All gifs credited to @Nungchae (Twitter)
CW: Major personal rant about “The Guest”
I love Kang Gil Young to bits, and the more I read about people being annoyed by what was a clearly well-written, performed and directed female character, I really could not contain my ire. (Even more than a year after…)
We have here an FC who was essential to the plot of the story, pulled her weight throughout the show, had a wonderful arc and gorgeous throughout. Her characterisation was also in sync with what a serious crime detective always on the move, a loner and marginalized within her team (and seriously traumatized) should be? Should she be wearing skirts, always be polite and obedient to her superior? Be more feminized? Believe in Yoon Hwa Pyeong immediately when he told her a demon was possessing people and using them as vessels to murder people without skepticism and doubts? What? Honestly, I would like to know the alternatives to that.
I found all these criticisms ridiculous. Blame the writers, not the FC. And I don’t know about anyone, but as someone who have little belief in demons, I would not have believed what YHP asserted as well. At least without serious evidence for at least the first few times. And in terms of being annoying, I could say the same for YHP and CY as well. There were also one or two comments about how they found YHP too rash for their liking, but at least that was specific and true to his character. It is not often I just read, “Oh, he was so annoying!” without any qualifiers about a MC, if any.
I have no idea whether sexism and misogyny are involved, but throughout my years of watching KDrama (CDrama included), it is all too often a state where the FC will attract the most criticisms - whether justified or not - even when the MC(s) could equally be as bad or worse. And even if it might be a true case of writing (and that not common case of performances), I would still say the same for the MC in some cases, and yet they don’t often invite the same vitriol as the FC. It is getting to be more than a pet peeve. Unless it is a heavily FCs-centred show, this phenomenon will usually rear its head. I truly wonder at that. Or the focus on bromance and the criticisms of romance. As far as I know, unless a show is a mixed genre or romcom, romance is generally not a main theme, and family or the so-called bromance dominated.
Yet, people keep complaining about romances? Where? As a romance lover, it is actually annoying that unless a show is a romcom or romance-focused, romance is generally relegated to one of the least important aspect of any show. And even romcoms nowadays focus a lot on secondary relationships (not a complaint), which is nice as well. I love romance, but don’t need them to be the end all and be all of any show. On the contrary, it can get a bit tedious. Yet, people who love bromance will always comment on how the minor/token romances in any of the shows affected the quality of the shows. Or how happy they were with the lack of romance? Huh? Why the animosity towards romance. There are already so many shows which don’t really feature romance much, or any.
I am getting so annoyed with this that I am developing an unhealthy animus towards bromance. And I never had much love for it in the first place. I have no idea what shows most other people watch, but most of the shows I have watched have always been bromance heavy, and the FC just a token love interest. Frankly, that has always grated, and still do. For me, it is women-erasure, shoring up the existing patriarchy. People complain about how useless some FCs are, and yet, they were there mostly as a token, and yet the people who complain about the romance did not even want that token??? Sorry, I am actually sick of shows which only feature men or MCs-heavy (and yes, I have learned to avoid those, nowadays, unless it is a show worthy to spend time on) and their bromance. Because I will encounter the same issues I already do elsewhere, and manifold.
The Guest is not a show which would have space for any romance, and as an OCN production, not likely to do so as well. The ‘bromance’ in the show was actually generally fair to all the three characters, regardless of the genders, and each character was given enough to work with. How people want to interpret or ship (or not ship at all) is up to preferences, and regardless of my own personal feelings, everyone is free to do/ship as they chooses. The shipping is not the most chafing part, since it is a fact m/m is dominant in men-centered shows, and despite the fact that KGY is an excellently written and performed FC, TG is a male-centered show in many respects. But the shade against KGY as a character will never fail to grate and chafe.
Argh! I really need to learn to be better and stop going to the comment sections for favourite dramas to avoid the thorny comments. Too sensitive by far for those, sigh. All they do is increase my blood pressure. Nothing good ever comes of it. Sigh. A repeat of the same personal rant. Sorry. The hazard of getting on in age, and being fixated on a ‘bromance’-weighted show. It truly sucks.
* Additional note as of Feb 2024: The infuriating thing is this rant is still totally valid now as when I wrote it more than a year ago 😱😡
I just encountered NEW comments about how annoying and rude KGY was in the show! And how much some viewers dislike her! OMFG 🤬 People seem to conveniently forget that Choi Yoon could be as rude! And YHP is a weasel.
But I don’t love any of them any less because their behaviours are very understandable.
Can’t people just keep their negative comments to themselves and people with their interests? And it is always the negative comments about the FC(s) or actress(es). I would shut my trap when I encounter a similar number for the other two MCs. (And they were problematic in their own way).
(P.S. Cerebrally loving a show like Nirvana in Fire is so much better, as men-dominated and bromance-heavy as it is. For one, the female characters there are all excellent despite being a minority, and my favourites are all married with sons and no one to ship them with. There is nearly no character I want to ship anyone with. With all my favourites, I am extremely satisfied with their relatively happy fate. All the MCs most everybody is in love with did not move me one iota, even the characters I would have loved to bits normally. As m/m heavy as it is bound to be, I could happily ignore all of it. I am satisfied with the ending because it was expected and could not have been a fully happy one, having been set up the way it did since Ep 1. Basically, I suppose it is a great thing that I am just not invested at all in the characters. I just felt sad for one of the Princess, and then learning that she did move on and had a real marriage in the novel satisfied me, so even that was resolved nicely. It is wonderful to only be invested in how the story went, and whether justice would prevail. The trauma is always filtered through a film of silk, and as part of an era and regime when violence and death were always just a step away, I suppose the tragic consequences are always expected, and in that sense, part of the journey of watching a period-political intrigue piece. Shrugs).
