What have I been doing this week? I’m glad you asked! Here’s what’s been on my watchlist this week:

TV

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020) – Ep 14-16

I’m not sure what they idea was with episodes 14 and 15, but it seemed like the show suddenly swerved into makjang territory. Nurse Park felt overacted, which really took me out of the scenes that she was in. I think that character and the arc they were attempting worked much better as an idea and didn’t land at all in execution. The saving grace was that they didn’t particularly linger on it, and wrapped the storyline up pretty quickly, with the villain getting her comeuppance, and we could switch back to our trio for the final stretch. 

Episode 16 came back to the show that I felt I had been watching, giving us the familiar feeling of comfort we’ve grown accustomed to with our family unit. When Sang-tae is reading his book to his mother, I felt every bit of the cathartic release that he felt, in finally having achieved something that he was probably told all his life he wouldn’t be able to. The pride in his brother’s face killed me, and I was a crying mess right next to them.

While the show was far from perfect, it definitely ranks high on my list of favourites. The actors gave excellent performances, the writing was (mostly) consistent and true to character, and I came away from the show with a sense of feeling whole, if a little bittersweet. Although they were going their separate ways, we knew that in the end the brothers’ bond was just as strong as when we first encountered them, if not better for the trials they were put through.  And Moon-yeong helped make them better in her quest for her own self-discovery, finding out that family doesn’t have to be those related by blood. I love knowing that these characters will live on in their own way, ever-evolving, having their stumbles but all the better for them.

Movies

Mulan (2020)

*Sigh* I knew there was a reason I didn’t watch the live-action remakes that Disney were making, and Mulan is the perfect example of why.

The writing was drab, the characters underdeveloped, and why were the songs taken out? There didn’t seem to be any logic in Mulan’s journey through the film, and the writing gave me no reason to empathise with her or the soldiers that fought alongside her. There were practically no stakes and no real reason for me to care which side won because I didn’t really understand why they were all up in arm in the first place. Overall, this was a poor adaptation, but it fails to stand on its own merit either.

Sadly, there really isn’t much else I want to say about this movie. If you want a live action version that’s true to character, might I suggest this instead.