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Thanks, @GB for the reminder.
Gifs from dailynetflix’s tumblr
I didn’t know this is a musical, @GB. It’s giving me the “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” vibes.
Enjoy the show!
12 Comments On “The Sound of Magic: Open Thread”
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Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory meets Nightmare Before Christmas (at least in the first episode’s segment before the opening credits).
As I’ve only watched the first episode so far, I don’t quite know yet what to make of the story. The impoverished schoolgirl left to fend for herself is a character we’ve seen before in Kdramas, so I’m hoping this show can put a fresh spin on it without having it be too difficult to believe. But when I see shows in which a minor is providing unassisted care for a younger sibling, I wonder why South Korea’s Child Welfare Act isn’t being enforced.
https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_mobile/viewer.do?hseq=39028&type=part&key=38
The actress playing the lead female is new to me, but I’m impressed so far. She’s able to convey a range of emotions. I look forward to watching her develop her character through the show.
Ji Chang Wook seems well cast as the magician. He commands attention when he’s onscreen, able to be both wistful and a bit unhinged. I do find his character somewhat compromised morally, taking AhYi’s money (for a time), and making her assailant vanish without having full control of the consequences of his magic. He may have saved AhYi in her moment of peril, but did he kill or kidnap someone in the process? I will find out more.as I continue watching, I imagine.
The production is well done, in my opinion. The staging, the color palates, the sets, the special effects draw me into the story.
This was a series that is not what it appears to be. After a couple of episodes, I felt that I couldn’t comment until I’d seen it all because I was expecting something and got other things.
Once again I felt that this is a show that had all the right elements but not put together in the right way. It was a mish-mash, probably including more than it should and in the wrong proportion.
I felt that it could have been simplified and just kept the mood of the opening, but it tried to merge a theatrical magic show with a musical with a serious drama and I felt the drama part took over instead.
Still it was not a bad watch. Viewed with the right lenses, and knowing what to expect, it was OK for a binge watch. It was a youth drama with a serious theme sort of sandwiched between a musical beginning and end. So don’t forget to watch the end credits of Episode 6, all the way through.
Of the main actors, it was Choi Sung Eun who riveted my attention. I’d place her as the main actor and the 2 guys as 2nd leads.
I’ll stop here so that others can watch it and form their own opinions. I’m still trying to gather my thoughts after a binge that I’m glad I did, so that I can see the whole, and not form premature ideas.
Here are the Episode Titles
Episode 1: Do you Believe in Magic
Episode 2: Don’t Let Me Dream Any Longer
Episode 3: Merry-go-round
Episode 4: Becoming an Adult
Episode 5: Curse of Asphalt
Episode 6: The Last Performance
Although I watched the trailers I didn’t catch the nuance.
I was too taken with the introductory number. The great, upbeat beginning… with the huge troupe of singer-dancers doing an impressive, heart-pumping, opening number, first impelled magically and then self-directed to dance their way onto the outside of their school building, (and one assumes) defying gravity.
However we find that although we start in a light and carefree tone, the lyrics of the song hint at something that is not quite right and the ensuing action is neither light nor carefree. In fact we come to some dark spots.
Interspersing the kids dance with the Magician’s (who is in his own location) dance and ending off with him seems to link him to the kids ‘making a mess’ (as per the lyrics below), which of course augers problems.
Opening Song Lyrics
A story, hard to believe
A face you think you’ve only seen in your dreams
A strange and amazing story that you wait to hear
At least once in your life
I want to dance a dance
That’s frightening but also enchanting
I want to go wherever the tangled road leads me
a road with no start or end
This is not a dream
This is your imagination
This is the darkness under the light
Mess it all up
Everything you’ve believed in
This is not a dream
This is your imagination
Pinch yourself
Take a step to whichever direction
Let’s make a mess and let’s carry on.
Let’s carry on
Yesterday has never once existed anywhere
The surprising true face of this world
That exists behind what’s visible.
(The Dean walks down the corridor but seems to fail to see the students posed in mid-dance on the steps next to him. The magic butterfly lands on his shoulder. It does nothing for him, except perhaps to keep him from seeing the kids. He stretches, hence joining the same pose as the kids. And moves on, still not observing them.
