Summer Horror

A year ago we did an episode for the podcast on Korea’s trend of horror being a summer thing, and I had a lot of fun researching for the episode. Since summer means we’re still a while out from Halloween, having a reason to celebrate horror a little bit earlier is pretty great. What better way to cool down than to be drenched in sweat and chills?

Korea’s move to promoting horror in movies and themed events during the summer actually was a result of the end of the military dictatorship. By the late ’90s, Korea’s government had lifted strong regulations and censorship on media that had been in place since the ’60s. This allowed Korean filmmakers to have a lot more freedom in what they made. Because of this, horror movies became easier and cheaper to make, allowing filmmakers a lot more artistic control. Horror was already a familiar and loved genre, but at the time it was from imported movies. The real explosion happened on May 30, 1998, when the movie Whispering Corridors was released and became a commercial success, making it one of the major reasons for the escalation of the Korean horror genre to increase in popularity. While other films will help solidify the summer months being the time to release horror, it was the first to help push the genre into this time of the year. Last October I did a review on the first Whispering Corridors movie, you can read it here.

You can also find more about our discussion and some of the shows/movies we watched by checking out the episode:

If you ever thought it was odd that Korea wasn’t pushing out horror content during Halloween, this is why. While recently it has been more common to see this genre show up in October because of the Western influence, Korea still hasn’t let go of the summer months. In non-pandemic times you’ll see a lot of horror movies in theatres. Theme parks and recreational areas will decorate and promote special rides and events during this time. Groups will release horror concepts.

Because I’m in the mood to always celebrate horror at any point in the year and love a well-planned excuse for it, for the next three months I will be focusing a lot of content on this blog on Korean horror - specifically the movies and dramas that came out during these months. While I still will have other normal posts, almost all of my content will exclusively lean to the horror side. I have a lot planned that will include reviews, highlights of popular movies releases, and a whole lot more.

If you are into horror or specifically want to dive more into what Korea has to offer, make sure you keep up here. I’ll be doing a lot on Twitter as well, so make sure to follow me there.

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Dramas That Go Well With Wine

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Today is National Wine Day. It is also this blog’s three year anniversary.

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I initially started this blog because I wanted to talk more about dramas. I had been watching for a couple of years, and while it was fun trying to summarize the entirety of dramas like Goblin to my co-worker, I wanted to talk to people who were actually watching the dramas. I wanted to comment more on things, and at that time I was also transitioning from just casually watching dramas, to actually going out of my way to look up news and keep up with what was airing.

I ended up starting my Twitter and blog at roughly the same time. I always had the intention to start a blog and got Twitter to secure the name on socials/get movement through that. But as time went on, I spent most of my time talking to people on Twitter, which led to me stumbling upon people who I created a podcast with….and the blog become less of a priority. It’s not that I didn’t want it to be a priority, I just couldn’t make it one. It was mostly because of my extra time being spent on the podcast (I edit the podcast, so I do a lot more work than just host along with all the other things that take to make it, like researching the topics etc), and some of the things that I would have talked about here I ended up talking about there and it just felt like I was constantly repeating myself and I had lost something that was mine.

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I think I was also always lacking a coherent path for the blog. I knew what I wanted to do, but a lot of the time I just felt that it wasn’t the right way. Or that it was so overdone and that I didn’t feel the need to do it. I know that was mostly a me problem, as I have a problem with always thinking that I’m not good enough/not worthy of the voice - but what I did know was that I wanted to keep up with the blog. Despite the struggles there were brief times when I was creating content and it was making me really happy. Especially in those first days.

I ended up adding music posts as a way to talk about something that I’ve always liked. I had started the blog liking music, but it was something that I wanted to separate because I was trying to just focus on the drama side of things. To this day it’s been one of the most consistent things I’ve done, and I know that part of it is that it’s a little bit easier to prep for music posts - to review a drama I have to sit and watch for hours, to listen to music I can do it even while cleaning - but it’s been fun, and it’s honestly what has kept this blog even semi-alive and creating something.

I’ve spent the past few years trying to figure out what I really wanted this blog to be, I knew that I needed to figure it out and couldn’t just keep pushing it aside or only focusing on it occasionally. With the next year of renewals on my hosting plan coming up, I knew it was essential…and because of that push along with this Covid-induced life crisis I’m forced in, I think that I finally know what I want from it. What I want this blog to be. Three years later. And I know now that I want to put in the time to make it work.

I am shifting to focusing almost exclusively on horror, crime, and thriller content. Obviously this shouldn’t be that much of a shock as I have been slowly incorporating it in aspects of this blog already (during Halloween) and most notably on my Twitter account. I’ve been talking to people about the way that those genres live in the frame of the Asian entertainment community and how it tends to be the outlier. Unlike in traditional media, the average Asian drama watcher skews towards romance. I’m not saying this a bad thing by any means. I do think that it’s great and essential that there is a community where that genre is more accepted than others. When you think of how romcoms and such are represented in spaces of literature or film, they are unfairly demeaned and having a community that uplifts it is essential. The only problem is that I’m not the average Asian entertainment watcher. And if we look at something specific like horror, that outside of the film fandom - which typically doesn’t watch other Asian content and doesn’t come at their viewings from the same angle as one that does - it’s harder to find a lot of people to connect with. At least to the point they are outwardly speaking and writing about it. Why not be that person?

