Written January 4th, 2021
2020: a year in media
Like many others during this tumultuous year, I, given far too much time on my own, turned to an excessive amount of media, ranging from books and short stories to essays and articles, from movies and TV shows to webtoons and comics, and of course, social media. Here’s a review.
Feel free to message me if you know me and want to talk about any of the following! I haven't gotten around to adding a comments section, so until then, messaging will have to suffice. :)
TMI disclaimer: a general rule is that the longer the review, the earlier it was written. I ran out of steam as the day went on.
Contents
Somehow ended up only reading books by Asian-American or Asian authors
I wish I could say that this was a selected list of books I read this past year, but I only read 9 books in 2020, which, sadly, did not fill my twelve-book Goodreads Reading Challenge loading bar. Full disclosure, it’s actually more along the lines of 7.5 books; I included Dear Girls, which I read on a plane to Korea during one of the last days of 2019, and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays , which I started reading in November 2020 and finished in one of the first days of 2021.
I could be fair and correctly allocate the two books, but the slightness of the total number called for some padding. Also, the two additions fit perfectly in the Asian-American / Asian author pattern I had going on this past year. If I were to extend that pattern, I could say that I go by the lunar calendar and I wouldn’t have to make any excuses at all.
Without further ado, here are the “nine” books I read in “2020”, accompanied by some thoughts.
Minor feelings: “the racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday racial experience and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed.”
A scathing, raw essay collection. Cathy Park Hong doesn’t hold back with her synthesis of history, contemporary events, personal experiences, ethnic studies, cultural criticism, and more. Reading this book was cathartic. I have a blank Google Doc to write an essay on this book because there’s so much to talk about. I hope I actually write and finish it one of these days.
There are so many good paragraphs that I want to copy-and-paste here, but then I’m tempted to post the paragraphs before and the ones after, oh and maybe these ones too, for context, so instead, I’ll write out just the one and then encourage you to go buy the book and read every word.
“When I hear the phrase “Asians are next in line to be white,” I replace the word “white” with “disappear.” Asians are next in line to disappear. We are reputed to be so accomplished, and so law-abiding, we will disappear into this country’s amnesiac fog. We will not be the power but become absorbed by power, not share the power of whites but be stooges to a white ideology that exploited our ancestors. This country insists that our racial identity is beside the point, that it has nothing to do with being bullied, or passed over for promotion, or cut off every time we talk. Our race has nothing to do with this country, even, which is why we’re often listed as “Other” in polls and why we’re hard to find in racial breakdowns on reported rape or workplace discrimination or domestic abuse. It’s like being ghosted, I suppose, where, deprived of all social cues, I have no relational gauge for my own behavior. I ransack my mind for what I could have done, could have said. I stop trusting what I see, what I hear. My ego is in free fall while my superego is boundless, railing that my existence is not enough, never enough, so I become compulsive in my efforts to do better, be better, blindly following this country’s gospel of self-interest, proving my individual worth by expanding my net worth, until I vanish.”
I read this short story at work one day and I was trying so hard to not cry at my desk. It’s magical and beautiful and tragic. At first, I was sad, then angry at the main character, and finally angry at society.
My takeaway from this book is that we should try our best to be as understanding as possible. There’s a lot of suffering in this world that we’re not aware of, a lot that we won’t ever be aware of. Another takeaway is that people are capable of change, that people heal and learn if they’re given a chance. I cried a lot while reading this book.
Do these count as spoilers? I don’t think so...they’re pretty generic, right?
Read on a 16-hour flight back to Korea for winter break. Reading this book was cathartic, like how reading Minor Feelings was. It was refreshing, honest, and hilarious. This is the memoir that I’d always wanted to read but never came across until that flight.
Simple yet genius?
An expression of a painful, beautiful story. Took more concentration than usual to read due to the lyrical prose, to be honest.
