Huh. Alright, alright. Maybe the best place to start is with the titles that kept popping into my head. It was very distracting when this stuff was flying at me:
◻ One Woman's Passage Through The Center Of Her Wiring (yuck)
◻ Wired For One Woman's Passage Through Her Own Circuitry (nope)
◻ Total Validation Via Passage Through Da-da's Core Processor (not quite)
◻ A Tale Of Total Validation (getting there)
◻ The Whirring Of My Heart (not bad)
☑ The Power Of Irresistible Love (good, but is it funny enough?)
☑ Robot Love triangle Better Than It Sounds. (Like it!)
☑ Luv Terminator (yep)
☑ DaDa & ThE Tw2 r0b0T5 (Love It!)
☑ PinocchiB0T, a REAL BOyT
(also love it)
◻ Yeahhh! Heyyy! OYY! - He's ah-DROIDttt!!! (Yet again, love it. Dang. Dilemma.)
Watchlist roulette landed on AB. I'm thinking: "Just look at that premise! Here's my chance to trash a show, so I can avoid being so skewed positive in my reviews!" It shows balance to have a healthy critical side, afterall.
Yet, the film craft in AB is pretty good. The biggest problem is the plot itself, along with the dialogue. They weigh down some otherwise solid elements. Don't misunderstand, it's not a bad watch. It's worth charging up on AB as what they do well, they do really well. They adeptly utilized juxtaposition to make connections. There's also metaphors, irony, & laughs. No matter how bad it is, the satisfaction they give Da-da by having BF show-up her XBF, while in a Hanbok, is precious.
So, let's meet Da-da. She is creative, driven & earnest. She works in showbiz as she inherited her father's special effects studio. And she's been secretly dating mega⭐star Ma Wang Joon (XBF) for 7 yrs.
Boy oh boy, do they chest slam us. Da-da & XBF's dating rituals have drained her. We see the pains they must go through (not really /they/,' it's all on her) to maintain his public heartthrob persona. She becomes emotionless. Robotic.
One night, XBF brings home some corporate dweebs & she's caught! Panicked, XBF calls her a stalker🤥! Her night rounded out w/ a trip to the police station & then the ER. While there, she hears her jerk-soon-to-be-XBF talking & thinks that he's there for her. She excitedly rounds the corner. Sadly, it's just him on TV. We're not stuntman. Why do they jab us? Seven yrs of this, well, let's be honest, emotional abuse, has rewired her confidence- it's been bypassed. She's not robotic anymore. She's a phantom. #Done, she breaks up w/ him.
Cut to her workshop. The dummy she ordered arrived. When she opens the trunk she sees: That is no dummy! As she's staring, he falls forward. They end up on the floor, face2face, & lips2lips. What IS this? It's an engineer's effort to help his friend, the AI robot he's been developing, escape a twisted & sadistic customer who has bought him. This robot's on the lam.
Whether Da-da likes it or not, she's got a robot boyfriend. When their lips met, his mode was activated. She can't shake this Luv Terminator! She's not going to spend $ on him, though. She brings home a box of random, leftover clothes from the set so he can cover up his loincloth. The beginning of their relationship finds him in some far out threads.
Then it starts. BF is chasing GF/Da-da, XBF is jealous, the fans are dangerous & rabid. The corporate dudes are even more rapacious. There's even a psycho hovering round. The plot will thicken like congealed fake blood.
While watching, a bunch of 'Wouldas' popped into my brain. The top one is: Can you go get a job? #2 is: Clean the house. Make my fantasies come true! Da-da isn't thinking about taking advantage of the situation, though. She's focused on escape. She tries to ignore him. She tells him to #stay put until she gets home from work, but he always finds an excuse to go see her. He misses her, after all.
One day, an actor on set loses his temper w/ Da-da & berates her. BF walks up to him, flat-hands a blow to the actor's chest & dude goes flying. At the time, BF was wearing that Hanbok (a woman's historical dress). He inquires: 'Are you alright, GF?' And XBF sees it all. Oh, Yeah.
Yeo Jin-gu, as BF, hardly uses his cheek/facial muscles for the entire show. His body language shows a touch of rigidity. His performance is genius. I had to remind myself, HEY! That's an actor there. BF just wants to show love... & go on dates. They sneak into a closed amusement park one night. As BF generates power, they amble from ride to ride under the soft glow of the lights. OkOkOk... It's killin me to say this, but that amusement park jaunt is: The BEST Date ehverrrRrRRrRRR! (Sing it like an aria). ((The Best Date Ever!))
There's 2 BFs in Da-da's life. 2s factor weightily in the show. Post Hanbok incident, XBF wonders to himself: Who is that guy? Rain falls. He looks outside, & there's Da-da, face-to-face w/ her new BF, an ☔ overheard providing private shelter. XBF's head lowers as his gaze drifts to a pair of ☂☂ on the floor. (Is she really going out w/him?) He grabs one & heads to the parking lot, where there are now 2 ☔☔: One w/ him alone, & the other w/ his XGF & her new BF walking away. The rain pours. XBF begins to see double... & 2's & twos & pairs & couples & duets & deuces & snake eyes & duos
DAEBEK! That's Hemingwayian!
