![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Dropped: When the Camellia Blooms (동백꽃 필 무렵) (2019)
I had told my coworker that I didn't really watch any Korean dramas. She recommended this Kdrama to me because she said that people who weren't into Kdramas enjoyed it as well.
My issue with this drama was that it dragged and that it spent too much time on romance. That might interest some people, but it didn't interest me. I watched up to episode 4 (of the 20 episode version) before I decided to call it quits.
Some spoilers?
Story
Up until I dropped this show, it was very romance heavy. Okay, Yong-sik likes Dong-baek and follows her around. But that got old real fast. As well, there were some typical romcom tropes. In real life, Yong-sik would've been an annoying stalker but since he's the male lead, it's supposed to be seen as devoted and cute.
Some episodes would go by with just one minor detail about the Joker serial murderer, but that was the story that I was more interested in.
In addition to the slow pacing, there was some inconsistent writing that bothered me a bit. It was mostly related to individual characters though so I'll leave that until later.
I had thought that this show would've been like Someday or One Day, in which there was a 50/50 split between romance and thriller. There was just enough thriller to keep me guessing and coming back for more. However, there was none of that. I know we began the series knowing that Dong-baek was killed, but Joker was barely an afterthought.
Basically, this story spent way too much time on Yong-sik and Dong-baek that I nearly forget that it's supposed to also be a mystery. Perhaps that is the point to give the audience happy moments amidst looming tragedy, but I am most definitely here for the thriller and care not for the romance.
Production
Cinematography
I will say that the camerawork in this show was pretty professional. I felt like I was there with the characters in the town of Ongsan.
Acting
A lot of the acting felt a little exaggerated, especially from Yong-sik or any of the supporting characters like Gyu-tae or the bullying aunties. I'll talk about this more in the character section.
Characters
Hwang Yong-sik
I admit I enjoyed Yong-sik's intrdocution very much. I was wheezing at the footage of him whacking a bank robber with his lunch thermos. He was introduced to us as a guy who couldn't resist punching douches and was always appropriately recognized for doing a public service by giving those people their deserved punishments.
Yong-sik's enthusiasm, however, was spent on getting close to Dong-baek. He fell deep in love with Dong-baek, and always knew that he was after the ladies (he kept saying that he wanted to meet a woman from Seoul).
I just really felt that the energy he'd emitted was wasted on the romance story line, and that he'd be even more interesting if the story was a little more in line with his past history of being a vigilante. His boss obviously wasn't budging on the crime, so it would've made sense if Yong-sik decided to do his own investigation, both for public good, and to protect Dong-Baek.
Yong-sik's character also got a bit of getting used to. He is impulsive and awkward, and the latter was exaggerated for comedic effect, but it also gets a little odd after a while. I know we're supposed to see him as a big dumb puppy, but I think we're selling him a bit short, and as a policeman, we could've seen him doing some more interesting things in the first four hours.
Oh Dong-baek
Okay, I have some issues with Dong-baek. Obviously, she came from an unfortunate childhood. She was an orphan, and when she had a baby, it was her first chance to have her own family, even if her boyfriend wasn't going to be around. Yong-sik and Dong-baek both claimed that Dong-baek was strong for being a single mother who raised Pil-gu well and ran a business. That's fine.
However, Dong-baek was always making her son worry, and wasn't very assertive with him about not having to worry. Every time Dong-baek went to the market, she'd get bullied by the aunties, but the thing is, it was always written like it was a surprise! Dong-baek always seemed caught off guard about being overcharged for being the object of the aunties' scorn and jealousy. She'd been working there for years, so it didn't make sense that this would come as a surprise.
Dong-baek constantly got yelled at by the aunties but she rarely stood up for herself. Her son had to defend her and Pil-gu later went on a rant to his mother that he had to defend her even though he was the kid. When Dong-baek was yelled at for selling alcohol to a woman's husband, she offered to pay money back? Wtf? What kind of business owner is she even? Even Hyang-mi said that Dong-baek was too naive. The fact that she lasted as long as she did in Ongsan didn't make sense considering most businesses would only survive for three months.
