T/N: 웅크린 감자 is a power blogger who was awarded Best Tistory Blogger of 2010. He has written many reviews on Korean drama and also on various problem of K-biz. This one was written basing on what he noticed from many communities and of course on his own opinion. However, blogger is also a viewer and opinion is just opinion, please don’t judge it as an expert’s essay and read it with open mind.
Protect the Boss ep 4
Broadcast date: 11th Aug 2011
Broadcast station: SBS
Scrip-writer: Kwon Kiyoung
Producer: Son Junghyun
Cast: Choi Kanghee, Jisung, Kim Jaejoong and others
As expected, Wed-Thus drama ‘Protect the Boss’ has begun its dominion. Looking at the rating of episode 4, in national ratings, the gap between #1 ‘Princess’ Man’ and #2 ‘Protect the Boss’ is only 0.2%, in Seoul, ‘Protect the Boss’ actually got 2% ahead of ‘Princess’ Man’. With this, if there is not big unexpected changes next week, #1 Wed-Thus drama will likely belong to ‘Protect the Boss”. Although the supporting casts are struggling, with the growing negative criticism concerning the acting skills of Moon Chaewon and Park Shihoo, ratings of ‘The Princess’ Man’ have become stagnant. Meanwhile, the main cast of ‘Protect the Boss’ Choi Kanghee and Jisung have been showing stable acting and the drama got steady upward ratings: 12.6% (Ep 1) ▶ 14.7% (Ep 2) ▷ 15.5% (Ep 3) ▶ 16.4% (Ep 4).
Concerning ‘Protect the Boss’, the situation is very interesting. ‘Secret Garden’-'The Greatest Love’…, the common point of hit rom-coms of this year is the ‘sickness phenomenon’ toward the heroes. As the heroes have exposed their personality and their charm from the early phase of the drama, ‘Joowon sickness (Hyunbin)’ – ‘Dokgo sickness (Cha Seungwon), these phenomena spread like wildfire. In ‘Secret Garden’, even Hyunbin’s bling bling training suit has become hot item of the first half of this year. In ‘The Greatest Love’, the lines that Cha Seungwon blurted out such as, ‘Get over it!’, ‘Recharge!’, ‘You should take it as your honor’, etc. have become best buzzwords on everyone’s lips. Thus the decisive element for the success of this year’s romantic comedies is this ‘sickness phenomenon’ toward the heroes. Of course, in the romantic comedy ‘Protect the Boss’ which has been showing a steady uptrend, ‘sickness phenomenon’ also appeared. But, that phenomenon doesn’t come from Jisung but from Kim Jaejoong.
Sure enough, online or offline, when people talk about ‘Protect the Boss’, compared to ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung)’, the name of ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ has been mentioned more often. Actually, until the first week of broadcasting, there were more reactions to Kim Jaejoong than to Jisung and then, this low opinion appeared: ‘So JYJ’s fans did try very hard!’ In fact, enthusiastic responses were to be found only in women-centered communities, in men-centered communities, even comments like ‘foot acting (Korean phrase to depict horrible acting)’ were seen. However, the charm of ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ was full-fledgedly exposed since episode 3 and signs of the so-called ‘Muwon sickness’ or ‘Jaejoong sickness’ are full-fledgedly emerging. For now, there isn’t a voice of criticism about Kim Jaejoong’s acting from men-centered communities anymore. In women-centered communities, there are more stories about Kim Jaejoong than Jisung. Similarly, these reactions can be felt even in ‘offline’ stories.
Surely, Yoon Sanghyun of ‘Secret Garden’ and Yoon Kyesang of ‘The Greatest Love’ also gained no less popularity than main leads Hyunbin and Cha Seungwon. But it’s true that they only got to bring out their best from the second half of the drama and their popularity also increased from the second half. In addition, the popularity of Yoon Sanghyun and Yoon Kyesang could never exceed Hyunbin and Cha Seungwon. Virtually, it’s because they were characters that make up for the weak points of the main leads Hyunbin and Cha Seungwon. ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ of ‘Protect the Boss’ is also the same. He complements ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung) by his sober intellect and charisma. Even so, ‘Jaejoong sickness’ emerged before ‘Jisung sickness’ though. The popularity of complementary character rising earlier than main’s is an unusual phenomenon. But that doesn’t mean Jisung’s acting is lacking nor ‘Cha Jihun’ is not an attractive character. It’s just that in the early phase of the drama, the personality and charm of ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ have been showing more strongly then ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung)’.
After all, ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ really knows how to turn on his personality and charm as a complementary character. Abundantly talented and charismatic, he maintains good manners and caring towards women. Through episode 4, sympathetic feelings have been arising from the viewers. Indeed, no matter how ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’ proves his outstanding abilities, ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung)’ who has no qualifications can easily get the position just because he’s the son of the president, which makes viewers sympathize with ‘Cha Muwon’. Kim Jaejoong’s acting is also beyond expectations. Actually, from the beginning, Kim Jaejoong had nothing to do with ‘foot acting’. As you may know, Kim Jaejoong had his debut in drama through Japanese drama ‘Hard to say I love you’. He had to express feelings and lines in Japanese, not in his native language and that difficult acting experience gave him reliable basic skills.
The character itself already has overflowing charm and even gains compassion from the viewers. Kim Jaejoong’s expressions in acting are even better than expected. In this situation, the viewers can’t help finding it remarkable although it’s only a complementary character. Especially, if looking at ‘Kim Joowon (Hyunbin)’ and ‘Dok Gojin (Cha Seungwon)’ who were the heroes of ‘sickness phenomenon’ of this year, they all have abilities-charisma-sympathetic feeling in common. These characteristics aren’t shown in the leading role ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung)’ but are strongly exposed in ‘Cha Muwon (Kim Jaejoong)’, a complementary character, since a very early phase of the drama. And thanks to that, like main lead Moon Chaewon who is left behind by supporting role Hong Soohyun in ‘Princess’s Man’, despite the fact that Jisung’s acting is not bad, it’s not ‘Jisung sickness’ but ‘Jaejoong sickness’ that is shown.
This might be script-writer’s mistake while being Kim Jaejoong’s victory. He should have let ‘Cha Jihun’ character’s personality and charm shine first and fully so ‘Jisung sickness’ would have appeared first. However, the side that appeals more strongly is not ‘Cha Jihun’ but ‘Cha Muwon’. Kim Jaejoong who is saved the most by this mistake deserves praise. If Kim Jaejoong couldn’t act, it’d been clear that he would be criticized no matter how attractive and unique ‘Cha Muwon’ was. The possibility that Kim Jaejoong hits the jackpot with his debut in Korean drama gets higher. But the problem starts from now on. Being a complementary character, soon or later, ‘Cha Muwon’ will thoroughly reveal his true colors and later possibly be portrayed as a villain, as ‘Cha Jihun’’s rival. In order to properly live in this situation, the viewers should better root for ‘Cha Jihun (Jisung) unilaterally. But I can’t help doubting if those viewers who has been falling for ‘Jaejoong sickness’ are indeed going to support ‘Cha Jihun’. Therefore, Jisung needs to give more effort in the future to create a ‘Jisung sickness’ that is no less attractive than ‘Jaejoong sickness’.
Posted by 웅크린 감자 (squat potato)
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