Thursday, May 15, 2014

Bride of the Century


You know what makes typing hard? Having a huge bandage encasing half of a finger. Last Sunday, I stabbed myself while dislodging a piece of frozen fish from another piece of frozen fish which resulted in three stitches. Seriously, if there was a mini Luke Skywalker around, he would have crawled into my finger thinking it was a Taun-taun. It was gross.

And now that you have that image burned into your brain let's talk about this drama!



After watching the first episode, I was a little hesitant about continuing. It wasn't very strong and the acting seemed shaky. I'm also still scarred from watching Nail Salon Paris. I decided that I was going to power through that crap no matter what and I was really hoping that wasn't going to be the case this time because I was really excited to watch this drama.

I was not disappointed after the first episode though. It's like the actors needed a minute to figure out who they were to really get the drama going.

The only reason that I started watching this drama was because Lee Hongki was in it. Is there anyone else out there like me? I haven't seen him in anything since You're Beautiful and that was ages ago! That was also the drama that cemented in my mind that Hongki will forever be Jeremy in my mind. Because of his Forever Jeremy status, it was really weird seeing him be this mega jerk for the first half of the drama.


Okay, maybe it wasn't the only reason, I also thought the plot sounded interesting. The story is that Hongki's family is cursed that the first wife of the first son is fated to die on the wedding night. That would certainly put off most chances of marriage wouldn't it? This is where we meet the female lead Yang Jin Sung. She is the mirror image of Hongki's current fiance who is also played by Yang Jin Sung. How the look alike, Doo Rim, factors in is that the real bride, Yi Kyung, runs away from home so her mother finds Doo Rim and asks her to be a stand in as Yi Kyung until she is found. But then, of course, we find out that something far more sinister is going on and that is what really carries the story forward.

I thought that Yang Jin Sung did really well in her portrayal as two very different characters. She was actually the main reason that I was unsure about the drama in the beginning. It didn't seem like she knew what she was doing and her performance felt fake and overdone. She was able to get over that pretty quickly though and I found that I actually did quite like her. When I read up on her I found that she hasn't done a lot acting-wise and this is the first staring role that she has ever had. Hopefully she gets more in the future!

  

Something that this drama handled really well was the ending. They had an epilogue, plus a family/love related twist and they were both really well done. When it comes to epilogues I feel that much of the time they are just a giant slap in the face. Suddenly, epilogue. No warning or anything it just happens and it can be quite jarring.

This epilogue jumped us forward two years and while they did make the time difference known, it wasn't through visuals. There weren't awkward wardrobe changes and vast differences in jobs. The change was done with words and actions which was much more subtle and enjoyable to watch.

As for the ending ending of the drama, I haven't been this happy about an ending in a really long time. The last few dramas that I have watched have had acceptable endings. Even My Love From Another Star was just slightly above acceptable because they did leave we as an audience with a lot of questions. This drama was able to tie up all their loose ends nicely and still leave that glimmer hope for the future. Also, that second to last shot in the outhouse (not a toilet, by the way) left me with the warm fuzzies. I love that that was added in.


All in all, this drama was really good and I would definitely recommend others to watch it if you haven't already!

~ Alora

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