Fang (2021)

Sweet Enough To Give You A Tooth Cavity…

If there’s one thing South-Korean mini dramas absolutely love with romantic-setups it is the “reverse-harem” trope. Unsurprisingly ‘ Peng’( 팽) is no exception and offers viewers the typical cutesy sweet “ potential love interests” for the seemingly “ average” and “ older noona” ( who in reality is only supposed to be thirty) female lead.

Of course it is wrong to entirely critique ‘ Peng’ as “ unwatchable”. Go Sa Ri ( Yoon So Hee) is a 30 year old woman who finds herself rethinking her life decisions after she parted ways with her former boyfriend.Soon she finds herself in a sticky situation as she finds several potential love interests entering her life with complicated feelings evidently growing for them.

The acting is a mixed-bag admittedly. It is hardly Oscar-winning and there are certainly moments where you might question certain line deliverances, but it is certainly passable to watch . Main actress Yoon So Hee has starred in many guest roles over the years but likely is more recognised by K-pop fans for her starring roles in music videos for boyband EXO, an uncredited role in a music video for SHINEE and in one of Super Junior’s concert tours. The actress certainly was decent enough as our female lead and did add her own sweet charm to her role. However the biggest problem with the casting choice for So Hee as Go Sa Ri was that it was hard to truly believe she was the authentic age of her character.

Of course this isn’t to critique the actress or her character Sa Ri entirely. She’s a fairly hardworking heroine. However to explain this point about age further it is important to establish that a younger actor/ actress being cast to play an older (or even vid verse ) isn’t always necessarily a bad move by the casting crew. Often it can work to a drama/ storyline’s advantage by interpolating both with the necessity of their character’s looks, personality or context within the storyline . On the other hand what makes us feel as though a character is truly the age that the writer has mind doesn’t just come down to physical appearance but very subtle touches such as emotions, maturity, popular culture references, generation gaps or social interactions. In ‘Peng ‘ whilst we did see Sa Ri mope about her age at times and show a more mature side also, these key plot touches rarely had more of a quintessential role within shaping Sa Ri’s identity or authenticity as our female lead .

In fact when it boils down to it Sa Ri rarely felt as though she had a more of a realistic edge. She rarely felt flawed or would be allowed to repent for her actions, by often taking central state as the “ victim” or “ pitiful” and even when we did get glances into her life sans romantic relationships, her “ friends” would rarely interact upon a basis which didn’t involve relationships or romance. Even more in-depth glances into her past as well as her familial environment we’re fairly in- existent throughout the drama rarely giving Sa Ri to feel like a well-written female lead.

Naturally the major driving factor of the cutesy pastel-infused romantic setup of ‘ Peng’ boils down to Sa Ri’s “ potential love interests”. ( Unsubtly hinted by one of Sa Ri’s male colleagues that Sa Ri should get married as “she’s getting older”.)Typical of this genre the male leads are mostly used as the “ shiny boy toy” trope with being either fairly good looking, fashionable or a trope archetype in themselves but are mainly used as plot devices to keep the plot moving rather than to have more evident character depth and growth.

Sa Ri’s first “ potential love interest” is Pi Jung Won ( Choi Won Myung). Pi Jung Won is the classic “ childhood friend” trope. Knowing Sa Ri the longest , Jung Won arguably knew the most about Sa Ri out of all the other suitors. The biggest problem with Jung Won as the “ childhood friend” is that whilst he unsurprisingly has “ liked Sa Ri since forever” he never really addresses what initially attracted him to her, his own complicated feelings with Sa Ri viewing him as a fraternal figure as well as meekly remaining in the corner with his hidden feelings until “ necessary plot” drives him out.

Sa Ri’s next potential romantic partner is Yeon Ha Rim ( Kim Hyun Jin). The biggest thing to address about actor Kim Hyun Jin is that in real life he is closer in age to So Hee than his younger onscreen counterpart. His onscreen persona being the embodiment of the “ younger guy”, there’s undeniably mixed feelings for viewers towards this onscreen potential chemistry between their characters ( especially as he does begin to dominate a lot of screen time by the halfway mark). Whilst undeniably Sa Ri does not hide her initial awkward feelings and there are some evident “age appearance” issue addressed , it may raise more questions for viewers by the more sugarcoated approach to realistic factors such as cultural norms, controversy and perceptions towards age gap relationships in South Korea.

Then there’s Sa Ri’s potential suitor through Ki Sun Jae ( Joo Woo Jae)- . Sun Jae embodies the classic “ he’s my boss” and the “ CEO” trope. His potential chemistry with Sa Ri has its strengths and weaknesses. On one side he’s arguably the most mature, decisive and affluent out of the other love interests. On the other hand Sa Ri’s evident discomfort towards pursuing a romantic relationship with her boss does put some strain on their relationship as employer and employee.

