Jo Hyun Jae

Jo Hyun-Jae has a huge following in the Philippines.  He is also very popular among Filipinas all over the world.  Our regular subscriber “prissymom” must be one of the most devoted JHJ fans.  She has written the definitive thesis on JHJ’s latest drama “3 Dads & 1 Mom”!  It’s very long, but since she has taken the time and trouble to write this article, the least we can do is extend to her the courtesy of serializing it – in 4 parts.  She has been brooding over this topic for over a year, in her own words: “I have 12 months of negative vibes to purge”, so here is her chance to vent her feelings.

“Three Dads and One Mom” (3D1M, the last JHJ drama before his military enlistment) has been on my mind since it aired in South Korea more than a year ago (April to May 2008).  Some critics pan not just the drama but our Hyun Jae’s acting in this romantic-comedy (rom-com).  Some critics say that the drama is very predictable and that JHJ’s acting is “dull and bleak”.  That, as far as this drama is concerned, our Hyun Jae is just “coasting along”, “just going through the paces”, or “just clocking it in”, and that he is “stiff and camera-conscious”.  In short, not giving the drama his best effort, not performing up to his usual high standard!

One critic even goes so far as to say that our Hyun Jae “has all the ingredients of a strong leading man but lacks the alchemy to really spark”, that he is “blank in the charisma arena” and that he acts like a “well-programmed robot”.   When these critics compare our JHJ’s performance with the other two dads in the drama (Jae Hee/JH and Shin Sung Rok/SSR), our Hyun Jae suffers a lot in those comparisons.  Now, I am not the type of fan who is blind to my idol’s flaws (not that I see any in our Hyun Jae, hahaha, he is just so adorably perfect!!!), but I feel that those derogatory remarks about our Hyun Jae’s acting are unjustified because they are made very early in the series (as early as episodes 1 and 2).  In short, they don’t give our Hyun Jae a chance to work his charm and magic before they make those criticisms.

Of course, like a true diehard JHJ fan I took those criticisms of our Hyun Jae to heart.  I wanted to lash out at these critics, be like some JHJ fans who left comments using very, very, very strong words indeed to defend our idol.  But I didn’t allow my emotions to get the better of me and just left comments using very reasonable words.  After all I realize that people differ in their tastes and opinions; there is just no way for one person (even if that person is our Hyun Jae) to please everyone. Even the best entertainers in the world have their share of detractors, I told myself.  But, despite consoling myself with these thoughts, the derogatory remarks still rankled.  So after more than a year of harboring these negative vibes, I decided to confront it by re-watching our JHJ in 3D1M.  Anyway, here’s my humble take on the drama and our JHJ’s performance…..

First, about the drama – it tackles the issue of sperm donation in a lighthearted and funny way that some critics end up describing it as a no-brainer, a throwaway drama, something that you would not want to go back to after you’ve seen it once.  The first time I watched it I felt pretty much the same way as these critics, but when I watched it a second time I realized that there is more to this drama than meets the eye.  It talks about the different kinds of love: 1) love for one’s friends (the 4 friends who stay good friends through the years despite the differences in their personalities, and the 3 dads stick it out with Na-Yong and Ha-Seon initially because of their love for their dead friend); 2) parental love (3 dads and Na-Yong towards Ha-Seon); 3) filial love (Soo-Hyun’s love and care for his sick father: he may not show much emotion while caring for his dad but his love can be felt in his gentle and patient ministrations for the sick man and the sorrow he feels after his visits); 4) romantic love (Sung-Min for Na-Yong: he begs, cajoles and blackmails his friends for their sperm just to make NY pregnant; only a man in love would do that; 3 dads’ feelings for NY); and 5) finally, learning to love and opening one’s heart to love truly (3 dads toward NY, especially Soo-Hyun who gives up his dream of marrying a rich girl so he could continue to be with NY and HS and of course his 2 best friends).

Love and its many forms may not be the most unique topic in the world.  It has been told and retold countless times in countless dramas and movies all over the world, but in 3D1M it is presented in a hilarious and lighthearted way.  It is so funny and lighthearted that some viewers fail to realize that it has slowly but truly captivated their hearts (those who watch it with an open heart and an open mind anyway.)

