'Gyeongseong Creature' teaches us forgotten Korean history and how much better their actors are than the West gives them credit for
Plus, the Purina recall...
South Korean actress Han So-hee (Yoon Chae-ok, “GyeongSeong Creature”) makes Julia Roberts look like chump change. The entire cast of the new k-drama Netflix series puts the likes of Olivier, Hopkins, Hanks, and DiCaprio to shame.
Claudia Kim, who plays an inscrutable, formidable foe (Lady Maeda), nearly steals the show and proves American/British/white movie makers never did her token roles (“Fantastic Beasts,” “Age of Ultron”) any justice.
Lately, I’ve been on a k-drama kick. Koreans act better, tell a story better, direct better, envision better…use an ensemble better…in their small but mighty niche industry.
The more I watch k-dramas, the more insulting, suspect, and…yeah, well…racist THE POWERS THAT BE running Western pop culture seem to be.
Could you imagine any of our blockbuster hits with a Korean cast?
How about stories never before told with Spielberg luxury, and promoted just as much as “The Avengers” and “Star Wars?” The real stories behind the overthrow of the Hawaiian islands and corporate statehood, the role the indigenous played in the power play of the white man in the Americas, World War II — beyond Pearl Harbor and the Nazis and the great white savior?
Did you know Chinese and Korean rebels fought valiantly against the Chōsen Japanese for independence during a lengthy, tyrannical occupation (1905-1945) so brutal, so sick and twisted, so inhuman that they made the Nazis look like Teletubbies?
Why don’t we see more of those stories, told from the perspective of those whose ancestors were imprisoned, tortured, experimented on, raped, and killed…and not the white man?
Keep watching the unimaginative, formulaic dreck coming out of the Hollywood and, in some respects, British elite, and you’ll never know.
I, for one, want to learn more about the history that made me. I may not know who my biological family is (my mom was abandoned and adopted by an abusive innkeeper), and I may not have spent much time growing up in and around Seoul (1964-1967), but I get a better sense of who I am through these k-dramas.
I may never watch another made-in-America piece of propaganda again.
There are times when I’m immersed in k-drama when I feel a strange sense of déjà-vu (duh, I’ve been there, Korea’s in my DNA) and regret that I’m not there still. If only my mom hadn’t been (as) enamored of American culture as I inevitably became. If only she’d been born to better, more privileged (was there such a thing?) stock. If only she told my adoptive father, “No, go ahead and kill yourself, I’m not marrying you, I don’t love you and I will never love a fat, ugly, manipulative cunt like you.”
If only we’d stayed in our homeland…what would I have grown up to be? A k-drama actress, writer, doctor, hotteok vendor? Would I marry young and have three devoted daughters? Who would’ve been my best friends, where would we go to have a laugh, what would be our favorite restaurants? Would I be cutting sizzling pork belly for them and shoving lettuce-filled wraps in their mouths while loudly shrieking with delight and playfully punching them (fuck you, Jennifer Munro)?
Would I finally be happy, content, proud of myself, and not ashamed for being different — flat-faced, slant-eyed foreigner always — if I never knew I was?
What did the United States do to me? What good was my mother’s sacrifice anyway?
What’s done is done. I’m here in Idaho, freezing to death, so very sick of American food to the point where I have no appetite, and craving my grandma’s tofu jjigae with Corvina fish, namul, and rice so badly I don’t care if it’s not low-carb.
My son James recommended the critically acclaimed k-drama, “It’s Okay Not to Be Okay,” a long time ago, before he moved back to Washington. I tried to get into it, but quit a quarter into the first bizarre episode. I couldn’t figure out what I was watching — typical of K-dramas, they tend to play around with time and genre and short-story-like endings — who to root for and why.
I’m back at it, and I think the successful children’s book author is the good guy under the illusion she’s evil, and she’s there to help the good guy secretly battling his evil impulses.
There are a lot of disparate elements in the show, a mix of animé/webtoon, fantasy/thriller/horror, and a left-field, round-about rom-com that refuses to give into sentimentality or cliché.
Unlike American rom-coms designed to sell you on stanning a power couple (and worshiping a brand), rather than enjoying a compelling, inspiring story peopled by a talented, underrated cast.
The difference between gazing up at a perfect mannequin and fully engaging with a slice of life.
Fuck them, and fuck America, too. My dad didn’t save us from a life of poverty; he stole my heritage, my pride, my family from me by denying me my language, shaming my culture, and putting my once-beautiful mother through hell with his White Savior Complex, aka love.
If there was a way to turn back time in a parallel universe, I’d live in the 1940s as a Korean rebel fighting the Japanese occupation (no wonder elder Koreans hate/distrust the Japanese to this day) during a time of GyeongSeong Creature.
In other news:
Purina voluntarily expanded its recall of the Pro Plan dog food line last spring, but denies its dog food is poisonous or deadly to dogs, recently disputing Tik Tok vids to the contrary and possibly carefully watching any YouTube videos about the topic.
I had no idea this was going on, or I would’ve stopped feeding our dog the Pro Plan for sensitive stomachs long ago.
“Hey friends, I just learned that there are reports of my dog’s food, Purina Pro Plan sensitive stomach (salmon and rice formula) making dogs seriously ill. Has anyone else heard this and/or switched to a different food to address sensitive stomach needs? I’m at a loss and might just make him homemade dog food now.
Update: I went back to PetCo and returned the food. An employee said they don’t even know why they sell it and have seen maggots and moths in their batches so I’m extra glad I cut my losses. Bought Orijen amazing grains six fish recipe with vet approval (my baby has sensitive stomach issues and can’t have chicken, so fish is an easier protein to digest) and gobbled down the few pieces of kibble I gave to him. I have a beef and rice nutrisource bag coming in the mail for backup (this is the brand his breeder used). Wish us luck and I’m hoping the best for you and your babies!”
— r/CavaPoo, reddit, six days ago
As it is, I’m going to put an end to Purina now, have my husband return it or dispose of it just in case, and go all-in on a healthier, more organic local brand (chicken) we’ve been taste-testing from Pet Wants in Twin Falls.
We’ve been slowly integrating the new dog food (half/half) and noticed Bungee’s poops got noticeably firmer. He’s still gagging, so I’m gonna end the Purina stuff. Oddly enough, the first vet we saw here highly recommended Purina Pro Plan sensitive stomach as one of the brands to ease possible dog aggression, asking us strongly to take him off another store-bought dog food that contained red meat. When I saw an IG influencer talk about it, same story, I realized that maybe…just because a vet says so, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the way to go, shall we say. I’m still learning from the pandemic, guys.