Today I'm going to talk about Ha Ji Won's dramas. Not all of them. To tell you the truth, I haven't watched her pre-Bali dramas, and sageuk is not exactly my kind of thing. So I will discuss 3 dramas, and 3 dramas only: What Happened in Bali, Secret Garden, and The King 2 Hearts (can you believe I haven't posted them already?)
Let's start with What Happened in Bali.
It's my second time watching this drama. I watched it for the first time when the drama was airing on a national channel years ago. I knew nothing about Korea or Ha Ji Won at that time, but I enjoyed watching it. I kept the drama deep in my heart, but never had the intention to watch it again (you know why). Until recently, as I fall more and more deeply in love with Ha Ji Won, I decided to re-run it. I thought to myself: If there's a drama I should rewatch, it's What Happened in Bali. I mean, it's Ha Ji Won, and it's Bali!
So yeah... There I was, in front of the screen, greatly affected by the drama. Seriously. The whole drama is too dark for me. I was wondering if anyone ever commited suicide after watching WHIB. Me? I've watched it before, right? I thought I'd be fine. But, nope. It still messed me up inside. At the end of the drama marathon, I had to keep myself sane by watching cheery scenes from Secret Garden. WHIB is just that good.
From what I read on @hajiwonworld timeline, there are 2 kinds of dramas: one that has high rating but low in quality, and one that has low rating but high in quality. However, WHIB was widely considered a success, both critically and rating-wise. In fact, WHIB's rating peak is the highest among all Ha Ji Won's dramas. WHIB also got positive reviews from K-drama fans. The one and only ockoala from koalasplayground.com wrote one. You can read it here.
WHIB actually made it to ockoala's top 10 favorite K-dramas. She wrote about it, "What Happened in Bali - THE love triangle to end all love triangle debates -- even the leading lady isn't so sure who she loves. Outstanding acting by everyone involved. You won't stop thinking about it for awhile after you finish watching it." And that, ladies and gentlemen, was coming from the lady who isn't impressed by Secret Garden.
For me, WHIB has led me to a great discovery about myself. When I was trying to put myself in Soo Jung's shoes, to my surprise, I would choose Kang In Wook over Jung Jae Min. I don't care even though Jae Min is a chaebol who happens to look like Jo In Sung. The world would be much better place if I were with In Wook in the first place. Let me be happy with him in our own world, and I will let Jae Min and Young Joo happy in their own world. Happiness is all that matters. That's what I thought. (It doesn't mean that I ship Soo Jung with In Wook. I don't know who to ship in this drama.)
Ha Ji Won in the drama
Ha Ji Won's character in the drama, Lee Soo Jung, is the type of character that grows on me. At first, I hated her so much, I shouted at her, "If you hadn't had Ha Ji Won's face, I would've slapped that face."
I remember, Ha Ji Won herself said that Soo Jung is a character she couldn't understand. Out of all the characters she's taken so far, Soo Jung was the most unique.
However, the more I watch Soo Jung, the more I know I can't hate her. Not only for Ha Ji Won factor, but also because this character is so real. You can find yourself in her. She's not always kind and forgiving, but she's not evil either. It's just that she makes mistakes, but she regrets them. How true is that to human nature.
In the review, ockoala wrote, "When people say that Ha Ji Won is like a walking ball of sex, I believe that statement." All I know is, even at that time, people have been associating Ha Ji Won with sex appeal. Well, I couldn't agree more. When I watched WHIB for the first time, I already found her very attractive (remember, it's not the now-biased me talking). Apparently, I'm not the only who thinks so. If I remember it right, there was this news I read, about a poor woman who experienced domestic violence. The violence was so severe that she had to get a face-off (total reconstruction of the face). It was the first time for Indonesian surgeons to perform this kind of surgery. The surgery itself was a work of charity. So it was a big case in Indonesia. Massive attention was given by the media. One of the questions asked to the woman was: what she wished from the surgical procedure she underwent. She said she wanted to look as beautiful as the Korean woman she watched in a drama. What drama she was talking about? Yep, What Happened in Bali.
Memorable things
1. Fist-in-mouth
I'm not sure who coined this term, but ockoala defines it as "Jo In Sung's man-crying to end all man-crying sessions in What Happened in Bali." In one of Ha Ji Won's news in dramabeans.com, I found this in the comments section: "As many a Bali fan knows, one of the defining scenes is Jo In Sung 'fist in mouth' emotional breakdown whilst clutching Ha Ji Won's leg." (but I think, in the picture above, it's Jae Min's father's leg)
Oh maaan, you have to see him cry in WHIB. As written by ockoala in the review, "You ain't ever seen a man 'cry' like Jo In Sung does cry in WHIB, I mean, his meltdowns have attained legendary status in the K-drama world -- maybe as legendary as Choi Ji Woo's ability to produce giant rolling perfectly formed tear drops on demand." So, when it was revealed that Jo In Sung's comeback project is Fist Fighting, ockoala commented, "I think it's amusingly ironic that Mr. Fist-in-Mouth's (reference to WHIB) first post-MS comeback project will be a drama called fist fighting."
I remember when Ha Ji Won guested on Love Letter, Shinhwa's Andy parodied the fist-in-mouth. And you know that assistant of Director Park's in Secret Garden? hellochloe from chloeplus.blogspot.com refers to him as "the one who did a not-so-sexy imitation of my Jo In Sung's fist-in-mouth gesture in What Happened in Bali." When Big Bang parodied Secret Garden, they couldn't miss this scene too.
2. Jae Min's forced kiss
This scene receives special attention because Ha Ji Won and Jo In Sung keep talking about it. Ha Ji Won picked this as the most difficult kiss scene she's had. She explained, "The director hated kiss scenes so we had to get it right the first time no matter what. I was so nervous that I bumped teeth with Jo In Sung and almost broke them."
Also, I read this in dramafever blog on May 2011. Jo In Sung, who was recently discharged from the army, was in the news again for an interview he did back in 2004 while promoting the drama, What Happened in Bali. Though Ha Ji Won has shot to superstardom with Secret Garden, back in 2004, she was relatively a newcomer. In the interview, Jo In Sung teased that he could have had multiple takes of the kiss scene if he wanted to and that the two actors kissed so hard that their teeth almost broke.
3. The ending
Exactly. This drama is known for its ending, but no one actually talks about it. That's what ockoala said in the review. Well, I'm not spoiling it either. *evil smirk*
Commenting on the drama's shocking ending, Ha Ji Won said, "At the time, we all said that we didn't know the drama's ending when we were interviewed about it because of our promise to the producers." They actually knew how they're going to end up right from the first filming of the drama.
Ah~ People should've taken some hints from the theme song~
