@BethB,
You commented on the “Happy New Year” thread:
• The Matchmakers (Viki) – I really liked it, just didn’t love it.
I agree with you.
I like “The Matchmakers” for these reasons:
a) the heroine. She was refreshingly resourceful and reasonable, unlike the heroine in the female lead “Park’s Marriage Contract.” From start to finish, SoonDeok was sensible and prudent.
b) the portrayal of women in a Confucian, patriarchal society. For a change, the women weren’t depicted as victims. We could see that they knew how to run the show and get their own way unobtrusively, either by cunning or by charm. They weren’t helpless.
c) Rowoon, lol. I’m not going to deny it. I like him in this drama best of all.
However, I wasn’t crazy about this drama. I was dissatisfied with the ending because I saw the matches as wrong-headed and naive. Except for two matches, that is, the match between Guard and the youngest of the spinster sisters, and between SoonDeok and JungWoo, I couldn’t approve of the other ones.
Take for instance, the union between the oldest sister with the young Crown Prince.
To me, it’s the optics.
I get that the historically speaking, a marriage between a prepubescent royalty and someone 10 years older than him wasn’t unheard off. But to our modern-day sensitivities, a child groom is very much as offensive as a child bride. If I was turned off by the romance between Lee JaeWook and Go Ara in “Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol” because he was barely 18 years old and she was 24, then what more with this union between a 14-year-old and a 24-year-old.
Moreover, I wouldn’t put it past the oldest sister to imagine herself in love with the Crown Prince because of his status. Remember her requirements for her husband? This is what she said, “His family must be at least a senior fifth rank, but not below that. He should be between 5.5 cheok and six cheok. Being too tall does not provide much substance. His looks only need to be manly…. I will state the most important condition. He must be someone I can respect.”
From her criteria, I would say that a) she’s a social climber and status-seeker, b) her Crown Prince wasn’t very manly if he could pass off easily as a girl, and c) it’s not the person she respects, but his office/position as heir to the throne. Given her smarts, it’s entirely within her ability to become Machiavellian and end up being the power behind the man boy, just like the Left Minister’s wife had been.
As for the middle sister, I couldn’t approve of that union, too. I’m sure the novelty of marrying a useless manchild (or a boytoy) will wear off soon enough for her. And what will happen to him then? I can see him being brow-beaten. She has an odious temper and vulgar mouth. Those flaws couldn’t be corrected, least of all, by her husband.
As for the marriage between the Left Minister’s daughter and poor noble farmer, that’s another disaster in the making. I’d give it ten years, maximum, before he got tired of her sloth and idleness, and of the need to measure up to her expectations.
Thus, while I like the character of the heroine and the female-centric plot of this kdrama, I’ll have to disagree with this screenwriter’s perspectives on love and marriage. They fall short of my expectations. I think they still require maturation.
As I said in my comments on Episodes 15-16, SD must have been the smartest woman in her town if all the other townspeople (including her brother) couldn’t recognize her in her “disguise” of red lipstick and a painted-on mole! I really did like her character. Her life as a young widow, with all its constrictions, sucked but she went about it with grace, determination, and warmth, finding her own short paths to freedom and usefulness.
Per my comments on the previous episodes, I really wish they had chosen an older (taller, post-adolescent) actor for the Crown Prince after the marriage. It would have been less disconcerting if he had had a birthday (15!) and had hit puberty even if we still knew there was a 10-year age gap. Maybe the writer/director wanted us to experience that discomfort for some reason? Or, as @pm3 said, perhaps she was another behind-the-scenes Machiavellian in the making, similar to SD’s MIL, which is why they showed us that odd pairing?
I think the actor playing the Crown Prince was a miscast.
Do you remember the actor playing young Jung KiHo in “Castaway Diva”? I checked mydramalist and his name is Moon WooJin. He’s 14 years old, too. I think he would have been a better CP because he could look older. Visually, he would match the actress playing the oldest sister, Jung Shin Hye.
I was also distracted by Jung Shin Hye because she was in the other drama I was watching that time, “Moon in the Day.” In that drama, she played the stereotypical crazy ex-GF. So when I watched her in “The Matchmakers,” I had this impression all along that butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
Hi. I did finished this drama and I enjoyed it even though I agree with the opinions especially with the Crown Prince. He really did look a young 14. 🙁
It could have had a better ending like a final kiss since there was only 2 kisses in the whole 16 episodes? 🙂
Anyway, Rowoon was great here and the FL was good too. Here’s to another finished drama.