Wednesday, August 3, 2016

K-drama: Oh my Venus!



Synopsis: Kim Young-Ho (So Ji-Sub) is a personal trainer for Hollywood stars. Even though he comes from a wealthy family background, he suffered a devastating injury during his childhood days. Now, he overcomes his problems with patience and stubbornness.
Kang Joo-Eun (Shin Min-A) is 33-years-old lawyer. She has struggled to support her family. Now, Kang Joo-Eun is overweight and not so attractive.

My thoughts: This was the first real melo-K-drama I’ve ever watched. And it was really interesting! The story is about this lawyer who was once the most beautiful girl in her region, but after the exams and the stress of adult life, she becomes "careless" and gain weight. On the other corner there is this rich guy who suffered a lot during his childhood because he had a knee cancer, and went through a lot of surgeries to cure it. One day they meet on an airplane going back to South Korea, when the girl is feeling sick for taking pills, coffee and wine all together, and he is a doctor that goes to the rescue. Here is what I thought about it.

First of all, the soundtrack was – wait for it – LEGENDARY. Yes, truly. The songs that were picked were cute and adorable and romantic, and used in the right moments, they gave the perfect atmosphere for those who were watching. Yes, they were Korean – so I couldn’t possibly understand it – but the rhythm was so beautiful that you can surpass the language barrier.

Second, it was the first “spicy” K-drama I watched. As far as I’ve seen, the scenes where there is some sensuality are very rare, and sex scenes aren’t shown at all – they just hint the idea that they are going to sleep together and that it. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing – actually I think that it gives the chance to explore the characters and the story, rather than showing sex scenes here and there. But this one was different: Oh my Venus was the  K-drama with the most references and subliminal messages to sex I’ve ever seen so far – and I liked it! Because the characters were older – around their thirties – it’s expected that they already experienced sex – that’s my theory – so it was ok.

Third, they talk about a lot of import issues our society faces, fat-shaming and domestic violence being the highlights. Just because someone is fat, that doesn’t give you the right to go and insult this person; You don’t know what they’ve been through, they already suffer for “not fitting” into the social pattern of blond, thin and “beautiful” that society imposes to them, and still you go there and mistreat them?! What kind of sick human being are you?! As far as I could see, Korea has this body pattern of a petite girl with delicate proportion and smooth skin. Not everybody can achieve that, you know? There are some people who are fat and have no health problem whatsoever; there are skinny people who have more issues than my great grandma. You never know. So it was interesting to see how society affects the way people think, as concerning a “sexy body type”: you can only have a boyfriend, a big house and lots of money if you are skinny and survive by eating dew and universe’s juice. Well, let me break this down to you: you can have all that and still be fat if you want to (as long as it doesn’t harm your body or your health, obviously).

The same goes to domestic violence: although we look from outside and clearly see the violence going on, is not up to us. We can help and support the victim, open their eyes for the issue – “hun, if he hits you, or mistreats you, or make you feel less, he doesn’t love you! And it’s not your fault for all that, he is a douchbag that doesn’t deserve an ich of what you are!” – but in the end it up for the victim to stand up and scream for themselves. Unfortunately a lot of people think that the victim gets beaten up and doesn’t go to the authorities, so “well, she/he likes it”. NO! No one likes to get beaten up; being called bad names; Most likely that person doesn’t have the courage to go because they don’t believe the system can protect them – which it can’t, so it’s true – or because they are afraid of what their partner can do if they find out or get released; some are afraid of never seeing their kids again. So just don’t. It’s NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER ther victim’s fault. LIKE EVER. And the show really shows that, so it’s very nice!

And finally, the only thing I didn’t like was the almost non-existent acting of the male character. Don’t take me wrong: he was cute in his tough way, but a surprise expression once in a while never killed nobody, right? His biggest expression was to goggle his eyes, or give a tiny-tiny smile. His other friend was just like that. The only male actor with reeeal expression – and that was adorable and funny most of the time – was Ji Woong (and Korean-american guy with perfect and no asian accent at all when in English-mode).

Overall it was very entertaining and fun, and very touching and almost too dramatic (in one scene I almost broke out in tears hahaha I usually don't like overly dramatic things), all part of the show right?

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