Le Jardin Secret (Secret Garden)

Secret Garden est le 20-épisode d'une série télévisée coréenne qui était émise entre novembre 2010 et janvier 2011. Malgré qu'elle soit une série télévisée récente, SG est en train de devenir une partie intégrale de la dissémination de Hallyu (la vague coréenne) – l’exportation de la culture populaire coréenne.

J'ai été au courant de cette série quand j'étais en train de surfer sur le web. Puisque j'ai une manie de regarder des séries télévisées et tous les séries que je regarde étaient épuisées, j'ai décidé de donner une chance à SG. À ce moment-là, je ne savais pas que je deviendrai assidue et regarderais tous les épisodes en une semaine.

C'est un histoire d'amour d'un homme riche et une femme pudique, donc, le thème est vraiment un cliché. Kim Joo-Won est le directeur d'un centre commercial qui appartient a sa famille. D'un autre côté, Gil Ra-Im est une cascadeuse qui est orpheline. Ils se rencontrent quand Joo-Won confond Ra-Im avec une actrice qui a eu une liaison avec son cousin Oska – un star de la pop. À partir de ce jour là, ça devient leur destin de se rencontrer encore et encore puisque Joo-Won, être influencé par Ra-Im, fait des excuses pour la revoir. Ils se confrontent, même se disputent tout le temps. Car Ga-Im est une fille fière, Joo-Won l'humilie toujours. De l'autre côté, ils commencent à tomber amoureux l'un l'autre.

La chose plus importante qui distingue Secret Garden des autres séries télévisées romantiques est l'existence des éléments irréels. Par exemple, le père décédé de Ra-Im interfère avec la relation entre les deux caractères avec l'intention de changer la vie de sa fille. Un jour, quand Ra-Im et Joo-Won sont perdus dans le bois, ils se trouvent dans un restaurant caché qui est dirigé par le père de Ra-Im qui est masqué comme une femme. Il les fait boire un vin spécial et cause un échange de leurs âmes. Le lendemain matin, Joo-Won et Ra-Im se retrouvent dans le corps de l'autre. Ce changement donne lieu à beaucoup d'événements comiques puisqu'ils doivent être face à la vie de l'un l'autre. Quand ils retournent à la normale, Joo-Won est déjà tombé amoureux de Ra-Im et il le confesse.

Le temps passe et Ra-Im tombe amoureuse aussi. Après avoir forcé les obstacles, enfin, ils réussissent à être ensemble. Toutefois on réalise que cette relation est très complexe et prédestinée quand même. Beaucoup des choses se révèlent sur leur passés qui les ont réunis en premier lieu. Autour de cette histoire centrale, on voit les autres histoires d'amour qui évoluent et enrichissent la série. Quand le dernièr épisode se termine, le goût de cette histoire fantastique reste en bouche avec son thème, son scénario, ses caractères, ses acteurs (surtout Hyun Bin comme Joo-Won), sa cinématographie et sa bande son – je suis en train de mémoriser la dernière même si elle est en coréen.

Puisque j'ai adoré cette série comédie drame qui était finie avant de dégoûter, je suis sûre que j'irai regarder d'autres séries télévisées coréennes. Mais Secret Garden va toujours rester comme mon premier amour (tr. ilk göz ağrısı) qui m'a très émue. Au moins, c'était le cas quand j'ai regardé mon premier film bollywoodien, Fanaa.

P.S.This is the piece I wrote on my journal in French, 13 février 2011. Sorry for my French, I'm only learning.. :)

Last week, en bref.

Since this blog is also my diary, I need to write about last week.

Let's start with last saturday, nine days ago, 5th February to be exact:

On that day Fulya came to my new place for the first time. Arda joined us too, it was his second time. I specify this because my friends -especially Turkish ones- usually don't come over very often. I cooked for them -all recipies were from Tuba's blog- and they loved the food. However the important stuff is yet to come..

These guys brought three bottles of white wine. My first reaction was: "Guys, three bottles? What do you have in mind, we can't drink all these!" I guess my conception of "drinking too much" is a bit outdated. Because after a bottle of wine each, we drank a litre of tequila and a litre of Malibu. I don't wanna give further details but turns out I blacked out that night... The second most embarrassing night of my life that was. Yes yes, "alcohol is the mother of all evil". Anyway, we survived that night and it took two days for me to get back to normal.

I said goodbye to Martin, the Bulgarian guy of our kot, on next Monday. He returned to Burgas...