I know that being strong doesn't come from not crying and winning arguments, but I kept being led to believe that Dong-baek would stand up for herself for once to stop her and her son from getting bullied. But every single time she ended up relenting, and Yong-sik or Pil-gu would step in.
Maybe I'm hating on Dong-baek because I'm just blind to her strengths, but the majority of the time we saw her on screen was when she was crying or being bullied/interrogated.
Dong-baek was related to the Joker as she was a witness/survivor of his last murder. She wanted to forget about the whole thing, refusing interviews and such, but we know that the Joker was onto her since 2013 and would eventually catch up to her.
My other pet peeve was that Dong-baek seemed to have quite a bit of idle time for a single mother and a business owner with one employee. In real life, I'd think most mothers in this situation would be collapsed on their bed every night, rather than having time to go to the train station to think.
To me, Dong-baek seemed too much like a damsel. She was strong and brave for providing for her son on her own, but seeing her get bullied (and be surprised about it) got real old real fast, especially if she was running a business in that area for six years already.
Kang Jong-ryul
He was the baseball player who was Dong-baek's ex and Pil-gu's father. At the beginning of the show, he was shown as being a loving father in a bad marriage. His wife was obsessed with her looks and her social media following (despite it not being big). In addition, Jong-ryul wasn't doing so well as a baseball player.
After finding out that he was Pil-gu's dad, Jong-ryul came back to Camellia quite often, to reminisce I suppose.
I thought he was kind of funny as a dumb jock at first, but he just got kind of bland. I thought that maybe his character would be a little more sinister because he was sketchily smoking in front of Camellia, but nothing he'd done after that scene had suggested that he was anything other than a guy curious about his son.
As well, for a baseball player who apparently loved his daughter a lot, he also seemed to have a lot of idle time.
Kwak Deok-sun
Ms. Kwak was Yong-sik's mother. She was a spunky lady, and the only one who'd stand up for Dong-baek. She was widowed and had brought up three boys, so she sympathized with Dong-baek.
Ms. Kwak was overjoyed when she'd learned that her son was apparently dating a lawyer (false information from Seung-yeop). However, it made her a bit of a hypocrite for disapproving of Yong-sik wanting to date a single mother. Well, disapproving maybe isn't the right word. We saw that Ms. Kwak was a bit annoyed at her son, but it wasn't explained by the time I dropped the show, so perhaps she was just disappointed that he hadn't told her about his dating activities.
Chief Byeon
Chief Byeon annoyed me because of his writing. He was shown to be a suck up to local bureaucracy, and also not very smart. However, he'd headed the Joker investigation, and in the flashback scenes, he acted more like a guy who was aware of the situation.
When Chief Byeon found out about the Joker message on Dong-baek's wall, he'd told him not to pursue the matter, but soon after, he went with Yong-sik to look at the message.
I guess the most reasonable deduction would be that Chief Byeon used to be a promising detective, but the Joker investigation beat him down, and he lost his confidence. From then on, he decided he'd just be a paper pusher.
As I was into this show for the thriller aspect, I was hoping to see more from Chief Byeon, but no such luck.
No Gyu-tae
Mr. No was the landlord who always tried to act more important than he really was. He was always trying to get his ego stroked, mostly because he was completely disrespected at home, though to be fair, he always made mistakes when talking and his wife was just correcting him.
Apparently Mr. No was obsessed with getting Dong-baek's attention because she was the only one of the street who didn't give him special attention. Mr. No's wife was under the impression that Mr. No was having an affair with Dong-baek, and thus embarrased him while they were together at Camellia. From then on, Mr. No was harsh to Dong-baek, but he also redirected his affections to Hyang-mi, who'd said that she respected him.
Mr. No was freaking obsessed with Hyang-mi's respect and he began going after her instead.
I can see Mr. No getting into some shady dealings in the rest of the show. Still a loser though.
