In all honesty, I don’t think this drama requires my notes because:
a) it isn’t at all mentally demanding to understand,
b) it’s obvious when the screenwriter is MANUFACTURING the next big scene with plot contrivances, and
c) the female lead is annoying as heck.
I get that the cartoonist wants to show the female lead YeonWoo as the “savior” of Taeha, but her method of going about it is clumsy at best, and stupid at worst.
Take for instance, in Ep 3, when the cartoonist contrived to make YeonWoo save TaeHa from public embarrassment. BY CHANCE, YeonWoo spotted a fake painting at his art exhibit. She alerted TaeHa that the highlight of his exhibit was fake. Fortunately for TaeHa, she also remembered spotting BY CHANCE a real painting made by the same artist being wheeled into his hotel on a previous day.
What are the odds of that happening? What was the artwork doing in his hotel, anyway? How come nobody recognized it as a masterpiece? Who bought it?
Then, in ep 5, a similar thing happened. This cartoonist contrived again to show YeonWoo saving TaeHa from his board of directors’ revolt.
BY CHANCE, YeonWoo had embroidered butterflies on TaeHa’s shirt.
BY CHANCE, coffee was spilled on TaeHa’s coat.
BY CHANCE, TaeHa unbuttoned his jacket.
BY CHANCE, he bowed to Designer Minam, revealing his shirt underneath.
BY CHANCE, Designer Minam saw the embroidery on his shirt.
BY CHANCE, Yeonwoo’s embroidery resembled one of Designer Minam’s family heirlooms.
BY CHANCE, YeonWoo spotted Designer Minam.
BY CHANCE, she tightly hugged Designer Minam who didn’t protest the weird and unwelcome attention of a veritable stranger.
BY CHANCE, Designer Minam bonded with Yeonwoo.
BY CHANCE, Designer Minam changed her mind.
BY CHANCE, all of this happened right before the important board meeting.
Argghhhh!
As a result of all these “lucky” chances, TaeHa killed two birds with one stone. He managed to shut down his board’s objections that his wife was a liability and that he was too green to run the anniversary event of the department store.
Do you see what I mean? In both these episodes, the cartoonist forced the situation and relied on coincidences to solve the problem. It’s as if he/she wondered, “Hmmm…how do we get the protagonist from Point A to Point B?” then simply plotted the sequence of events on numbered dots and connected the dots.
In this blog, we’re quick to notice plot holes. We know that a plot hole is an inconsistency, an error in the flow of logic. For example, the hero throws his car key into the sea, but then he gets in his car and drives home…without a spare key.
We dislike a plot hole because it ruins the internal logic of the story.
But we should also develop an ability to detect plot contrivances. A plot contrivance is a “deus ex machina.” The screenwriter introduces a coincidence that “happens” to provide an artificial solution to the story. Ep 5 was crammed with these coincidences that are so unlikely to occur spontaneously and naturally. As a result, the story was no longer believable. The plot was forced.
Like a plot hole, a plot contrivance destroys the internal logic of the story.
To me, a plot hole may be an honest-to-goodness oversight by the writer (or director). But a plot contrivance? Nope. It’s either a sign of amateurism or laziness of the creative mind.
Now, why does YeonWoo annoy me?
Because her character is missing part of her brain.
I like her in Ep 4 when she bodily blocked her stepmother-in-law from entering their house and checking in on TaeHa. She lied twice, saying that TaeHa wasn’t home and that he didn’t go to the hospital. She bluntly told her in-law that she wasn’t welcome there.
YW: Also, I didn’t mention anything last time because it was so hectic, but TaeHa doesn’t want you to come here, Mother.
MIL: What did you say?
YW: As his wife, it is my duty to follow my husband’s wishes.
MIL: Wife? Duty?
YW: Please understand with a generous heart.
She stood her ground even when the female bodyguard moved to push her out of the way.
But now, in Ep 6, despite TaeHa’s repeated warning to stay away from his stepmother, she just followed the same bodyguard to an unknown destination. What happened to “my duty to follow my husband’s wishes”? Didn’t she learn from her previous misadventure in the dark forest not to enter the dark house?
In Ep 4, the plot contrivance had already bugged me. Who in her right mind would follow a butterfly?
In an unfamiliar terrain.
At nighttime.
Without a flashlight.
But I forgave this amateur screenwriter for the plot contrivance because I thought to myself, “Ahhh! The screenwriter wanted to reveal the tombstone engraved with ‘My faithful wife’.”
But now in Ep 6, the plot contrivance continued, and this nitwit of a heroine was intolerable. Who in her right mind would wait inside a dark house then wander inside to investigate the rooms without a single ounce of concern for her safety?
Like who???
I get that, being born in the Joseon period, YeonWoo was unfamiliar with modern-day horror films like “Nightmare on Elm Street” or “The Witch,” but I thought she had a functional amygdala in her brain.
