K-Drama Reviews

Review – Lookout / The Guardian

/ Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Review – Lookout

Sigh.  The first few episodes were promising.  Secret vigilante hackers with a secret boss directing them.  A heinous crime committed by a cold-blooded psychopathic teenager.  A badass detective leading female and swarmy, egocentric prosecutor leading male.  There were promising elements at work in Lookout.  And yet… I could tell there was a disconnect somewhere.  I actually finished this drama awhile ago and have been sitting on this review, wondering what it was exactly that caused me to shrug this mystery-thriller off.  Honestly, I’m still not sure.  Somewhere around episode six, I started to lose interest.  I stuck around… but I was never fully committed.  I caught a few eps here and there.  The ending came, with its dramatic finale, and I was underwhelmed.

If I had to guess what ingredient it was missing… I would say heart.  There was no love (not romantic, not bromantic, not friendsies, nothing) between these characters.  Their relationships were tenuous at best.  Even their relationships with their families and coworkers seemed lukewarm.  Hell, even the show Bad Guys managed to have more heart than this drama – and it threw together a bunch of ex cons in a violent stew.  A similar show that nailed it with camaraderie and love between the underdogs fighting together to defeat corruption would be Mad Dog.  That show had everything this show lacks.

I guess there was a bit of something between the hackers, but eh… not enough.  And other than the initial murder of the detective’s daughter, I never felt a sense of danger or actual threat in Lookout.  Which is probably why the ending was so confusing, cause it literally just fell over into it… almost as if on accident.  Oops!  We forgot to make this climax, uh… climatic.  Let’s just kill someone off.  That’s dramatic, right?  Wrong.

I do give snaps for the sexy priest (cause… let’s just have a sexy priest in every show… I would be fine with that) and the creepster factor of our young psychopath miming “I Killed Her!” to our grieving mother, just after she’s surrendered her gun… cops and witnesses everywhere and he’s just shamelessly dogging her!  That’s good stuff.

 

Anyways, you want to see “crazy-mom” done right, watch God’s Gift: 14 Days.  You want to see criminals working outside the system for justice, watch Bad Guys.  You want to see a multi-layered prosecutor(s) or a scarier psychopath, watch Remember.  You want to see a hacker at work (not teenage stereotypes, either), check out Healer or Phantom.  If you want to see what this genre can really do – watch Mad Dog.  All of these are better dramas, in my opinion.  Not that Lookout was terrible, mind you.  It wasn’t bad.  It just wasn’t very good, either.

Overall Rating – 6/10.  The Hackers Stole The Show… But Not My Heart.

Review – Black

/ Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Review – Black

Black was a giant twisted MESS of a show.  Honestly, it’s like the writers were suffering from schizophrenia.  It’s a show about… rape?  Corruption?  Lost souls?  Grim Reapers?  Death?  First loves?  Child murder?  Familial problems?  Romance? Revenge?  Cop stuff?  Who knows!  It just stuck its hand in a big bag of ideas, grabbed as many as it could get its fingers around, then scattered them across the table and said, “Perfect!  That’s our show!”  And everyone else looked down and said, “Wait, what?” I am hard pressed to think of a more chaotic show than Black.  Despite the great actors and the cool fantasy aspects of the afterlife, it failed in coherence and theme.  For 20 freakin’ episodes… it was like untangling Christmas lights, except when the whole thing unraveled you discover half the bulbs are dead.

And Black, Grim Reaper 444… or is it 420?,  was a disastrous character.  What exactly happens to you when you die that makes your personality turn into a cartoon character?  His behavior was so hammy, so on the nose, so “Ha, Ha, Ha, I Don’t Like Humans Thus I Must Act Like A Childish Moron.”  It was groan inducing.

I have nothing else to say about this show.  If you want to throw away 20 hours of your life one day, like I did this Saturday, then feel free to watch this mess.

THE REAL MYSTERY OF THIS SHOW (besides trying to figure out why I watched the entire thing) is the conundrum of Kim Dong Jun… and how he’s the male mirror image of Han Ga In.  Seriously.  I thought, “they must be twins…  It’s uncanny!”  But nope.  They’re not related.  Maybe they have the same plastic surgeon, I don’t know, but geepers… it’s unnerving!

Overall Rating – 4/10.  The Afterlife Is Full Of Plot Holes.

