of course, the Riddle of Strength. … More Physical: 100 – Final Report [PODCAST]

Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #7

February 14, 2023

In between last week’s episodes and this week’s, I found myself engaging with a Facebook group I’d otherwise elected to hide from (long story). Somebody wanted to know if anyone was watching Physical: 100, and apparently, I’ll take any chance to raise my hand and flail about. In that time, I’d also written an article for Collider, and characterized the show in breathless terms: “Whether all the contestants believe it, men and women are equal competitors in these challenges which emphasize a variety of strengths, creating a final, holistic visual metaphor — this time, for egalitarianism.” Wow! Put that on the DVD box: “Egalitarianism” – Collider. Naturally, I then bit my tongue, remembering that Jang Eun-sil was on thin ice, and if she goes down, the rest of the women follow. … More Jang Eun-sil Report – Physical: 100 Episode #7