Hong Ja-yeong
Hong Ja-yeong was not an ally to Dong-baek, but she was also not a villain. She cared about her own reputation, so her only goal was to stop Mr. No from doing anything stupid to tarnish her reputation.
She was shown to be smart, but not completely omniscient.
Hyang-mi
Hyang-mi was Dong-baek's employee, who apparently worked there for very little. By the time I dropped the show, it was also revealed that she was sleeping at Camellia, presumably because she was really low on funds (as she'd been borrowing money as well).
I can see Hyang-mi playing a bigger role with regards to the logistics of how Joker would get into Camellia. I suppose she'd unknowingly served him or let him in to the premises.
Kang Pil-gu
Kang Pil-gu was Dong-baek's son. He was shown to be mature for a kid his age, and very protective of his mother as there was no one out there to help her.
Pil-gu said he wasn't really curious about his father because he'd never known him. Basically he'd be more sad about his dad if he'd known him, but without a dad, he didn't feel that he was missing any emotional link.
Aunties
The bully aunties got real old real fast. I guess they were old school and that's why they looked down on a single mother, but their schtick never changed. It was always the same thing, blaming Dong-saek for selling alcohol to their husbands or overcharging her for food. It wasn't even funny.
Seung-yeop and Heung-sik
I think Seung-yeop worked at his mom's restaurant and Heung-sik was the coach of the local baseball team. Just average town bros.
Jessica
Jessica was Jong-ryul's wife. She was obsessed with being a celebrity. On TV, she claimed that beauty wasn't everything but it's clear that she was very vain. In addition, she thought she was a bigger celebrity than she was. She had less than 100k followers if I remember correctly. As well, she'd worn a mask to go between buildings even though Jong-ryul was sure that no one would know who she was.
Jessica also didn't care at all about her kid, feeling annoyed and totally detached when the baby started crying. I'm actually quite curious to know whether Jessica plays a bigger role later on in the story.
Overall
Now that I did some writing, this show does have promise, but I've sat through too much unnecessary romance and I don't really want to sit through any more. I wouldn't even need 100% thriller. I just need enough thriller to keep me hooked and coming back for the next episode, but there was barely anything, any sense of urgency or danger.
My issue with this drama was that it dragged and that it spent too much time on romance. That might interest some people, but it didn't interest me. I watched up to episode 4 (of the 20 episode version) before I decided to call it quits.
Some spoilers?
Story
Up until I dropped this show, it was very romance heavy. Okay, Yong-sik likes Dong-baek and follows her around. But that got old real fast. As well, there were some typical romcom tropes. In real life, Yong-sik would've been an annoying stalker but since he's the male lead, it's supposed to be seen as devoted and cute.
Some episodes would go by with just one minor detail about the Joker serial murderer, but that was the story that I was more interested in.
In addition to the slow pacing, there was some inconsistent writing that bothered me a bit. It was mostly related to individual characters though so I'll leave that until later.
I had thought that this show would've been like Someday or One Day, in which there was a 50/50 split between romance and thriller. There was just enough thriller to keep me guessing and coming back for more. However, there was none of that. I know we began the series knowing that Dong-baek was killed, but Joker was barely an afterthought.
Basically, this story spent way too much time on Yong-sik and Dong-baek that I nearly forget that it's supposed to also be a mystery. Perhaps that is the point to give the audience happy moments amidst looming tragedy, but I am most definitely here for the thriller and care not for the romance.
Production
Cinematography
I will say that the camerawork in this show was pretty professional. I felt like I was there with the characters in the town of Ongsan.
Acting
A lot of the acting felt a little exaggerated, especially from Yong-sik or any of the supporting characters like Gyu-tae or the bullying aunties. I'll talk about this more in the character section.
Characters
Hwang Yong-sik
I admit I enjoyed Yong-sik's intrdocution very much. I was wheezing at the footage of him whacking a bank robber with his lunch thermos. He was introduced to us as a guy who couldn't resist punching douches and was always appropriately recognized for doing a public service by giving those people their deserved punishments.
