12 Comments
Feb 10Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

Re: “The best part of this show was the music, which include tracks by BTS, Momoland, Seventeen, Wonho, Stray Kids, Blackpink and … Tears for Fears. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” apparently was Kitty’s mom’s favorite song.”

(Tone: Agreeing) 💯!!! (Tone: Honest) Can’t tell you how many times people mentioned XO, Kitty to me whenever I was in the midst of talking about actual Kdramas 🤦‍♀️ (Tone: Shameless) I had no trouble ending the conversation right then & there with a, “If you like it [XO, Kitty] I get it- you’re clearly not ready for the life-altering emotional wisdom & depth that what I could suggest has to offer.” 💜🖤✌🏼

P.s. (Tone: Apologetic & Sincere) No offense to those who enjoyed it…I intensely disliked it.

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I had high hopes for this series. I thought it'd be cute and fun. But it was hard to sit through. I don't know anyone who enjoyed it or was able to make it past the first episode. Make that, none of my friends liked it. Many of my colleagues did. Go figure.

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May 29, 2023Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

I stopped after Kitty decided she was bisexual. I agree with you that so many heavy topics were handled in a slap dash manner. This all felt very tacked on and designed to stretch this into a series.

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Kitty grappling with her sexuality could've been a really great plot. But it was squished in with so many other subplots without considering that this is a valid coming-of-age issue that affects many children's lives. They could've done a much better job with this storyline.

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May 25, 2023Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

IMHO the biggest issue was how many topics that were worth exploring they shoved into only 5 hours. There are kdramas that revolve around only 1 or 2 of these and go into much better detail. The writing was rushed and, as you said "clunky." The whole thing needs to be either A) longer (which it probably is getting s2) or B) more focused.

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You brought up very fair and valid points. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

I do think that unless they bring on a stronger screenwriter, a longer second season would be torturous.

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May 19, 2023Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

They could’ve just named it “Korean International School of Science” or “of Semantics” or “of Something”! I’m really annoyed by how “of Seoul” refuses to slide down my tongue well, hahaha. It’s lazy.

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author

Lazy is also a good way to describe the series... 😬

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Adopting Chinese kids is trendy these days. Do they have the same desire to discover their roots or is this a kpop fueled phenomenon? They may want to bury those roots for political reasons.

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author

Adoptees wanting to know more about their past isn't an unusual occurrence and their wanting to connect with their birth families has nothing to do with K-pop or any form of entertainment.

I have no idea what you mean by "bury those roots for political reasons." Transracial adoptees cannot hide that they are not white and it's obvious their roots are different than that of their adopted families.

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I mean that they may try to fully assimilate culturally and make no attempt to reconnect in any way to their birth country. You don't think kpop has contributed to a growing trend of Korean-Americans wanting to rediscover their roots? I wager there is more interest in learning Korean among Korean-Americans than in learning mandarin among Chinese-Americans.

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May 29, 2023Liked by K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim

SyrianWarVet: You're a bull in a china shop here. Proceed with caution.

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