We also learn that XBF's nickname is Mazinger, meaning, Robot! He later says to his CEO: "Do you think you can treat me like a 🤖? Whoa. We even have 2 🤖s!
They are currently working on a show, here's the signage:
Actor: Ma Wang-joon.
Project: Traitor.
Ha!
The biggest irony is that Da-da, in an attempt to keep the relationship secret, is awful at first. She's doing to BF what jerk-XBF did to her. Secrets pile up. Out of frustration, one day, she tells BF: "Do whatever you want." Uh-oh...
There's plenty of laughs. XBF learns that Da-da gave BF an "A++ Korean Beef" sticker (He wants recognition. It's a reward). Aigoo, they fed us the low hanging fruit. In Korea, that's a wicked pun. They play the bionic man theme once when BF jumps - Nice! BF picks up a floppy disk & examines it. That's juxtaposition. From a Hanbok, to prison issue clothes, his outfits are hilari-aladojus (say it Mary Poppins-like). In Ep8 He picks her up & she cries she's not ready /YET/? She's that far gone?
Then IT happens.
He got a job! Now I'M falling for him a little...
WAIT! He wants to support her!
🎶Uhh/pay my automo-Bill, unh,uh,Unh, ah ah Ahhh! Sing it🎤
🎼Can you pay my bills?
Can you pay my telephone bills?
Do you pay my automo' bills?
If you did then maybe we could chill🎵
~Whoo Hoo, tell it, Destiny's Child. WHOO!~
Ahem. Okay.
Now, about love...The selfless love shown in AB is definitely irresistible. {Sharing this is only meant to be motivational, & it would be arrogant of me to comment on anything except my personal journey w/ male/female relationships, which follows.} Attraction is all over the place, but most women don't want to be w/ some feckless fop. It's in a woman's embedded code to want to be loved completely. Adoring (yet masculine) love is one of our fantasies, whether consciously so, or not. Masculine, here, means the whole merry-go-round: a strong protector/provider, who is unafraid of feelings, & for whom his woman is the center of his world. Think: BF+Prince Charming+Rhett Butler's love child: Adoration w/ swagger. This is AB's exhibit #1. Love trumps all else. It's the preservative, the glue, that keeps it all together running smoothly. Without it, the entire product is defective.
Finally, to the best product AB is selling: Standards. AB should raise women's standards when it comes to men. Obviously, no person can be BF-level perfect. We all have viruses in our processors, but women should demand a man that unabashedly loves, protects & provides. (No spongers). Inversely, men want respect & to be, quite frankly, my dear, admired for their manliness - in sincerity. Even Mr. 🤖 asked for recognition of his efforts. The truth of it is that men, in general, have operating systems that run on ego-fuel. I used to roll my eyes at it, refusing to enable or contribute to it, but 32 yrs of marriage taught me that if I want 2 people in our union to be fulfilled, then I'd better make my husband feel like 100,000,000,000 won, as he loved me completely - That does make it easy. I loved our time together, until death did us part. All the rage & discontent out there has made us miserable. To be happy, which is life's bonus option, one has to let it go & forget about oneself to focus on others once in a while. We also need to choose contentment.
Not everything is hardware. Select the best software to avoid meltdowns, as we have choices. A woman can choose a quality partner (or wait for one to drop on top of her), but she shouldn't settle. Strong women hold out for something complete. Forget strong. Smart women (that is, women that have decided to respect themselves) do that. You, reading this, have dignity as a human being, & you deserve respect. Every woman does.
As for ?? -> Can we have a 💓relationship w/an AI? I'm in love w/ my robot vacuum, so I refuse to comment.
There's a long list of issues w/ AB. Let's skip it. The plot & dialogue are substandard & at times, awful. AB wanders, forgets where it was, & gets lost. The ending is blah - all around. Given the positives, login to AB if so inclined.
QUOTE📢
This, I could never understand: If you love someone you must let them go.} Now, I think I understand a little. That, more than my own feelings, it's about wanting to prevent the other person from getting hurt... Because, it'll be more difficult for me, to watch the person I love, go through struggles.
IMHO 〰🖍
🎬7 🎭8 💓5 🦋6.5 🤔7 🎨6 🌞7 🔚4
Age 16+
Re-watch? Notta priority
💗📺
A Witch's Love 7.8,
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Her Private Life 8,
Touch your heart 8.2, Another Miss Oh-7.5,
Crash Landing On You 9.1,
Oh My Ghost 10,
It's Okay Not To Be Okay 9,
Love Struck in the City 7.3,
Be Melodramatic-8.7,
Familiar Wife-8.5
Hotel del Luna-8.