Then finally there’s Jeon Woo Sang ( Lee Seung II). Sa Ri’s ex, Jeon Woo spends his time pining over Sa Ri. Whilst some viewers may see this as “sweet”, others will likely see Jeon Woo’s actions as verging upon being a stalker and megalomaniacal from wanting to know about Sa Ri’s love life following her and waiting outside of her house on several occasions.

The final decision by Sa Ri was beyond anti climatic. It was not necessarily bad per say that Sa Ri made this choice as it was upon her own grounds, however, rather than providing this choice with more explanation or build-up, Sa Ri’s decision truly gave the series a poorly-inserted deus ex machina ending; added for the “ unexpected”, yet lacking in more coherent character direction or growth in the process.

So what is left to say about ‘ Peng’? As a miniseries ‘ Peng’ is pretty much what it said it would be on the tin; a romantic show reverse- harem about an older woman choosing her potential romantic love interests. Whilst the show was lighthearted, it often seemed to struggle with conveying more depth to the characters, plot drive ( aside from romantic misunderstandings and lacklustre tropes) and a decisive ending with many profound themes often feeling sugarcoated. Whilst not unwatchable per say ‘ Peng’ lacked that specific zest of being an engaging , memorable or well-written storyline with an ending that will make even the most patient of viewers towards what on earth you just wasted your time upon.

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The four horsemen of the borepocalypse

It’s not that “Peng” is short in how many episodes it has or that each of the episodes is short in duration, it’s that “Peng” is short on content of any kind.

Yoon So Hee plays the main character, Go Sa Ri, a divorced thirty year old woman. That she is divorced is her most defining element of her character. Otherwise, Sa Ri could float in or out or around in almost any drama as “Pretty young woman who is otherwise nondescript”. That she has apparently no social life one day and becomes the object of desire for four men the next day is supposed to be credible. It’s not but in the big picture of “Peng”, Yoon So Hee as an actress and Go Sa Ri as a character are not especially troubling. Sure, Yoon So Hee struggles with the occasional emotion-laden scene. And Go Sa Ri as a character engages in self-pity a bit too much. She's young and attractive and and smart and lives in an apartment and there's just not much more to her. But the actor and character are not wholly unpalatable and, if she were in the context of a more engaging ensemble, she would be a pleasant part of it.

What is so unpleasant about “Peng” is that the four male pursuers, played by Choi Won Myung, Joo Woo Jae, Lee Seung Il and Kim Hyun Jin, are all endlessly uninteresting and bland and interchangeably uninteresting and bland. The four actors have separate characters in theory but it would require detailed note taking to keep track of which one is on screen and how he is distinguishable from the other three. One of them is a not believable young, reclusive CEO. One is an only slightly more believable rich brat. One is a student or at least appears to be the age of a student and goes to clubs. If it were possible to not be believable in such a role, the actor playing this character would manage it. Which actor? Sorry, they all appear to be the same height and build and dress alike and have similar hair except for the one that mercifully has glasses. He’s the super not unique character of a cafe owner who moonlights as an artist. Watching these four all act together is like having only a salad for lunch. A salad that is entirely made of iceberg lettuce. Scratch that. Make it iceberg lettuce that has been left sitting out for a day so it’s not even crisp anymore. It’s just sad, wilted, soggy, room temperature leaves. A salad that is without any dressing. A sad, wilted iceberg lettuce dressing-less salad that has a bowl of plain, cold oatmeal as a side. And then eating that same meal again for dinner. That’s the level of blandness that these four bring. If it weren’t so tedious, it would be somehow backhandedly exotic for how far they have far that this quartet of dullness have collectively pushed the nothingness envelope.

It’s not that Go Sa Ri should have the dilemma of which of these four varieties of generic vanilla ice cream she should pull from the case or indeed even whether she should move on to anyone, literally anyone, else (side note: clearly she should run and run as fast as she possibly can), it’s whether she should be concerned that she is the subject of an experiment in some sort of unnaturally dull Matrix.

Also, the plot is basically Sa Ri bumps into the four flesh-colored statues. Sometimes separately. Sometimes together. Nothing much happens when she does. There’s some background work activities or drinking or some such, but this is the barest pretext necessary to excuse Sa Ri being somewhere where an ambulatory piece of cardboard will hover nearby and mumble at her. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

The two best friends to Go Sa Ri, played by Bang Eun Jung and Baek Soo Hee, fortunately seem fun and a show that would be more about them and not four semi-corpselike male mannequins would be somewhat quality entertainment. Hopefully, these two actors find a vehicle where they have more than a few seconds on screen per episode and more than a handful of lines of dialogue. But “Peng” is not that show.

Other positives? It’s short. And…

[crickets]

Not recommended except for those viewers that really like plain salads for every meal all the time.

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