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dramayeoja · 6 years

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Goblin ❣︎ 도깨비

Kim Shin, an undefeated war general, is ultimately killed by a jealous young king named Wang Yeo. After death, Shin is revived by the gods—but his revival is by no means miraculous. He becomes a 도깨비 (dokkaebi, goblin), and is cursed. He will have to pay for all the lives he took in battle by living alone in immortality, witnessing everyone he's ever loved, die. Remaining lodged in his chest is the very sword that killed him. There is only person who can see that sword, and draw from his heart so that he can finally rest in peace: his bride... whom he's yet to meet.

Things get spoilery under the cut—you've been warned! ;)

Chipper, yeah? Haha so, right off the bat, the premises of Goblin remind me of like, a much more morbid version of the legend of King Arthur. You know, a man draws a sword from stone to prove himself the greatest king in all of Britain? Yeah. Just to be clear: this is a good thing (imo). Like, I personally think this is just such a cool idea for a drama 😍

Let's jump right in. I'm gonna be honest and say that, at first, I felt a little turned off at the female lead, Eun Tak, being nineteen (in the beginning of the show), meanwhile the male lead, Shin, is 900+ years old (but physically looks to be in his thirties). It just... rubbed me weird. But hey, the Twilight series (both the books and the movies) is exactly the same—high school girl, century-old man, bananas yet somehow romantic storyline... And I loved me some Twilight as a young adult. So I mean, I have no right to judge, really. Plus, Eun Tak soon turns twenty anyway. So that's an improvement I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️ We follow her character into her late twenties, nearly thirty. So things are definitely fine by then haha! 👍

Don't let that previous bit make you think I didn't enjoy Goblin—I LOVED it. That detail is just a lil funky to me, is all. Back during my Twilight obsession days, I was nearly twenty myself, and the thought of being pursued by an older man was exciting. Hell, I mean, it still is! But now that I'm two years shy of my 30th Birthday, I feel differently sometimes. I think, LAWD get that girl away from that man, she too young for him LOL. I am definitely getting old... Enough about Twilight now, apologies! I'm only using it for the sake of conveying similarities seen in Goblin 🙏 Let's talk cast!

Kim Go Eun as Ji Eun Tak and Gong Yoo as Kim Shin

Eun Tak is a bubbly young woman with limitless energy! While still in her mother's womb, Mama Ji was involved in a hit-and-run incident which, sadly, took her life. During Mama Ji's dying moments, she prayed to anyone above that her child's life be spared. Sat on a rooftop from afar, beer in hand (lol), Shin hears her prayers, as he is a god of sorts. He appears before Mama Ji, and shows mercy to her unborn baby. Eun Tak grows up with the ability to see/speak to ghosts. Said ghosts tell her constantly that she is the goblin's bride. How do they know? A strange birthmark on the back of Eun Tak's neck tips them off. Eun Tak unfortunately was taken in by her abusive bitch of an aunt, who jabs Eun Tak every chance she gets. Her cousins are assholes. Eun Tak's aunt really only keeps her around in hopes of collecting Mama Ji's savings (intended for Eun Tak) one day. Sad, right? I mean, isn't Eun Tak being born without her mother enough as it is? Life can be so cruel 😔

Lee Dong Wook as Grim Reaper/Reaper/Wang Yeo

This is Grim Reaper (or Reaper for short), portrayed by the handsome Lee Dong Wook. His character is just this strange, not at all tech-savvy man with a constant deadpan facial expression. Said facial expression provokes so many giggles during funny moments, and drives home the longing and desperation during sad times. We learn quite a ways in that he, in his previous life (again, just in case: spoiler), was Wang Yeo G A S P ! The young king that is essentially responsible for Shin's death, as well as all the misdeeds that were done to Shin's family. Again, this is something I don't want to spoil. Well, more, anyway 😆 You gotta see it!

