[REVIEW] "Sunday Sunday Night" vs "SBS Special"

"Sunday Sunday Night" - MBC Sunday 5:20 p.m.
"Sunday Sunday Night" ("Sunday") announced that it will return to being a show which provides sentiment, tears, inspiration and enlightenment. An entertainment variety program does not have to be all about the laughs, but seeing a touching story versus forcing the tears from the viewers is a whole different story. Segments of the show such as "Danbi", which is about a global volunteer program, and "Our Father", about encouraging our fathers and giving them hope, are both stories which will evoke tears but for different reasons. "Our Father" makes the viewer feel uncomfortable in its attempts to find the tears and sorrows of the fathers at only the markets. The show, which tells the sad stories of four fathers, shamelessly demands more tears from viewers by handing the father who tells the saddest story a refrigerator. A section titled "Hunters" brainwashes viewers that wild-boar hunting is valid by sending out an emotional narration by Lee Geum-hee and showing statistics and witness testimonies related to wild-boars. In their efforts to "help the farmers", a hunting dog becomes a helper dog, a hunter a volunteer worker and a gun a device for self protection against possible danger. The shows tries very hard to hide its obsession over convincing viewers of the validity of wild-boar hunting and that the show's killing point comes from the adventure and thrill of hunting a big, violent animal like a wild-boar. The line between cast and producers continues to grow increasingly vague and during times when viewers are practically appear on actual variety shows, "Sunday" has gone backward to the old, so-called "forced entertainment". There is a clear reason why this genre failed -- because viewers were tired of all the forced tears and scripted dramas. Besides, there are only two MCs in Korea who can strategically make viewers cry by crying themselves first -- Kang Ho-dong and Kim Jae-dong. Will "Sunday" have a solution to this problem?
- Written by Kim Kyo-seok

"SBS Special" - SBS Sunday 11:20 p.m.
A familiar sight comes into view. The short, green grass field and long, curving road that goes afar. One family is walking down that road, as if imitating something and laughing out loud. Ari arirang~ they sing. This is Cheongsan-do, Wando-gun, Jello Provice. What the family is imitating is the beautiful, long-take scene from the film "Sopyonje". Many people are walking down that road that was walked down by the lonely pansori family. The walk-the-road phenomenon, which started in Jeju Olle, has continued on into Nam-do, giving the quiet island a lot of positive energy from the visitors. "Unlike other travel spots, I like that we can have a conversation while walking this road here," says one family traveler. The episode of "Road Sells Its Attraction" on the show "SBS Special" was produced to show the nationwide campaign for road renovation after the big success of Jeju Olle, which has been credited with changing the traveling trends in Korea. The ecological trail of Byunsan Mashil-gil which is surrounded by mountains, plains and the ocean, the unique culture and trend of Shinsa-dong Garosoo-gil, the street-museum-in-the-city Bukchon Hanok Village.. the episode showed many diverse and culturally-rich streets in Korea. The sight of grass and flowers blowing in the wind, the coffeemakers at the cafe, the shoppers.. the camera captured all the uniqueness of those streets while a poetic narration shook the hearts of viewers as if they were walking down that road themselves. The business of roads was not just about making profit, the show concluded, but that "each street had a story" and the streets had to have a philosophy to hold the stories of its people and their old, humble values of life. The quote at the end of the show, "a road is a trace of people who walked it before you and thus, the history of all the people", reminded me of a paragraph from a book I had read. "We are walking together. That is all.. so why does this feel so special.." That is because the road is special.
- Written by Kim Sun-young

Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr