What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:
*Note: My reviews usually contain spoilers. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.*
TV
The School Nurse Files (2020)
The School Nurse Files was a fast, fun, and memorable watch, quite possibly one of the strangest I’ve had in the kdrama world to date. The tone of the show felt a bit off-kilter the entire time I was watching, and I kept being surprised at the stylistic choices the director made. It has the feel of a highly polished Hollywood movie while still retaining an independent film vibe when it came to the writing and characters.
As far as those characters are concerned, I felt like I never truly got the sense of their motivations or backgrounds, though. How or why did Ahn Eun-young (Jung Yu-mi) end up with her abilities? What made Hong In-pyo (Nam Joo-hyuk) able to recharge her abilities? Why was everyone and their mother after him? I felt like I came away from the show with a lot of questions and not as many answers as I would have liked. And no clear impression if this is it for the show or not. Do we get more, Netflix?
There was generally a tongue-in-cheek style of humour in the show, almost veering on black comedy, but never quite fully immersing itself in that territory. I think that was the biggest draw for me initially, that the show seemed like it would try different things, but then it was also where I found myself always wanting more and hoping that the writing would be bolder and take more risks. Sadly, I was never quite satisfied.
At this point, it seems to be more a matter of knowing if there will be more of The School Nurse Files. If not, then I find myself a little disappointed for getting so little pay-off for the scale of things that were established. But if there is more, then there is potential for a massive universe and a lot of room for exploration considering the richness of the environment that they have set-up and the avenues that they have for the characters to go down. I’m hoping for the latter.
Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol (2020) – Ep 7-8
*sigh* I was holding off on really making any comments about last week’s big reveal until some some light was shed by the writer, but the time has come to take a much more critical approach to the writing than I ever thought I might need to for a light-hearted romantic comedy.
For some reason that has yet to be clarified, Writer Oh Ji-young has chosen to make Joon (Lee Jae-wook) a high school senior. It automatically adds several problematic elements to his relationship with Ra-ra (Go Ara), considering the age difference, the creditor-debtor dynamic they already have, and their growing romantic feelings for one another.
While a five year age difference in and of itself isn’t a problem, the question of age of majority does come into play now. However, the writer has somehow managed to create a situation where the characters manage to remain guilt-free and unaware of anything being amiss, while also making the viewer extremely aware of them. By having Joon be the one who’s keeping his age from Ra-ra, it absolves her of any sin until she finds out. However, I feel that by having them confess feelings for one another and initiate a tentative relationship following their kiss at the end of the last episode, when the truth is finally revealed it’s only going to exacerbate the situation that much more.
It also brings into question Joon’s approach to life. He posed an interesting question of Seung-ki (Yoon Jong-bin) in Episode 8: “ If you have feelings to confess and a secret to tell, which should you do first?” I suspect that he got the answer he wanted, that you should confess first, be sure of the girl’s feelings for you and then let her know your secret once you feel she won’t flee. Which is a rather round-about and manipulative approach if you look at it too closely. From his point of view, he doesn’t want to reveal a secret to someone unless he’s sure they’re going to keep it. But by taking the approach that he did, he’s also denying Ra-ra of knowing an essential part of him, thereby denying her the choice to make an informed decision. It’s extremely messy as it stands right now, and I’m not sure how it can be fixed – that is, if the writer even thinks of it as a problem to begin with (signs point to ‘no’).
At this point, as a viewer, there’s a choice that I need to make: Do I continue to watch the show in hopes of a magical resolution that absolves everyone? Or do I shelve the show and hope that in the event that I ever return to it, I come back to a show that has a clear message at the end of its run? It really is a shame, because I am enjoying the other aspects of the show, namely the townspeople, the visual style, the music and the even the aspects of Ra-ra and Joon’s relationship outside of the romance. Maybe there’s an option number 3 then: That I can watch the show and simply ignore the icky romance?
Movies
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future is one of my favourite movies of all time. Crazy characters, whacky science and an even stranger plot, everything about this movie cracks me up. I wanted to do a rewatch to introduce my sister to this movie, and from the opening scene, I got sucked into the story, seeing that impressive set-up that Doctor Brown (Christopher Lloyd) has. You know right away that something isn’t right, from the burning toast to the days-old dog food that’s been heaping up. And that’s the most normal thing that could go wrong in the film. From that point on Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) runs into one problem after another, from not having enough fuel to get himself back the his own time after he transports himself into the past by mistake, to having his mom accidentally fall in love with him after he interrupts his parents’ first meeting, which means that his siblings and him start to fade from existence.
As dire as those situations sound the film is played with humour and heart, the sci-fi elements taking a backseat in favour of character development and story. This movie is such a fun watch and you come away from it feeling like you watched something really strange but enjoyed it nonetheless.
Colourful Granny 