Review – Because This Is My First Life

/ Lady Divine / 6 Comments

Review – Because This Is My First Life

Loved it.  Even loved the voice overs… which is rare for me.  And there were a lot of voice overs.  But they were perfect.  I loved the characters and their personalities and how they all hooked up.  It was a simple yet slightly different love story, just enough to make it feel fresh but not enough to inspire some philosophical debate or severe attachment.  This was a show you can watch, be engrossed in, and then happily let go… like birthday balloons after the party is over.  I really loved it, but somehow I don’t think I’ll be obsessively re-watching this one.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10.  Demisexuals in Love.

Discussions of my Ace Relationship with This Show… and spoilers follow

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Review – Go Ho’s Starry Night

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Review – Go Ho’s Starry Night

Okay, so… I watched this show last weekend.  All 20 episodes.  And then I completely forgot that I watched it… until a week later, when I was checking to see if new episodes of I Am Not A Robot are available.  Yeah.  So, I guess we can safely say it didn’t make an impression on me.  The leading lady was okay.  I wasn’t charmed by her, but I did like her enough to hope she hooked up with her hunky boss.  I didn’t much care for the eight hundred dudes who were all smitten with her angle… seriously… there’s a point where four guys are all fighting over her and there’s only about six dudes who work in her office, so basically everyone had a hard on for Go Ho.  Why? 

I was on a Kim Young Kwang kick, so I checked it out.  It’s nothing new.  It’s a predictable, reasonably entertaining piece of fluff with lots of cute moments but not a lot more.  This might be a good drama to watch after you’ve just finished something intense and amazing… like Liar Game or Remember or Bad Guys… when you just want a fluffy bunny to cuddle with, even though you know rabbits are terrible pets, cause for a few hours they’re kinda awesome and that’s all you need – a little time with a soft, fluffy diversion.

Overall Rating – 6/10.   Cute And Forgettable.

Review – Man Living at My House / Sweet Stranger & Me

/ Lady Divine / 3 Comments

Review – Sweet Stranger & Me

Welcome to backflash city.  The heavy handed, overuse of backflashes in this show reminded me of K-dramas of old… when you’d have a backflash to something that literally happened in the same episode.  It’s K-dramas for goldfish.

With that said, I still enjoyed this light drama.  The side characters were particularly enjoyable.  It’s one of those rare dramas that fully develops its side characters, so that they’re not just around as a plot device to add conflict as the two leads find love.  Oh no, these side characters get their own stories and you’ll be rooting for them to find happiness too.  In fact, I liked the side characters more than the lead characters.  A lot more.  The two second leads, the stalker sister, the goofy side-chef, the young gangster guy… I found them all to be more interesting and complicated than our reformed gangster turned chef and the grumpy stewardess.  My biggest qualm with this entire series is that it didn’t firmly wrap up the endings to these people – after laying all that foundation for them, giving them walls and windows and doors… why leave us hanging?  Give those people a roof, damn it, and complete their stories.

The simple version of the plot:  A young woman comes home to rest shortly after her mother dies and she catches her fiance cheating on her.  Once home, she discovers her mother secretly married a young man and this handsome guy is now her stepfather and owner of her family house, business, and property.  Her family turns out to be full of secrets, including tons of massive debt.  An extremely handsome and feisty local “Robot Museum” owner wants to buy the land to develop it into a resort… and he’s not only interested in the property, but also our leading lady.  On top of all this, the girl her fiance had an affair with keeps hanging around, bringing all her drama and shenanigans with her.

It was cute.  You have to suffer through the flashbacks for it, but it’s still a nice romantic show.  With two very handsome leading men.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Kneading Dough… Better Than Crossfit For Upper Body Strength.

More on Characters, Spoilers, Complaints and Musings follow….

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Review – Revolutionary Love

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Review – Revolutionary Love

This show was a fine mix of screwball comedy and drama.  The screwball was played by Choi Se-Won, who seems almost type-cast to play these lovable dufus characters.  He’s the male lead in this show, though I wasn’t entirely sure he was the male lead until the last episode because the second male lead, played by Gong Myung, had an equally compelling story and, in my opinion, more chemistry with the lead female.

