Ma Boy

Ma Boy

5/10

Ma Boy

Genre:                                      Episodes: 3                             Year: 2012

Romance

Comedy

School

Synopsis:

Jang Geu Rim dreams of becoming a famous singer and enters one of the best arts high schools. Tae Joon, a popular idol who Geu Rin has a crush on attends the same school, but Tae Joon is in love with Irene, a young model. Geu Rin becomes Irene’s roommate and discovers Irene has been hiding a secret- Irene is actually a boy.

Cast:

Kim So Hyun (Jang Gue Rin)

Sun Woong (Irene/Hyun Woo)

Min Hoo (Tae Joon)

Kim Hye Ji (Hye Ri)

General Thoughts:

When you consider it next to high budget, mainstream K-Dramas, ‘Ma Boy’ really isn’t all that good, but when you go in knowing what to expect it can be a right good time. Obviously I wasn't expecting a mind-blowing drama, and was happy to watch the cute, silly, fluffiness that this drama was- that is after all why I started it.

Is this our heroine? No...no that's our hero

It’s kind of like K-Drama’s version of Disney Chanel or Nickelodeon- juvenile in a fun way without being plain stupid. It’s got a little bit of story, and our main man Hyun Woo (more often referred to as Irene) even gets a nice little dose of character development. Our heroine is pretty stock standard, but it’s nice to see Kim So Hyun in her early days- she’s only 13!

Look at how tiny she is!

The acting is pretty green all round, but it fits well enough into the show. The reason it works so well is that everything is on the same level. It’s not an amazing story with terrible acting or a terrible story with amazing acting- it’s just pleasantly mediocre. The kids all act well enough for their age, and it kind of adds to the enjoyment watching them because you get a nice dose of secondhand embarrassment. The kids act everything out with such conviction- even the most ridiculous scenes, and you can really tell they’re just having a marvellous time. There were probably loads of outtakes and I bet the set was just a really enjoyable place to be. When the actors are obviously having that much fun filming, it really translates. There’s very little emotional investment, but that’s okay because nothing really happens. Some small-scale stuff goes on, but it’s not played up like it’s the end of the world (the way some dramas ramp up every tiny situation), so it’s fun to watch the two leads dance around the main concept- our hero pretends to be a girl most of the time. Which is hilarious in all kinds of ways. Only in Korea could you pull of something like this- because Sun Woong is actually alarmingly believable as a girl. He’s so very pretty. He actually reminded me a lot of Sulli when she was crossdressing as a boy in ‘To the Beautiful You’.

You have to admit...the resemblance is kinda uncanny

His height and his broad shoulders were a bit of a giveaway, but once the wig was on it was totally understandable that people thought he was a girl.

Weightless and cute and fun

I mean really, if I only saw his face with the wig on I’d probably think he was a girl to start with. I actually really liked that it was the boy crossdressing this time around, as it’s so often the girl disguised as a boy (probably slightly easier to pass off), and as far as I’m aware this is the only K-Drama that has the boy dressing as a girl set-up. The concept is fun and creates some funny moments, but it’s never blown out of proportion- neither of our leads’ lives are going to be ruined if the secret got out. It’s pretty low-key all around, but it’s still an enjoyable watch that will give you a good laugh. Obviously if you’re not someone that likes kid shows I wouldn’t recommend it to you, but if you’re one of us who secretly delight in short, childish TV every now and then, it’s a fun little show.

What Was Great:

Everyone is Nice:

There’s no large and scary Big Bad in this series. The kids can be a little mean sometimes, but their evil schemes are pretty harmless. It’s exactly like watching a children's cartoon or something where locking someone in a dark room for a couple of minutes is the hight of revenge. Which kind of only adds to the fun- because nothing’s really going to go wrong- and let’s be honest, it would just be completely ridiculous if it did.

Even the Mean Girls were pretty low-level mean

The fan clubs are played more for comedic effect rather than any sort of actual drama, with all the drama coming from Geu Rin and Irene/Hyun Woo. Even our second male lead is so helplessly nice- just trapped in his own little world where he’s the star of everything and everyone loves him, and he’s so sweetly troubled by how immensely popular he is and saddened that he’ll have to break someone’s heart- when in reality the two ‘girls’ he likes are really one girl and a crossdresser who are actually falling for each other. Tae Joon is just pure hilarity.

Wow, fantastic baby

What Wasn’t:

Do I care that nothing happened? Not at all.

Unsubstantial:

It’s hard to point fingers at things that aren’t good about this show, because honestly I expected a whole lot of it to not be very good. I could sit on my high horse and say the plot was terrible and the acting immature and blahdy blahdy blah- but for what it is it’s actually very good. I’m aware that I’m watching something that is geared towards pre-teens, and so I can enjoy it as such. Even as a juvenile show the plot was probably a little lacking, but the fact remains that it’s still enjoyable. The whole show carries a light-hearted, nothing-really-matters air that I know a lot of people probably wouldn't enjoy- but on a slow weekend with nothing to do I'm not above watching fluffy, non-sensical K-Drama. Really, bonus points for it actually being funny and entertaining.

Re-watch?

Maybe. The show really is a good laugh even if it’s just pure silliness. It’s only three episodes, so it’s high on the list of things to watch if I ever need a mood lift.

Sweet and fun- the best parts of a childish romance