The next issue hurled at the drama is its predictability.  It is predictable: the first time I watched it I felt that way; that did not change after I watched it the second time.  Right from the start viewers can predict that Na-Young’s (NY) husband, Sung-Min (SM) will die.  Otherwise, how could there be only 3 dads, right?  We can also predict that mother and baby will end up living with the 3 dads; that the 3 dads will change/mature because of the presence of a baby in their lives;  that the 3 dads will eventually fall in love with the baby first then the mom next; and that the mom will fall in love with one of the 3 dads.  Only 2 things are left for viewers to speculate:

1. Who is Ha-Seon’s (HS) real dad?  Is it Soo-Hyun (played by our Hyun Jae/JHJ), or is it Kwang-Hee (Jae Hee), or is it Kyeong-Tae (Shin Sung-Rok)?  Of course, now we know that HS’s real dad is the dead husband, Sung-Min (SM).  I guess SM’s sp–ms just need some competition to successfully mate with Na-Yong’s egg. The presence of his friends’ sp–ms makes his usually lazy sp–ms aggressive!!!   I must say the writer is very successful in keeping the suspense of who the real dad is until the very end.  I am one of those who predict that the real dad is SH (played by our JHJ) because of the 3 dads he is the one with whom NY will most likely fall in love with because he is the most handsome, the most financially stable, and once his attitude changes (no longer money hungry, that is) his character becomes likable.

2. Who will Na-Yong fall in love with?  Will she fall in love with the stingy/money hungry Soo-Hyun (SH), or with the playboy/artist Kwang-Hee (KH), or with the dumb cop with a tough exterior but with a soft heart Kyung-Tae (KT), or with her nice boss Jung Chan- Young (JCY), played by Joo Sang Wook?  Even before the drama was aired, people were already speculating that NY will end up with JHJ’s character SH because of the 4 guys vying for her love, our JHJ is the biggest star, the one most likely to take on the #1 leading man role.  Of course, now we know that NY indeed falls in love with JHJ/SH, but this is not shown in the series but is just implied by HS in her narration towards the end of the drama when she says that her mother feels happy/smiles a lot whenever “daddy” (the way she calls JHJ/SH as opposed to “appa”-SSR/KT and “papa”-JH/KH) is around.

So with people speculating that NY will end up with JHJ/SH, the writer is faced with a challenge:  how to let the suspense of whom NY will fall in love with last until the end of the drama?  They do this by downplaying JHJ’s role (at least in the early episodes) to divert viewers’ focus on him as NY’s likely love interest in the drama.  The director and the writer employ several methods to do this:

1.  they make his character so unlikeable that viewers would rather have NY end up with the sloppy/messy/not-so-handsome dumb cop or with the playboy comic artist than with the handsome and intelligent but very stingy fund manager that is our JHJ.  He is not just thrifty or money-wise; he is so STINGY that I took to calling him HIS STINGINESS (like addressing a king as HIS HIGHNESS or HIS MAJESTY).  It is only in episode 5 that his stinginess is explained – his father has Alzheimer’s disease so SH has to put him in a facility that could give his father the professional care that he couldn’t provide.  Facilities like that really cost an arm and a leg. So despite his high paying job he still has to be thrifty to the point of being stingy so he could continue to provide for his sick father.

2. our JHJ is given fewer opportunities for interaction in the earlier episodes.  SSR has his mom and colleagues/criminals in the police station to interact with, aside from his 3 close friends, NY and HS.  SSR’s interactions with these people are always funny, giving him the opportunity to flesh out his role of a dumb cop with a tough exterior but with a soft heart in just a few episodes.  JH’s character has his flirty mom, his older editor who has the hots for him, his girlfriends and his dog Milk to interact with aside from his 3 friends, NY and HS.  Like SSR, his interactions with these people are always funny and cute, giving him a chance to fully flesh out his role of an artist playboy in the first few episodes.  While our JHJ has only his 3 friends, NY, his work colleagues/superiors, rich client and rich girl to interact with.  And his interactions in the office or with a client or with the rich girl are always formal, quiet and restrained. After all he has to maintain decorum in an office setting, in the boardroom or in a high-end art gallery. In some of his office scenes he even has to interact with inanimate objects (computer and the plants he buys to make his sp–ms healthy).  He is in some funny situations in some of his office/art gallery scenes but these are very few.  Of course, good actor that our JHJ is, he is able to put flesh into SH in just a few episodes, but the thing is that the SH character has so many layers to it.  The director and the writer deliberately conceal those other layers of SH in the early episodes.

