I am generally wary of Korean Dramas set outside South Korea, as the characters and setting just don’t…well, gel together. Even something as soothing as rain and the tunes of a guitar turns into a siren. The perfect magical city soon becomes hell for him. The shots are also composed of colour coordinated schemes - the browns with the blues, the greens with the reds, the greys with the whites, as to contradict with Jin Woo raising levels of insanity. Whether it is the narrow cobblestoned alleys, the cream coloured buildings, or the gorgeous winding staircases, whether in rain, sunshine or in the mist, the cinematography attaches a sense of mysticism, which Jin Woo himself attributes to the city in the very first episode. Granada (exhibited as a character), as the primary setting in the AR game, is shot beautifully. These were nice little nods to a character we often see, but never hear about, and it is only after Jung Hoon’s exit, that Hee Joo becomes Jin Woo’s close confidante. There is even a short scene, where we see him crying when Jin Woo is hospitalized, and another when Hee Joo screams at Jin Woo to stop being stubborn and troubling his secretary, who already has a difficult job. Here, Jung Hoon is constantly with Jin Woo as he suffers, and even later shares the burden of his suffering. Secretaries are omnipresent in almost all dramas, but we rarely get to know anything about them. Comparatively, I loved Jin Woo’s relationship with Seo Jung Hoon ( Min Jin Woong), his secretary and close friend. She provides moral support to Jin Woo throughout, and her inclusion gives the show some screentime to incorporate some product placement. Park Shin Hye, in contrast, doesn’t have much to do in this show. Hyun Bin plays these scenes wonderfully, crying, groaning, writhing in pain, a fragile man, battling his sanity every day. We watch him turn into a shell of his former self, transforming into an anxious, scared and helpless man, completely broken from within, when the AR game invades his entire life. We first meet him as the stereotypical Korean drama male lead - rich and cocky though it has to be noted that he is a self-made man and doesn’t come from a family of money, and is also in the midst of his second divorce. (I wish I could say more, but don’t want to give out spoilers.)Īs the only character (for quite some time), who understands that something is not right with the game, Hyun Bin single-handedly runs this show. When he doesn’t turn up for several days on end, Jin Woo starts encountering problems with the game and soon is unable to distinguish between his actions in the game and in real life. The company that invests in this software and lens is run by Yoo Jin Woo, who travels to Granada to test run a game sent by an anonymous developer (EXO’s Chanyeol in a brief yet effective role). Largely set in the southern Spanish city of Granada, (there is something with Spain and Korean Dramas lately- The K2, The Legend of the Blue Sea, Encounter, which is set in Cuba, but a similar culture and architecture) this fantasy drama deals with AR (Augmented Reality), which can be accessed through a set of specially developed contact lens. The romance also takes a backseat this time with just enough interactions between Yoo Jin Woo (a phenomenal Hyun Bin) and Jung Hee Joo ( Park Shin Hye, in a smaller, shorter role than expected) to suggest a romance brewing but the major focus never shifts away from the game gone rouge. While W, dived straight into the conflict, Memories of the Alhambra takes it’s time to just relish in the wonders of AR, until the horror eventually sets in and gets the show up and running. This was exactly what W suffered from too, despite a solid first half, but thankfully writer Song Jae Jung (she has written both W & Memories of the Alhambra), seems to have understood what didn’t quite work in the former and has approached the latter, a similar concept through a different route.įor starters, against W’s very linear plotline, Memories of the Alhambra shuttles back and forth between past and present, revealing details when necessary. They can then be further subcategorized as an action-thriller, drama or even a romantic comedy, but the part where most fumble is invariably the second half of the show’s runtime, where after establishing a new world, the story meanders for most parts, not seeming to reach any conclusion. All of them carry an intriguing premise involving either magical beings, historical figures, time travel or futuristic dystopias.the list can go on. The fantasy genre in Korean Dramas is as interesting as they are tricky. ‘Memories of the Alhambra’…From the writer of W, comes yet another riveting novel concept transformed into an equally riveting watch.
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