Ep. 3 ➤ BLACK KNIGHT (2023) dir. Cho Ui Seok

Light on Me (2021) + Letterboxd Reviews

BLACK KNIGHT 택배기사 (2023) ⌊ ep.6 | dir. cho ui seok ⌉

Black Knight EP 2

so why do you want to become a deliveryman?

BLACK KNIGHT (2023)

BLACK KNIGHT | S01E03

Korean Drama - 2023, 6 episodes  

~ Episode List ~ |    ~Korean Drama Master List~  

I have got to get over my grudge against face filters or face-tuning or whatever it's called when they blur the actor's face so their skin is completely smooth and texture free and very pale and has no dimensionality.

I'm watching Light On Me, and I'm charmed by all the characters, but I keep getting distracted by the fact that none of them look like human beings. grrr. Like, it kind of fits the comic book tropey-ness of the story, but I still would prefer to see their god danged faces.

(Fun fact: Shin Woo's actor's face is the reason I started watching Light On Me in the first place. Kang Yoo Soek has a small part in Beyond Evil, and within a minute of his appearance on screen I was like, who is THAT???👀, and immediately went to MDL to see what else he was in. Turns out he was in a BL! so I decided it was finally time to check this one out. Maybe I'm just resentful about them hiding his face from me. On the other hand, Beyond Evil and Light On Me are from the same year, and he looks a decade younger in the latter, so I guess the filtering helps with that? idk, I'd prefer everyone's real faces. But I realize that with this, as in many things, I am not the target audience.)

My thoughts on Light On Me so far (im on episode 3 oops, actually it was 4): It feels like a high school romance comic book aimed at 12 year olds come to life. Which is not at all a criticism! But the aesthetic—bright, flat lighting, wide open spaces, saturated pastels and primary colors, the aforementioned face filtering—along with the trope filled, bare bones nature of the story give it this artificial feel. I don't read comic books, manga or manwha of any genre, so I could be wrong in this comparison, but it does tell like it exists outside of the real world in the same way that Disney Channel kids shows do (though not in the same world.) The characters, so far, don't feel like they exist outside of the story, not shallow, exactly, just that the rest of their lives and relationships are a vague blur, and the initial conflict—Shin Woo doesn't want Tae Kyung to join the student council!—feels like the sort of artificially induced high stakes of a kid's show. The—gasp—pratfall with a dildo.

I probably sound judgmental, but that's partly because super fluffy shows aren't my thing in general, and partly because I'm in a weird mood right now where even the real world doesn't feel all that real to me, but I reiterate, this is not a criticism. The show is creating a certain feel to tell a certain story, and (so far at least) it's doing it effectively.

And I am intrigued by the story, and the characters! Tae Kyung who has been convinced by the wise teacher to try making friends. Da On, the student president who is so kind and can't say no to anyone. Shiwoon, the class clown who can see what's happening but won't get involved. So Hee, the girl from the sister school, persistent in her three year (!) crush. And of course tsundere Shin Woo, possibly with some internalized homophobia, and who we know, based on Shiwoon's hints and the laws of Romance Tropes, must have a crush on the new boy and can't handle it.

The taundere seme is a trope I love when it works well, and loathe when it's bad, and I think it's working here for me because Tae Kyung is such a weirdo. He's no blushing maiden uke, he's blunt and doesn't care that's he's awkward, and still not sure if he wants to even bother with other human beings. It makes Shin Woo's attraction to him more specific and real, and makes me curious to see how their dynamic develops.

So even though the character don't feel anchored to any reality outside of what we see on screen, in the small slice of a tv world they do exist in they seem complex and worth getting to know.

(They also intrigue me enough that part of me wants to see these same characters and conflicts, but framed in more gritty realism style, like that of Weak Hero Class One. I think there's enough there to make it work! But that's more about my personal taste than anything else.)

edit: not that Weak Hero Class One is exactly realistic. But it's a different kind of fairy tale atmosphere. One that sometimes gets called "gritty realism."

LIGHT ON ME [2021] — EPISODE 16

I'm not cold anymore

Ep. 3 ➤ BLACK KNIGHT (2023) dir. Cho Ui Seok

Black Knight Like or Reblog

BLACK KNIGHT 택배기사 (2023) ⌊ ep.4 | dir. cho ui seok ⌉  

I once fell in love at first sight.

Black Knight (2023) - 택배기사 - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : One legendary Knight called 5-8, meets a young Refugee named Sa Wol who dreams of becoming a Knight. 5-8 trains and mentors Sa Wol, helping him achieve his dream in a dangerous and harsh world. In 2071, toxic air pollution had devastated the world, leaving only 1% of the population alive. People rarely leave their homes and depend on respirator masks to breathe. A strict social stratification has been established in the deserted lands of the Korean Peninsula. Citizens, who have access to housing & amenities; delivery drivers known as Knights, who protect & deliver packages of the precious source of Oxygen; and Refugees who are left on the outskirts to struggle & fight to survive. (MDL) AKA : Courier | Delivery Knight | Delivery Driver

Whumpee : Yoon Sa Wol played by Kang Yoo Seok (left) • 5-8 played by Kim Woo Bin (right)

Country : 🇰🇷 South Korea Genres : Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Notes : This is a Full Whump List • Adapted from the webcomic "Taekbaegisa” by Lee Yoon Kyun • It really gives off Mad Max Fury Road vibes (in a good way) • There's a fair number of personal thoughts in the list below, but I think it just goes to show how much I liked the drama • I actually went though the trouble (& possibly causing my old af laptop to crash) of making a gif for a part 😆

Episodes on List : 6 Total Episodes : 6

*Spoilers below*

01 : (@ 1:22, ok, but it'd woulda been cool if this was a live qr code) … Yoon Sa Wol removes his mask & fights a gang alone (wins) … sparring … made to stand on his head as punishment, kicked over, something thrown at him, nosebleed … pushed out a moving truck (comedic) … shot in the head

02 : … continued from previous ep. ... Found, transported … bandaged, wakes, head pain (how TF is he even still alive?!), panicked, held down, knocked out with a shot of drugs (@ 7:12, I'm sorry, the bullet was stopped by his skull??!! how hard headed is he?! - is this kid Wolverine or an android?) … (@ 8:53 you'd think with O2 being scarce they wouldn't use an O2 eater like fire so much) … goes out looking for a fight, beat up with pipes & bats.. hits in the back of the head, collapses, passes out … comatose … pushed off a roof (accidentally - comedic) (@ 36:32 he's a Mutant! X-man! Wolverine for the win!)

03 : [flashback] 5-8 is knocked over by explosions.. in a fight.. shot … (@ 16:54 #O.O# oh my! lol *gif 👀) … [present] 5-8 & Sa Wol spar (Sa Wol gets his ass handed to him) (@ 17:39 he just likes slapping that doesn't he 😆) … Sa Wol is hit with baseballs from a pitching machine … [switching back & forth quickly between various training & competition scenes:] sparring in a boxing ring, in a O2 deprivation room fighting, & dodging baseballs.. [in O2 dep. rm:] heavily bruised, unsteady, O2 at 5%, head pain, ear ringing, traumatic flashbacks, chokehold … car crash

04 : Kickboxing match; bleeding, cut on his forehead

05 : Bruised, head pain, traumatic flashbacks, nosebleed

06 : Hit with the butt of a gun & knocked out … tries to fight, pinned down, knocked out with a shot of drugs … blood drawn … rescued, carried

More Whump Lists for this show: love-me-a-lotta-whump