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THE_GIRL_WHO_CAN_SEE_SMELLS
June 22, 2015
August 01, 2015
July 16, 2020
The Korean TV show (think "miniseries") "The Girl Who Can See
Smells", owes a lot to Japanese pop culture in it's inception.
Japan gave us Deka Wanko ("Detective Puppy"), with it's gothic
lolita detective with a super-human sense of smell; and there was
an odd manga that I've read about (but not read) about a guy who
can see bacteria and viruses with his naked eye-- put the two
notions together and you've got this.
This show is a fine example of a very engaging, somewhat
silly piece that works in spite of (or because of) the fact
that it's entirely worked out according to formula, given
this initial absurd concept.
It's also remarkable as an example of weak craftsmanship,
there are many low level problems in writing and direction
that weaken the structure without quite breaking it.
In the first episode, the pacing seems strange-- they belabor
obvious points, but expect you to be very quick at picking up on
some small details... E.g there are two girls with similar names
and ages, who both are admitted to a hospital at the same time,
a killer fears one of them is a witness, and kills the other one
by mistake. Just understanding that there are two of them
didn't strike me as a very easy thing to do-- it might be easier
for a Korean, however, who are no doubt more sensitive to the
differences in faces and names here.
By the way, when I'm saying the actors are hard to tell
apart, this is not just a bit of "all them asians look alike"
parochialism-- Korean's have a very narrow esthetic in what
kind of character is good looking, and they're very enthusiastic
about using plastic surgery to smooth over "imperfections".
The lead actress here (Shin Se-Kyung) seems a lot to me
like the lead for "My Secret Hotel" (Yoo In-Na), I had to
check to credits to see that she's a different person.
(July 16, 2020)
But then, a few years later both actresses seem
instantly recognizeable to me, so maybe back then
my grasp of korean faces was still pretty weak.
Another problem: In the first big action scene, the male
lead keeps getting beaten up badly, but keeps acting like
he's not hurt-- this seems like a silly cartoony joke, and
it's revealed *later* that he has analgesia: he doesn't feel
pain. Isn't it obvious they needed to establish that first?
It's a weirdly distracting element through out the action--
e.g. a bad guy breaks a chair over his back, and it just
looks fake because he doesn't flinch.
During the action scene, the female lead ends up sneaking
around a men's locker room dressed as a man. She really
overplays this business, crouching down and acting *furtive*
the whole time-- this is funny the first time through, watching
it again, I wonder how it would work if she underplayed it...
if she did a *good* job of acting Masculine, but kept making
small mistakes...
(June 29, 2015)
I swear-- they completely improvise the plots of these Korean
TV shows. It's as though they shoot a couple of episodes,
then decide what to do next on the fly.
I particularly like the moment when they realize that if the the
heroine had once looked the villain square in the face (which she
now has forgotten due to her amnesia) then the villain really
should still be able to recognize *her*-- and so they introduce his
previously unmentioned "facial recognition disorder".
The three main characters all have obscure, unlikely diseases:
amnesia, analgesia and facial recognition disorder. Is this a joke?
This particular show reaches the point where it should get ready
to wrap it up at around episode 8... and at that point I realized
it was a 16 episode series. It switches to Suspense Mode, which
is to say it becomes really tedious to anyone with a brain. The
audience knows *everything* about what's going on at that point,
it's only the "heroes" who keep blundering around missing the
obvious, or being mislead by a *phenomenally* intelligent and
lucky villain, who they can't quite get the goods on, despite the
way he keeps making crazy, desperate moves.
And our heroine becomes "The Girl Who
Used To See Smells But Now Just Though there are some
Follows Her Boyfriend the Cop better scenes than that:
Around." Her talent is spotting e.g. after a victim has
clues nearly invisible to anyone been kidnapped she helps
else, and now that all the mystery trace the bad guy's lair
has evaporated, what can she discover and rescue the victim.
that's of any importance?
Women, no matter how tough, intelligent
or talented *always* become passive by
the show's end, giving the male meathead
room to save the day.
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