A quick recap of the story. Starting with MissWillows synopsis, I came up with a couple of ideas. One a darker drama where the power of the Kami is unleashed for a supernatural battle type drama with a kill the Kami/banished ending or a Kami is unhappy being removed from it’s natural habitat and needs to be returned.
The darker story was very unpopular so was immediately scrapped from the running.
Further refining the get Kami home arc, a time element was introduced that prevented the couple from immediately return the Kami, Japan in lockdown, couple can’t get permissions to enter the country. This delay element stretches it out from 5 episodes to a possible 16 episodes.
The 2 shamans were inserted to be an aide for the couple and also to be the vehicle for a “bromance” type of characters/dynamic.
Further refining the arc.
Summary
For the next stage of development I was about to put together a post to get get some ideas from theinmates everyone at Badger Productions.
From the time the couple find out about the Kami and the events that had been going on with the elements aspect(via the shamans) the drama shifts to the Kami doing what it did in the past but using the Super-Wipe business a metaphor of prosperity of the land/battles.
Your post kind of pipped me to it but it does the same.
This is where I wanted to encourage people to share ideas like yours. Basic concepts, doesn’t need to be detailed that we can all offer ideas, have discussions over them, accept/reject/refine them.
This part of the drama has the potential of filling lots of episodes until the finale of the Kami being returned home!
These are my ideas for this part of the story.
The rival cleaning company are “the baddies” they want to beat the competition (metaphor of neighbouring warlord battles wanting to invade the neighbouring prefecture) Their tactics becoming more and more underhanded as the power of the Kami slowly ramps up.
The rival company’s vans are WHITE! Super-Wipes are (any other colour)
The shamans are heavily involved at this stage of the story as they are the only ones with the gift of seeing and communicating with the Kami.
The shamans act as go between for the couple and the Kami.
The shamans are also the ones minimising the effects of the Kami so there is a gradual transition in increase in power/decrease in the success of the business, maybe in the form of thwarting each underhanded tactics of the rival company with the use of spells and talismans.
This is an excellent idea. It opens up lots of avenues for refining the story. Starting from @entwyfhasbeenfound synopsis whirlwind marriage high and gradually deteriorating as the power of the Kami increases. A kind of reverse romance story, genius!
As for your other weirder and weirder ideas, as the rival company’s underhand tactics increases in dastardliness, we’ll need differing levels of craziness, some of them can be adapted, like Ha-Nuel’s drug-dealing parents, are not actual drug-dealers but framed by the rival company to try and ruin the company’s reputation. So not weird at all!
K-drama business rivalry with relatively benign, respected, trusted and known figures having their lives thrown into turmoil.
But doesn’t some event have to occur that makes this potential chaos believable? Something in the background of the parents or the cleaning industry or something?
Or!
What a perfect opportunity to do . . . Dad gets hit on the head and gets amnesia or undergoes some personality change . . . maybe? But done with a bit of finesse. It’s a trope that is so traditional, but it doesn’t have to be heavy-handed, does it?
There are several K-dramas from about ten years ago where a power couple’s relationship has hit a snag and they are about to call it quits. They are, if I remember correctly, pretty nifty explorations of what it means to be committed, to care, and to support loved ones in an important relationship at whatever level . . . dating, marriage, family, neighborhood, community.
And they provide opportunities for great dialog!
Only . . . let’s not have quite the level of amnesiac silliness as in Homemade Love Story. I refer to Jeong Bo-seok as Woo Jung-hoo. Love the actor, but that story arc got just plain silly.
I am thinking of a very recent C-drama in which two fashion industry rivals (one male, one female) end up in New York City without the usual luxuries of life. Lost luggage? Stolen credit cards? Mistaken identity? I forget, but this throws them into relying on each other instead of arguing with each other.
And what happens, class? That’s right!
The rich girl (in this case SHE has the advantages) discovers she has a lot in common with the poor guy (who of course is top dog because he is the classic “dragon rising from a ditch”).
And they both get to look gorgeous in ripped jeans, t-shirts, no fancy skin products, clean unstyled hair, and bare feet!
I have yet to watch an amnesia trope drama that I truly liked. I hated most of them… Shopaholic Louis made the best use of it, in my opinion. I don’t remember any others I liked. I never mind cliches or tropes as long as they’re done right. For example, with Police University, the cliches are done SO WELL that I actually find myself waiting for them to happen and then enjoying everything so much.
This is my favorite genre so I have definitely studied it in detail and feel quite ready to try writing my own.
I like this. Since this couple married all of a sudden, there will obviously be rocky patches, and the Kami help to heighten the drama.
I’m glad PD-nim approves!!
So we’ve got a couple who come to Seoul after a whirlwind marriage and unknowingly bring the Kami. Are we going to take the poverty route? What starts the conflict between the ML and FL? Maybe the way they each handle/react to the situation upsets the other?
Arc 2 is the company struggles. Since we’re dealing with cleaning companies, we could make this funny. The parents can all be wackos who are obsessed with cleanliness. The shamans can be the comic relief. One is uninterested and the other is way too excited with his powers. The couple and the shamans share the same relationship our other reality show’s (Badgers’ Productions) OSPD-nim and Miss Willow seem to have They work together but do it while annoying the heck out of each other.