Yong-sik's enthusiasm, however, was spent on getting close to Dong-baek. He fell deep in love with Dong-baek, and always knew that he was after the ladies (he kept saying that he wanted to meet a woman from Seoul).
I just really felt that the energy he'd emitted was wasted on the romance story line, and that he'd be even more interesting if the story was a little more in line with his past history of being a vigilante. His boss obviously wasn't budging on the crime, so it would've made sense if Yong-sik decided to do his own investigation, both for public good, and to protect Dong-Baek.
Yong-sik's character also got a bit of getting used to. He is impulsive and awkward, and the latter was exaggerated for comedic effect, but it also gets a little odd after a while. I know we're supposed to see him as a big dumb puppy, but I think we're selling him a bit short, and as a policeman, we could've seen him doing some more interesting things in the first four hours.
Oh Dong-baek
Okay, I have some issues with Dong-baek. Obviously, she came from an unfortunate childhood. She was an orphan, and when she had a baby, it was her first chance to have her own family, even if her boyfriend wasn't going to be around. Yong-sik and Dong-baek both claimed that Dong-baek was strong for being a single mother who raised Pil-gu well and ran a business. That's fine.
However, Dong-baek was always making her son worry, and wasn't very assertive with him about not having to worry. Every time Dong-baek went to the market, she'd get bullied by the aunties, but the thing is, it was always written like it was a surprise! Dong-baek always seemed caught off guard about being overcharged for being the object of the aunties' scorn and jealousy. She'd been working there for years, so it didn't make sense that this would come as a surprise.
Dong-baek constantly got yelled at by the aunties but she rarely stood up for herself. Her son had to defend her and Pil-gu later went on a rant to his mother that he had to defend her even though he was the kid. When Dong-baek was yelled at for selling alcohol to a woman's husband, she offered to pay money back? Wtf? What kind of business owner is she even? Even Hyang-mi said that Dong-baek was too naive. The fact that she lasted as long as she did in Ongsan didn't make sense considering most businesses would only survive for three months.
I know that being strong doesn't come from not crying and winning arguments, but I kept being led to believe that Dong-baek would stand up for herself for once to stop her and her son from getting bullied. But every single time she ended up relenting, and Yong-sik or Pil-gu would step in.
Maybe I'm hating on Dong-baek because I'm just blind to her strengths, but the majority of the time we saw her on screen was when she was crying or being bullied/interrogated.
Dong-baek was related to the Joker as she was a witness/survivor of his last murder. She wanted to forget about the whole thing, refusing interviews and such, but we know that the Joker was onto her since 2013 and would eventually catch up to her.
My other pet peeve was that Dong-baek seemed to have quite a bit of idle time for a single mother and a business owner with one employee. In real life, I'd think most mothers in this situation would be collapsed on their bed every night, rather than having time to go to the train station to think.
To me, Dong-baek seemed too much like a damsel. She was strong and brave for providing for her son on her own, but seeing her get bullied (and be surprised about it) got real old real fast, especially if she was running a business in that area for six years already.
Kang Jong-ryul
He was the baseball player who was Dong-baek's ex and Pil-gu's father. At the beginning of the show, he was shown as being a loving father in a bad marriage. His wife was obsessed with her looks and her social media following (despite it not being big). In addition, Jong-ryul wasn't doing so well as a baseball player.
After finding out that he was Pil-gu's dad, Jong-ryul came back to Camellia quite often, to reminisce I suppose.
I thought he was kind of funny as a dumb jock at first, but he just got kind of bland. I thought that maybe his character would be a little more sinister because he was sketchily smoking in front of Camellia, but nothing he'd done after that scene had suggested that he was anything other than a guy curious about his son.
As well, for a baseball player who apparently loved his daughter a lot, he also seemed to have a lot of idle time.
Kwak Deok-sun
Ms. Kwak was Yong-sik's mother. She was a spunky lady, and the only one who'd stand up for Dong-baek. She was widowed and had brought up three boys, so she sympathized with Dong-baek.
