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PRIME_MINISTER_AND_I

                                                 July 04, 2019

                                            KDRAMA
"The Prime Minister and I" (2013)
                                                The writing team on this
It begins with the male lead being arrogant     show got their start on
and insulting, but as the plot progresses       "Winter Sonata".
he-- doesn't really soften.  The writers did
a nice job of characterizing a 40-something         WINTER_SONATA
man who becomes Prime Minister, and then had
trouble getting themselves to believe in the
character shift required by the formula.

    The plot: the Prime Minister
    has some encounters with a
    young woman, a trashy gossip    The female lead is played by Yoona
    journalist, and both of them    from the idol group "Girl's Generation"--
    for reasons of their own
    agree to do a "fake marriage".  I found her face perfectly
                                    maddening at first-- she seemed so
    The acting on this show is      *familiar*. Hadn't I seen something
    adequate, but nothing           with her in it before? "The Girl
    amazing, and around             Who Could See Smells"?
    episode 5 or so, I had the
    sense that Yoona was            I doubt I recognize her from "Girl's
    struggling to keep the          Generation": I think she just has a
    silly script rolling.           generic Korean celebrity face, a
                                    product of some combination of
                                    careful selection and extensive use
I liked the first few               of cosmetic surgery.
episodes.

Some funny bits:

    She uses a carefully crafted interview
    strategy-- presenting him with an elaborately
    packaged gift of boxer shorts, solely to
    provoke him into answering the the "boxers or
    briefs" question.

    A group of obnoxious rich bitch politicians
    wives have foisted a "club president" role on
    our heroine-- not explaining the hassles and
    expenses involved first-- so at the next
    meeting of the group that we see them crammed
    into a small, inexpensive-looking
    restaurant...  which is gradually revealed to
    be a Subway sandwich shop.  One of the better
    uses for a product-tie in.

    Yet another member of the Prime Minister's
    houisehold is hassling the female lead again,
    and she goes away commenting to herself "How
    did I end up with so many in-laws?"

        That was around episode 04. It may be the
        last good bit in the show.

        Then there's a dramatic spin cycle, where
        the female lead is (unaccountably) trying
        hard to settle in and be a good
        step-mother and faux-wife, but she keeps
        getting rejected ("you are not our
        mother") and she goes off wondering "Gee
        what am I doing, anyway?"-- which is just
        what I was wondering.

        When she starts looking at the male lead
        through Romance Googles, it's a definite
        "come the fuck on" moment-- he's an
        unpleasant prig, a toad in a white shirt
        and tie.


    This is another show with a woman with some
    competence outside of just being pretty and
    sympathetic where her capabilities are                A paparazzi with
    completely abandoned by the writers-- we're           "Scandal News"
    supposed to believe she's willing to stop racing
    around town on a motor scooter just to hide out
    in the Prime Ministers house.  (After which, she
    abandons forever her punkish "working clothes":
    ripped blacks and dark greens.)

                                       I gave up on this one
                                       around ep08...


            If you wanted to get a clear
            picture of why some of us
            like "Her Private Life" (a
            current success from 2019), I
            might refer you to this show,
            which works a similar formula
            but without any "chemistry"
            between the leads, and
            without the character
            backgrounds of the leads
            (high art and low fangirls).

                             HER_PRIVATE_LIFE




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