Pretty Man
6/10
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| Pretty Man |
Genre: Episodes: 16 Year: 2014
Romance
Comedy
Synopsis:
Dokgo Ma Te has always been able to get by in life due to his stunning good looks. Even into adulthood he has continued to live by using his looks to charm rich older women into dating him and spending their money on him. After a shocking discovery, Ma Te meets Hong Yoo Ra- a woman who says she can coach Ma Te to reach the top. Through all of this, Ma Te is helped by his childhood friend, Kim Bo Tong. Bo Tong has always loved Ma Te, while Ma Te has little more than disdain for the girl.
Cast:
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| Jang Geun Suk (Dokgo Ma Te) |
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| IU (Kim Bo Tong) |
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| Lee Jang Woo (David Choi) |
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| Han Chae Young (Hong Yoo Ra) |
General Thoughts:
I came for IU. I stayed for Lee Jang Woo. And there’s some stuff that happens in the middle there that isn’t bad. Frankly speaking, the characters were a little lacking, and the plot was pretty weak (I don’t think there’s any way you can spin a chaebol story these days that hasn’t been heard before).
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| Basically just every company plot-line ever |
There’s nothing in the drama that’s outright irritating, so it manages to happily remain mediocre for its entire run. The casting is definitely what prevented the story from becoming total poop- Jang Geun Suk can be weirdly endearing as a stroppy, arrogant butt as he has a great way of expressing the underlying fears and insecurities of his characters.
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| Great actors acting average characters |
It didn’t stop Ma Te from being a self-absorbed gold-digger, but it did earn him a bit of sympathy. Similarly, IU was able to save Bo Tong from being an annoying, obsessive imbecile. While Bo Tong certainly appeared that way at times (more in the begging stages of the series), as time went on she just seemed stubborn and cute. As for Lee Jang Woo, his character was pretty fabulous already, so he didn’t have to try so hard to save David Choi from becoming a complete train-wreck, but he also seemed to put in just as much effort as the other two actors, making David Choi endearing, sweet and completely loveable overall. However, even though the actors did a fairly good job at saving their characters from disaster- there’s not much they could do about the plot. Because honestly. Who really cares about selling some bloody socks? Not me, that’s for sure. So you’d think, ‘oh okay. If the plot’s not doing much the romance must really be kicking off, right?’. Right. Between Bo Tong and David Choi. Not Bo Tong and our leading man Ma Te- who only really gets the tingly love-feelings in the last two or three episodes. Lame. Super lame.
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| Look at all the cute going on with that guy who's not the main male lead |
The writers did a real good job of convincing me that David Choi was in with a shot at winning our heroine’s heart- which on the one hand is great as it keeps the ending from being the most predictable thing ever. But on the other hand, it sucks a lot of the joy out of making the final pairing Bo Tong and Ma Te.
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| Look at all these girls who are not the main female lead |
Because by that time- I really liked David Choi. I wanted David Choi to be happy. I’d just watched 13 hours of David Choi and Bo Tong getting along marvellously, and I totally believe that Bo Tong would have been madly in love with David Choi had she not had her weird obsession with Ma Te- which more often than not came across as adoration for his pretty face rather than actual love. So yeah, to go along with our rather disappointing plot we have a rather disappointing romance. As for Ma Te’s romance, all 10 (was it really though?) of them, they were pretty shocking. The first two, maybe three, women actually had some sort of useful information that actually helped Ma Te learn and develop as both a businessman and a character- but the rest of the women just seemed like they were thrown in there to satisfy the concept of the drama. Because ‘conquer the hearts of ten women’ sounds way more fun than ‘conquer the hearts of two, maybe three women’. And it also kinda made Ma Te look like a mega-playboy. Which I know was kind of the point, but having a tangible, believable romance with Bo Tong was also kinda the point- and that plot-line got hurt by all of Ma Te’s playboy-ness. Because while Ma Te was off wooing all these other women, Bo Tong and David Choi were having a grand old time getting to know and care for one another.