Tuesday, I went to Aalter, a village in Flanders -close to Gent- to say good-bye to another friend, Elisabeth. She's leaving for Turkey tomorrow and she's gonna stay in Gaziantep for a year. It was my second time in Belgian countryside after the Gooik weekend with Karen. Such a small place. I made fun of it all day to annoy Elisabeth :) We spend most of our time in the -one and only- tea-room of Aalter, 't Koffieboontje. The place was nice, I liked it, and we overdosed on sweets. It was a nice day, a bit sad though. (And by the way, on the same day I learned the family tree of the noble family of Belgium. Very important, right?) :)

Thursday was the cinema day: With the classmates from French course we went to UGC Toison d'Or to see Incendies. God, such a bizarre movie it was... I was shocked at the end. If you can, see this movie! (Yes, you.)

On the same day my "Structural Equation Modeling" course started... But I don't wanna talk about it now :)

So this was "my last week", en bref. Cheers!

P.S. Last Sunday-Wednesday was sooooooo summery here, everybody loved it! Hope the sun comes back soon enough, before we rot :)

My Own Personal Film Festival

In September 2008, when I came back to Belgium for a master's, I had a lot of plans. I was going to achieve so much here, I would educate myself in everything. Over the years, I was able to realize some of them, I started and quit some others, and never got to even start the rest.
One of my plans was following cinema courses (in French) in Cinematek which are organized every year, from February to May. During my first year, I thought my French wasn't good enough; and on my second year, I was so consumed by my thesis that my sole objective was to stay alive. Now, on my third (and maybe final) year here in this country (and city), I had to do something about this unrealized project. (Plus, I need some practice with my French in a different environment than the French course.)

Last Monday I received an e-mail from Cinematek stating that the courses were to start towards the end of February. After a few days of hesitation, last Thursday, I went over to register for the course "Fragments pour une mémoire cinématographique VIII"! Voilà, my French is finally ready for its biggest exam :)
(By the way, as future reference I must add that I tried to drag Heini with me into this. I guess I'm really allergic to doing stuff on my own... Anyway, I'm trying to change, as you will see when you read the lines below.)

When I was trying to decide to follow the courses or not, I had also been studying the program of January and February. Actually, I do this from time to time and mark the films I want to see. Unfortunately, I was never able to go see a movie in Cinematek after my first time during Erasmus - which was in November 2007 I guess. (Pathetic, huh?) As usual, again, there were dozens of films I wanted to see. But different from all my previous attempts, I was determined to do something about it: There I was, considering to buy the bi-monthly subscription! I thought about it for days and nights; and yesterday, for the last time, I slept on it. Today, just before buying my ticket for M.A.S.H (which I reserved in advance) I bought the bimonthly thingy. Again, there I was, engaged in this feast of cinema for the following 39 days and nights!
(Again again again, for future reference, I was about to "laisser tomber" even at the last minute when I was drinking coffee with Gert-Jan. The conversation was really catchy, what can I do? But I survived all the temptations and went there in time.)

To make leaving Brussels even more painful, I'm returning to cinema - my biggest passion ever - in this very city. Here's where you can find me until the end of February: Rue Baron Hortastraat 9 ("rue" and "straat", the Brussels way). To be more specific, I'll be either on the 3rd, 4th or 5th row in the front, in "la salle Ledoux".

Sinterklaas, typically Belgian.

I know, I know.. If I should descirbe myself with only one word, I'd say "unstable". I took a biiiig break from this blog thingy and now I'm back for more! But first, I must write about what I haven't written before..

Everybody knows Saint Nicholas and his presents to kids. In Belgium, a special day is dedicated for this cool person, Sinterklaas. (Well, actually this holiday is not only celebrated by Belgians but Dutch and their ex-colonies.) That special day is the 6th December (making the 5th the Sinterklaas Eve).
On this night, Saint Nicholas - through his servant boy Black Pete - distributes candy to children. On the other hand, the naughty kids risk to be kidnapped by this Black Pete fellow and the saint. (Today, all this Black Pete business is seen as the racist side of the story but I won't go into that.)
In the piscure, you can see the famous Manneken Pis in the costume of Sinterklaas. (To tell the truth, he seems a little scary to me.)

Our kind landlord Philippe left a bag of chocolates, speculoos and candies in front of our doors on the morning of 6th December, thus, I got to celebrate Sinterklaas too :)