3. the director also shunts our JHJ to one side in the first half of the series.  Whenever the 3 dads appear together onscreen, our JHJ is always on one side (when they are seated), or at the back when they are standing, never taking the center position.  In scenes where the 3 dads appear with NY and HS, he is always positioned the farthest from the 2 females.  His character is relegated to just seconding or agreeing to what the other 2 dads are saying.  It is only at the end of episode 7 that JHJ’s character starts to take charge of the various situations the 3 dads and NY find themselves in.  This is the episode when he is chasing the rich girl Seo-Yeon (RG) to explain why he sold the painting he got as a reward and then he sees NY who has left their house with HS.  He chooses to go after NY and HS instead of the RG.  In the scene in the motel where he is trying to force NY to go back home with him, he is so forceful, so decisive, his acting is so on target that I feel like shouting:  ”Yea, the quintessential leading man, the dramatic actor is finally unleashed!!!!”

(TO BE CONTINUED)

(Credit for photos: name on photos.  Thanks!)

It’s been a year since “3 Dads/1 Mom” was first shown on TV. I’ve only watched it once, well, maybe twice — first in real time on KBS2 and then the next day online with Chinese subtitles.

This drama is currently showing on Hong Kong TVB’s pay channel. Typically, they changed its title to “A-ya 3 Dads” (whatever that means) and dubbed it in vernacular Cantonese.

I don’t know whether it generated as much interest as “Seo Dong Yo”. I just want to mention here what stands out in my mind about this drama after one year.

The most striking thing is Jo Hyun-Jae’s on-screen presence. I daresay Hyun-Jae in a suit is nonpareil! Nobody looks better; nobody even comes close. JHJ’s investment manager role in the drama means he has to be well-dressed and well-groomed. He looks so elegant in a suit with whatever colour shirt and tie that it is no wonder the rich girl falls for him.

Even in casual wear, Hyun-Jae stands head and shoulder above his male co-stars. (He looks delicious even in pyjamas and slippers.) Hyun-Jae has this curious knack of always wearing one layer more than others. If they wear one T-shirt, he’ll wear two. If they wear two, he’ll wear three. He’s the only one who can make a fashion statement out of wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt on top of a long-sleeved one. In 3/1 Shin Sung Rok tries that too — with disastrous results.

Comparison is cruel, and maybe unfair. The drama is billed as 5 kings and 1 queen (meaning 5 guys chasing after a girl.) The five guys are of course the husband, the 3 best friends, and the 5th man (the rich guy.) I suppose the other four men are not bad-looking in their own right, and they can all hold their own as lead actor or at least second-lead in other dramas. But unfortunately for these actors, when they are in the same scene with Hyun-Jae, their brilliance is dimmed and they are totally eclipsed.

Perhaps it is because of this that Jae Hee (as Kwang-Hee) and Shin Sung Rok (as Kyung-Tae) both over-act. It’s not their characters; it’s the way they choose to portray their characters. Their acting is exaggeraged and melodramatic: these two guys jump all over the place and shout at the top of their lungs. Is this supposed to be funny? It is at best slapstick comedy. They are like the one-dimensional figures that Kwang-Hee draws in his comics. Soo-Hyun could easily become a caricature if Hyun-Jae had not played him as a human being, complete with faults and foibles. Soo-Hyun’s stingy persona hides a heart of gold. He may complain about all the expenses, but he pays for everything every time. He comes across as a credible character, a three-dimensional character.

