Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Sa Rang Ngey...

Last night I finally managed to complete the 14-parters (minus the 6 episodes in the middle) -- Stairway to Heaven. It was the classic korean weepies. The classic of the classics. If you haven't watched a single korean weepies before and thinking of watching only one of them, I suggest you watch this.

It’s the ultimate tragic love story of a pair of childhood sweethearts. An ingenious combo of all the tear-jerking plots and the must-haves in all korean weepies. Or maybe all other weepies are adaptations of this piece of classic work???
Anyway, the combo of the king of classics consists of the following:

- evil and scheming step-mum and step-siblings (*)

- romantic relationships between siblings who are not blood related (so that incest doesn’t really count) (**)

- damn filthy rich Boy with his entourage everywhere he goes and who also happens to be the only heir to a business empire (in this case it’s departmental store chains and amusement parks) (*****)

- awfully sweet, kind-hearted and forgiving Girl (try killing her and she’ll forgive you still) (*****)

- necklace from Boy to Girl as love token (*****)

- relentless love rivals for both Boy and Girl (*****)

- repetitive sad theme songs (*****)

- repetitive playbacks of scenes that last for more than 10 mins (*****)

- car accident resulting in memory loss for Girl (or Boy in other cases) (***)

- engagement dinner for Boy and another girl (or Girl and another boy) (*****)

- parental disapproval on relationship and the use of money as breaking-up compensation fees (****)

- wishy-washy on-off relationships that lengthen the whole serial by about 5-6 vcds (*****)

- terminal illness for Girl (or Boy) (****)

* : Appears in at least 1 Korean weepies
** : Appears in at least 2 Korean weepies
*** : Classic regulars
**** : Absolutely must-haves
***** : Any absence of such plots/ scenes, the serial is a lousy spoof.

After watching it, for the first time I felt that I really need a break away from all Korean dramas. Yes yes yes, it took me so many weepies to realise this. Can?

Ehh.. maybe not a break from those with Bae Yong Jun. :)

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