![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feb media roundup, thoughts on song joongki and why his latest dramas are... you know, and i know it's already march 16th happy belated birthday to steph curry (shout out chenle)
before i get into it. yes, this was supposed to go up mid march, as evidenced by the cut title, to summarize my february media consumption. unfortunately iirc finals/projects drop kicked me and i ended up letting this rot in my gdrive until crys posted hers today, making me remember that i did it at all. it’s half-complete so i’ll be using this as a catch-all for the more notable parts of my media consumption from feb-april. (i don’t think i have it in me to create entirely separate posts for march or april at this point lol, tbh the only reason this is going up is bc of cryscha). take my vincenzo review with a grain of salt, i was clearly a different person at the time.
WATCHING (vincenzo, assorted variety)
vincenzo (2021), prefaced w/ a song joongki rant
oh, song joongki. one of my favorite k-actors circa early 2010s. he of sungkyunkwan scandal (2010), the innocent man (2012), and a werewolf boy (2012).
now, i don't purport to know anything about the exact process in which mister song joongki chooses his projects, but based on the evidence i have acquired, along with my own personal extrapolation, i do have a few conjectures. i propose it goes a little something like this:
1. sjk receives a roster of potential acting jobs from his agent.
2. he eliminates those with anything resembling plot or complexity. even the faintest hint of it will disqualify the project from consideration.
3. he puts the remaining options on a rotating wheel.
4. he blindfolds himself and then throws a dart.
5. boom. next project chosen.
2. he eliminates those with anything resembling plot or complexity. even the faintest hint of it will disqualify the project from consideration.
3. he puts the remaining options on a rotating wheel.
4. he blindfolds himself and then throws a dart.
5. boom. next project chosen.
unbelievable, i know. fantastical, even. however, it's the only plausible explanation for why his projects post-military hiatus have been, for lack of a better word, utter shite.
descendants of the sun (2016) was song joongki's first major project in dramaland post-service, and it was certainly... Something. with a script written by kim eunsook, the creative force behind other hit dramas like the heirs (2014) and secret garden (2010), dots was practically destined to be a giant blockbuster series as well. and it Was. visually stunning but so empty—besides its a-list cast, the show sustained itself through its 16 episode run through visual aesthetic and key emotional moments overlaid with its robust roster of dramatic soundtracks alone. arthdal chronicles (2019), sjk's next major drama was even worse in that not only did it not have anything resembling a compelling plot, its attempts to interweave a poorly executed game of thrones-style world building with a vaguely asian yet neanderthal-ish focus fell painfully flat. the awful cg did not help either, and i could really only make it through three and a half episodes before deciding not to pursue it any longer. so given that i've been burned this badly twice by sjk's post-hiatus projects, u would think that i'd learn to stay away, right?
unfortunately no.
this brings me to vincenzo (2021).
vincenzo is a series about vincenzo cassano (our song joongki), a korean-italian mafia consigliere/lawyer who ends up moving back to korea after the italian mafia boss who adopted him dies, for the purposes of 1) escaping the boss's biological son who is jealous of vincenzo's capabilities and fears his power and therefore tries to assassinate him and 2) to recover a stash of gold he hid in korea for a chinese tycoon a few years ago, who has since died of a drowning accident (unrelated to vincenzo himself). did i lose you there? the most important piece of exposition is that vincenzo is now in korea, determined to unearth the goldmine underneath this run-down plaza that is currently being disputed over by a rising conglomerate called babel, that has unsavory connections in every influential sector, from the medical industry to the journalism + news industry. there are countless overt similes about how in south korea, companies like babel are the "real mafia," drawing the obvious comparison to vincenzo's gangster past. this show is so unsubtle it hurts, but that's really not where the hurting stops.
as of writing this episodes 7 and 8 are out, and i have not yet watched them. i'm pretty confident in saying that the six episodes i have watched, however, are sufficient for me to get a hold of what the rest of this show is going to be like. if i listed out my gripes with every single episode we would be here for hours, and fortunately i would not subject anyone to the torture of thinking about a drama like vincenzo for that long, ever.
number one on this show's long list of sins is the fact that vincenzo literally loses the plot halfway through the beginning episodes. i know the premise sets him up to be some kind of anti-hero due to his not-quite legal past and dubious morals, but the amount of utterly banal and inane things he ends up doing for the sake of the plaza's residents are lowkey insane. i keep forgetting that his ultimate goal is to get to the gold vault constructed below the ground of the plaza because there are so many side plots that detract him from even thinking about getting it. not to mention, the residents themselves are lowkey insane. clearly we're meant to feel pity for them as the powerless tenants of this run-down plaza whose eviction is inevitable due to the pressures of the big bad (babel group), but they are truly nonsensical to an alarming degree. instead of sympathy or pity the only emotion their antics elicit out of me is pure bewilderment.
number two is the lack of scale regarding money and resources coupled with the watered down ways in which vincenzo carries out both his mafia and non-mafia machinations. i know vincenzo is well off, but if he's well off enough to throw a spontaneous "italian-korean diplomatic relations party" with an apparently nationwide attendance (the actual number of guests shown did not even amount to the population of a small high school, don't know what they were doing with the lack of continuity on that part) to prevent the demolition of the plaza then what is literally stopping him from paying off lawyers and law enforcement to ensure that the plaza ownership is his. he also pulls a lot of mafia scare tactics, but instead of the show giving us the exciting and interesting play by play of what he does, it focuses only on the aftermath and the victims' reactions. maybe it's just me, but if we are getting an ex-mafia member as the main character, i want to see the gangster actually pulling off gangster shit? we do get a few threatening / blackmail scenes, which are arguably the most enjoyable scenes in this clusterfuck of a drama, but there is still so much left to be desired.
