The Unnies are back!
Heyhey! Hope you’ve been keeping well! I took an unplanned break last week cos I just needed that extra time to unwinddddd. We’re at that time of the year! Again! It’s been a whole year since I started My OTP Watch! I started on Nov 16 last year lol. Damn.
Thank you so much for being here, really. I’ll be taking a bit of a break from now until Feb! Just so my new 2022 work schedule settles down a bit before I get back to this. Oh, but I will do a post in December just to round up my top OTPs for 2021.
If you’d like to see anything else/new from me in 2022, do hit ‘reply’ and let me know! I’d love to know what you think of My OTP Watch so far and would really like to create issues that you enjoy reading as well 😊
Today’s post is inspired by this tweet from a while back. It’s all about the Unnies!
(‘Unnie’ is how women refer to older women/sisters. Just like how ‘oppa’ is how women refer to older men/brothers. For men, the terms are ‘noona’ and ‘hyung’ respectively.)
No, but really, the Unnies are really back. When I first started watching kdrama, actresses like Yoon Eun Hye and Lee Da Hae were all the rage but there was always talk of the ones who led the first major Hallyu Wave. Jeon Ji Hyun from My Sassy Girl; Go Hyun Jung from Sandglass (this is from 1995 – I’ve not watched it but it did really well at the time) and, of course, Lee Young Ae from Dae Jang Geum (aka Jewel In The Palace). Shin Min Ah and Song Hye Kyo were like smaller unnies who soon became a part of this kdrama royalty. After a while, these actresses almost exclusively worked on movies before making a more recent return to the small screen.
I wouldn’t say their return to the small screen, by any means, suggests that they’ve lost their kdrama royalty status. It’s more that the rise of cable networks, like tvN, OCN and JTBC, means that drama writers have the liberty to create and finance edgier and unconventional dramas and that’s a huge pull for these actresses.
This year, we’ve somehow ended up with a season where all these Unnies are back on screen at the same time yay! 10 years ago, I was all about the Oppas. These days, the Unnies make me so much more excited. It’s just epic to see women come back and get roles that are nuanced and complex, instead of just being typecast as mothers or older sisters or aunts in family dramas, yknow?
Let’s dive into this list!
Shin Min Ah (HomCha)
I wrote a whole post about this one so I’m going to skip the summary – BUT. I will say that I was very happy to see Shin Min Ah back onscreen after she took a hiatus to support her partner, actor Kim Woo Bin, when he was diagnosed with cancer. He’s good now and is making his comeback soon! I think they’re also going to be in a drama together soon? Definitely looking forward to that one.
Jeon Ji Hyun (Jirisan)
Unnie!! Omg, my partner will confirm how I run to my TV and scream ‘Unnie!’ whenever Jeon Ji Hyun shows up on screen. He’s always very amused by this.
In Jirisan, she plays a mountain ranger, alongside Joo Ji Hoon. (These two are also set to be antagonists in the next season of Kingdom. OTP here, NoTP there? Me excites.)
Initially, I thought Jirisan was going to be a procedural/workplace drama – much like Hospital Playlist or Voice. But it’s so much more than that. Kim Eun Hee, who’s best known (at least, to me) for Signal, a timey-wimey police drama, helms Jirisan and she’s set it in 2018 and 2020. Jeon Ji Hyun ends up going against both supernatural and human elements to protect the people who visit the mountain. I don’t want to give too much away but it’s pretty engaging and I’d highly recommend it if you’re looking for something new to watch.
Go Hyun Jung (Reflection of You)
Reflection of You is a beautiful drama – the music is haunting; the cinematography is simultaneously calming and ominous. A portion of the drama is set in Sligo, Ireland and those scenes are so gorgeous. I’m up-to-date with this show and I think I enjoyed the initial episodes more than the latter ones – the plot does become repetitive after a while.
I previously watched Go Hyun Jung in Dear My Friends, but she had more of a supporting role in that drama, so this is the first time I’ve seen her front and centre. I can definitely see why she’s considered kdrama royalty. Jeong Hui Joo, the main character, oozes out of her every pore. Go chose to play a lead character that becomes more and more unlikeable as the series goes on and I think that’s a pretty brave choice, regardless of how long she’s been in the industry. Playing an unlikeable character is always more challenging because you have to keep your viewers engaged somehow. Yes, the plot has stagnated a bit for me, but I’m watching only because I really want to know what happens to this character at the end and whether she’ll be able to reclaim the pieces of her life or whether they’re going to shatter in her face. (Look at the intensity in her eyes - does she look like she’s gonna let go?? But she also looks like she’s falling apart so who knows, man? WHO KNOWS??)
Lee Young Ae (Inspector Koo)
I’ve not started this one! But I do want to – I’ve heard many good things. Lee Young Ae took a long long break from kdrama. She shot to fame in the 90s, catapulted to international stardom with Dae Jang Geum in 2003, did one movie in 2005 – then nothing. Until 2017, when she starred in Saimdang, Light’s Diary. I tried to like it but it was just too long-winded and I guess, a huge reason why I didn’t stick with it was because I realised the OTP was doomed from the start so I didn’t bother. Maybe I should give it another go.
Inspector Koo, unlike Saimdang and Dae Jang Geum, is not a sageuk (historical drama). Here, she plays an insurance investigator looking into deaths which have been made to look like accidents. She looks so badass in the trailer – I honestly can’t wait to start and have no idea why I haven’t started yet ahahah. If you’re already watching this, let me know how it’s going!
Song Hye Kyo (We Are Breaking Up)
Of course, I’m also watching Song Hye Kyo’s latest drama because…Song Hye Kyo.
Yet again, however, I find myself frustrated by the show. Ever since Descendants of the Sun (which I wasn’t impressed by, sue me), she’s been picking very similar roles. Technically, DOTS only got bad after episode 12 when they killed the main villain and there was literally no conflict for the remaining 4 episodes which made for very very boring drama. But her subsequent drama, Encounter, was also repetitive and frustrating. In both dramas, she played a woman successful at work but not at love. In We Are Breaking Up, it’s pretty much the same thing.
So far, it’s not as unbearable as Encounter but…I’m really just watching this when I need something entertaining enough for lunchtime but not addictive to the point that it’s going to keep me from work, yknow? It’s not a terrible drama, lah. It’s just…not fantastic.
Technically, yes, Shin Min Ah also picked a very…standard working-woman-in-need-of-love role in HomCha but she herself has played a variety of roles in previous dramas and her characters are always different enough from one another. Likewise, the other unnies on this list challenge themselves by picking either dramas or characters that they’re not used to playing. But Song, much like the writers of her dramas, seem to be relying solely on her star power.
I mean…do I love her? Yes. Is she gorgeous? Yes. Can she act? Yes. Is it impressive? Not anymore.
In 2001 or even 2011, relying on glamour alone may have worked, but in 2021, just pick something else and show off your acting skillz, unnie.
That’s all from me for today! Take care, my friends! See you soooooon~ Happy holidays! 🤎
Coming up next on My OTP Watch (in no particular order):
Top OTPS of 2021!
Part 3.2 of my series on queer representation in kdrama (Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.1!)
My favourite OTP meet-cutes!
Like what you’ve read? Share it with your friends! ESPECIALLY the ones who don’t like kdrama muahahahahaa
First time here? If you’ve enjoyed this and would like biweekly updates of My OTP Watch, please subscribe! :)