Ms. Kwak was overjoyed when she'd learned that her son was apparently dating a lawyer (false information from Seung-yeop). However, it made her a bit of a hypocrite for disapproving of Yong-sik wanting to date a single mother. Well, disapproving maybe isn't the right word. We saw that Ms. Kwak was a bit annoyed at her son, but it wasn't explained by the time I dropped the show, so perhaps she was just disappointed that he hadn't told her about his dating activities.
Chief Byeon
Chief Byeon annoyed me because of his writing. He was shown to be a suck up to local bureaucracy, and also not very smart. However, he'd headed the Joker investigation, and in the flashback scenes, he acted more like a guy who was aware of the situation.
When Chief Byeon found out about the Joker message on Dong-baek's wall, he'd told him not to pursue the matter, but soon after, he went with Yong-sik to look at the message.
I guess the most reasonable deduction would be that Chief Byeon used to be a promising detective, but the Joker investigation beat him down, and he lost his confidence. From then on, he decided he'd just be a paper pusher.
As I was into this show for the thriller aspect, I was hoping to see more from Chief Byeon, but no such luck.
No Gyu-tae
Mr. No was the landlord who always tried to act more important than he really was. He was always trying to get his ego stroked, mostly because he was completely disrespected at home, though to be fair, he always made mistakes when talking and his wife was just correcting him.
Apparently Mr. No was obsessed with getting Dong-baek's attention because she was the only one of the street who didn't give him special attention. Mr. No's wife was under the impression that Mr. No was having an affair with Dong-baek, and thus embarrased him while they were together at Camellia. From then on, Mr. No was harsh to Dong-baek, but he also redirected his affections to Hyang-mi, who'd said that she respected him.
Mr. No was freaking obsessed with Hyang-mi's respect and he began going after her instead.
I can see Mr. No getting into some shady dealings in the rest of the show. Still a loser though.
Hong Ja-yeong
Hong Ja-yeong was not an ally to Dong-baek, but she was also not a villain. She cared about her own reputation, so her only goal was to stop Mr. No from doing anything stupid to tarnish her reputation.
She was shown to be smart, but not completely omniscient.
Hyang-mi
Hyang-mi was Dong-baek's employee, who apparently worked there for very little. By the time I dropped the show, it was also revealed that she was sleeping at Camellia, presumably because she was really low on funds (as she'd been borrowing money as well).
I can see Hyang-mi playing a bigger role with regards to the logistics of how Joker would get into Camellia. I suppose she'd unknowingly served him or let him in to the premises.
Kang Pil-gu
Kang Pil-gu was Dong-baek's son. He was shown to be mature for a kid his age, and very protective of his mother as there was no one out there to help her.
Pil-gu said he wasn't really curious about his father because he'd never known him. Basically he'd be more sad about his dad if he'd known him, but without a dad, he didn't feel that he was missing any emotional link.
Aunties
The bully aunties got real old real fast. I guess they were old school and that's why they looked down on a single mother, but their schtick never changed. It was always the same thing, blaming Dong-saek for selling alcohol to their husbands or overcharging her for food. It wasn't even funny.
Seung-yeop and Heung-sik
I think Seung-yeop worked at his mom's restaurant and Heung-sik was the coach of the local baseball team. Just average town bros.
Jessica
Jessica was Jong-ryul's wife. She was obsessed with being a celebrity. On TV, she claimed that beauty wasn't everything but it's clear that she was very vain. In addition, she thought she was a bigger celebrity than she was. She had less than 100k followers if I remember correctly. As well, she'd worn a mask to go between buildings even though Jong-ryul was sure that no one would know who she was.
Jessica also didn't care at all about her kid, feeling annoyed and totally detached when the baby started crying. I'm actually quite curious to know whether Jessica plays a bigger role later on in the story.
Overall
Now that I did some writing, this show does have promise, but I've sat through too much unnecessary romance and I don't really want to sit through any more. I wouldn't even need 100% thriller. I just need enough thriller to keep me hooked and coming back for the next episode, but there was barely anything, any sense of urgency or danger.