Nice Guy (The Innocent Man) Korean Drama Review

My soundtrack for writing this review tonight is this song:

It felt strangely appropriate.  You'll find out why in a minute.

Anyway, I've been trying to step out of my kdrama comfort zone lately.  I am normally a solid rom com kind of girl, and revenge melodramas aren't really my cup of tea. Dying and crying? Blech. Give me lovesick hijinks any day.

After Sungkyunkwan Scandal, however, I really wanted to watch more from the best bromance in the world. After accidentally (completely on purpose) reading a spoiler for Yoo Ah In's Fashion King and realizing that I would really, really hate it, I was left no choice but to go with Song Joong Ki's Nice Guy (also known as Innocent Man). Unfortunately, Song Joong Ki is just leaving for military service, which means no more shows from him for a while. Why now? Just when I've developed a mild obsession!

The basic plot is this: In a case of seriously flawed logic, a guy goes to jail for a murder he doesn't commit.  Once he gets out, he becomes a gigolo (whaaaaaaat?) and then revengey stuff happens. And love stuff happens. And revengey-love stuff happens. Ridiculous.

This is from the intro credits. He's shedding a single tear! And he dropped his watch! Because--time! And feelings!

Bottom line? I loved every single absurd, glorious, melodramatic second of it. I'm not even embarrassed. Here's the breakdown:

The Plot

When a murder happens in the first 20 minutes of episode 1, you know you're in for a wild kdrama ride, and this show's plot was crazy with a capital CRAZY.  I mean, at one point in the show, one of the characters starts to recover from amnesia, and the shock of her recovery--wait for it--gives her more amnesia. Because according to kdrama logic, what's better than amnesia? DOUBLE AMNESIA! What's better than a head injury? DOUBLE HEAD INJURY! What's better than blackmailing? DOUBLE BLACKMAILING! You get the picture.

The Characters

To be honest, the plot wasn't what really won me over because it wasn't that great. If you want to know why I temporarily stopped sleeping or showering and had some intense marathons with this show, here's the answer:

He's disappointed you even had to ask.

In my experience, most kdramas tend to be external.  What I mean by that is that exterior events incite change in the characters, and that change is manifested in outward action.  For example, a girl gets slightly cold and then--in a crazy twist of fate--faints. We then know that the man has developed feelings for her because he carries her home and watches over her all night long. 

As I just said, Nice Guy has a lot of external stuff happening, but at its core, it's actually an intensely internal show.  Even when Kang Ma Roo makes the outward gestures typical in drama romances, we can never be sure if it's sincere or not--because he doesn't even know if he's being sincere. His character goes beyond the usual  "I love you, but I'm also conflicted because I'm angry/guilty" conflict into something more complex, and Song Joong Ki does an incredible job portraying the character. Half of the time, I wasn't sure if I should be swooning or swearing at the computer because Joong Ki's Ma Roo is so flawed and messy and confused. That internal tension is what made this drama so engaging.    

Tormented sad Quasimodo face! Who wouldn't be intrigued?

For the first five episodes or so, Moon Chae Won also holds her own as Seo Eun Gi.  Sure, she's a little bit abrasive, but she's also sassy and powerful.  We all know how much I love that in a female lead!  Unfortunately, Moon Chae Won doesn't get much to do for the second half of the series once her character gets turned into an amnesiac plot device.  The show is really all about Kang Ma Roo, but I saw just enough of Moon Chae Won's abilities as an actress to make me wish they had used her a little bit better here.

I wish we got more of this "stop messing with me, or I will eat your internal organs raw" face.

And then we come to the character who made me angrier than any other kdrama villain has ever made me in my entire life: Han Jae Hee (Park Si Yeon).  I think what made her so upsetting was that she wasn't just horrible for the sake of being a terrible person.  She was an exaggerated version of someone you could meet in real life.  She was manipulative and selfish, but not out of some unreasonable desire to ruin other people's lives.  Instead, she's a Daisy Buchanan: beautiful and alluring, but completely self-absorbed.  She wants everything, but she doesn't want to sacrifice anything. (And now you know why that Great Gatsby song got stuck in my head. Any excuse for a nerdy lit reference!)  She's so self-absorbed, in fact, that every time she talks about Kang Ma Roo, she says something to the effect of "that man who I loved more than my own life" without realizing that he's exactly the opposite. She didn't love him more than her own life; she didn't even love him more than her own job!  Really? You need to commit suicide if you can't be a journalist? There are no other careers out there that you could do so that your boyfriend doesn't have to go to prison and become a gigolo?

Wearing glittery blazers is also a pretty surefire way to make me hate you as a character.

I want to talk about ALL of the characters because that's how engrossing this show was, but I'll stop here.

Other Things about This Show

Is it just me, or were the music choices for this show a little off sometimes?  I almost stopped halfway through episode 1 because, while I can handle dramatic murders and cover-ups, the over-the-top soap opera tango music was just too much.  You shouldn't be busting out the murder accordions (murdercordions?) until at least episode four!  I also recall one scene where two people were blackmailing each other at a cafe (I can't remember who it was because basically everyone blackmailed everyone else during the course of the show), and Jason Mraz was playing.  How are you supposed to drive fear into your opponent's heart with "I Won't Give Up"--possibly the most mellow song on the entire planet--playing in the background?