Seeing that they do not get caught, the kids start again running/dancing, wildly elated. They continue ‘making a mess’ with their song and dance, getting bolder).
This is not a dream
This is your imagination
This is the darkness under the light
Mess it all up
Everything you’ve believed in
Let’s make a mess and let’s carry on
Let’s carry on
I’m not dreaming
It just all seems different
This is not a dream
This is your imagination
This is the darkness under the light
Mess it all up
Everything you’ve believed in
Let’s make a mess and let the mess go on
You’re not in a dream
This is your imagination
Pinch yourself
Take a step to whichever direction
Let’s make a mess and let’s carry on.
Let’s carry on
Everyone ends up on the outside of the school wall, with school papers flying out the window and over where the Magician is, the parallel is that it rains rectangular confetti. It was an anti-establishment sort of song.
There seems to be a promise that the kids could/would be able to take the messy steps out of the darkness (of the establishment) onto a tangled road that would hopefully lead to light.
At this stage one wonders if the Magician is to liberate the students from the confines of their (controlled) lives. Or if everything will be just a dream or just their imagination, by the end of the series.
The animation of the opening credits suggests that magic flies in to touch a cocoon/pupa, which opens up to free a butterfly. The butterfly evinces evidence of magic too, sparkling in blue light as it flies. The theme of youth breaking free from the safe confines erected by adults become evident, but we wait to see what Show is saying, is the magic that frees them.
We find that the cocoon, among other things, symbolises the suffocating norms all are expected to follow.
For the heroine, Ah Yi, the cocoon is not a safe place, but a trap that keeps her without power while under the control of adults.
Stuff I noted:
Ah Yi speaks in voiceover to her absentee mother. She obviously misses her mother a great deal. She does this often.
Money is a big issue for AY, because she needs it desperately after her immature father loses his company and runs from creditors, abandoning her and her younger sister. In a nice bit of special effects, we see Ah Yi running after her 50,000 won bill, but is doing the running on a 50,000 won bill itself: a hilly, long road. She’s chasing the money on what seems like a never-ending road, that stops when she arrives at the theme park, where Magician is. The implication is obvious.
Na Il Deung takes an interest in AY.
Baek Ha Na is the usual trouble causing character, needed to push the plot along. She is tiresomely meddling, prying, intrusive, taunting and in short the kind of character that gets my goat. (However she’s a good singer and dancer!)
Ah Yi misses her dad but is not blind to his faults. Winding up the snow globe that her father had given her, promising he’d build a house like the one in the globe, we get the next song. As the music plays Ah Yi finds herself in a snowy place outside a beautiful house. She sings her hope of having her family together.
Song with the Musical Snow Globe
I always told myself not to cry
Even when I’m sad
Scared that someone might know
What I’m thinking when it’s all a lie
(She enters the house in bright light. There’s a shining Christmas tree in the hall. Everything is beautiful).
Someday in the future will I be happy
Like in a pretty fairy tale
Will the smiles wiped out by pain
Come and hug me?
When that day comes I wish I could see the love
That I’ve been so desperately searching for
Without having to fall asleep
May we be together every single day
Closer than the sound of my own breath
(She catches her breath at the sight of her mother. Mother turns but her face blurs out.)
Enduring was the easiest thing to do
Because I know that I can’t have it
I wish someday it will appear in front of me.
The magic here is confined to her use of her imagination.
The third song is the Magician’s song. The Magician and Ah Yi are in the theme park that magically becomes lighted up.
Lyrics:
Everything was always here
You couldn’t see because you’ve forgotten
Your eyes sometimes deceive the world.
Just because something is hidden in the dark
does not mean that it’s gone
Turn on the lights
Choose the path not taken
No need to be afraid
Question everything that you’re used to
Isn’t it nice to see yourself at the beginning.
You, without any scars or pain?