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| Are you sure you don't want to make David the main romance? Are you really, really sure? |
What Was Great:
Casting:
Really it was all that saved this drama. The cast were brilliant. Because the characters were actually really, really boring. But IU, Jang Geun Suk and Lee Jang Woo were able to give them such life and made them at least a little bit compelling.
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| I'm fairly sure beyond episode 3 her character is pretty f*cking redundant |
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| JUST LIKE MY HEART |
Bo Tong and David:
It was cute, it was adorable, it was all kinds of things that the main pairing should have been. Bo Tong and David started as strangers and grew to understand and like (but not that way) each other, and always looked out for each other. It seemed at several points as if the writers might do something different from the usual K-Drama script and have the leading lady fall for the second male lead. But what a ridiculous notion that would be. A rom-com obviously can’t deviate from the norm- we were all fools for thinking it might. Regardless, scenes of Bo Tong and David were wonderfully enjoyable to watch, even if we knew this wasn’t the writers’ end-game.
What Wasn’t:
Unbelievable Final Love:
I didn’t buy our final couple’s love. I just didn’t. I know many people did, and I know I’m supposed to- because Bo Tong is our leading lady and Ma Te is our leading man. But I didn’t. There wasn’t nearly enough development between the two characters to make a believable love story.
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| Not buyin' it. |
The writers seemed to be going for the approach where Ma Te doesn’t realise what he has until he’s in danger of losing it (David making moves on Bo Tong). But rather than seeing Bo Tong as a wonderful girl full of personality and charm, it seemed that all Ma Te saw in Bo Tong was how she was always there supporting him. Which in itself isn’t a bad reason to like someone- but when your hero is a massively self-centred narcissist, you kind of need a little bit more. It didn’t feel like Ma Te really liked Bo Tong for Bo Tong, but rather that he liked her for all the things she’d ever done (and would ever do) for him. Which is pretty darn weak when you have David Choi who just adores every aspect of this girl from her odd fashion choices to her quirky ideas.
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| Enter Man No. 2. Suddenly Man No. 1 gives a sh*t. |
The jealousy between the two men also didn’t quite fall right. While I know it’s being spun as if Ma Te realises his feelings of attraction once he notices those feelings in someone else, what it actually felt like was a small child getting stroppy when another kid plays with his toy.
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| One cute ice-date does not a believable romance make |
Even if he was happily playing with ten other toys while ignoring that particular toy. As for Bo Tong, I wasn’t feeling the love from her either. While it was made clear from the start that she was crazy for Ma Te, it never felt like love. She liked Ma Te for his looks in the same way that Ma Te liked all those other women for their money, connections or knowledge. You never got the feeling that Bo Tong really knew Ma Te as a person and cared for him because of that. As a result, her single-mindedness towards Ma Te came off as more of an obsession rather than love. Most of the time she acted like a crazed fan rather than a girl in love.
Unbelievable Come-Around:
Long story short. Chaebol Mum spends all drama long being our villain and hating everyone because she’s the best and has the most power and the most money. She tells Ma Te he sucks and should never have been born. Ma Te gets sad. Chaebol Mum gets sad. Chaebol Mum stops being a d*ck to everyone and gives up all her power and control in the company. Hands up who’s buying that story. No one? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
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| Once again- not buyin' it. |
Visually Boring:
Looking beyond the oh-so-pretty faces of our cast, the drama isn’t exactly visually stimulating. The only setting we had that wasn’t a house or an office tended to be when the drama was making absolutely sure we knew that ‘Droptop’ was a sponsor.
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| DROPTOP DROPTOP DROPTOP |
SHOT OF CAFE. SHOT OF COFFEE. SHOT OF THE WORD DROPTOP. MORE SHOTS OF COFFEE. Beyond the cafe, it was mostly just shots of our characters’ faces while they talked. Not the most visually riveting thing ever.
Re-watch?
No. The plot was pretty boring, and while the characters were sweet they never really did anything. The romance is also pretty darn lacking.
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| Not bad, but also not good |
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