(Spoilers) Can we have a little heart-to heart about episode 20 for a second? I know that a lot of people just hated it outright, but I'm kind of torn.  Sure, it was tonally inconsistent with the rest of the show.  It was also kind of confusing and didn't mention anything about what happened to Tae San.  I mean, I didn't really care for most of the office politics throughout the show, but after 20 episodes of shouting OMO WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO TAE SAN???????, the writers should have included something about it!

The one thing that saved that ending for me was the relationship between Ma Roo and Eun Gi.  Throughout the show, Kang Ma Roo's obsession was his need to save the women in his life. His love for Jae Hee, Choco, and Eun Gi all grows out of his ability to protect them when they are vulnerable or helpless.  Because Eun Gi is a helpless amnesiac for over half of the show (Can you tell I'm a little miffed about this?), I wasn't ever entirely sure if Ma Roo could love her once she no longer relied on him. Even at the end of episode 19, he gets stabbed, and his primary concern is sending her off before she can notice. (Wait, how did she not notice that gigantic blood stain on his stomach?) 

Episode 20 resolved that issue for me.  Even if it was inconsistent with the rest of the show, I needed to see that he could love her without always having to save her.  They built a relationship on friendship and respect, not on an attraction that grew out of pity or guilt.

Am I suddenly converted to revenge melos?  Probably not.  Could I even handle watching this one all the way through again?  Probably not.  But it's still definitely worth a watch.

The Twitter Version of this Review

Song Joong Ki is awesome. Watch this show immediately. Don't let the murdercordions deter you. #...something clever. Aw, forget it. I don't understand how to use hashtags. Just watch this show.

Where to watch Nice Guy:

Viki

DramaFever

Hulu

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A New Favorite from an Old Story: Sungkyunkwan Scandal Review

Dear Sungkyunkwan Scandal,

Thank you.

You might not be the perfect drama, but you were the perfect drama for me.

Much love,
Vivi

Source

The Cast

I feel like I'm the last person in all of drama-dom to get on the SKKS train, but in spite of my late arrival (fueled by uncertainty about historical dramas), I'm glad I made the leap.  

The only word I can think of to describe why I loved it so much is balance.  First of all, the cast was excellent all around. I put Park Min Young's portrayal of Kim Yoon Hee onto my list of smart kdrama female leads when I was only halfway through the series, and I never regretted my choice.  Her character was smart and capable without being a monster.  The men in the show did step in to physically save her quite a few times, but she also pulled through at enough key moments to prove that relationships are a two-way street.

I know that a lot of people initially gravitated towards this drama for Micky Yoochun's role as Lee Sun Joon, but this isn't one of those dramas that relies on the male lead by any means.  Let's face it: his role as a morally rigid scholar basically requires a wooden performance 90% of the time.  It fits his character, but it wouldn't be enough to pull the show through a full 20 episodes. I did, however, appreciate that his character was a decent person from the beginning of the show, much like the lead in Queen In Hyun's Man.

Fortunately, the writers balance his stoic nature by offering us the most dynamic duo in bromance history: Moon Jae Shin ("Geol Oh") and Gu Yong Ha ("Yeorim"), played by Yoo Ah In and Song Joong Ki, respectively. (For more on Song Joong Ki, head over to Crazy for Kdrama's Khottie of the Week post.)  These two add humor, friendship, and depth to the series.  Every time the two of them were on the screen, I was enthralled.

Can we please have a sequel to this drama entitled

The Adventures of Yeorim and Geol Oh? Pretty pretty please?

Given how much I loved these two, it would have been really easy to fall into second (or third) male lead syndrome, clutching my heart and wishing that the female lead would choose the guy in the background instead.  While I wanted ALL of them to find love (hence our "Which Sungkyunkwan Scholar Is Your Ideal Match" quiz), the two primary leads actually matched each other really well, and the romance grew on me quite a bit in the last few episodes.  Love notes hidden in library books?  Be still my nerdy heart!  

Reading books and holding hands?  True love!

The Plot

With a few exceptions (which I will get to in a moment), I felt like the pacing in this series was pretty smart. The tone was balanced between lighthearted and serious throughout the entire series as opposed to starting out fun and ending with a cryfest. They plotted out the big moments in the drama so that it felt pretty constantly engaging without becoming ridiculous--for the most part.  I did have a hearty chuckle every time they tried to identify the Red Bandit using that drawing.  ("Have you seen the Red Bandit?  He has eyes.") I have heard some reviewers complain that Yoon Hee becomes less interesting towards the end of the series, but I actually felt like that was one of the show's biggest strengths.  The first two-thirds of the series are really heavily focused on Yoon Hee's character development and the concerns she faces as a woman hiding in a man's world.  In the last third, however, the focus shifts to the other three members of the Jalgeum Quartet.  We get to learn more about each one of them as we see their progress towards the series finale.  That's part of what made me feel invested in the characters--it was episode 18, and I was still getting to know Yeorim and Geol Oh a little bit better.