This is a story of a bumbling third generation rich guy who’s spent the first thirty years of his life playing with his family’s money.  He has no job, no responsibilities, no worries and no sense of the world.  His small, extravagant world IS the world, as far as he’s concerned.  He’s happily let his older brother play the heir to the company, content to just ride on the coat tails of other people’s success.  He even has a personal secretary, the second male lead, whose sole job is to follow him around and clean up his messes.  These two men grew up together, one the prince, the other the pauper.  Gong Myung’s character is the son of the family chauffeur, a part of the wealthy world of his employers but only as an accessory.  He’s a brooding, miserable mess – a stark contrast to the ever-joyously oblivious prince heir.  Their friendship is real, but strained under the weight of their different roles and social positions.  It isn’t until our prince gets kicked out of the castle that the two finally get to grow as individuals.

Between these two men is our lead female.  A plucky young lady who refuses to get a full time job, already jaded by the insecurities of the working world after watching her father lose his job just short of retirement.  She’s had a crush on the brooding chauffeur’s son for years, but their relationship never progressed past awkward friendship.  When circumstance causes her to mistake our prince for a pauper, she bonds with the goofy rich boy in disguise and he, in turn, falls head over heels for our female lead.  Our prince sets out to woo this lady with everything he’s got – unfortunately, she doesn’t think anything he has is worth much, so he’s forced to re-evaluate his perceptions of reality.  His dogged pursuit of our female lead causes him to do things he’s never done before… like… get a job.

It’s a light, cute, goofy story.  There are lots of enjoyable characters – the other employees, the families of our three leads, the friends, even the neighbors – and everyone gets fleshed out enough that no one feels like a prop.  Choi Se-Won has perfected the art of being overtly hammy and still endearing, though his characters always seem to fall short of being romantic leads.  He’s better suited to being the one-sided crush guy, in my opinion, though maybe this is a failing on the writer’s part and not the actor.  There’s not a lot of romance in this romantic comedy.  For this particular plot, it worked fine.  This story was more about having the three leads grow as people and not as lovers.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Rich Goofball Learns To Use A Toilet Plunger.

Review – Save Me (from people!)

/ Lady Divine / 1 Comment

Review – Save Me (from people!)

Is this show a dark commentary on humanity?  YES.  Was it awesome?  Yes… but it’s very, very dark, so light a few candles and pray for the soul of the world before you start viewing.

This is the story about how a family got sucked into a cult.  It’s also a story about growing up, and realizing your parents aren’t the gods of our childhood.  It’s a story about society, and how the struggle for power changes people.   Power over your own life, power over circumstances, power over others.  It’s a commentary on politics, religion, government, and the basic needs of humans – to be useful, to be happy, and to be safe.  And at its heart, it’s a story about friendship.  There’s a lot packed into this drama.

It’s not a pleasant experience, though.  The drama tackled quite a few uncomfortable topics – from police corruption to political corruption, violent school bullying to murder, unbelievable cruelty to cold manipulations of others – both emotionally and physically.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  I’m not sure I want to again for a while, either.  You’ll want to give your brain a rest after this intensity… maybe watch a Disney movie or something.  Cleanse the palette, cleanse the soul.

Overall Rating – 9/10.  Getting To New Heaven Is Hell On Earth.

Thoughts on religion, my personal opinions on the matter, and various musings follow…

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Review – Temperature of Love (is lukewarm)

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Review – Temperature of Love (is lukewarm)

So, this is one of those dramas that’s basically your friend from high school who always dominated conversations, drank expensive coffees, and thought they were the first ones who ever figured out anything.  Usually they just babbled about something everyone already knows instinctively, but acted like they alone were privy to such spectacular insights into humanity.  A bit smug, a bit self-righteous, a bit annoying but you still called them your friend cause overall, they were basically harmless.  A perfect example of this:  In the show, our lead female has found a small flowering weed growing out of a brick wall… and turns this into a meditation on strength and tenacity… and our two leading men are blown away by this, as if this obvious metaphor were profound and they can’t help but love a women with such wisdom!  Ugh.