number three is kind of a major spoiler, so will be rot13'ed in the event that you actually plan on watching this trainwreck, even after reading my diatribe up until now.
bx gnrplrba'f punenpgre nf gur ovt onq jnf yvgrenyyl gur zbfg nofheq cybg gjvfg bs nyy gvzr. naq erirnyvat guvf va gur 5gu rcvfbqr? v pnaabg, ba nal yriry, pbzceruraq jung gur jevgre jnf guvaxvat jvgu gung zbir. jul ba rnegu jbhyq gur PRB bs bar bs gur ynetrfg pbatybzrengrf va fbhgu xbern tb HAQREPBIRE nf na vagrea va n ynj svez gung qrsraqf uvf bja pbzcnal. jung qbrf ur tnva bhg bs nyy bs guvf. jura guvf erirny unccrarq vg nyy sryg yvxr bar irel ybat srire qernz.
so up until this point i was still on the fence about whether to take this drama seriously at all, whether to approach it with any modicum of critical thinking, and after this scene i fully resigned myself to just watching, head empty no thoughts. after all, i tuned in for Song Joongki Suit Porn in the first place. would it have been nice if vincenzo was a decent drama that made even the slightest bit of sense? yes. is it being decent necessary for me to continue watching? no, absolutely not. and i will continue to watch for the absurdity and the suits.
EDIT: may 2021 mich here to say these feelings are still valid but i now consider vincenzo a masterpiece in its absurdity. that is all. sorry for criming and having no faith in u song joongki but please can u not scare me with the absurdity of ur next project… sorry i hate fun i just prefer seeing him in melodramas T__T a la the innocent man (2012)
variety: run bts ep. ???, nct dream mafia lab
i have admittedly not been in the loop wrt the bangtan variety circuit for a while, but when i saw the teaser for this one. hello. besides the obvious kookmin bait (c'mon, kate minslet and leo jungcaprio?), the idea of these seven disasters arguing/debating/whatever over inane topics like egg vs peas on jjajangmyun or soft peach vs hard peach sounded like prime television drama already. the antics all of them pull when faced with a topic they have to defend to the end, plus the ripe chance of sabotage by water attack every two seconds... hard to say which one was my favorite part. (also an aside that makes me sound lowkey insane but why was jimi the only one they covered up the n*ps for… one of my mutuals said sth about hiding a nip piercing and i almost had a stroke.)
nct dream mafia lab seems like forever ago. tbqh i can only really recall the dreamies’ jensung agenda, jaemin being utterly gremlin and frustrating during ep 3, and… not much else. there was the mysterious blurred out object but i’m almost 100% it was some sort of dick or boobs joke. like, it’s mark. so you know.
7llin is its own beast so i’ll tackle that in a separate post if/when i get the time AND remember to do so.
to-watch list: sk8, the new run ep(?? apparently there is km), the handmaiden (rewatch when?)
to-finish list: tgcf donghua, dream in wonderland (still)
READING(ish)*
*my Actual Literature consumption is still quite abysmal. this section continues to be filled with a majority of visual media including manga, webtoons, webnovels, etc
manhua / webnovel: like wind on a dry branch
started reading this one maybe in january or february but it slipped my mind. which is strange because i actually enjoy it so much. the chinese translation is ahead of the english one, so it’s a testament to my interest that i read it in both anyway. the setting is historical/royalty/regency and the art is pretty, but what drew me the most was the dialogue. it’s just so biting and clever and fitting to the time period... and the chemistry the two leads have is electric, but doesn’t overshadow the plot (which is pretty complex and fun in and of itself.)
i don’t really have much to add for reading consumption. been kinda delving back into some classic oldfic but that’s probably just for nostalgia’s sake or something.
to finish:jjk prequel manga
LISTENING
so i didn't exactly get back into listening to podcasts... maybe march/april is the month? (editing mich in may 2021 is here to tell u that it was not the month)
wait actually, i lied. i did listen to two or three episodes of a bdsm podcast in mandarin chinese and took notes for a friend because they needed it for the (fic) research. setting aside how bizarre that sounds, it was actually pretty interesting to see the details of that side of the internet, especially in a different culture. admittedly i have not done much research myself on the topic, in mandarin or otherwise, so it was certainly eye-opening! also, the podcast host is quite funny and clearly dedicated/serious about his area of expertise, which made it a comfortable listen despite the oftentimes racy/explicit subject matter.
music for the last 30 days:
top artists:
1. chase atlantic
2. purple kiss
3. woodz
4. shygirl
5. snsd
top albums:
1. into violet - purple kiss
2. chase atlantic - chase atlantic
3. (tie) point of view - seclorum
4. (tie) staydom - stayc
5. (tie) set - woodz
top tracks:
1. asap - stayc
2. (tie) right here - chase atlantic
3. (tie) drunk-dazed - enhyphen
4. (tie) spider - hoshi
5. (tie) in the morning - itzy
chase atlantic is writing music (iykyk) and i caught gg fever like two or three weeks ago, which explains the purple kiss and stayc appearances. woodz is korean r&b which is usually what i listen to along w/ normie music, and the snsd is because my dad ONLY wanted to listen to their title tracks on one of our long drives lmao.
IN CONCLUSION
so i’ve learned that monthly is a bit ambitious for my work ethic. maybe. there’s roughly a 50/50 chance that i’ll get it together enough to return in june for my may media roundup. don’t hold your breath but also don’t be surprised if i somehow pull through. i did end up posting
feel free to drop some thoughts/recs down below or via twt or cc!
Current Mood: sleepy
1 comment | Leave a comment