Actually JHJ’s performance is rather restrained in the earlier episodes, even at times a little subdued. But he loosens up gradually. Hyun-Jae mentions in an interview that because the main cast of 3/1 are more or less the same age, they soon became friends and had a great time on set.* We all know Hyun-Jae is shy and reserved and takes time to warm up. He is more spontaneous and smooth as the drama progresses. He shows a surprisingly good grasp of comic timing. The scene of him at the art gallery pretending to be a connoisseur had me laughing so much I almost fell out of my chair. “Wonderful!” is all I can say. The greatest comic actors can make the audience laugh without moving a muscle of their face. Hyun-Jae may not yet be in the same league, but he displays great potential.

This is a comedy, but the most memorable scenes are not funny at all. I’m thinking of:

1. the scene at the supermarket when Soo-Hyun lost and found his “daughter”. The spectrum of emotions that crosses Hyun-Jae’s face in quick succession ranges from anguish to guilt to relief to glee. His eyes are windows into his soul, of course, but even his forehead can act!

2. the scene of Soo-Hyun standing in silhouette against a file cabinet, trying to call Na-Young who has left after discovering the truth. He’s talking into his cell phone and pacing. Apart from that, it’s almost like a still scene. And yet it’s one of the most moving scenes in the whole drama. Everything is conveyed in the urgency of Hyun-Jae’s voice. And have you ever seen a handsomer silhouette? That profile, that slim figure, those long legs……

3. the scene in the hospital of Na-Young washing Soo-Hyun’s father’s feet. It’s not this act but Hyun-Jae’s face looking in in the small glass window on the door that leaves a lasting impression on me. The incredulity, the gratitude, the tenderness are all there. I remember a photographer once said there are a thousand expressions in JHJ’s eyes. He lets his eyes do the talking.

4. And then there is that heart-warming scene when the three friends sing “You’re born out of love” to the baby on her first birthday (even though by this time Ha-Seon is played by an older not-so-cute baby.) Also that scene at the camp site when Hyun-Jae plays the guitar and sings (I knew, even then, that he could sing!)

This is a comedy, so of course there are funny scenes. The funniest scene in the whole drama is Shin Sung Rok and the baby doing the cucumber treatment (with their faces covered in cucumber slices.) The sleaziest part is that about the “golden” patch on the baby’s nappy — it’s overdone, over-long, in poor taste, and, most important, not funny!

Jo Hyun-Jae successfully changes gear in 3/1 and demonstrates he can play comic roles. But I would not rate this as one of his best dramas. For one thing, the plot of 3/1 is based on a faulty premise. When I first heard about the broad outlines of 3/1, I thought it’s a re-make of that Hollywood comedy “Three Men and a Baby” which in turn is a take-off of the original French movie of the same name. But whereas the plot of 3/1 hinges on “Who’s the daddy?” the scriptwriter seems to be living in the 19th century. Any 21st century person knows the answer lies in a DNA test. This means the whole drama is a deliberate drag when the truth is there for the asking. I do not like dramas that underrate the intelligence of the viewers.

For another thing, the female lead Eugene is miscast as the woman at the heart of this hexagon (5 men and a woman). She is totally unconvincing as the woman with whom all five men are in love. It’s not just that she’s not pretty enough; she does not exude any “inner beauty” either. Soo-Hyun’s initial assessment of Na-Young is correct. 3/1 has not dramatized successfully his change of heart. But I must say that scene of them looking at the stars under that tent is pretty romantic. I wish there were more of such scenes between these two characters instead of the script being so equally divided into three or four or even five. Several times in the course of the drama I wonder whether the three friends are in love with Na-Young or the baby who is really cute, especially the first one.

There is a Chinese saying: “Thou shalt not covet thy friend’s wife.” This is a Korean drama, but my experience of watching Korean drama informs me Korean values are very similar to traditional Chinese values. A gentleman would not dream of marrying his dead friend’s widow but would do all his can to help her and her child. But maybe in this respect I belong to the 19th century.

* As testament of their friendship, Shin Sung Rok went to see Jo Hyun-Jae off to join the army on August 5, 2008. You all know this. What you might not know is this — Shin was in the same van as JHJ. In the “Last Story” DVD, you can see them alighting together.