#nam guyri

[dangermousie]

A love letter to late 00s/early10s kdramas? More likely than you may think

I have watched the first two eps (30m each) of the just premiered My Military Valentine with Nam Guyri and Kim Min Seok and I have discovered the most glorious time machine to 2008-2012.

A disclaimer - if you came to kdramas relatively recently, this really isn't a drama for you. But for those of us who used to watch and adore kdramas of mid-to-late 00s/very early 10s (I got into kdramas around 06), this is a very deliberate and knowing tribute and is designed to evoke a sense of nostalgia for back then dramas which it does brilliantly.

I feel as if I somehow time traveled to 15 years back or perhaps stumbled on a kdrama from that period I have not seen yet. It is such a delicious homage.

The premise is pretty straightforward - in an AU where South Korea and North Korea are close to reunification, a popular South Korean superstar and a North Korean commando cross paths and then he ends up having to serve in her unit. She's a consummate military officer, he's boyish and even immature but genuinely good-hearted. If you are screaming into your hands "this is off-brand King2Hearts with Spy MyungWol thrown in OMGGGGGGGG!" then you are the target audience.

EVERYTHING about this drama is old-school, deliberately so. The plot (even the idea of reunion was much more popular in dramas back then than it is now when I think it's much more fraught and distant), the setting (it is not set in 2024 but something like 2010), the characters (the ML is the immature protag romcoms in 00s used to love, FL is a good-hearted stern naive NK lady), the look (the way it's filmed is 100% from back then, with news montages, ML's frosted hair, the side part of the NK agent dude, the shots down from buildings, FL's whole vibe and look, the camera work, the lack of certain filters. Even the fact that neither of protags looks super polished and ML has a certain soft-faced and not starving look is reminiscent of early 00s dramas.)

Shot from the drama:

For comparison, here is Eric Mun in 2011 Spy Myung Wol as a top star in a drama about a North Korean Agent x SK celeb:

And with NK agent OTP:

Here is the OTP of 2012 King 2 Hearts, about a South Korean prince and NK commando:

Lee Byung Hun and his bleach blond hair in Beautiful Days from 2003:

Kim Rae Won and his soft face and light hair in Say You Love Me (2004):

And now, look at this song number from My Military Valentine. If it doesn't scream "Obama just got elected for his first term," I don't know what to tell you:

And the kiss as means of air transfer, old school style JUST I CAN'TTTTT: