Tropical Nights in December

12월의 열대야 / 12 Wolui Yeoldaeya




Wow.

I requested this one on Mysoju, and it didn't take them long to post, either. I'm so happy that they did! I SOOO lust after Ajushi KIM! Ok, so I guess I actually lust after A LOT of Korean men. But, there is something fascinating about KIM NAM JIN that keeps me coming back for more.


Sigh

Some Korean dramas take their queues from other stories, like My Lovely Sam-soon was modeled after the movie Bridget Jones' Diary, and TNID is unabashedly modeled after Cinderella. They even made sure to have Young-sim's children watch a video of Cinderella, and she read the story to her little girl, too.

Young-sim's hairstyle made me think about Audrey Hepburn's character in Sabrina (starring Humphrey Bogart)

This was good!!! I mean, it was worth watching, it had an interesting plot, and the characters drew me in almost immediately! I was hooked on this show from the first episode, and though I had issues with VEOH a few times, it all worked out and I was able to watch TNID in it's entirety.

I'd like to throttle the idiot that thought to use YELLOW subtitles at the very end, though!!!

Speaking of the end ... WTF? Leave it to Korean writers to NEVER fail in their efforts to PISS ME OFF!!! How can you dare to put your name on things like this? How can you write such FABULOUS work, and then CHUCK IT at the very end?
Damn it, I wanted to see Young-sim in PARIS, taking the lifetime trip that her love could not. I wanted to see TEN YEARS LATER (the time that Ji-hwan took to destroy his doting wife's life) when estranged husband & wife reconcile! For crying out loud, couldn't you AT LEAST have sent her up to GOLDEN MOUNTAIN to spread his ashes?

As touching, moving, and spell-binding as this drama was for me, it stunned me to have not shed tears when Park Jung-woo died. Maybe it was the late night hour that made me too tired? I knew that he'd pass, so I wasn't surprised? It could have been because the entire DRAMA caused me to shed tears that I had little left to offer our poor, forlorn hero at the bitter-sweet end? I may never know.

If Ji-hwan was to ask that his wife think about his feelings ONE MORE TIME, I probably would have sent a heavy object through the computer screen. It's that male chauvinist attitude that makes me want to SCREAM while pulling out my own, precious hair. How can you frickin' look in a MIRROR, let alone ask something so asinine? And yet, toward the end of the show, I began to root for this guy, and I honestly hoped that young-sim would return to her husband. I truly believe in forgiving mistakes, and even those as insurmountable as the one that he made.

NO ONE is as resilient or unbreakable as young-sim, I'm afraid. NO ONE can take the kind of abuse that she did for a WEEK, let alone ten years. It would have made more sense to have the marriage three or five years old, and not ten. And the father-in-law's sudden CHIVALRY toward the end left me feeling quite confused. Ten years later, and you're just NOW going to voice an opinion about your bitch-hag of a wife's cruel and unusual treatment toward one of your daughter's-in-law? WHY? Why the sudden change in attitude, when for ten LONG years, you let it happen? See, three years would have fit better, not TEN.

I'm pretty sure the EVER-PRESENT MESSAGE in this particular drama was that to get married young (like 20 is too young to wed), to have pre-marital sex (there it is again!), and to show fidelity toward the family had to be driven home SOMEHOW.

I really, truly liked this drama, and despite it's flaws, I will probably watch it again some day. Can anyone explain the title to me, though? I know they met in August, and that it was supposed to be hot at the time (though their clothing didn't indicate anything of the sort). What was so tropical, or even WARM about this drama?

Do you suppose they had sex before he died? Implied or otherwise, I can never tell for sure with these Korean dramas unless I actually see them between the sheets.