Winter Sonata

Please note, the following may contain spoilers of KBS' 2002 miniseries, Winter Sonata. Also note that I am kind of enjoying watching it.

After having emphatically stated how I'd never watch a Korean drama called "Gyeoul Yeonga" or Winter Sonata, I bought my mother the DVD set and then it arrived at the house. Having some time on my hands and my curiousity getting the better of me, I popped the first of 6 discs into the DVD player.

And what did I get? A hell of a lot of hair-pulling frustration over the sloooowly unfolding 20 episode MELOdrama. The plot involves too many emotionally unstable people in one social setting. It's a wonder by the end, that they haven't either murdered each other or committed group suicide. Hell, I felt like doing both while watching the damn thing.

Winter Sonata features the notoriously popular Korean actor Bae Yong Joon. Well, popular in Asia anyway. In fact, Mr. Bae is so damn popular in a certain Land where the sun rises that he's earned himself the nickname "Yon-sama" (an honorable way to address a person). Viewing the ubiquitous WS helped me see why this might be. 1. He plays the at times melancholy and at times sunny but always gentle hero. 2. He dresses well. 3. He wears glasses (oh wait, that's just me *sigh*) The exalted Mr. Bae plays Joon Sang, an identity-challenged character that exists merely to be in pain (as one alter ego), and then inadvertenly pain others.

Opposite ol' Yon-sama is Choi Ji Woo. She plays Yoojin, Joon Sang's star crossed lover. A girl who has somehow managed to come off as strong and pathetically weak at the same time. The majority of her screen time is spent looking dejectedly at her hands. Sometimes she cries, sometimes she takes soulful strolls in the snow. Lots of times she's being saved from a sticky situation by our faithful hero. And sometimes, just sometimes, she does all 4. It's hard to cry, stare at your hands, wade through snow and be heroically saved at the same time. Though I can pull it off beautifully.

The snowy drama features other key players. The high moral character of Sang Hyuk, who's been in love with Yoojin since he was in his mother's womb, then tries to prove his love by first trying to rape her and then, trying to force her to marry him. Ah the sweet romance of it all.

Then comes Chelin, a clingy whiner and one of few characters who can cry more than one tear at a time (honestly, for most the eyes start welling and then one, ONE decorative dainty tear will fall). She tries to win our moodily sunny hero's heart by continually showing up unannounced, clinging needily to his arm and telling him lies. Who wouldn't be won over by such enticing wiles?

Lest I forget other main character of Winter Sonata. The scarf. Indeed the drama could easily have been called Winter Scarf. I've never seen quite so many scarves tied in so many interesting and innovative ways. Particularly around the attractive necks of our two snow floundering mains. Really I was very impressed. The scarves often usurped the actors. I found that my attention was often drawn to the scarves, their colour, length, style. I was often more anxious to see what scarf Yon-sama would choose to wear and how he would tie it, rather than whether he would win the girl. It was hard not to pay attention to them, since half the time they were looped around the actors necks so much it looked not only bulky but like it was cutting off air.

I won't spoil the ending of this glorious show of self torture and near mutilation. I haven't even finished it myself. I just forced my mother to tell me so I could be relieved of pulling out my own hair and screaming at the TV. Koreans love a good show of sadistic masochism. Or masochistic sadism. By watching those on screen run around with pained expressions we can feel better about our own relatively uneventful lives.