Having stunningly beautiful backdrops to even the silliest of scenes doesn't hurt the interest level, either.

As I said, there are some exceptions to this rule.  The two or three episodes leading up to the finale draaaaaaaaaaaagged along, and then the last five minutes of episode 20 zoomed ahead at warp speed in an attempt to wrap everything up with a nice neat bow.  As a result, I had some problems with the conclusion of the show.  

(Spoiler) I was happy to see Yoon Hee teaching, but it seemed a little too tidy for the problems raised in the earlier episodes.  Based on the way the scholars reacted to her, it seemed like she was teaching as a woman.  That's great from an empowerment perspective, but it undermines the depth of discrimination that she faced.  So in the space of maybe a couple of years, women are suddenly accepted not only as scholars, but also as professors?  That solution is both anachronistic and simplistic. 

The other option is that she's actually teaching as a man, which is supported by the headmaster calling her "Kim Yoon Shik."  If this is the case, then how is she pulling off leading a double life married to another professor?  Nobody noticed her?  What happens when they use that little red book a little too efficiently and she ends up pregnant?  Either way, this drama deserves better.

The Message

As I mentioned earlier, Kim Yoon Hee is pretty progressive in terms of gender portrayals in kdramas.  This is why I appreciate most gender-bending dramas.  The relationships are built off of mutual respect and friendship before physical attraction even enters the equation.

Sungkyunkwan Scandal doesn't stop at feminism, though. It's filled with commentary on sexuality, politics, and socioeconomic status, which is interesting considering that it's set hundreds of years ago.  As I watched, I was reminded of an article I once read that compared Clueless to Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow). Both films were adaptations of Jane Austen's work, but Emma was actually more progressive in terms of gender representations.  The author suggested that modern films don't feel the need to push boundaries as much as period pieces do.

I think that's what's happening here.  Maybe viewers (and producers) enjoy seeing Yoon Hee talk about the capability of women because they can recognize the oppression in her society, but they're less comfortable raising those same issues in a modern-day setting, where they resort to wrist grabs and floods of tears instead.  Just a thought.

She wouldn't be smiling so much if she got stuck with a million wrist grabs.

And Now for Some History

The major reason it took me so long to get to this drama was the historical setting.  I wasn't sure if I would be interested in a series that takes place in Korea's Joseon era, so I stayed away for far too long.  What eventually helped was that I eased into historical dramas with two time-travel dramas: Rooftop Prince and Queen In Hyun's Man. The combination of the two helped me get used to some of the costuming and customs before I watched a full series set in the past.

While time-travel dramas helped a bit, this drama can be hard to follow if you don't know much about Korean history.  Once the political intrigue began, I was very, very confused until I did some research to figure out what on earth was happening. (Dear Subtitlers: I love you very much, but when you translate "Geum-deung-ji-sa" differently in every scene, you aren't helping.)  In order to help others who may want to watch the show but are too lazy to use Google, here's a quick overview:

King Yeongjo had a son, Crown Prince Sado, who may or may not have been insane.  Rumor on the streets had it that Sado was going around killing random people in the palace, so, thinking that murderers don't make good kings, Yeongjo ordered his son to sit in a hot rice basket until he suffocated to death (eight days later--shudder).  Some people later argued that the prince's death was mostly a plot by the Noron faction, but Sado's wife (Lady Hyegyong) wrote some memoirs suggesting that her husband really was both mentally ill and violent.   

So how does this all relate to the events of SKKS?  Well, there were rumors of some scrolls (called the Geum-deung-ji-sa) that Yeongjo wrote at the end of his life, lamenting his decision to kill his son and explaining that it really was just a Noron play for power.  Sado's son Jeongjo (the king who appears in SKKS) really did spend his life looking for those scrolls and trying to clear his father's name (though they were never found).  He also moved the capital to Suwon and tried to open government positions to lower classes, though many of those reforms didn't totally stick.

The short version? These guys = bad.  Everyone else = good.

Got it?  Yeah, history is crazy.  Even though I tend to agree with Yoo Ah In's drunken tweets on the subject of historical accuracy in fictional stories, my nerdy side loved sorting out which events actually happened in real life. I also really, really want to read Lady Hyegong's memoirs now.

The other confusing historical part is some of the costuming.  Maybe it's just me, but  it was really hard to tell all of the government officials apart at first.  This isn't some  "all Asians look the same" statement.  It's more of a "When all of these middle-aged Korean men wear identical outfits and have identical facial hair, they look the same" statement.

With all of the Mickey Mouse hats and goatees wandering around the set, I ended up rewinding a lot and thinking, "Wait, is Long Face the Minister of War?  Or was that White Beard? I'm so confuuuuuuuuuuuuused!"  I ended up getting it all straight in the end, but it took a while.

In Conclusion

This series was just what I was looking for at this stage in my drama-watching life.

So long and thanks for all of the good times, Jalgeum Quartet!