The Gift that Keeps on Giving: White Christmas Korean Drama Review

I'm going to keep my overview short because this is one drama that probably works best when you know little about it.  The basic plot is this: A handful of students at an elite, isolated high school all receive a mysterious note before Christmas and decide to stay behind with one teacher.  A terrible snowstorm cuts them off from the outside world, and bad things start to happen to them one by one.

If that sounds like the premise to an Agatha Christie novel, it kind of is.  The whole idea of a hodgepodge group of people trapped with one anonymous crazy person isn't exactly new, but, fortunately, that's not the focus of the drama.  The "whodunit" quickly takes a back seat to a much more interesting psychological study that spans the remainder of the series.  

There are two things that make this series work far more effectively than a lot of similar stories.  The first is the production itself.  Everything works together, from the claustrophobic setting of the all-glass school to the use of music (I will never hear this song again without thinking of Kim Woo Bin) to the cuts between characters and scenes.  It would have been easy to film this thing almost entirely zoomed in on people's faces (Les Miserables, I'm looking at you), but they resisted that temptation for a more measured approach that kept the story grounded in reality.

Anyone else feel like they were watching hamsters in a cage every time they ran back and forth?

The second thing that made this series work so well was the cast.  This drama possibly had the best cast I have seen on any kdrama--ever.  I don't say that lightly.  It was a cast of mostly teenagers, but each and every character (okay, with one exception) was layered and complex.  Even the villain of the series had interesting moments of depth that steered clear of caricature.  While I didn't like all of the characters, I grew to understand them.  The cast members were phenomenal at portraying characters who were so human that you hurt for them.  I wasn't worried so much about what the villain might do to them (though that threat was constantly present) so much as what they might do to each other.

I remember reading somewhere (Dramabeans, maybe?) that the director purposely chose young actors who were similar heights for the various roles.  Visually, it was an interesting trick.  There were some scenes where I really couldn't tell who was who, and yet, even though each student was so similar on the outside, they were all completely different on the inside.

Of course, every drama has its faults, and the faults here mostly stemmed from the plot structure.  Time after time, I thought "Why don't you just do X?  Problem solved!"  The last episode had some especially egregious plot holes that had me rolling my eyes. (Also, who on earth gave Kim Yohan his psychology license?)  The short answer here is that the characters never did any of those things because if they had, the conflict would have been gone.  Without that conflict, there was no impetus for the psychological study.  In a series that's much more about people than plot, I'm willing to let holes slide as a matter of narrative necessity.

Overall, I can't say that I would recommend White Christmas offhand to just anyone.  When I say that it's dark, I mean dark.  But if you're willing to brave a bleak drama to see some phenomenal acting, including Kim Woo Bin and Sung Joon in early roles, curl up under some warm blankets, stuff yourself with chocolate, and give this one a try.  It's well worth it.

And now the spoiler club for those who saw this drama and want to discuss the ending...

Where to watch White Christmas

It's a major travesty, but White Christmas isn't currently available on Viki OR Dramafever OR Netflix OR Hulu.  I had to do some digging to find it, but you can watch it here:

I ended up streaming it because I don't trust random downloads, but even in somewhat grainy quality, it was still worth it.

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