Yoo In Na as Kim Sun/Sunny

Kim Sun, or simply, Sunny (she loves to spell her name for people lol, S-U-N-N-Y!) is the second female lead. Yoo In Na is so gorgeous that one look at her makes you feel like such a potato hahhah. 🥔 This fact about her beauty bleeds over into the show itself—every time another character meets Sunny, the camera does this slow motion pan into her lmao. She really is that pretty! Sunny's personality comes across so odd at first... Having watched all of the episodes now, I feel the intention of Goblin's creators was to make her seem like a soul searching for something it has lost in a previous life. idk if that makes sense, but yeah. She has this way about her, like she's disconnected from others, and is sifting through the haziness to find this thing she feels she's lost.

Yook Sungjae (my BtoB bias 😍) as Yoo Deok Hwa

Sungjaeeee ahhhh 💘💘💘 I had to gush, sorry! Hehe. Meet Deok Hwa: unofficial nephew of Shin. Deok Hwa is a third-generation chaebol (heir to a family-owned corporation) and spoiled man-child, always seeking his credit card hahaha 🤣 But I love him so much. Between Gong Yoo, Lee Dong Wook, and BtoB Sungjae? Man, I'm dying over here! Deok Hwa's true identity is revealed later in the show, which if you haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil it. Just watch. But his ending sucked. Like where did he go? Everyone else's endings got tied up neatly except for his. What gives, man? 🤔 Edit: I was actually reading an online conversation about what happened to Deok Hwa online—someone jokingly said he was reincarnated as BtoB Sungjae LOL 💯

Other various comments

AMAZING OST 😍😍😍

Good pace, episodes drag at times. A little confusing in the beginning, but you get there eventually. Maybe this is just me though, viewers who are a little more keen than I will likely catch on sooner ;) My mom was a little confused as well, and actually said at one point, "This should be called the 'what-the-hell-is-going-on' show," hahaha. Like I said though, we quickly moved on from this, and loved all the things. There are actually, I think, three (?) specials that were made to aid viewers in making sure they understand the complex events and relationships clearly. I haven't watched them yet, but want to!

Quite repetitive tbh, as there are unnecessary flashbacks often. Probably for two reasons: the obvious of reminding you what's what, but also to create suspense. Typical duration of most tvN dramas seems to be about 16 episodes, so it's possible these flashbacks and things are, for lack of a better word, filler. I don't know how rigid or lax tvN is about having a drama set at 16 eps, but I get the idea this is their preference. Seeing as so many of their programs on average last that long, I feel this must be what they want. Such has the potential to affect the writing, either positively or negatively.

A continuation of the previous bullet: I think Goblin's creators oversimplified the plot at times. I'm unsure if this is due to possible pressures to meet a specific requirement(s), or what. I'd rather forgo ALL restrictions and let creativity flow, let the story be told without pressure to fill a specific amount of time, etc. but TV production is weird. And contracts are weird. tvN might not to blame for these issues, could simply be that storytelling isn't always easy, man. I'm a writer myself, it's hard! I'M being redundant now lmfao! Anyway, yeah ~

Absolutely LOVED all the scenes that were filmed on location in beautiful Québec City, Canada 🍁 Tall, romantic trees, the fall foliage, historic buildings... sigh. Now all I need is Gong Yoo chasing me and we're all set! ;D

In addition to Shin being revived, my crush on Gong Yoo has been revived as well LOL. He fine 🔥 A classic K drama crush, can't go wrong with GY👌

Gong Yoo is always stellar at doing kiseu (kiss) scenes, and in Goblin, he does not disappoint. He really goes at it 🙈 which is preferred vs. the typical person kissing a stone statue that you see so often. He even did a lift kiss with Kim Go Eun that was reminiscent of THEE Coffee Prince kiss he did with actress Yoon Eun Hye! 😍

I never saw it coming, how the sword would wind up being removed from Shin's chest. I worried what the writers were going to do, how would they approach this, and just wow. The way things turned out is such a relief. It also told me that Shin's love for Eun Tak is true. I mean, I didn't need that scene to occur for me to know that, rather it just adds extra oomph that yes, Shin really does love Eun Tak. He didn't want her to suffer knowing she was responsible for his "death," so he thought quick and used her hands WITH his hands asdfghjkl. How dumb (bc noooo now you're gonna die) and amazing he is at the same time 💜

I love how Shin made his way back to Eun Tak after passing away, it was such a powerful scene. I could really feel his struggle, and kept yelling at my TV for him to stand up lol!