(In the Ferris Wheel)
Fear is essentially a shadow you grow within yourself
There are things that may disappear in a second
Lift your head up when the road is blocked
Look at the sky that doesn’t need roads
(Fireworks erupt)
Don’t fall for the lies that whisper and tell you to crouch
Those dead words of darkness must have hurt
But you are stronger now
Believe in yourself (I feel that this has a Western touch… believe in self, do what you choose, follow your heart, that kind of ideal…which took me out of the song.)
Choose the way you want to go
You’re already there
Pick the brightest smile and practice
Isn’t it nice to see yourself in this moment
Where no darkness can stop you now.
This is the Magician’s advice to Ah Yi. Somehow it’s too simplistic or childlike a way of thinking, probably because the Magician wants to be a child, himself.
Overall the songs give the concept for the Show. I include them because I thought I missed out on what was supposed to be the main thrust of the show when even at Episdoe 3, I was wondering what I was watching.
Some of the points show was going for:
1)Society has it’s norms that we are trained to follow. Anything outside those norms are disapproved of. But should we just accept these norms blindly? (The songs suggest we question everything!!! Chaos!?)
2)We should not lose our childlike joy when following those norms or be willing to even jettison the norms and choose to dream for oneself. The image is of the cold, stone road one is forced to follow and the choice is to follow that road (upheld by school and parents) or instead to follow the flitting butterfly along a messy path to one’s own dreams (use one’s imagination?).
3)Children are left to face big problems left by adults. The boy is trapped between pleasing his parents or following his own heart.
Out of the blue we are also to deal with the disappearance of a high-schooler and the suspicions surrounding the Magician. The tone of the opening number and the tone of the tale do not match.
The investigation ends with a magic act?!? And we are left wondering about a proper resolution for a few characters.
4)Enduring a hard life, while believing in magic (which should be the magic of depending on oneself?) or using one’s imagination? makes things work out.
I attach links to reviews that are closer to my own thoughts about the show.
https://www.indiatoday.in/binge-watch/story/the-sound-of-magic-review-ji-chang-wook-charms-you-as-a-magician-but-it-s-not-enough-to-leave-you-hooked-1946508-2022-05-07
https://dmtalkies.com/the-sound-of-magic-season-1-review-2022-netflix-korean-series/
It’s a pretty watch if one has time and is not fussed about not getting emotionally involved. The music is nice (I felt they could have been sung with stronger voices), the lighting and camerawork was great, the actors were fine. Just that put together, it had too many elements for a 6-episode series, and I felt it should have been a true blue musical rather than with music suddenly included, or a true-blue drama without the song and dance. Or a longer series to give more development. Less would have been more, with greater attention given to a proper resolution to at least 2 or 3 arcs.
The one arc that is supposedly resolved, somehow felt too pat. It was unconvincing.
If it had been an out-and-out ‘children’s’ show, I’d have accepted it. But it had elements that were serious and serious solutions were needed. On the whole I hoped to feel more for all 3 main characters, but was left feeling rather cold.
I did enjoy watching the 3 main characters, though, especially Choi Sung Eun and hope to watch them again in some other show.
Hi all,
Have just watched 2 eps and quickly read the comments by @Welmaris and the first summary reflections by @GB. I’ll watch the whole thing and then comment back to you.
Initial thoughts – Ji Chang Wook has such a vulnerability about him – lovely singing voice too – that he kind of imbues his character with extra doses of that! Clearly this is a production he cares greatly about. It’s a tricky character to convey… but I think he’s doing fine.
I am enjoying watching him because of things too I have read about the hours and hours of work that went into the musical productions. There have been some reviews that say there are too few musical numbers per episode. That doesn’t bother me because it isn’t a regular musical with that type of rhythm. I don’t mind the fact that there are magical and dream sequences from time to time that intercut the daily grind.
I also thought the Hwang In-Yeop nerdy school boy’s fantasy of guitar playing and singing to his new crush in a lovely green field … was adorable! It’s a big shift from bad boy to good boy but seems to be working for him.
Our female lead is top notch. Super fussy here … her voice isn’t as strong as more of a musical theatre actress’s would be … but is fine for the role. Her duet with JCW was lovely. She is absolutely credible in that role and her performance draws us in.