You know, the amygdala? It’s that part of the brain that makes you respond to a stressful situation with either “fight-or-flight” mode to increase your survival.
That’s how I concluded that this female heroine must be missing part of her brain.
I get the plot contrivance here. This screenwriter wasn’t merely content to show YeonWoo saving TaeHa’s business. YeonWoo had to miraculously cure TaeHa of his psychological trauma, too, by forcing him to face his fears, with her and just for her. Ugh!
‘Tis the season of evil stepmothers + time slips in Kdramaland. And it’s interesting that Chun Ho Jin plays the role of grandfather in two shows in this latest wave. In Twinkling Watermelon there’s a stepmom who pushed out the birth mom under the guise of teaching the hearing-impaired FL (in youth) to read lips and speak. She isn’t murderous, but abusive. Her motivation is to have her birth children take over the company owned by her husband (not their birth father). In Perfect Marriage Revenge, the stepmother is murderous (or that’s her plan), eliminating competition and by deception inserting herself and her birth child into the life of a chaebol so she and her spawn have financial stability. And now in The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract, we have another murderous stepmother poisoning her stepson in the past and seemingly having a hand in the death of Tae Ha’s mother in the modern-day timeline. The present-day Tae Ha must have an actual heart issue, since he’s under the care of a cardiologist and has had surgery. Is stepmommy dearest managing to exacerbate his condition? She certainly is interested in visiting all sorts of evil on him to torment and impede him. In all three of these shows, the wicked stepmother is challenged by time-traveling protagonists who have the benefit of special insight they bring with them from one time to the other.
I kinda feel bad for all the stepmoms out there who are a positive addition to their families and love their stepchildren. One of college friends married a widower and became a stepmom. She has such a good sense of humor that every Christmas she’d include under the tree presents to her stepchildren “from” the sentient helper mice in their “dungeon.”
I also don’t think much of the Kdrama dads who let themselves get ensnared so easily by golddiggers, then remaining oblivious to the sufferings of their flesh and blood. How can men so easily manipulated become business tycoons?
The only reason to introduce a time slip into a story is to grant the protagonist something with which to fight the antagonist. What has Yeon Woo brought with her from the past? As @Packmule3 has said, she has personal vs. theoretical knowledge of at least some of Joseon-era arts and crafts. She has vivid memories of people, places, and events that are largely lost to history, as the lives of women were rarely chronicled. But Yeon Woo jumped forward, not back, in time, so she doesn’t have prophetic capabilities in the era in which she emerged. Is the time slip largely to fill the show with fish-out-of-water tropes?
I don’t watch the drama but I opened your post by chance. You seem to be wasting your time with this drama, however it gave me the opportunity to read your article, which I find excellent.
In an ideal situation, the plot should be guided by:
– Natural logic. Cause and effect. Realism.
– Consistent principles in the story world. Possibly unrealistic.
– Characters. Their motivations, their decisions, their personalities.
I mean, not neccessarily in a linear way. We can plan big scenes to reach. But the final result should be something using these points to make it.
Of course, this is an ideal situation and structuring the story is quite a puzzle. We notice that in dramas, there are regularly plot contrivances, out of necessity.
This remains acceptable when they are few in number or sufficiently hidden. Viewers don’t pay much attention.
I noticed a small one in “My Demon”. Some guys in the street harass one of the characters, only for the hero to come and save her. This happens a lot and is benign, often with a short-sighted objective.
However, the incredible list of coincidences you list for this drama is appalling. It gives me an idea of a drama that is conceived with short objectives, and not as a big picture.
The outline principles as I know them:
– Start from point A and work towards the sequel.
– Reach point B, which means reconstruct what came before.
These two principles have to work together. That’s the difficulty.
– Modify the plot if it doesn’t suit the character’s needs.
– Example: the character is reckless, but a few plots force him to flee. Wrong plots.
– Modify character if not suited to plot requirements.
– Example: the character is a coward, but the majority of the plots force him to confront the situation. He’s not the right character for this story. (unless you want to make it a comedy).
Here again, two principles to be weighed together. Even so, exceptions must be made if nothing else is possible.
– Work the plot far downstream or upstream, as part of a whole.
– For example: a cause is established in episode 3, but used in episode 7. This hides the plot’s direction.
– Avoid what happens by chance, but don’t shy away from using chance sometimes either.
I’ve often talked about the organic aspect of a story. When strong elements are established at different points in time. We need to connect them. But there are many other ideas too. Once a certain critical mass is reached, the links form naturally. It’s like an alchemical reaction.
@WE, happened to also read you by chance on this thread, which I don’t come to as I’m not watching this.
What you say about a good drama put me in mind of the one I just started watching, cdrama “A Journey to Love”… very soon into the first episodes it is clear that it’s a good, solid drama. Not a wishy-washy romance but with a proper plot, with other things going on that make sense. The reviewer confirmed that it’s good and we hope likely to stay good all the way through.
