Orange Marmalade

Orange Marmalade

6.5/10

Orange Marmalade

Genre:                                   Episodes: 12                                   Year: 2015

Romance

Fantasy

School

Historical

Synopsis:

Humans and vampires coexist due to a peace treaty formed between the two races over 300 years ago. Due to fear and misunderstandings the two groups do not get along, and vampire minorities must hide their true identities and pretend to be human in order to live peacefully. Jae Min is a popular high school student who takes a particular interest in the new transfer student- Baek Ma Ri. However, Baek Ma Ri is struggling to blend in while hiding her identity as a vampire. 

Cast:

Seolhyun (Baek Ma Ri)

Yeo Jin Goo (Jung Jae Min)

Lee Jong Hyun (Han Shi Hoo)

Gil Eun Hye (Jo Ah Ra)

General Thoughts:

This drama was split up into three pretty distinctive sections: Present Day, Past, and Present Day Act 2. Individually all three portions were fantastic and I loved almost every moment. However I wasn’t particularly satisfied in the way they joined together- which unfortunately had a large impact on my enjoyment of the series. Present Day sets us up with all the characters- which I must say are fantastic. Jung Jae Min is a popular, arrogant kid- but despite his attempts, never quite pulls off being ‘smooth’. 

That one time he was suave

Leaves Edward Cullen for dead

Baek Ma Ri is a cautious, quiet vampire who does all she can to not stand out. Usually I find quiet, innocent female leads pretty boring as they are so vastly overused and clichéd, but in this case it works out extremely well. Ma Ri’s whole character is quietly underlined with hidden strength and growing confidence. And then we have Han Shi Hoo- typical moody, brooding, handsome, mysterious teenage vampire. Who cares that this is the most clichéd thing ever- it’s done well and the character has enough sass and quirkiness to avoid being unoriginal.

The first two episodes do a great job kicking off the drama and are highly entertaining, setting up for what looked like an interesting, riveting watch.

Past takes us back to the characters’ past lives. The idea of this whole ‘past life’ thing was a little jarring to say the least, as apart from Jae Min, our characters seemed pretty different from their Present Day selves. Only once I kind of forgot that I’d already seen a bunch of episodes (from supposedly the same drama) could I really enjoy this section. A few parts of this section were already sort of spoiled as there were obvious parallels with Present Day (cough vampire Shi Hoo cough).

Was this a surprise to anyone?

Present Day Act 2 was definitely my favorite of the three, which is unfortunate as it only lasted for about two (maybe three?) episodes. It brings us back to our original characters (bar Jae Min’s memory loss- egh) and gives us a much more in depth view of the prejudices regarding vampires and the difficulties in minorities coexisting with the majority- a great insight into real world issues. It was great to see a drama that actually commented (no matter how lightly) on real social problems.

Surprisingly I can’t really fault the individual sections when they stand alone, but I can’t help feel that they were put together in the wrong order. While I appreciate the innovation of putting the past in the middle, I probably would have preferred this drama more had the events been in chronological order. I would have loved to spend a lot more time in Present Day Act 2, as there was so much that was rushed through, and so much more to be explored.

Weird mish-mash of era swaps

What Was Great:

Eye Candy:

So, so, so many good looking boys- and all paired with stellar acting. Despite Yeo Jin Goo’s great performance and dashing good looks- he actually wasn’t my favorite male in this

Be still my beating heart 

series. Surprisingly my heart was completely stolen by none other than Song Jong Ho as Han Yoon Jae- an older support character. His gentle, caring character and charmingly handsome face completely won me over. By far the unsung hero of this drama, and his love-line in the Past section was the best part of that whole chunk of K-drama.

Coming in close second was Lee Jong Hyun. Even taking out my CNBLUE bias, he was still phenomenal and drastically alluring as the angsty vamp. Sorry Jin Goo, but unfortunately that makes you third.

Awkward Teens:

I loved all the awkward in the first and final sections. Too many times I see stories set in high school where the characters are basically mini-adults, and it’s drastically unrealistic. However, ‘Orange Marmalade’ gives us a charming view into how embarrassing and awkward first love is. It added a real sense of authenticity into a drama that was highly fantasy-based.

