All along, I have been very adverse to the invasion of the Korean wave aka Hallyu and very reluctant to accept that they are becoming part and parcel of our lives. In fact, my body finds kim chi repulsive until today. When everyone was raving over Dae Jang Geum 大長今, I was busy catching up on my American sitcoms.
Until recently, I've begun to slowly accept Korean dramas but I'm still not as obsessed as to watch them when I'm on the train every morning on my way in to work. As geeky as this may sound, I still very much prefer to be reading a book, distracting myself from the daily real life version of Les Misérables, packaged into what I call the 'train sandwich'.
With the permanent re-runs on the cable, I found myself looking forward to the next episodes of some Korean dramas including 大長今. However, I knew I wouldn't die if I don't watch it (you know how some dramas make you feel like if you are not there for the ending, your life is completely ruined?).
But increasingly, I find myself interested in those faces which I still cannot decide if they are good looking. It's not like looking at Hugh Jackman and we'll unanimously go, "WOAH, that's illegally HOT! Blazin' Baby!" Look... Some of the men are incredibly irresistible and some are just... questionable. Women tend to mostly look the same and I swear if I were to go for rhinoplasty one day, I can probably mail order the Korean pop star nose. The only ones that look wrong would be those whose surgery had indeed gone wrong. Otherwise, what's the excuse of looking anything lesser than superficially beautiful. That said, I want one of those noses as well and I'm serious... Since there's very little I can do about my height.
And it didn't help that on a very personal level, some random ex-boyfriend cheated on me on some Korean chick and she's not even pretty. He also went on to knock her up. The rest is history.
All you KPop fans out there, before you go post this on Facebook and condemn me, I would like to state that this is just my opinion and I have a second part to this article.
Months and months of hearing it from almost everyone I know, I finally (by accident) caught an episode of "Running Man" on TV. It's a South Korean variety show featuring a race (akin to Amazing Race) in/at a certain landmark. Even then, I wasn't in a hurry to find out more. It was only until Watziznehm heard about it from his friends, we just decide that we should sit through an entire episode. Then it was episodes after episodes... Before I knew it, I found myself addressing each of them by their names or nicknames and getting well-versed with commonly used terms in the show (in Korean of course).
Kwangsoo, the Giraffe, never fail to make me laugh. The camaraderie amongst the fixed cast is just amazing. And as I got more and more addicted to the show, I (like most of you fans) think I know these people and how they are really like. Kim Jong Kook, better known as Kookie or the Commander or even the Tiger or ... (I can easily take up another paragraph here)... is just so gentle with women. As long as you're a woman, likelihood is that you can bully him all you like. That characteristic just softens me and as much as I don't like beefy men, here's an exception. Like many schoolgirls, I am ever-ready to scream "awww soooo cuuute" but no... He's definitely not cute. His face belongs to the questionable category but there's so much more to him (spoken like a true old buddy). He makes me want to be the little woman quietly following and watching him. The show makes me so interested that I believe my right foot is already in the Korean language school, had it not been my hectic schedule.
Week after week, I find myself trying to get my hands on the latest episode. The recent ones featured them in Macau & Vietnam and there was even a special episode featuring Jackie Chan! Meanwhile, I'm now friends with Kim Jong Kook on Facebook. Believing that it's the real him (I'm the one who chooses to believe Piscine from Life of Pi was genuinely stuck with a Bengal Tiger as a castaway), I enjoyed following every little bit of information that pops up on my NewsFeed every now and then.
The show in itself has evolved and it is still changing every now and then. I must say the producers are incredibly creative with the games simply getting funnier. The last I read, Singapore TV stations are interested to purchase the format. But can I just say, it will not be the same without this cast. And really, Singaporean stations just kill everything they put their hands on. Just leave Running Man alone...
Meanwhile, everyone goes by Oppa, Unnie and Dongsang...
