Bad Love (KBS, 2007/8)

I know that Sh will not let it go easily with out a dirty trick with the girl that looks like YG first love all that to win injung beside him.. & also I thounght that YG hired injung to work in the company to tease her but it seems that he didn't forget his love to her & replace it with a hate suddenyl after all scens romance between them..I think if Juran go to the work it'll trun the company into a battle.. anyway can't wait to watch Ep13 to know how YG reaction will be when he'll see his first love? & will he be able to forget injung??

I think we can take for granted that LSH is going to die, what with the heart conditions and all. I'm kinda thinking that either the show ends with YG/IJ together or we'll also see a joint suicide. In Jung's tried killing herself a number of times (that or she really IS attracted to bright lights at night! Woohoo see that truck go!) And the memories of his lover's suicide wore on Yong Gi's soul.

That of course leaves Joo Ran and her hair, her one true love. Marital bliss is temporary honey, but ajuhmma perms will last you a lifetime! Can I get a **** slap!

Episode 12 really surprised me. Upon hiring her, I expected YG to simultaneously torture her and to try winning her over. Likewise, I expected IJ to be asked to do humiliating things or express happiness or deep misery over her predicament.

Instead, they just do their work.

YG hires IJ, but it looks like he never had any great plan or scheme with her. He just hired her because he couldn't think of a better way for her to be around him. He doesn't yell at her; he doesn't tease her; he doesn't try to seduce her. He just treats her as a secretary. At the same time, he's much more concerned about the power struggle with the building plan than over his romantic interlude, which is so unlike the artistic YG. I actually liked this approach, because it underlined how badly YG was hurt by their relationship. He wants to keep her near, but he doesn't know what to do beyond that. He's angry like a child, but he knows he has more bigger responsibilities now.

I liked how IJ approaches her situation too. She's unable to express affection for him, not even a kind word. But through her work, she has a reason to be in his life, as maybe a kind of moral counsel to him. I liked how she stated matter-of-factly why he needed to bring back LSH, and how YG in turn knows this too. His arrogance isn't above the reality of the business, and he gives in.

I'm not sure what I think about Jo Ann 2.0. First, I'm not convinced that Jo Ann 2.0 isn't really Jo Ann 1.0.1 (i.e. she slashed her wrist and somehow lost her memory or something and YG was too distraught to notice she wasn't dead.) Or even maybe she's a lost twin sister?!? I'm not sure how the Jo Ann plot will work. Will she initiate a public relationship LSH, thereby forcing YG to watch his old girlfriend with his rival? Will she try to seduce YG even though it looks like YG will merely lash out at her for resembling an old ghost? Will she seduce IJ and torture YG's loins with thoughts of his current love and his dead love indulging in homonecrophilia?

Yeah, seriously, when YG copped a classic Doors shirt, I was totally visualizing a half naked Kwon Sang Woo with beads and big ajuhmma hair, roaming around in the desert, looking for a Stairway to Heaven. Uhm, yeah. That explains all the acid YG and Joanne 1.0 must have dropped for YG to get these recurring nightmares. Love is a bad trip, man. Ya just gotta ride it out, ride it out man.

I have to say I'm greatly, greatly disappointed that we didn't get one single "Luke I am your father. That's impossible!!! NOOOOO!!" moment between Yong Gi and Joanne 2.0 C'mon man, she looks JUST like Joanne 1.0 even down to the wrists. (Oh I get it, you can only recognize Joanne by her wrist cuts. Then it's like "OMG JoAnNe YoU aRe AlIVe LOLOOOOXXXXXS? How emo ARE you YG?)

My favorite scene was when Yong Gi and In Jung were eating the fried chicken. Not because I'm hungry, but that they were playing John Lennon's Woman in the background. I love that song. Though I'm sure they tried to get "Don't Let Me Down" first.

For a show that's gone over the top like Rambo fighting Mr T, it's just really disappointing the writers didn't much more with the Single White Female-meets-Fatal Attraction-meets-What Star Are You From doppelganger trope. The writers did the bare minimum, but it just feels kinda rushed and just kinda boring. And, I mean, seduction by Ex-Suicidal Girlfriend Lookalike should never, EVER be boring, you know?

Having said that, there's a real spark between Cha Ye Reon and Kwon Sang Woo. So much so that I'm actually wondering if they're dating in real life. And Cha Ye Reon is a real find as an actress. Even with this small villain part, she imbues her performance with a impish quality and approaches an character seemingly bemused with the situation. Just a beaming, morally ambivalent not weighed down by prior demons. In a show where everybody seems either depressed or dealing with their anger management, Joanne 2.0 is a relief. It's a surprisingly subtle, witty performance, and I think she stole her scenes.

How much does it suck for LSH that even after ending up in the hospital after his heart (or brain or I would imagine his toupe-esque hair) is dying on the hospital bed, IJ just kinda shrugs. You know he was thinking that too "woman! do you not know follow Commandment 5.5.6 of K-drama. Thou shalt fall in love with terminally ill patient?!?" And then his mum comes along, restates the whole case, and she's still like "whatever." Wow. How much does it suck to be LSH?

Pacing could still need some work, but the episode overall played much better. Even though you get the sense we're going to swagging through another 4 episodes of IJ rejecting YG, YG loving and hating IJ, and other people of Bad Love "killing episode time", it's still nice watching them kinda stab each other in the back.

I'm not sure what YG wants, though. Does he want to make IJ jealous to win her over? Or does he just want IJ to suffer? Also, it isn't clear what LSH sees from his little game. If he did eliminate YG from her life, IJ hasn't yet show any interest in him whatsoever? Also, it seems like the show is saving up Joo Ran for the ending or the last plot twist. The show was more fun when she was throwing cellos at people.

BTW what happened to Mi So? Did they botch the little actress's contract and now she doesn't even exist anymore?!?