Adorably awkward

Present Day Act 2:

I honestly can’t say how much I loved this section. By the time the Past chunk ended I was pretty ready for the series to end, as it was beginning to feel a little empty, dragged out, and a wee bit desperate. Once we came back to the present I couldn’t help but wonder why we had spent so much effing time in the past when there were so many juicy plot-lines here.

Taking on bullies like a pro

I really wish the writers had spent less time going over what we already knew, what was obvious, and Jae Min’s crush, and more time on Ma Ri’s choice to reveal her identity and all its consequences.

I adored what a strong, determined woman we got to see Ma Ri become. We finally got to see her full character, which had only been hinted at before.

The bullying, prejudice and mistreatment of vampires became much more evident- and I would have loved the drama to explore this a little bit more.

The paring of Shi Hoo and Ah Ra, while random and a little unwanted at first, actually turned out to be very sweet and a great tie-off for their characters. Again, I would have loved to see this develop more before being presented to us, but oh well.

A little forced, but I can roll with it

What Wasn’t:

Lee Jong Hyun continues to dominate regardless of era

Jump to Joseon:

Unfortunately this was my least liked (and longest) part of the drama. While I could appreciate the back story I didn’t think it deserved nearly as much screen-time as it was given. The idea of vampires in the Joseon era was a nice twist, as vampires were presented as a strange and alien concept to our characters, rather than a frightening myth that everyone knows. The bromance between Jae Min and Shi Hoo was engaging and much needed in a section that didn’t have a whole lot of relationship development (except for the two boys crushing on the same girl)- good bromances are always a bonus. Ma Ri seemed to take a bit of a backseat in this section though. She was just kind of there as someone the boys could be interested in, and quite honestly right up until the end of this segment I thought she was more into Shi Hoo- even though we KNOW she’ll probably end up falling for Jae Min- because that’s what she does in her second life. Heaven forbid anyone falls in love with someone different in their second life.

While this section in itself was not bad, it certainly felt like something from a different drama. Did not flow well at all.

Same story, different clothes.

All That Hate:

I feel like I either missed something in this drama, or I’m very stupid. Were my subtitles THAT bad? I honestly had no clue why Jung Jae Min hated vampires so much. So his mum married one. Big deal. At such young age I feel like this would have done more to soften him towards vampires, not turn him against them completely. Here I was thinking that he had some vampire trauma or his dad was killed by vampires or something. But no, he’s just being a baby. I mean really, from what we were shown, his mom and Han Yoon Jae handled the marriage as best they could, and Jae Min was just a brat that never grew up. I thought that maybe the point of the Past section was to explain why Jae Min had such a deeply embedded hatred of vampires, but even then all they did was stop his best friend from dying, fail at taking over Korea, and die for him. Not a lot to be mad about. And then he comes off as a big man at the end by allowing Han Yoon Jae to live with his mum- Yoon Jae’s own wife. C’mon buddy, you’re not being forgiving or cool, Yoon Jae never had a problem- you did. The whole hatred thing seems to have been thrown in purely to cause tension between him and Ma Ri in the first segment, and then just continued through. Sadly, it resulted in Jae Min looking like an obnoxious douche for a fair amount of time.

Music Madness:

While music was a subtle theme that was used through the whole drama (though predominantly in Present Day and Present Day Act 2), it still felt like a bit of an afterthought.

Totally forgot they were in a band. Oops.

Only in the last episode and a half were we introduced to the idea that Baek Ma Ri wanted to use music as a way to bring humans and vampires together. It was touched on once when she was explaining the name behind Orange Marmalade, but was promptly ignored after that. The Past section which used up SO many episodes only had the flute- which was in no way relevant to anything. Then at the end suddenly music is what is bringing our characters together and changing views on vampires and their rights.

I’m not really complaining, I liked the way it was executed and it’s actually very plausible as music definitely has the power to inspire and influence. However it was annoying that this great idea was presented so late and so quickly, and made it feel a wee bit random. Similarly to the Past section it felt like it belonged to a different (but just as good) drama.

Re-watch?

I definitely enjoyed the drama, and it’s definitely better than Twilight (it's hard not to be), but I wouldn’t watch it again. I loved it for is commentary on real social issues, but poor fluidity and rushed development really downplayed its great characters and plot. A perfect example of how the whole can be less than its parts.

If it's got vampires, I'll probably watch it