Vampires + idols
This is terrible....I basically watched 50 episodes of a brainless sitcom over the weekend instead of studying for the 'mock' exam. WHAT THE
헐 (heol)! "Luckily" each episode is only about 25min long...though that still means that I spent 1 whole day watching it. *sigh*
So what's this rubbish that I've got an obsession over? It's called VAMPIRE IDOL. I know that it sounds like a potential trainwreck or an evil scheme to scam crazy fans into following some incredibly cheesy daily sitcom, but it actually is pretty well thought out. In fact, I feel more invested in the characters as compared to other shows with better ratings (e.g. A Gentlemen's Dignity). Too bad there are no English subs available, so I watched it with Chinese subs. The other sad thing about this drama was that it was suddenly cut from a 120-episode drama to one with 79-episodes, so the ending is a bit abrupt and only gives clues as to how the writers had intended the series to go. AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES ME SO ANNOYED WITH THE BROADCASTING CHANNEL!!! HMPH.
Premise
The background of this sitcom is pretty simple. Take 4 vampires from outer space (including their girl-group crazy princeling), leave them stranded on Earth and train them into an idol group. This is so cheesy and camp that it's actually freaking hilarious to see them adjust to life on Earth. The Princeling probably suffers from the biggest 'culture shock' as he finds out that he's considered ugly on this planet, while his 3 'ugly' bodyguards/minions /BFFs are the pretty boys on this planet.
Anyways, Princeling (more affectionately known as Baba on their planet Vampirutus) and his 3 friends travel on a spaceship to Earth to watch the concert of his favourite girl group Girls Girls. But the spaceship malfunctions and they can't get back.
Thankfully, they meet their tour guide (who just so happens to be the Girls Girls manager and fellow vampire) who lets them stay and train as idol trainees in the same company as Girls Girls. Oh the hijinks that follow.....
Characters
There are not that many characters but the main ones would be the princeling Baba and his F4-esque troupe of vampires. And there's the girls from Girls Girls. Not to forget the other artiste in their company, the managers and other company staff. As this is a sitcom, they go by their actual/stage names in the show too!
First up, there's Baba, played by Lee Jung. The running joke in this sitcom would be his actual vampire name which is so long that even he runs out of breath trying to say it. I mean, what sort of name is "Vampirutus Panyera Twilight Walakia Kunyaris Romania Blarantua
Transylvania New Moooooooooooooooooooooon Tenios Bellanluci Breaking Dawn Draculu Oolala
Eclipse Apalidia"??? Show, I see what you did there with all the 'subtle' vampire references! He's childish, relies on his 3 lackeys for everything but it's still abit sad seeing him having to adjust to life on Earth and getting rejected by the girl of his dreams, the leader of Girls Girls.
Then there's Baba's right-hand-man, Mukkadil (played by and also known on Earth as Lee Soo-hyuk). He's the top warrior on Vampire planet, but he's really protective of Baba and just wants him to be happy ^^ I don't totally ship him with Min-Kyung (another manager in the company), but I guess they are both really hard-working and have similar personalities. Again, due to that evil episode cut, I'll never know what really happens to this couple.
Next, there's resident geek Galileo (played by Hong Jong-hyun) with his IQ of 790 that he's so proud of. Totally smart and inquisitive...socially...a little awkward. Everyone around him just spaces out and asks him to keep quiet when he goes into his looooong nerdy explanation of how things work...so he ends up having to compliment himself when he works out something (which no one else understands anyway). I totally love how Mi-nah (the 'dumbest' member in Girls Girls) brings out the illogical side in him, especially in the episode when he is randomly roped in to take care of her 'child' in a video game and they start squabbling like real parents. Kekekeke....
