Episode 1 in Pictures: Arang and the Magistrate

Title: Arang and the Magistrate (아랑사또전)

Network: MBC

Episodes: 20

Starring: Lee Joon-Gi, Shin Min-Ah, Yoon Woo-Jin, Yoo Seung-Ho

Aired: Aug.-Oct. 2012

Let's all appreciate how utterly beautiful and sexy Shin Min Ah is

White Christmas (2011)

Are monsters born or are they created?

White Christmas, written by Park Yeon-Seon who also wrote the ever so lacking Wild Romance, is a psychological study in trying to answer whether the people society deem as monsters are born already being monsters or if they are created through a series of events in their lives.  It is a different breed of Kdrama, and an exciting one.
The story starts off on Christmas Eve when the school is emptied out save for seven(plus one) students and a teacher who have stayed behind to spend the winter holiday in the school after each of them received a letter with a cryptic message on it.  The letter taunted them about past sins against a fellow student.  

The seven of them are joined by elmo haired Kang Mi Reu or Mad Mi Reu, played by Woo Bin and I'm not kidding about the elmo hair.

 

Doctor Kim ... up to no good.

Doctor Kim Yo Han joins the party after he is involved in a car accident and is forced to seek shelter from the snow at the school.  For the bulk of the drama these nine people are the players in an experiment that sets out to prove everyone has a monster inside them and under the right circumstances we are capable of monstrous actions.  It is a journey that is portrayed beautifully in this drama.  The drama itself looks beautiful from the snow covered landscape, to the school, to the students; the fact that it deals with evil makes the beauty starkly stand out. 
I loved this drama mostly because it was so different than the usual drama that I watch, but also because it had no unnecessary moments.  At eight episodes every episode was important and added to the whole.  The only gripe I had about the drama was the incompetence of the police only the last episode and didn't detract from the overall greatness of the drama. 
Are monster born or are the created?  The drama answers the question, but sometimes the answer isn't the one we want.

First Episode, First Impression: White Christmas

Title: White Christmas (화이트 크리스마스) also known as Monster (몬스터)
Network: KBS2
Episodes: 8
Starring: Kim Sang Kyung, Baek Sung Hyung, Kim Young Kwang, Lee Soo Hyuk, Sung Joon, Kim Woo Bin, Kwak Jung Wook
Aired: Jan. 2011 - March 2011

I've been in what can only be described as a drama slump the last couple of weeks.  In fact, the last Korean drama I watched was two weeks ago which was the first episode of 7th Grade Civil Servant, and since then nothing.  Not the ending to That Winter the Wind Blows not the second half of 49 Days, nothing.  I have watched Great Teacher Onizuka, which is a Japanese drama but even that took me almost three weeks to get through, if you like Japanese dramas, animes, or mangas I recommend GTO in all three of it's incarnations.  I posted over on /kdrama about my problem and I got some really great recommendations to get me out of my slump; most of which I will get to, but the one that jumped out at me was White Christmas.  I had been wanting to watch this drama for a while now, but never really got around to it.  Finally, I'm going to sit down and watch the first episode.

"Prison" there is no way I would stay behind, no matter what.  I've read The Shining; I know how this ends

Just finished the first episode of White Christmas and honestly it took me longer than it should, but that is mostly due to outside distractions.  I'm going to try really ultra hard not to give away any spoilers.  The drama special, since it's only eight episodes, revolves around seven students (plus one) at the elite Susin High School, or "prison" as it is lovingly referred to, who stay behind over Christmas break after getting a letter written on black paper and in a black envelope which reads:

   You tainted me, made me pitiful.
    You made me a monster in the corner.
    You silenced me.
    You ridiculed my false hope.
    You took the only thing I had and put it around your neck.
    I held out my hand and you let go.
    You deleted me from your eyes.
    Finally, you overtook me.
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
    After 8 days, walk up the path by the zelkova tree.
    Under the clock tower you will see someone dead.
    The night that Jesus was born, I curse you.

No, thank you very much, me and my happy ass would be on the first bus out of dodge if I got a creepy letter that sounded like a bad poem written by an emo kid on LSD.  The first episode does a really great job at introducing the seven students you get to know them a tad as they try to figure out what they all have in common to have gotten the same letter.  As the first episode goes on the questions of whether monsters are born or created is posed, and if they are born should they be punished when they can't help themselves, and if they are created should the people responsible for creating them be held accountable?  And according to all the synopsizes that I read, this will be the central point of the drama.  Just the mere fact that this drama will try to answer such a philosophical question already sets it apart from other Kdramas.

My only slight beef with this first episode is that it makes it obvious that someone isn't who they say they are.  I'm sure this is on purpose; we are supposed to know the "monster" right away, right?  Not the moody one that wrote the torrid poetry, but the one that sneaks into your house at night under the guise of a friendly neighbor.  Cuz seriously that psychiatrist dude sends out creepy vibes like you would not believe.

This first episode piqued my interest enough that I had to force myself not to go ahead and just forge forward with episode two.  It hit all the right notes to engage me into the narrative. So, I will most definitely be watching the rest of this drama not not solely for the Eye Candy.