After a few false starts, I finally persevered and finished watching Eve. To actually have to persevere is in itself telling about what I really think about this series.
Perhaps because my recent trip to Seoul was peaceful, that I did not encounter any monstrous creatures in real life, I have started developing averse reactions to some of the recent K-dramas in the same vein as Eve.
Revenge involving convoluted plots seem to have lost its charm on me. Or is it just that some of the recent offerings appear to have run out of fresh ideas? Or I have finally grown up?
Admittedly, I watched Eve because of Seo Yea-jin. Many raved about her performance in her previous blockbuster but honestly I felt OK not to watch It’s Ok Not To Be Ok. There’s no doubt she has talent but I hope Eve doesn’t typecast her as just another evil beauty.
I think the best thing about this series is the fact the director cast the equally devilish Yoo Sun opposite Seo. To watch these two spar is a treat in itself. While Lee Il-hwa has a much smaller role, her presence is much-felt as well.
Collectively, I would love to award them the Most Scary Actress Award.
But the opposite can be said about performance of the male lead Park Byeong-eun. Watching him is like sitting through a B-grade horror flick. I wondered if the director’s brief to him was just to look constipated throughout the series. Someone should tell him there is more than one way to express pain.
Take away the hard-to-believe twists and coincidences, Eve does have a few rather moving moments for me. The murderous Yoo Sun character, in my opinion, is actually quite pitiful. Although it is fictional, how she became the monster is to me rather ‘understandable’. Who wouldn’t become such a psychopath being brought up that way?
Seo’s struggle with her own feelings for the insipid man is also very well done.
Very few K-dramas are rated M-18 or R, and Eve is. The good adult in me actually advised a friend not to let her young daughter watch. Do we want young people to grow up so vindictive? Maybe some will argue that people can also learn not to be evil. But if you have to get your moral bearings from silver screen, now that is a bigger problem.
Recently I asked some friends why is it that in Korean dramas, people are so violent, and if it happens in real life. Their answer – quite the opposite. The violence on screen, is perhaps their way of expressing something they can’t in real life.
This is my own fault but I really need to remind myself that it is theater and no reason to believe that everything is inspired by true events. In fact, quite the contrary.
To help myself be more normal, no revenge flicks for at least a week should help.