Something in the Rain (available on Netflix) requires cultural adjustment by Western, especially American, viewers. The adjustment is at two levels, both to real life Korean culture and to the artificial conventions of Korean television drama. For example, young adults confronting their parents, however overbearing and self-centered and incapable of calm discussion the latter may be, seems almost impossible, especially when protagonists way into their 30s continue to live with them. Accept this or none of these dramas will make sense. If you make the adjustments, you will come through a viewing of this series entranced as always by Son Ye-jin, a megastar in Korea whose recent triumph in Crash Landing on You would be reason enough to watch everything she has ever done. But you do have to grit your teeth all too often.
Son plays a 35 year old woman, competent at work in a job dominated by men in urgent need of re-education at a Me Too boot camp, but less competent in her love life. As the series begins, she learns her higher status boyfriend is two-timing her and, after she quite rightly dumps him and sneakily wrecks his fling with a younger woman, falls into a genuine loving relationship with a younger man, played more or less competently by rising star Jung Hae-in, who is both the younger brother of her best friend and the best friend of her younger brother. In any normal Western situation, what could possibly be the problem? A slightly older woman dating and falling in love with a younger man, who reciprocates that love in every way, minus her hangups (just 6 years difference between the leads in real life)? There would be no drama in that.
In Korea, however, this relationship is supposedly shocking (the Wikipedia article actually calls it a taboo) and evokes very strong, over the top hostile reactions from everyone close to the couple, except Son's gentle father. Anticipating this, the couple, especially Son, hide the relationship far past the point when revealing it will cause trouble, and indeed far past the point when everyone except the mamma beast has figured it out. The result, easily foreseeable to all, and surely the characters themselves except for the willful blindness imposed on them by the script, is a series of explosions and overreactions many times worse than if everyone had behaved straightforwardly. The relationship gets a particularly hysterical response from Son's mother, who has already shown herself unfit by blaming her daughter for breaking up with the abusive former boyfriend, even though, as the mother was well aware, he had bullied her, stalked her, circulated intimate pictures of them online, and at one point kidnapped her, all of this to be excused because he comes from a higher status family. While the conventions of Korean drama require such idiotic maternal behavior, it's much harder to understand why the sister/best friend reacts so negatively and selfishly. But without the lovers' nonsensical behavior, where would the drama have been? It would have required more imagination and better plotting.
Indeed, Korean dramas are often built on petty and unnecessary lies, obfuscations, prevarications and needless or false denials. Major deceptions are the grist to dramas around the world. But the rampant overuse of minor fibs as a plot device, in this drama as elsewhere, betokens rather abject laziness on the part of the writers and often deprives stories of emotional credibility. A couple of minor examples in this drama: One of Son's coworkers fancies Jung and, not knowing of their relationship, asks Son for help. There is not the slightest reason for Son not to explain matters to her colleague and her lies and pretenses simply cause her entirely predictable trouble later on. Surely Son's character knows that when her colleague finds out, as surely she must, she will have earned entirely deserved resentment. Can she really be so tone deaf? Another: Browbeaten by her mother into going on a blind date, instead of telling this to the poor guy, or responding truthfully to his straightforward question about her affections lying elsewhere, she behaves evasively and rudely. But why? Why behave so poorly, towards someone who did nothing to deserve it? Dozens of such lies, black, grey and white, by every character, can erode the audience's sympathy.
Why watch this through to the end, a limp one at that? (Spoiler alert: You get a couple of rather sappy moments of Son and Jung together at last, which supposedly justifies all the pain endured by both the leads and their nerve-jangled audience. If we are to get a happy ending, can we not be permitted to enjoy it for a little longer?) I liked the deliberate pace - for once 16 episodes did not feel excessive - and the genuineness of the romance. Shedding Western sensibilities, I really believed the lovers and their story. Most especially, you can't take your eyes off Son. She's a great actress at the peak of her powers and she can rescue almost anything from oblivion. Watching a luminous star shine can take your mind off some of the dross she is illuminating.
Son plays a 35 year old woman, competent at work in a job dominated by men in urgent need of re-education at a Me Too boot camp, but less competent in her love life. As the series begins, she learns her higher status boyfriend is two-timing her and, after she quite rightly dumps him and sneakily wrecks his fling with a younger woman, falls into a genuine loving relationship with a younger man, played more or less competently by rising star Jung Hae-in, who is both the younger brother of her best friend and the best friend of her younger brother. In any normal Western situation, what could possibly be the problem? A slightly older woman dating and falling in love with a younger man, who reciprocates that love in every way, minus her hangups (just 6 years difference between the leads in real life)? There would be no drama in that.
In Korea, however, this relationship is supposedly shocking (the Wikipedia article actually calls it a taboo) and evokes very strong, over the top hostile reactions from everyone close to the couple, except Son's gentle father. Anticipating this, the couple, especially Son, hide the relationship far past the point when revealing it will cause trouble, and indeed far past the point when everyone except the mamma beast has figured it out. The result, easily foreseeable to all, and surely the characters themselves except for the willful blindness imposed on them by the script, is a series of explosions and overreactions many times worse than if everyone had behaved straightforwardly. The relationship gets a particularly hysterical response from Son's mother, who has already shown herself unfit by blaming her daughter for breaking up with the abusive former boyfriend, even though, as the mother was well aware, he had bullied her, stalked her, circulated intimate pictures of them online, and at one point kidnapped her, all of this to be excused because he comes from a higher status family. While the conventions of Korean drama require such idiotic maternal behavior, it's much harder to understand why the sister/best friend reacts so negatively and selfishly. But without the lovers' nonsensical behavior, where would the drama have been? It would have required more imagination and better plotting.
Indeed, Korean dramas are often built on petty and unnecessary lies, obfuscations, prevarications and needless or false denials. Major deceptions are the grist to dramas around the world. But the rampant overuse of minor fibs as a plot device, in this drama as elsewhere, betokens rather abject laziness on the part of the writers and often deprives stories of emotional credibility. A couple of minor examples in this drama: One of Son's coworkers fancies Jung and, not knowing of their relationship, asks Son for help. There is not the slightest reason for Son not to explain matters to her colleague and her lies and pretenses simply cause her entirely predictable trouble later on. Surely Son's character knows that when her colleague finds out, as surely she must, she will have earned entirely deserved resentment. Can she really be so tone deaf? Another: Browbeaten by her mother into going on a blind date, instead of telling this to the poor guy, or responding truthfully to his straightforward question about her affections lying elsewhere, she behaves evasively and rudely. But why? Why behave so poorly, towards someone who did nothing to deserve it? Dozens of such lies, black, grey and white, by every character, can erode the audience's sympathy.
Why watch this through to the end, a limp one at that? (Spoiler alert: You get a couple of rather sappy moments of Son and Jung together at last, which supposedly justifies all the pain endured by both the leads and their nerve-jangled audience. If we are to get a happy ending, can we not be permitted to enjoy it for a little longer?) I liked the deliberate pace - for once 16 episodes did not feel excessive - and the genuineness of the romance. Shedding Western sensibilities, I really believed the lovers and their story. Most especially, you can't take your eyes off Son. She's a great actress at the peak of her powers and she can rescue almost anything from oblivion. Watching a luminous star shine can take your mind off some of the dross she is illuminating.