@GB, OH!! You too came here by chance? mmh..mmh.. so strange.. by what plot contrivance is it possible? (suspicious) What are you MANUFACTURATING exactly?!! 😇🙃
@WE seeing that you made a comment got me interested in what you might say about the rant. I offer an alternative to a not-so-good show, by mentioning one that is pretty good. Perhaps I manufacture interest in something different which you and others may find more rewarding for your drama hours.
Hardly any coincidences, no plot holes, everyone behaving normally, everything makes sense, good dialogues, great fight scenes, very absorbing (covered 7 episodes in one day!), good camerawork, interesting plot, oh … and it can actually be funny without trying hard.
Pity you may have difficulty getting subbed cdramas. This one is worth the effort.
@GB, so you didn’t create a plot contrivance. LOL!
I take note of this cdrama. Looks like a historical. Still on-air. 40ep!
@Pm3, you mention the screenwriter is a beginner.
Curious I made a search, but it was difficult to find.
It’s from a manhwa with 3 people working on it (it says “writers” in asianWiki).
Here the screenwriter:
https://www.hancinema.net/korean_Go_Nam-jeong.php
I don’t know how many constraint have the screenwriter. It should be her responsability to take a bad manhwa plot and re-do it right. But if producer isn’t agree, Hey!!
Worked on a drama in 2014, but go canceled. Then maybe 2 episodes on another thing.
It’s not a lot, BUT, as it’s someone in the profession since a long time, we can expect:
– Years about be assistant.
– Various spec-scripts she did by herself.
I took a look on MDL: well, even with the plot contrivances, people like the drama.
Korean rating is 8% on a saturday, what’s pretty good.
I should watch that, as there is a time travel story, but didn’t have motivation. I tried first 10 minutes and gave up.
I’m in more serious shows these days, without comedy on purpose.
@GrowingBeautifully, I started A Journey to Love because I caught up with all the other dramas I’m watching. I’m on Episode 6 at the moment. It does have its plot contrivances: there seems to be a pill, decoction, or poison for everything needed to keep the plot moving. Deus ex pharmaceutica instead of deus ex machina.
I had high hopes for this drama because I love a good Joseon-woman-out-of-water (literally) plot. And I like the actors playing the ML and the FL.
So I was willing to forgive some of the earlier coincidences because I could chalk them to “fate”–their repeated fate(s), their being fated to being together–that’s how all these pieces fell into place coincidentally, I tried to convince myself. But what I’ve noticed in recent episodes is a lot of repeated actions and a lot of running around, which adds nothing to the story, e.g., How many times is that goddess going to show up–and the FL going to chase her/the butterfly? How many times are they going to kiss (and then not consummate their marriage)? The push and pull of their relationship is getting stale. (Noble idiocy has already reared its ugly head, when the ML said he didn’t love her–in order to save her from being a widow or something, but that was too quickly resolved).
It’s also a lack of consistency. The grandpa wanted the ML to get married so much that he faked an illness and now he opposes the marriage? The ML is trying to take over the company and goes off the Jeju for a vacation, leaving the company entirely in his evil stepmother’s hands? (This was also an inconsistent plot point in King the Land). The FL complains about high heels and now wears stilettos without any fuss (I was hoping she’d wear more comfortable shoes but make them look stylish in her own way)? And, like PM3 said, the FL shows strength and resolve and then just accedes to the evil stepmother and goes off with her aide to a dark abandoned house and waits like a maiden in distress?
I did like the Joseon/hanyok fusion fashion and the fashion show, and the FL’s past spunkiness. I’ll probably keep watching it because I’m curious about how they will tie it up, but I won’t have much faith that it’s going to end strong. In other words, lowered expectations is how I’ll approach the remaining episodes.
@BethB, I agree with you that one reason to stay with this show is to see the adaptation of hanboks to current fashion. I love seeing the clothes worn by Park Yeon Woo and Mi Dam.
@Welmaris, @Beth,
I follow a screenwriter on twitter (a guy teaching). I have cool advices and doesn’t rely on ultimate tactics or rules, so when it’s about a movie with flaws but success, ultimately, about screenplay he just says “if it works, it works”.
How many times I pointed dramas I don’t like for reasons, but are popular. I just take the two common ones:
– Goblin, for me: ultra-boring, almost no plot, forced comedy.
But great success, Why? Thematics? Visual magic? Poetic atmosphere?
– Hospital Playlist, for me: awfull screenplay with the worst errors you could do, boring, almost no plot, no goal scenes.
But great success, Why? Good characters? Guess who’s the OTP game? Friendship feeling?
I don’t watch “Park mariage contract”, but obviously, people like it, even there are awfull plot contrivances (I trust Pm3). So why it works? I can’t know the answer, but sure, something work well in this, dispite the plot problems, or maybe because in some weird way.