So I’m going with mood and characters over some other things at the moment.
ps agree with @Welmaris re the Willy Wonka comparison and our Veruca Salt has shown up soon for us hasn’t she?
Are there also thematic elements… not sure here… of the Wizard of Oz…? Is he real or not?
I also felt there was some Mary Poppins in the mix… possibly in the songs??
This is a strange case of a show where there were good elements and parts that I liked, and yet the show failed to engage or interest me. The acting on its own was okay but the story took on too much for 6 episodes, and became darker than expected. The whimsy and magic was lovely to see, especially when matched with the music, but they seemed out of place in what was mostly a serious drama.
It would have done better as a short and simpler story, possibly more like a children’s tale ala Mary Poppins or some other magical show with songs, only concentrating on how with magic, a couple of young people were able to find happiness and unleash the depths of their own abilities despite their troubles.
I liked most of the songs, although many of them were more on the sad and wistful side. The upbeat first number with a whole school magically controlled by and dancing to the music and song of the Magician was totally undone by the story that came along. In the end, the Magician did not have much of an impact on anyone except maybe 3 of the young people. The Magician’s own backstory was rather lacking until the end, so that we didn’t ‘care’ as we should have. We never even see what happened to the Magician after he vanished. The ending (after the credits!!!) with a stage ‘Fantasy’ where the actors came to sing and to take their bow was totally out of place.
The promise of growing friendship and romance between the leading young people also came to nothing by the Show’s ends. Basically I felt that there had been so much promise with the beginning but Show was not able to deliver even on the simpler story. It got side tracked with bad parenting and a murder mystery.
I’m sad because I really wanted to like this Show. I liked the actors, the songs, the magic… but I didn’t enjoy the Show. I even tried to re-watch it, until it felt like hard work and so I’ve stopped.
However, here’s a link to the musical ‘performances’: there were 12 of them, which was a good number if this had been a 2 hour musical. If only the songs made a coherent story in themselves, informed us more of the Magician and his aims, and had a beginning, middle and a happier end, they could have been edited to make a mini-musical and I’d have been satisfied.
The music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ZBQmKEe24
I hope new viewers will enjoy it nevertheless.
@GB, I finally finished this show. I had to be in the mood, but ended up being engaged by the last four episodes. Did I learn lasting life lessons? Despite the show’s preachiness, probably not. Maybe that’s because I’m too far past my youth. Heck, I’m sliding out of adulthood into dotage. But all-in-all, I felt this show was worth six hours of my life just for entertainment value. The mid-show musical number that started with the students at their desks moving in sync…great choreography! And the final number partway through the ending credits, when all the cast members got to dance their farewell, that was fun!
I’m glad you liked it @Welmaris!
Annyeong 🌼
The main thing that was surprising to me regarding this show was that it was a musical. I was amused when they started singing. This is my first Korean musical short drama. The encore for ending was a little delightful surprise. LIke i was watching a Highschool musical presentation. Awww so cute.
I did like the show even though we didn’t see what happened to the magician after, and even though we didn’t see our young couple fall in love. maybe that’s not important. I see the key theme of magic and believing – inspite of ugly adults not helping these kids grow into beautiful adults – magic and believing did the job. i feel sad for all our main characters – their lives are all hard. but the ending was good. good enough 🙂
Thank you @GB for all the attention to the details that you shared here in this thread. Wow! Good job.
Here’s kfangurl’s review of this Show, which I agree with. She gave it a B. I’m probably more critical and would give it a B- or C.
https://thefangirlverdict.com/2022/06/05/review-the-sound-of-magic/
I sigh at the potential this show had and didn’t reach. In it’s present ‘state’ it would probably have worked if edited to 2-3 episodes. Otherwise it should have packed in more character development and made the beginning cohesive with the end.
I was waiting for the rest of the school kids to get to know and benefit from Ri Eul’s magic, but that never happened. Instead we just see them doing 2 big dance numbers which do not impinge on them directly although they do reflect the situation for our 2 main characters.
Still I will wait for more new musical dramas that may come our way, and check them out if their premise is attractive.