I'm going to refrain from passing judgement, as many people didn't refrain from doing back when the book came out. My takeaway is that there’s no single method of parenting but in America, Asian parenting methods are unfairly generalized, misunderstood, and...shit on, for lack of a better phrase. Also, parenting seems hard.
Makes you think more than once about life and death and what really matters.
I like it so far. I’m not done yet, so I’ll edit this later.
I started using Pocket, a save-for-later app, this summer and I really like it! Much better than keeping 30 tabs open at once. Still, there a lot of articles that I read without saving, so this list is very incomplete, but I'll start keeping track of interesting essays, articles, and blog posts I read this year.
The Atlantic | The Last Children of Down Syndrome
Time | How a Road Trip Through America's Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation
ProPublica | Inside the Fall of the CDC
The Atlantic | What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?
Alexey Guzey | Why You Should Start a Blog Right Now
Roots of Progress | Progress studies as a moral imperative
The Atlantic | An Ode to Insomnia
MIT Admissions Blogs | On success, meaning, and time
I watched 9 movies this year; I usually watch less, but I've wanted to consistently watch more movies for a while, so I'm glad that I watched more this year!
This movie is the perfect comfort and such an apt movie for the end of 2020 and the new start for 2021. We are born to live. This movie was visually and emotionally beautiful. I enjoyed the humor, too.
Cried a lot. This movie simply hurts you. :(
I always like good satire and an unreliable narrator.
We love to see character growth, self-acceptance, Asian-American representation, and lesbians.
Amazing storytelling, amazing characters, amazing cast.
Great movie, powerful acting, but I felt a bit distant from the story.
The animation is vibrant and colorful and the story is heartfelt, but not only is it reminiscent of other animation films like Coco , it also felt a bit all over the place. I appreciate the cultural elements and I think they were integrated well enough and made the storyline more original.
Cute, fresh, and one of the only high school rom-coms with an Asian-American lead actress.
A bit of a disappointment compared to the first movie.
Before junior year of high school, I used to exclusively watch American and British TV shows, such as Suits, Lost, and Doctor Who, but now I exclusively watch Korean TV shows. Junior year is also when I started listening to K-pop (see Music) instead of my previous staples of American hip-hop, R&B, and pop.
I think that in the last two years of high school and my freshman year of college, I unconsciously sought out Korean media, especially TV shows and music, which are the most accessible media forms for me. There's definitely some sort of double miror effect here, in which the media I consume affects my identity and how my identity affects the media I choose to consume, assuming there is some sort of a choice. Now (aka 2020 and beyond), my media consumption is a bit more conscious, but still a bit mindless, hence this blog post--I'd like to be a little less clueless and a bit more self-aware. Maybe I should just start meditating again?
A high school girl, bullied because of being perceived as ugly, uses makeup to transform herself. See True Beauty (webtoon) below. They changed a lot of elements in the show, for the better, in my opinion. The show is a bit cheesy and high school drama cringeworthy at times, but Cha Eunwoo is the lead actor and I’m not complaining at all. I’m excited to see where this show will lead!
Based on the original Chinese web drama Go Princess Go, the series is about a man named Bong-hwan from the modern age, being trapped in the body of Queen Cheorin in the Joseon era (Wikipedia). The humor and the main actress’s delivery are immaculate so far, also excited to see where this show will lead.
TMI: I watched the latest episode with my family yesterday but I fell asleep 10 minutes in so I gotta go catch up.
TMI: I'm excited to report that as of January 3rd, 2021, I have a normal sleep schedule. Look at me, achieving New Year's Resolutions like *snaps* that.
The leads, two morally ambiguous lawyers, have spicy chemistry. The plot feels a bit overblown and dramatic, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
Completed shows are divided into four levels: godly, great, good, and utterly disappointing. A lot of these shows are on Netflix. For the MIT kids: it's IAP, go binge them! :)
We love a good underdog story. The dialogue was tight, the storyline had clever twists, the characters were interesting and had depth, and the performance of the cast, especially the lead actor’s, was great. The lead actor received the daesang (Grand Prize) for this drama and I was very satisfied. He’s also very handsome and that always helps.