Edit: I posted this as soon as PD-nim posted his, and I’m amused and glad that the shamans’ characters are the same in both our posts!
Also, @ninjas_with_onions I thought the Kami were good? Why are they doing all the bad things here? We could excuse their antics with the couple by saying that the Kami are trying to bring the couple closer by forcing them to see each others’ worst sides, but what about the dad’s amnesia part?
Sure, why not. I have already thought of something to tie all of this together.
The Kami causes the dad to get hit on the head - amnesia. {getting framed plot?} The shamans swing into action to counter the misfortune. This is an ideal opportunity to embellish the bromance dynamics of the two. One starts to chant and shake bells and spin in circles around the amnesiac dad. The other shaman does nothing, looks on silently and rolls his eyes slightly. Pulls out the rubber mallet he brought along and whack the dad on the head, who instantly recovers his memory. The chanting shaman freeze framed in mid spin, one leg raised and arms out stretched to the heavens.
But I am getting ahead of myself as this is getting quite detailed and I don’t want to distract from fishing for more ideas.
Oh, I love the idea of two shamans who annoy the heck out of each other. Related somehow? Giving completely opposite readings for customers? One is trying to update the profession, while one is trying to be more traditional?
Well, we don’t know everything about the shaman field, but I was thinking more on the lines of:
One shaman uninterested, just there for the money while the other wanted to be a detective but couldn’t pass the police test or whatever test detectives had to take so he became a shaman and now he’s way too excited about this Kami case
I’m making up stuff while typing so you all might have to look out for any plot holes I create I’ve always been like this because I’m an Entertainer personality and I had to spin stories off the top of my head to keep my brother entertained when we were younger
Kamis can be both good and “bad”. In olden times bring prosperity or misfortune to the land of the people depending on how they treated them/their environment (or ‘prayed’ to for a plentiful harvest, or success in battle) This Kami having being accidentally removed is making it feelings know in a way it has always done, through misfortune.
Crimes caused by mysterious powers take place. A psychic, a Catholic priest and a detective fight against these crimes.
Yoon Hwa-Pyung (Kim Dong-Wook) is the psychic. He was born to a shaman family. Yoon Hwa-Pyung seeks out those possessed by evil spirits and attempts to expel the evil spirits.
Choi Yoon (Kim Jae-Wook) is the Catholic priest. He is cynical and cool-headed. He doesn’t like having relationships with others. He is recognized for his abilities as an exorcist.
Kang Kil-Young (Jung Eun-Chae) is the detective. She doesn’t believe in evil spirts or exorcisms, but her views change because of Choi Yoon and Yoon Hwa-Pyung.
However, I generally don’t watch those because they are too intense or . . . I don’t know what.
But I’m all for gentle send-ups of some of the classic characters and tropes.
Most religious systems, well all the ones I can think of, deal with good and evil in humanity and in the natural world. And it’s usually what I would call non-human powers that humans cannot control that can end up wreaking vengeance on selfish, ignorant, materialistic idiots.
(Giphy–it’s David Tennant!)
In our case, maybe there could be some research that uncovers the potential kami have for destruction that is both educational, slightly sobering, and funny.
Not at first. At the time when the couple learn of the Kami from the shamans, the business is successful and the couple very much in love. But as the Kami increases the intensity of the misfortunes that besets the company, so too does the love of the couple for each other start to decline because of the sheer stress and worry slowly overwhelming the couple. Now you could write it so that by the finale the couple have strayed into the arguing/conflict stage or just to the level of it being the absence of love but not conflicting. Depends how evil you feel playing God (or The Sims) with their lives.
What about the idea of the kami causing problems simply because it is out of place, unhappy, trying to get home, and trying to get attention . . . and our cleaning supply love birds suspect each other of petty meanness?
I think that could start at the initial stage. When they are still finding things out about each other, like suspecting each other of leaving the taps running, being a terrible cook, etc as they have not gone through the usual process of living together and discovering each others bad habits. But it’s not quite petty meanness, more the misunderstanding trope (and not a very popular trope at that as it’s a real frustration builder and a real turn off and should be avoided near the start of any drama)
I can’t think of it being a sustainable plot once they learn of the Kami but it could be one of the symptom of the stress and worry they are going through starts to manifest in actual petty meanness rather than just them suspecting each other of.
Or perhaps use it as a lead up to them resorting the “Love, Money, Career” services of the shamans? ( I feel there may be a bit of comedy in there somewhere)
I could see how the Kami might play a role in this. I recently watched a drama where the ML and FL had moved in together - just as roommates at the time - and started learning about each other’s living habits. Simple, everyday things that most of us take for granted, like how one liked the toilet paper to roll from the top and one wanted it from the bottom. And the way the ML squeezed the toothpaste drove the FL nuts. These specific examples probably don’t lend themselves to being blamed on a Kami, but I think there are plenty of those everyday kind of things that could be, and it could be fun for the viewer but not for the couple, just as it played out in the drama I watched.
A specific scenario came to mind, but I don’t exactly know much about Kami and what they are capable of or what things they are able to manipulate or influence in our world. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good source of this kind of information?
They work together but do it while annoying the heck out of each other.