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Does this mean that I won’t stray from those topics and be sporadic at times? No. Of course not. I may not watch romcoms generally, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t ever watch them. I watch a lot of jdramas that fall outside of the crime genres too, and sometimes I want to talk about them (like I did with my In Time With You post). I’m also going to keep the music side of this blog going. While it’s probably some sort of SEO nightmare to not try to stick with one thing, I’m just going to stop caring. I’m the one writing these posts and designing this site. I need to like and connect with what I’m writing. I also need to let go of the belief that I have to make this blog run in only one direction when I don’t run in one direction.

And let’s face it - all of these things go well with wine, so I can’t be going in the wrong direction.

Stay tuned for the end of this week, I have something starting that I’ve been plotting for about two months now and am really excited to get into it that I hope will serve as a good introduction into this newest season of this little blog. I’m excited, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to say that. It’s a nice feeling. Hope you’ll stick around.

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First Impression: Joseon Exorcist

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Update: My life is great and wonderful.

I’m just going to go ahead and post this since I’ve been working on it all morning. So disappointing.

I was going to write more about Joseon Exorcist when more episodes had come out, but seeing as the recent controversy is delaying production, I thought it would be interesting to talk about my first impressions of the drama now, and then later on I might come back to it.

This will be on the first two episodes of the drama, and will not talk or mention anything past that, so if you are worried about spoilers only worry about those two episodes.

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Native Title: 조선구마사
Release Date: March 20. 2021 (was to air Mondays/Tuesdays)
Episode #: 16
Platform: SBS (Viki)
Director: Shin Kyung Soo
Writer: Park Kye Ok
Genre: Horror/Historical
Starring: Jang Dong Yoon, Kam Woo Sung, Park Sung Hoon. Rest of the cast can be found here.

The drama is set in the Joseon Dynasty where an evil spirit is possessing the villagers. The king and the royal family are tasked to figure out how to stop the evil spirit and protect its people.

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On a whole, I really like the drama. It’s creepy and dark, and the first two episodes actually really explore that darkness pretty well. This is a horror drama, and there’s no reason to hold back for the sake of those who aren’t into the genre, and I felt that it really presented that well (despite a few out of the blue nonsense comedic parts). There was a lot more blood than I was expecting from an SBS drama and a whole lot of death. A lot a lot. The deaths were gruesome and messy and they really didn’t hold back on how much of it was there. I breezed through the first two episodes easily. I actually had to wait a day inbetween the two for subs, and found that I really didn’t like that. Which might be hard for next week since they are suspending next week’s airing episodes because of the controversy.

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I am admittedly not much a historical watcher, but it’s usually due to the amount of politics that are present. It’s not my thing, and luckily that really isn’t that present in the first episodes. Yes, it still has a level of politics out of necessity (there is already tension outside of the situation and before the events happen started happening), but a lot of the politics has to be there. And it’s entertaining. It’s kind of got that same feel as a political drama like They don’t know what is going on, how they are supposed to fix anything and are just as clueless as everyone else. Especially when presented with the situation affecting not just the people they rule over, but family members.

There’s so much blood in these first two episodes and I freaking loved it.

There’s so much blood in these first two episodes and I freaking loved it.

My biggest complaint about the drama is how much it wants to be a zombie drama…when it’s technically not. With the rise of zombie dramas and movies lately in Korea, it would have been nice to see it not be that and not so obviously trying to hang on to that popularity. I think it would have been really great to see this drama at this level focus more on the possession itself, as opposed to making the possession seem like it is some sort of virus. I do get that it’s probably more to focus on the possession being more realistic and a threat to all, but it just wasn’t working for me for the most part. It’s hard to follow what they want the “monsters” to be and it creates a little bit of an identity crisis.

There’s also just this one really great thing about zombies that just makes them cool: zombies don’t care about Christianity. They don’t care about any god. That’s not why they are evil and that’s not going to stop them from being evil or trying to attack. They are mindless and don’t think. They don’t actually have any sort of motivation other than pure hunger. And I think that’s really cool, but when you place the power of prayer as their kryptonite…it just falls flat. It’s kind of like your forcing a zombie to be a vampire to actually be an evil spirit that’s inhabiting a body (because none of the bodies die before they change) and that’s just a lot of boxes to force them into.

Who knows. Maybe I’m reading too much into everything and we’ll find that this entire drama is about the first documented cases of rabies.

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But honestly, even with those gripes…I loved this. I am concerned about how it’s going to turn out in terms of the issues it is having with audiences about inaccuracies going forward, though (insert cry laugh gif). I only hope that it is something minor enough that it can recover and won’t be affected too much because I am very much here for all of it. And if it wants to live in this 19+ world past these first two episodes, I welcome it with open arms.

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