Devastated that Eun Tak died 😭 I really thought as many times as she'd cheated death before, she would somehow continue cheating death again and again for the rest of her days. But no... What a selfless person, Ji Eun Tak. Her being reincarnated as Park So Min gave me some closure. Not the closure I wanted, but closure.

The relationship between Shin and Reaper is ADORABLE. Whenever they interact with each other, they just have this great dialogue. Shin pings, Reaper pongs, Reaper pings, Shin pongs. It's great 😄 I still laugh about the slow-mo scene of them returning from the market with green onions HAHAHA 😂

I love Sunny & Reaper ~ However, their history as Kim Sun & Wang Yeo in their past lives is so very sad. I don't even know where to start RE: my feelings on this 💔 imo, their ending kinda sucked. I just wasn't satisfied with them having had this complicated, tragic story, only to be reincarnated in this fashion that I ultimately found to be just... idk, disappointing 😩 Again, closure, but not the closure I wanted.

I thought Reaper, the other grim reapers, the name cards, the depiction of what happens immediately following death with the brewing of the tea, the afterlife, etc. was all very creative. We really don't know what awaits us when our time comes—it's interesting to wonder if it's anything like it is in Goblin 🍵

Can't stop thinking about Goblin, even though I'm now watching Thirty but Seventeen & Mr. Sunshine! I'm emotionally cheating lol halp.

Photo credits: tvN & AsianWiki

Yo yo! I'm sorry I took so long to watch + write up this review! It's been a long couple of weeks for me, I wasn't always able to watch when I wanted. It was maddening 😆 But I have finally watched, and feel like the most accomplished person on the planet hahaha. xoxo 💜

#goblin #도깨비 #asian dramas #korean dramas #tvn

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jobethdalloway · 6 years

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did you watch the PBS Little Women? My mom wanted to for mother's day, and I wanted to check it out with her bc I know how much you love the story but like...I really didn't like it? She and my sister loved it but I kept leaving to like clean up and other stuff. I'm sorry. Did you see it? Maybe it's just a bad version.

UGHHHHHHHHHHH IT KILLS ME THAT THIS WAS YOUR INTRODUCTION TO LITTLE WOMEN!!!!!!

My mom and I also wanted to give this a go for Mother’s Day but we could not make it through the first 15 minutes. We recorded it and later fast-forwarded to see some of Angela Lansbury as Aunt March, and she was (what a relief) great, but Lord have mercy was everything else ATROCIOUS.

In the first scene, I could only tell which sister was which because of the dialogue - I’m familiar enough with the story to know which lines go to who. But in the ensuing scenes, I swear to God I could not tell Jo from Beth from Meg and could only distinguish Amy because she was blonde. The acting was so FLAT. The March sisters are each so distinct, just in the first scene of that novel/other adaptations - making them distinguishable should be a slam dunk but they were all so bleh that I couldn’t tell and what’s more didn’t care which one was which. And the scene we watched with Angela Lansbury didn’t help!! wtf was that, Jo?! SHE WAS SO MUTED AND LEFT NO IMPRESSION WHATSOEVER. I’m not saying Jo should play that scene bouncing off the walls, but there are so many ways to get across the emotions she’d be feeling there - annoyance, discomfort, frustration, impatience, unhappiness - and instead all we get is the equivalence of the “meh” emoji. No, not even that, because “meh” could be construed as an emotion. These actors - with the exception of Angela - were just reading lines. They were not acting. (And this goes for Emily Watson as well, which is surprising because I know she’s talented and I had hopes for her Marmee. DASHED.)

