Special File No: The-Legend-of-the-Blue-Sea

Appearing before the dramacourt: The Legend of the Blue Sea

***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

This is a one-time special review File. We do not plan to review the whole show.

Issue:

1. Whether Sim Chung has a mental age of a 5-year-old or lower

The Rule:

1. Yes, she totally does. You’d think after living close to a thousand years, she would be able to learn how humans behave and be smart. No, her brain just halts to the age of a five-year-old. Can we have civilized mermaids and not make them seem all animalistic? We’re past the primal ages. Okay?

Application:

Jubiemon J: First off, I adore how this drama is being filmed. Everything is so beautifully filmed besides the tail. I do like the contrast between Joon Jae’s past personality and present one. He was a righteous man before and now he’s a swindler. That’s an interesting start. I don’t like the humour that is being presented in this episode. It’s a very slapstick type of humour and the awkward childlike behaviours that Sim Chung exhibit are supposed to be funny. However, they’re not. They are so cringe worthy. Why?

Well, Jeon Jihyun is not a teenager anymore, so it is very hard to cast her in a role that makes her like five-year-old. This drama isn’t like the movies, I am Sam, or Miracle in Cell No.7 where the protagonist is mentally-challenged and the whole premise is supposed to be touching. She’s supposed to be dorky. Sadly, she just doesn’t do that awkward, innocent character well. It’s not believable for a grown ass woman/mermaid to behave like a five-year-old. It could possibly work if you had an actress who pulls of dorkiness very well like Hwang Jung Eum. Her over-the-top acting at times can be a bit too much, but she’s good at being that awkward female protagonist that you are totally rooting for.

Even Little Mermaid in Disney was far better and seemed to have a proper brain for her age. Little Mermaid in Disney also went up to shore to observe humans. You’d also think that after living for so long, Sim Chung (got her name from dramawiki) would observe humans and how they interact. No, instead, the writer purposely sets her up as a character who has a five-year-old brain because that is supposed to trigger humour. No.

Her intelligence is arguably the level of a pigeon’s.

I’m also confused. She got beached before(?) and people caught her. She didn’t have legs. Now she lands on the beach and gets legs? Where’s my evil Sea Witch? This is inspired by the Little Mermaid right?

RedRosette J:  Even though we said we weren’t going to review this show, this first episode at least had to get reviewed. I agree with Jubiemon. The comedy was too slapstick. It wasn’t funny and it felt like they were trying way too hard. There were also so many inconsistencies that I just didn’t understand. How come she had a gold tail 400 years ago and in the present day it’s silver? How come, like Jubiemon said, when she was beached before, she didn’t get legs? Even when she was beached in present day she was standing in a puddle of water and how come the tail didn’t materialize? (Are they going to break the mermaid lore of the “water touches skin and turns back to tail” thing?) But then she jumped in the water and the tail came back. Huh?

Also OMG. I can’t deal with how disproportionate the tail is. I’m sorry but why is the distance from her hips to her fins so short? It makes her look like a sprat rather than a massive mermaid (Also, I watched H2O: Just Add Water and they used rubber mermaid tails that were proportional to the actors bodies so my standard is pretty high. Sorry). Not to mention the bracelet thing. How did it get to an underwater cave in Spain all the way from South Korea? Why was she in Spain? I really hope the show addresses these issues….

This is what a proportional tail looks like.

How is that tiny tail supporting her upper body?

I also understand the issues with adapting to human life, but I feel like they went way over the top. With Ariel’s dinglehopper/fork situation, it was funny because it wasn’t over done. That whole stuffing her face with cake thing was too much. It wasn’t cute. These scenes were just too much and awkward.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a sea witch involved because it’s based on a Joseon legend and not The Little Mermaid. So sadly for us, I don’t think that we will get an awesome Ursula character.

Issue 1: Whether Sim Chung has a mental age of a 5-year-old or lower

Jubiemon J: Okay, does she not even realize that the man that let her go and gave her that jade bracelet looks exactly the same as the man that’s a swindler? I’m pretty sure they made intense eye contact back in the olden days. He also set her free. Okay? Maybe she knocked her head so hard on the glass that she forgot her saviour. So hard to believe when she’s so protective of that bracelet.

Also, she has no idea about human life at all. Sure, you can excuse her since she’s a mermaid. However, she spent all these years just swimming around in the ocean? Wouldn’t she even be a little curious about the world around her? In Little Mermaid, the mermaid at least watched the humans. Can we also not portray mermaids as animals? The writer has chosen to dumb her character down for the sake of humour. I’m sorry, but the humour isn’t there. I’ve talked about it in the beginning, so I won’t repeat myself here. Unfortunately, Jeon Jihyun doesn’t pull off awkward funny well. In fact, she’s awkward acting awkward. All her expressions are far too exaggerated and she doesn’t show a genuine sense of curiosity or dorkiness. Luckily, Lee Minho is actually doing better as the swindler in terms of acting.

Conclusion: Appeal Dismissed

Rating: 1= Tomatoes thrown! (Except Lee Minho because his acting is all right here . . . though he does tend to stay in this type of role -tsundere/arrogant type of guy)