Monday 21 June 2021

Phing: Two devils and more

I visit my friend’s shop frequently because she's just started her business. Inside of her shop is full of hundreds of suits, shirts and trousers. She is always proud to present her Italian suits, which will be looking-good on Thai men. Honestly, I did not see empirical differences in them from British suits. However, I have changed my mind after watching Vincenzo, a South Korean television series. It was launched on Netflix and has gained popularity in Thailand. The combination of action and comedy seem to make it become many people’s favourite. In contrast, I'm not keen on watching this series anymore because I can't stand the protagonists and their attitude toward LGBTQ+.

 'Un diavolo scaccia l’altro' is an Italian sentence that means it takes a devil to drive out another devil. Vincenzo, a Korean-Italian mafia lawyer, often speaks this catch phrase and I hate to listen to it so badly. Vincenzo was adopted and grew up in Italy, before coming back to Korea to find  1.5 ton of hidden gold. I agree that this character sounds cool as a James Bond character, but I do not support how he fights villains. In the story, there is an unrivalled conglomerate that hinders Vincenzo from getting the hidden gold and kills a lot of people to protect their profits. This organization can commit any corrupt practices for their goal, and Vincenzo also has done many illegal things to eliminate this enemy, even killing other people. I think that this TV show is normalizing a kangaroo court. People should not have to become a devil to fight for themselves.

Some people might not even notice that LGBTQ+ characters appear on South Korean television series once in a blue moon. Moreover, they usually look sillier than other characters. This TV show still has the same issue which should be improved. Lastly, this TV show still presents that being LGBTQ+ as related to mental illness which I don't agree with anymore.

Although many parts of this TV show are infuriating for me, I admire their costumes, which is excellent. They show me how Italian suits are smart and dignified. 


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1 comment:

  1. Peter AUA22 June 2021 at 11:44

    The first thing I liked about Phing's essay is how she begins and concludes with a very personal connection to fashion — an important purpose in this piece of writing is to also introduce ourselves, so personal connections are welcome.

    As I read Phing's comments on LGBTQ+ characters, I was also reminded of the discussion with Beer and Aom about the NetFlix series Elite. After our class last night I watched another episode and realized that the LGBTQ+ characters in it also help to move the story forward. I'll probably a watch another episode or two before committing to the whole series, but NetFlix's series is also fun, and a benefit of series is that you don't have to binge. The mismatch between the lip movements for the original Spanish soundtrack and the English I listen to is still noticeable, especially in close ups, but the translation seems excellent. In the episode I watched last night, one of the characters, Samuels brother sings some rap, and the English translation even does that very well: I can't judge the accuracy of the translation from Spanish, but poetry, including the lyrics of songs, is very hard to translate into poetry in another language. NetFlix's translation teams are as professional as the other aspects of their productions.

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