Another problem - I was kinda like “ehhh okay” in the beginning when they show Mr. March writing his letter because in the book/other adaptations we don’t actually meet him until much, much, much later on in the story - and that’s powerful. It underscores his absence in their lives, and his distance is felt. As Marmee is reading his letter to the girls, then we cut to scenes of wounded soldiers and I’m like ?!?!?! wtF IS THIS???!!! Oh did the filmmakers not trust that we would be able to intuit from his letter about the war THAT A WAR WAS GOING ON?? Still I tried to overlook that (like, I think only 5 minutes had passed so far) but then. Then it’s like here’s Laurie, 2017 dreamboat guy, and his grandfather Dumbledore. Look at grandpa Dumbledore!! He’s strict and Laurie just wants to be a free boy :c STOP IT. THERE IS NO NEED TO CUT AWAY TO LAURIE AND INTRODUCE HIM AND GRANDPA LAURENCE LIKE THIS. LITTLE WOMEN. IS ABOUT. THE LITTLE WOMEN. I’m not saying one of them has to be on screen the entire time, but actually MAYBE THAT IS WHAT I’M SAYING. Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy (and Marmee) are the heart of this story. We learn everything we need to learn about everyone else - their father, the Laurences, whoever tf else - through their relationships with one of those girls.

I have to imagine that cutting away to these other scenes is the show’s way of trying to differentiate itself from other (better) versions. But like, guess what, there’s a reason why the best adaptations don’t do that. Because it’s stupid and unnecessary. I’m not saying adaptations can’t make changes; heck, my favorite one swaps the ages of Beth and Amy - which to some hardcore fans of the book, makes it an unforgivable adaptation. But it’s their loss, because that version captures the heart and soul of the story, of the characters. It gets that Jo is a vivacious spirit, bursting at the seams with a lust for life, someone who - in the words of the novel - “found her greatest affliction in the fact that she couldn’t read, run, and ride as much as she liked.” Where is that Jo’s joie de vivre in this version? June Allyson is perfect. Janet Leigh’s Meg is tempered and desperate for better times; Elizabeth Taylor’s Amy is hilariously snobbish and self-obsessed; Margaret O’Brien’s Beth is so much the tender and cherubic child of the novel; Mary Astor’s Marmee is leagues ahead of any other I’ve seen. PBS did wrong by them all.

If older movies aren’t your style, I have no qualms about recommending the ‘90s adaptation as well (although I understand if you need some time to get over PBS’ before giving any other film a shot). Winona Ryder captures Jo’s restlessness, enthusiasm, and boyishness so well. Claire Danes is a perfect Beth, shy and quiet but wise beyond her years. Kirsten Dunst is likewise a perfect bratty Amy - she knows just how to toe the line; she is at times a ghastly child but never in an unbelievable or over-the-top way. Trini Alvarado’s Meg is caught between love for her family and frustration with their circumstances, and she does a wonderful job of expressing that tension. Each sister is distinct in appearance and personality, which the PBS version just …. does not establish at all. Susan Sarandon’s Marmee does swing a little too often into ‘90s sensibility, but that’s because of the dialogue. In her mothering moments, she is a lovely Marmee.

From a technical standpoint? OY VEY. Please click this link and listen to the opening music of the ‘94 film. When I revisited this movie as an adult, ready to be skeptical because of my love for the first version I ever saw, this music won me over. Yeah I mean it’s kinda got that ‘90s period piece vibe, but it somehow also captures New England winter and, most importantly, WARMTH. The opening credits music of the ‘49 version is endearing to me as well (click here) in a different way - it has sort of a storybook quality to it somehow; it is sweet but not sickly and again, is warm.

I found no warmth in what I saw from PBS. I’ve seen a lot of people praising its cinematography and I’m like, what? What. The scenery was shot like it was a Planet Earth episode set in Massachusetts - like sure, the imagery is beautiful, but this isn’t a nature documentary? The interiors/shots of characters are so perfunctory. So basic. So meh. There is no warmth and no love for what’s at play.

These characters and this story have so much to give. What I saw of this adaptation did not do them justice.

#anon #phew sorry that was a lot #i just have a LOT of feelings #..obviously #little women #rant

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