And rounding up the vampire F4 clan is Gabrielis (played by Kim Woo-bin) as the Earth-loving vampire! He has super-hearing (which means he is often called on to eavesdrop on others) but all he really wants to do is to hang out with the ones he loves and eat popcorn all the time. I totally SHIP his pairing with the Bunny/Yoo-bi, but more on that later! I'm also soooooooo grateful that he changed his hairstyle from that gelled up 8:2 parting to his more natural fringey hairstyle. And Woo-bin ah, don't get typecast to play the resident school-bully k!!
I can't choose which vampire I like more!!! But it's definitely a toss-up between the nerdy Jong-hyun or the food-loving 4D Woo-bin =D
As for the girl group, there's the cute but slightly dim lead singer Min-ah (who is actually from the REAL girl-group, Girl's Day), lover-of-all-things-vampire-related Yoo-bi, fashionista Soo-yeon and charismatic leader Woon-hee.
I ADORE Yoo-bi and love her transformation from the shy girl who hides under her hoodie and communicates through texts...to the cute, bubbly 4D rapper! I totally didn't expect her to be so chatty and it's soooo hilarious everytime she tries to act like the vampires that she keeps reading about in her books.
Min-ah is also really cute in a daft way (kind of like a persistent little puppy) and her obsession with eating bread gives her the nickname Bbang-Minah. She does have a really good voice though, no wonder she is also the lead singer in the real girl group that she is in.
The rest of the people aren't that memorable for me.
Kwanghee makes me cringe with his over-acting and cries of "TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE". Urgh, just make him stop speaking English here and on WGM!! It's really (to quote him) terrible and horrible!
Min-kyung plays a delivery girl who somehow gets roped into being Kwanghee's manager (more like slave) after a series of not-so-fortunate events. Poor her, even if she does get paired up with Soo-hyuk in the end.
Girls Girls manager is Shin Dong-yup who is a vampire that has lived on the Earth for 2000 years. He falls in love with a human (played by veteran actress Kim Soo-mi) but now they have to pretend to be mother-and-son since he doesn't age, while she does. A mature actress doing aegyo....is not my thing. Dong-yup occasionally gets on my nerves too...
The company is run by the father of Girls Girls leader (Woon-hee) who later passes the management over to his sister. There's also some random woman called Dongdong who's some rich, cultured lady...but I have honestly no idea how she is connected to them in anyway
My favourite bits....and how the story should end
I love all the fish-out-of-water experiences the vampires have...even those with alot of toilet humour. Heh.
As for the coupling, I adore the loveline between Woobin and Yoo-bi the most! Woobin falls in love with a girl in a bunny costume, who just happens to be Yoo-bi inside.
As the series progresses, Yoo-bi also likes Woobin but she's afraid to tell him that she's actually the bunny girl coz she's afraid he'll reject her. Ahhh...pains my heart to see this storyline dragged out and I keep willing him to find out that she's the bunny. Of course, with 1 lie, comes many subsequent lies to cover up the initial one and Woo-bin is seriously mad when he finds out the truth.
But, they do get together in the end...*swoon*
As for the ending, it's kind of open-ended since the series was cut before the planned 120 episodes. The writer does give some clues as to how it should end though! (spoilers below!!!)
So in the last 2 episodes, nerdy vamp Jonghyun invents a time-slip machine so that he can go back in time and see what went wrong with the spaceship in the first place. However, he ends up going into the future...which is probably where the writer puts in the ideas he/she had for the rest of the series. Anyway, Jonghyun sees that Shin Dong-yup dies, even though he is a vampire and that he will take Min-ah's DNA back to Vampirutus to experiment how to let her live a vampire lifespan. Shin Dong-yup also sees his death, but that there is another copy of him out there....who is the ultimate evil vampire with the red gloves that the show has hinted at for a while (In fact, that evil vampire kidnaps Soo-yeon and disappears through some portal to...i don't know where). Right-hand vamp Soo-hyuk sees that Princeling Baba will leave the girl of his dreams, Woonhee (even though she finally likes him back), for Minkyung. Soo-hyuk also sees himself fighting with the big bad vampire and that 1000years from now, they will be remembered in a museum back in Vampirutus. But...there's only Baba and 2 OF HIS BFFs. NOT 3, BUT 2. And it freaking endssssssssss =(
As Javabeans says, it's like the writer gave a big fat eff-you at the broadcast station for cutting the drama. At least Woobin kinda proposed to Yoo-bi and was gonna tell her that he's actually a vampire. Still...URGH at the ending.
