[Discussion Thread] Snowdrop

I will watch after exams, I was always hyped for this drama, I have loved Hae In's dramas most of the time and the comments about Jisoo's acting on MDL are good so if it continues getting positive feedback I'll check it out

Quote from Haolat

Thankfully I am done with my exams. There are so many positive comments. The drama debuted with a 9.5 on MDL. Even if it is just 22 users that's really high. This drama and jirisan were my most anticipated drama of the year. jirisan was disappointing but I still have high hope for Snowdrop. I am gonna watch the 1st episode in a bit

My exam is on Monday, so after that, I'll watch it too. I don't know about the ratings, it could be just fans ratings it high on MDL but even the comments are all positive so I have high hope now.

Yup, Jirisan was the biggest disappointment of a year. For having such a stellar cast, they really let us down.

I tried to watch it on dramacool but the video wouldn't load and it's too laggy lol so I found the video on Dailymotion.

Anyway, the drama was okay. The cinematography is beautiful. It's up there with Red Sleeve in terms of quality.

The other actors though like Kim Hye Yoon stood out far more than Jisoo. I didn't really enjoy her acting. In my opinion, Go Min-si would've been a good pick in terms of acting…

Also, it seems like the drama is getting criticized on Korean twitter and theqoo. The first page is filled with negative posts about the show...

Don't know if I'll consistently watch it further.

Her acting was very natural so I dont think anyone has to worry about her acting if they are planning to watch

i have it and will watch it soon enough

can't wait aince this will be my first kdrama ever

I'm personally not watching it but I support her it's just that I really don't like Kdramas at all and cheesy story lines

despite all the backlash they received pre-airing, they still didn't bother to change anything except the name of Jisoo's character. Plus, they left in a lot of problematic stuff.

Another petition to cancel Snowdrop was started today has reached ~89,000 signatures so far.

Watched the first episode. It will also be my last one. This drama is boring and not worth of my time. Which is a shame cause i love Jung Haein

I really hope it doesn't get canceled. This type of controversy shouldn't have occurred for her debut

I just finished the first episode.

I think Jisoo did a really decent job acting wise, considering it is her first drama. At times she was more natural than the other professional actors.

Some of them overacted, and it felt off-putting to me. It was like a caricature. Even the bad guys looked like that to me. I don't know if it was done on purpose and that was the director's vision but I disliked it.

All in all, it was an entertaining episode. It kinda lacked the warmth of similar dramas set decades ago but it is still the first episode. Maybe it will get better. I will definitely keep watching.

Tbh, I'm not a big fan of Jung Haein, even tho I watched almost all his dramas, not many roles suit him. I might give it a try next weekend after my exams since it's based on true facts, I am a little bit curious, not gonna lie.

LE: I just read and looks like the topic is pretty sensitive and I kinda have mixed feelings if I should watch it or not,,, guess I will wait to see how it will evolve, hope there will be a twist.

I was waiting to watch episode 2 first.

Episode 1 was kinda slow paced and the worldbulding was kinda boring. But it caught up at the end with some action scenes.

Episode 2 was a lot better since it continued from the climax of episode 1. More thriller and less chit-chatting. It also had some interesting plot developments.

Jisoo's acting is good, I was impressed by her actually, especially as it's her first lead. The chemistry between her and Haein is fantastic! A promising start IMO.

Quote from Haolat

her acting is decent since this is her first time. What parts did you feel were overacted?

The scene with the wives of the politicians, some scenes as the dormitory. I felt some of them were too much. I have only watched the first episode though. Maybe it gets better.

So finally got around o watching the first two episodes.

On the show itself

- I like the directing and cinematography, the show looks good. Big fan of utilising different aspect ratios in films/shows as well

- Not sure on the OST yet but I really like the score so far

- Cast is incredibly stacked, I can imagine they all jumped on this due to the writer being the same as Sky Castle

- Jisoo didn't stand out, in a good or bad way, which actually isn't that bad for your first major acting gig. She does sound a bit childlike though, not sure if she has put that on for the show or just sounds that way. Actually surprised that I'd never heard her talk before. She's also not very nuanced with her facial expressions but that will come with experience. Sometimes feels like she's doing too much with her face, which is a stark contrast to Joy (using as a comparison point as the only major gg member from 3rd gen to lead a show) who couldn't do enough. Nuance and subtlety is what the top level of actors have though, where you don't look like you're acting.

