Wow, I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to recapping this last episode. I apologize to anyone who's been waiting for the ending. Sometimes I just have a hard time letting beloved fictional characters go.
Those of you who read my previous entry on Incarnation of Money (link here) may be wondering if my opinion has changed at all. I had a slew of issues with this drama, but there was still something there that made me want to like it. I really really wanted to feel a desire to keep watching. I gave it another week to win me over.
There's just something about this drama. I like it, but I'm not entirely sure why. It's not the acting, which is okay but not great. It's not the writing. (Again, decent, but nothing special.) And it's definitely not the directing, which is usually quite heavy-handed. (Actually, I blame most of Horse Healer's faults on the directing.) Although I'm unfamiliar with many of the actors, those I have seen before are not showcasing their talents in this particular drama.
But despite all its faults, there is something that I find very engaging about Horse Healer. And maybe I should blame that on the director as well. I'm not entirely sure what that ineffable something is, but for now I'm hooked. I can't say that I love this drama. Nor do I feel like it's drama crack. But I enjoy watching it, and I find myself looking forward to the next opportunity to watch more.
Seriously, what is WITH this show? The promotional material explained that it was going to be a drama about a man in a mental institution who is broken out by the daughter of a loan shark who needs him to help her take over her mother's operations. It's written and directed by the same people who brought us the awesome and unpredictable History of the Salaryman. It stars Kang Ji Hwan, who makes everything he's in sparkle and shine, even if it's not very good. It also stars Hwang Jung Eum, who easily won me over in Full House Take 2 despite my great reluctance to like anything about that show. There's also murder, intrigue, betrayal, and murder. This drama should be amazing, right?
The penultimate episode. Finally, a little honesty up in here.
Episode 9: The Roller Coaster Ride of a Woman's Friendship! Tears of the Slap?! (What does that last part even mean?)
I went into this drama with a lot of trepidation. I couldn't help feeling that the premise left me doubting that I would like it, since it made this drama sound so much like it was trying to set feminism back 100 years. I worried that Han Se Kyung would be the antithesis to independent women everywhere, and that this drama would mostly promote materialism, greed, and shallowness. I was never happier to be proven wrong.