So the rest of the series is totally open to personal interpretation. Honestly, I think that Shin Dong-yup has an evil twin who has been planning to takeover Vampirutus for thousands of years, but never got a chance to. That's why he sent his good (but not so smart) twin to Earth away so he can do the planning in peace. Thus, when the opportunity comes to get rid of the Princeling, he acted on it and sent him to Earth, under the care of Shin Dong-yup. In the last episode, we see that the evil twin has stolen the Princeling's magic red diamond and all his powers, so he is able to kill off Shin Dong-yup and pretend to be him.
In the last episode, we also see that Minkyung has the lifespan of a vampire rather than an adult. We also know that not much is known about her family...so maybe she's also a secret vampire, just that she suffered from amnesia. It's a Korean drama anyway, amnesia is their go-to plot device when something can't be explained. She might possibly be related to the evil Shin Dong-yup twin, but she decided to turn good due to her love for right-hand vamp Soo-hyuk. I think Soo-hyuk would die in order to kill the evil Shin Dong-yup twin and protect Princeling Baba, so in return, Baba decides to take care of Minkyung and bring her back to Vampirutus.
And yes, I do believe that they will find a way to return to Vampirutus...and it would be through the dimension-slip thingy under the stairs that has been hinted at throughout the series. Not one of Jonghyun's inventions. I think brainy Jonghyun would find a way to communicate with Vampirutus again and they would find out that the place is in turmoil and that Soo-yeon has been kidnapped there by the Evil Shin Dong-yup twin. Then they will remember about the dimension-slip thing that was discussed earlier, find it and travel there. They will rescue Soo-yeon (but of course she won't remember any of this happening...it's a k-drama after all and they'll erase her memory) and somehow stop the evil Shin Dong-yup's plot to overthrow the king. The reigning king and queen (i.e. Baba's parents) will beg him to come back, but Baba and his 3 lackeys will decide to come back to earth to settle 'unresolved issues'. That's where the scenes that Jonghyun fore-saw would happen. However, evil Shin Dong-yup twin is not so weak and he comes back to life to seek revenge...and that's when the scenes that Soo-hyuk and the good Shin Dong-yup would occur.
In the end, I think that the 2 lackeys in the picture in the Vampirutus museum are Jonghyun and Woobin. It'll most probably be taken during Woobin's wedding with Yoo-bi since all the vampires are so well-dressed in the future sequences. Soo-hyuk would have died/vanished by then after fighting off the evil Shin Dong-yup twin...it'll make a good story to tell to future generations of vampires too. As for who goes back to Vampirutus....I think only Baba, Jonghyun and Minkyung would go back. Woobin would stay behind on Earth with Yoo-bi who totally embraces the fact that he is a vampire. I honestly don't think Woobin would go back, especially after an earlier episode where he refused to go back even when given a chance to. Princeling Baba would go back to reign in Vampirutus and he'll take Min-kyung along to provide for her in the place of Soo-hyuk. Baba still loves Woonhee, but he knows that he can't stay on Earth because of his princely duties, so he has no choice but to tell her that they should break up. As for Jonghyun, he wants to go back to his lab in Vampirutus so that he can invent a way for Min-ah to live as long as a vampire...and then come back for her.
That...would be the most feasible way to end this sitcom.
And it also reminds me that I should take up writing fanfics as a hobby....or just become a scriptwriter instead. Hahaha....time to return to reality and memorising the prostate + src presentation script ^^
Labels: Drama ramblings
POSTED BY mysticmalady AT 6:50 AM |
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