Sunday, November 18, 2018

Pinocchio Kdrama

After Heartstrings, I got to watch Pinocchio. This is the best Park Shin-hye drama for people who enjoy discourses on news and journalism. The length and breadth of the significance of news in our lives could not be explained enough in this 20-episode arc.  Pinocchio here refers to a hiccup rather than a long nose.  I love the chemistry of the leads and its leading man, Lee Jong Suk is popular amongst Hallyu fans.  When the male and female leads are on-screen together, the electricity is palpable.

The writing is good.  Fake news could ruin lives.  Journalists should be ethical but sometimes nothing is further from the truth.  But when Gi Ha Myung became Choi Dal Po, he was already fourteen, basically a grown-up when viewed from the context of my generation. Maybe fourteen is really thirteen as they add one year to every age in Korea.  At 14, he may just be beginning adolescence but his personality is developed. So he's essentially already raised and his free will should never have followed his mum blindly.  But then life (or in this case fiction)  is complicated and his choice of staying by the side of the Choi family took precedence over the quest in finding his flesh and blood relatives and informing them that he did not perish in the sea. 

There are layers to the story.  The protagonists and antagonists all reached a satisfying conclusion aside from the older brother, Gi Jae Myung, although he was fully aware of the consequences of his vengeful acts.  Aside from Hyung. all the other characters, specially Choi In-ha's (Park Shin-hye) mother are punished lightly by circumstance.  Whilst the lead couple, Choi In-ha and Gi Ha-myung are looking forward to a future of wedded bliss and making beautiful babies together.

Watching this drama reminds me of technology and modernity as well. I like the sleekness of the news studios and the vastness of the buildings and headquarters and those tv monitors, big or small are nice touches in these fast-paced world. I like how those deleted messages were retrieved from old phones, every letter is sacrosanct when it comes to technology. 

I saw this drama several times on Viki and the last time on Netflix.  There are very few differences in the dialog, quite minute and inconsequential.  I could watch this drama again and again in the years to come. That's the by-product of streams and apps, shows and dramas are just a touch away.