'Legend of the Blue Sea' criticized for poor editing
A scene from “Legend of the Blue Sea” / Courtesy of SBS
By Park Jin-hai
SNS’s much-anticipated star-studded fantasy romance “Legend of the Blue Sea” has been criticized for bad editing.
The newly launched drama which aired its first two episodes last week features big-name stars Jun Ji-hyun (Sim Cheong) and Lee Min-ho (Huh Jun-jae). The love story between a mermaid and a conman was slammed by viewers for its loose plot and lack of chemistry between its main characters.
In terms of viewership ratings, the drama didn’t do as poorly. Its first episode hit 16.4 percent and its second episode aired last Thursday recorded 15.1 percent.
However, many viewers have since expressed their disappointment with the much-hyped drama. The drama’s online message board has seen comments calling the drama distracting and childish.
When special director’s cuts of the two episodes were aired over the weekend, with a full 16 extra minutes of footage, viewers raised the editing problem.
“When I watched the director’s cut, I learned that some important scenes had been cut out,” commented a viewer online. “If the director’s cut was aired the first time around, it may have been way better received.”
Missing scenes in the first episode included people talking about the mermaid and scenes telling how a young Joseon nobleman sets the mermaid free. The deleted scenes explain how the nobleman is connected to the modern-day genius conman character later appearing in the episode, both played by Lee.
Also, some romantic scenes, such as Lee explaining the meaning of human words “love” and “I’m hungry” to the mermaid, have been trimmed down.
“Editing made it a whole different drama. It was a B-rated drama and when the director’s cut came out, it became a drama worth watching,” said a viewer named Kim Jung-mi on the program bulletin board. “Were the long chase scenes and reckless product placement scenes more important than making the story more relevant and building up characters?”
Overall, so far, it seems the actors have overwhelmed the characters. Actress Jun, swimming under the waves, is a beauty and the handsome couple against the background of picturesque Spain is pleasing to the eye.
But it gives the impression the drama has focused more on showing how beautiful those two stars are rather than giving more time to make them appealing.
It is a pity that the two initial episodes reminded the viewers of the two stars’ previous characters from the past ― Sim Chung’s spaghetti-eating scene and copying the pose of the traffic-light man in a crosswalk signal are reminiscent of “My Sassy Girl” (2001). Huh Jun-jae’s character mostly overlapped with Lee’s earlier role of Kim Tan in “The Heirs” (2013).