The story itself - think everyone knows they've had a bit of a shocker. I've read and watched a fair bit on Korean history over the years and throughout the military/dictatorship period, one of the most common themes is the government using NK/communism as a scapegoat to suppress, torture, kill, attack and rape people. So even if the ML is not taking part in the protests as an NK spy and is currently hired by the ruling party (the bad guys in SK history), having someone from NK posing as a student (which we know he is doing) is problematic in itself.

Trying to push this as fiction whilst mirroring real events this closely, to the extent of having to change the female leads name (initially being named after a lady whose husband was killed using the false pretence of him being an NK spy) I can imagine riled up South Koreans and people associated with the democratic movement much more. Just insulting their intelligence.

This writer has previously tackled the Japanese occupation in a kdrama (Bridal mask), another incredibly sensitive period. She humanised the 2nd lead too much for some people, a Japanese imperialist, so there was some controversy around that as well when it was out, as evil as he became. Even though it never got Snowdrop bad, you'd think that would give her pause and experience in tackling sensitive periods in history. The second male lead in this show is going to be part of the intelligence service, which in that period is basically the Gestapo to the democratic movement. Won't comment on this is as I'm trying to avoid spoilers so I'm not sure what has been revealed about his character, but if he and other agents get humanised and shown in any kind of sympathetic light, I can imagine a lot more backlash. I guess as westerners we'd look at this and think, SS soldiers have been humanised in file and shows before. But this is so much more recent in the context of history.

I don't know how true it is with regards to her husband being a prosecutor in the 80's (a government vessel to "legally" attack and detain protesters) therefore having her own motivations to skew history but what I will say to all of this also is - the elections are next year so this will be politicised beyond just historical interpretation. JTBC is owned by conservative leaning elements so having this show a few months before elections (an election in which the opposition is Conservative and still has the stain of the 80s for some) won't be lost on people. In addition to the investment Tencent made in JTBC last year so the China connection is also there to be politicised. I can imagine people interpreting it as trying to show NK who were incredibly close and dependent on China, being involved in the democratic success of SK

If they were so insistent on still putting the show out there, I wonder if they could have dropped all the episode at once.

This is exactly the kind of show I really enjoy normally so I really wish they could have been smarter

tenfour

not sure if it's appropriate but gonna post the behind the scenes of Jisoo with some of the female cast. Jisoo is so friendly with everyone.

Seeing how great kim jisoo looking at and falling for an nk spy. i get the dislike and jealousness of some guys but this shitshow is really to much. just jerk off and calm down.

Quote from Haolat

Yeah it is appropriate for this thread. You can discuss anything about Snowdrop here but I am trying to keep everything about the controversy out of this thread since we already have so many threads on that.

For a start we could focus on the insane chemistry between Jisoo and Haein. Damn! What a pairing. Behind the scenes they are so cute together too.

Seen episode 3 - the quality of the production is very reminiscent of Mr Sunshine.

They played the original 1984 version of Meaning of You at the coffee shop in episode 3, a song that IU covered in A Flower Bookmark.

The ending of episode 4, damn.

Just finished Episode 4, the plot is thickening and getting action-packed. Can't wait for Episode 5!

I watched some parts and now I understand why Jisoo said that Jisoo and youngro live in very different worlds lol which makes me appreciate her acting more . Youngro is so different from Jisoo but knows how portrays youngro well.

off-topic

Despite all the controversies I'm glad she has a good cast that helped her along the way and got close to the female actresses they are probably besties now lol also said Haein was a good mentor. I guess I'm trying to look at all from a positive perspective. I hope she chooses less controversial roles if she decides to do more acting in the future.

Quote from SandyBee3

Ok Episode 5 was just wtf…. Like the extent people would go to win even if that means to betray your own country and people. I wonder how the reaction will be after this episode…

Anyway I wonder how they want to turn this into romance again? At this point SH has traumatized YR so much.

I never thought this was gonna be a romantic drama since Jisoo has always shown more interest in mystery and thrillers I doubt she would go for typical romantic drama.