Takeaways: Try to be as cool and competent as the main character. Also, don’t give up.
The most feel-good that a slice-of-life feel-good hospital drama could be. The story was funny, serious, and heartwarming. The characters were interesting, deep, and developed as the plot progressed (my favorite character was Ik-jun). It simply leaves you satiated.
I had very high expectations for this second installment of the Wise Life series, as it was created by the director-writer partnership that also put out the Reply series and the first of the Wise Life series, Prison Playbook, which are some of my all-time favorite shows.
The expectations were exceeded. Hospital Playlist was full and vibrant; some Korean dramas suffer from long, dramatically drawn-out moments that I personally get frustrated with, but this show didn’t have a single unnecessary scene or line of dialogue. It was tight, literally. I can’t wait for the second season, which is rare for Korean dramas.
Takeaways: People and relationships are precious. Doctors . Also, should I go to med school (a question that I’ve been flip-flopping on for months)?
The plot of the sequel to Dr. Romantic (2016) was a bit repetitive, in reference to the first series, but the characters are what shone in Dr. Romantic 2 (2020). The characters in this sequel were much more interesting and the lead couple had amazing chemistry. Additionally, the lead actor for both series, Han Suk-kyu, is fantastic. His diction and delivery are incredible.
Takeaways: Life is precious. Doctors . Should I...go to med school?
This spicy drama is definitely not your typical Korean drama, which is probably due to the fact that it’s an adaptation of a British show, Doctor Foster (which was apparently inspired by the story of Medea). Hospital Playlist and The World of the Married aired around the same time and were equally popular, leading netizens to contrast the two as ‘the show in which everyone is good’ and ‘the show in which everyone is bad’.
Takeaways: No one is entirely good nor bad; people and relationships are complicated.
Sky Castle tells the story of the upper-class and their cutthroat lifestyles and approach to education. Great drama except for the mediocre ending. I didn’t find the characters or overall message to be particularly outstanding or original, but the plot was dramatic, addicting, and very poignant.
Takeaways: Maybe...prestige...simply isn’t important? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . College isn’t the only path in life.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay “ ...tells the story of a romance between a caretaker at a psychiatric ward, who lacks time for love, and a successful children's book author, who does not know the feeling of love” (Wikipedia).
Things that I appreciated about this show: the focus on mental health, the unique visual storybook interludes, and the goddamn fashion. I do think that the story could have easily abandoned one of the main plotlines and instead explored the subject of mental health in greater depth, but stories about mental health are already quite rare in mainstream media, so I’ll just take the win for now.
Takeaways: It’s okay to not be okay. Let’s all try to understand each other.
Interesting plot in which “a mysterious walkie talkie allows a detective in the year 1989 to communicate with a cold case profiler from 2015; with the power of fore and hindsight the two not only solve crimes but prevent them from ever taking place” (Wikipedia). The cases that the show explores are based on real cases that occurred, which makes it even more interesting.
Takeaways: Corruption sucks, but don’t give up.
This is based on the American movie 17 Again, which I watched years ago (because of Zac Efron). 18 Again surpasses the original; the theme of family hits harder in this adaptation. Maybe it’s cultural, but I think 18 Again goes much deeper with every character, their stories, their growth, and their relationships. I cried a few times. Also, the lead actor played his part, a thirty-seven year-old ajusshi in the body of an eighteen year-old, very well. The drama was a bit cheesy at times, but it was cute.
Takeaways: Family is precious, don’t take it for granted. Also, please communicate.
A cute rom-com about a South Korean chaebol heiress and a North Korean soldier. I do think that it romanticized and glorified North Korea and North Korean soldiers, which isn’t particularly ideal, but it also humanizes them.
Takeaway: Romanticized and glorified, but also humanized.
