I’m going to post @tsutsuloo’s comment here so I can find it later.
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packmule3’s Ep. 6 clapback to the haters was the catharsis I needed after scanning the harsh commentary at the show’s launch. But I’m still disheartened by observers criticizing Yoon Eun Hye for aging.
That’s right.
She aged. [insert favorite curse word here]. The culture’s veneration of youth is leading to planet-wide body dysmorphia. Do these people have clue what actual 34-year-olds looks like?
I think Ep. 9’s beach conversation about being a “charming grandmother” deserves a little bit of attention. Outside of being a lovely romance, Fluttering Alert also serves up commentary on the entertainment industry and its mercurial fans. Before she directly asks WH if he’ll still love if she has nothing, Yoo-Jung reflects on the future of her career:
Yoo-Jung: I’ll have to wane one day too. I wonder if I can do it beautifully like the sunset.
Woo-Hyun: Why do you think you have to wane? You can just rise as the sun in the day and rise as the moon at night.
Yoo-Jung: Just that I can’t be the twenty or thirty-something Yoon You-Jeong forever. Someday, as someone’s mom? Someone’s grandma? It’s a bit scary and dreadful.
Woo-Hyun: Grandma Yoon You Jeong would be more elegant and charming. I think.
Yoo-Jung: Aigoo, Woo Hyeon, you are such a charmer.
[laughter]
Yoo-Jung: I think a grandma is a no.
We know from YJ’s conversation with her ex-boyfriend that she wants to marry and have a family. But in this context, she’s describing the reality of her profession where female actors are regulated to Mom roles after they hit a certain age. K-dramas are not unique in aging actresses up. Radio Romance (2018) cast a baby-faced 19-year-old actress opposite an actor a decade older—and they’re both supposed to be nearly 30!)
WH is sweet and very correct when he assures YJ she’ll be an “elegant and charming grandma” but it doesn’t change the facts of her industry. In fact, the show itself is guilty of this practice. Kim Ye Ryung’s casting as Woo-Hyun’s mother is typical. The actress is 49, only 11 years older than Chung Jung Myung, the 38-year-old actor playing her 32-year-old son. (The other actors playing parents are about 28-32 yrs. older than their on-screen children.)
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Good points there, @tsutsuloo.
I like that Fluttering Alert brings up these touchy issues facing actors in the industry without being preachy or whiny. There are already plenty of kdramas that tout their “originality” and their thought-provoking message but fail to deliver any new insight.
Take for instance, “Beauty Inside.”
I knew that “Beauty Inside” would only pay lip service to its theme of Inner Beauty when it banked on beautiful actors to market its show. Ha! If the writer and director truly wanted the story to revolve around being self-confident regardless of physical attributes, then they should have cast Lee Do Yeon as their leading lady.
This is Lee Do Yeon in “Let’s Fight Ghosts.”
This is Lee Do Yeon again.
She would have been perfect for “Beauty Within” or any other rom-com requiring a down-and-out but plucky heroine. A remake of “Strong Woman Do Bong Soon” perhaps? How about “Devilish Joy”?
Not only would Lee Do Yeon look realistic, but she would torpedo all the idiotic standards of beauty that kdrama producers and viewers insist upon.
😉
Our romcom doesn’t pretend to have any such Grand Message to impart to its viewers other than true love remains when fame and fortune fade away.
This is one reason I look kindly upon the Unnie.
Normally by now, I’d question her motives and wonder if she wasn’t a bit self-serving when she tried to separate the couple. But she was the first one to recognize that YJ’s “star” might fade one day and she wanted to ensure that when that time arrived, YJ would continue to be cherished her fans’ memories.
In a way, she’s very much similar to WooHyun. She loves her protege YooJung because she sees her for who she is, and will do anything to protect her. I think in Episode 10, after that last scene with the Wannabe Wife, she’s strengthen her resolve to fight for YJ’s happiness, too.
Also, I find that art curiously imitates life in Fluttering Alert. I’m surprised by how much YEH is beloved by her fans. Despite her controversy and her self-imposed exile as a result of it, the loyalty and zeal of her many followers didn’t flag.
3 Comments On “Fluttering Alert: @tsutsuloo’s Comment on Aging”
fary
That is totally true in the world of The entertainment industry receives a great cult of beauty and youth. I have seen soap operas in which the mother of the protagonist is approximately 35 years old and the daughter is older than 20 years old. Eun Hye Yoon is beautiful at 20, 30, 40 or 60 years and if in 20 years she is working on a drama or comedy and if God gives me life I will look at she.
oli
That the industry is shallow in its obsession with youth and beauty I know. But Eun Hye Yoon looks gorgeous
Not that if she didn’t that would have made it alright to criticize her for aging. ..
That is totally true in the world of The entertainment industry receives a great cult of beauty and youth. I have seen soap operas in which the mother of the protagonist is approximately 35 years old and the daughter is older than 20 years old. Eun Hye Yoon is beautiful at 20, 30, 40 or 60 years and if in 20 years she is working on a drama or comedy and if God gives me life I will look at she.
That the industry is shallow in its obsession with youth and beauty I know. But Eun Hye Yoon looks gorgeous
Not that if she didn’t that would have made it alright to criticize her for aging. ..
She is, isn’t she?
I’ll want the rest of Episode 12 tonight. Gotta run. Too many parties, so little time.