DM / contact me if you want to hear a rant. The OST was pretty good though, especially Future by Red Velvet. I’m glad that this drama introduced me to the actor of the second lead (who deserved so much better), Kim Seonho, at least.
Takeaways: :(
Beautiful, vivid cinematography. Thematically, historically, and emotionally rich. Great, complex characters and acting. It suffers from the aforementioned drawn-out moments in slow motion that are shown from multiple angles, but I suppose it fits the style and storytelling. Another problem with it is the subpar English-language acting, but almost every Korean drama with English speakers is a victim of that, so I’ll be generous with that as well.
I read manhwas and webtoons because I couldn’t resist, but I do resist manga (and anime) with all my willpower because my lack of productivity would become even worse. I also only read Korean-to-English translated or English-language webtoons because my Korean reading comprehension suffers from a lack of speed, which is a good thing in this case, because then I would reading way even more webtoons.
Inside Out, but with adults, cells, and cute romance.
Heartwarming storyline. Cute people, cute relationships, cute food.
The plot took me by surprise, I was expecting a cute fantasy sibling story but there was more and I liked it.
Cute, funny, boy-next-door fantasy romance. It’s adorable.
Magical. Unique aesthetic and great storytelling.
Very cute and touching, short and sweet.
Fantasy, powers from guardian gods, time travel, good stuff.
Cute vampire-meets-human high school romance.
Cute high school romance between a shy boy who can see ghosts and an outgoing, popular girl.
The chillest dude you can imagine becomes a superhero accidentally, even though he really doesn’t want to be a hero, all because he wanted some toast. Seriously.
Ghosts sit around a table and share horror stories of how they died.
A strange relationship between two college students.
An actress helps the dead move on by resolving their issues through metaphoric theater plays and through doing so, faces her own problems.
A cute romance about a teacher who turns into a dog after her first kiss, due to a family curse, and needs to turn back by getting a second kiss from the same person.
On hiatus. I miss it a lot. Action-packed. Fantastic, sharp art (in the more recent releases). I have so many questions and it’s going to take years to get answers. There’s an anime adaptation but I’d recommend the manhwa over the anime for the details.
A contemporary Greek mythology retelling focused on Hades and Persephone. Contemporary, as in the cultural nuances of the plot are very in-tune with modern American social liberalism. That sounds rather snobby but I just mean that it allows the old-hashed stories to feel fresh. I am also obsessed with the art style, especially the way the artist uses color. It’s spectacular and iconic and I love it.
Dark. Scary. Grim. Reaper. Mystery, thriller, horror, action? I like it a lot. The art style and the black-white-red color palette is very effective and menacing.
Official description: College professor by day, and bartender by night, psychologist Dr. Frost believes in one simple belief. Humans are all the same. He uses this tenet to guide his practice, and solves the puzzles of the human mind one by one.
AP Psychology was my favorite class in high school and I love reading about psychological cases in this webtoon (fictional, but heavily researched). The background and development of the main character, Dr. Frost, who is nearly incapable of emotion, is slow yet intriguing.
I really like the main character - she’s devilish and incredibly intelligent. The character designs are beautiful, as well.
Struggles with insecurity → character and relationship growth.
Cute story about professional gamers and a particular high school gamer prodigy.
Melancholy, heartfelt story about a second chance at a first love.
Action manhwa about an empty prodigy boxer and interesting side stories about other boxers.
A devil falls in love with the purest human bean after trying to make her sign her life away.
A high school girl, bullied because of being perceived as ugly, uses makeup to transform herself. See True Beauty (TV show) above.
Mystery about a police officer who can unfailingly detect lies and a notorious assassin.
Great action / sports manhwa. Inspired me to go biking once. Just once.
Unbelievably adorable college romance.
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This post was put together while listening to SEVENTEEN, GFriend, and DPR Live :)
last updated january 4th, 2021
disclaimer: not very friendly, in the mobile sense