…the majority of the show is like this… two people sort of blank faced and brooding over very little… a LOT of talking about their feelings… a thousand cups of coffee

Temperature of Love is a character study on young professionals, their ambitions and dreams, and the various interpersonal hang ups they have that keep them at a distance or bring them closer to other people.  No one in this show is that remarkable.  They are all hard working and dedicated to their careers.  They all understand that talent only gets you so far, it’s the hours behind it that push you ahead.  We have three main characters, the young CEO who lives in his head, the young chef who expresses himself more with creatively arranged garnishes than with words, and the young drama script writer who did nothing to make herself unlikable but I still couldn’t bring myself to like her.  These three are our love triangle, though honestly the story is just about the chef and the script writer, who are about a decade apart in age and spend a lot of time breaking up and getting back together.  I kept listening to their stories because they wouldn’t shut up and I was mildly curious… but the quirky side characters were far more captivating.  The bitchy rival screenwriter who was preposterously self aware and unbelievable, but I still loved – the goofy side kick friend and her bumbling romance with the director – the selfish, beautiful mom who had more personality than… well… everyone in the show, honestly.  The side characters were solid.

…dang… Korean MILF

This show reminded me of Another Oh Hae Young.  Same leading lady.  Same sort of low key overdrama.  Same overall effect of “eh” when all was said and done.  In this drama, they tried really hard to convince us romantic things were happening with lots of voice overs (of deep thoughts in the shallow pool) and when our couple would embrace, suddenly the show would drop into black and white… which was fitting, as their relationship was not colorful or inspiring.  I watched it feeling happy I was single.  I had serious second lead syndrome the entire show, but just like in the drama Mary Stayed Out All Night, I didn’t want our leading lady to end up with the second lead male cause I didn’t think she deserved him.  He was far too awesome for her.

Anyways, I didn’t hate it.  I didn’t love it.  It’s somewhere inbetween.  All the kissing and cuddling would have been more enjoyable if I enjoyed the lead couple more, I think.  You might love them… so who knows… this drama may rock your socks.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Too Much Milk In The Coffee, Not Enough Food On The Plate.

Review – Duel

/ Lady Divine / 1 Comment

Review – Duel

You have to be in the mood for this type of drama.  It’s an action/thriller/mystery and it succeeds in each of those categories.  A middle aged cop with an adorable young daughter, dying of something-or-other, goes to extremes to save his child after she is kidnapped and held for ransom.  He tracks down a suspect – only to find himself face to face with two identical men.  Which of them is guilty of the crime?  Or are they co-conspirators?  He manages to arrest one… unfortunately, the one he captures has total amnesia, but swears up and down that he is innocent.  Add to this an alluringly ambitious prosecutor who means to get to the top if she has to chop everyone’s legs off to climb over them, and a young woman attempting to solve the mystery of her mother’s secret experiments… and you’ve got a winning drama.

Could there be a cooler opening sequence?  I just loved it!  The gothic piano, the chorus, the eery shots of handsome nudes morphing creepily into one another…

It’s one twist and turn after the other, with outstanding car chases, shoot-outs, evil big pharma companies, secret laboratories, and mafia.  Yang Se-Jong pulls double duty playing the twins – one malicious and deadly, the other baffled and determined to prove his innocence – and his face is quite mesmerizing in its ability to convey emotions.

But Kim Jung-Eun stole the show, in my opinion, as the gray-scale prosecutor… sailing smoothly between self-serving bitch to genuine pursuit of justice.  She was magnificent, complicated, and pretty much rocked my socks every time she was on screen.  You’ll love to hate her.

Overall Rating – 9/10.  No One With A Secret Laboratory Is Up To Any Good.

Review – Goong / Princess Hours

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Review – Goong / Princess Hours

I would have loved this ten years ago.  The premise is pretty cute, though a little weak threaded.   Modern monarchy in South Korea, arranged marriages between a charming, oddball “commoner” and the aloof, jerky prince, some inner palace strife over who gets the throne, yada yada.  It got ridiculously convoluted at the end… but then again, with the foreshadowing in the first episode, it fit right in.  I mean… the prince’s portrait showed him standing in front of a burning building.  Either that artist had an agenda, or that is some heavy handed foreshadowing thrown in for no reason other than to make viewers go, “Why is he standing in front of a burning building in his official royal portrait?  What’s the story there?  Did the artist read the drama script?”

Yoon Eun-Hye is adorable and I love her just about everything.  I loved her in this – and she was the only reason I kept watching, even when it dragged its feet and I wondered if there would be some, uhm… conflict?  Or… romance?  Or… interesting plotlines?  Eh, so so.  It’s a rather deliciously shallow gem from 2006.  As for Cinderella stories, they never get old… though I believe you’ll find better options.  Shining Inheritance came out a few years later and I thought it was much cuter, personally.  Anyways, Goong is a classic and I always felt a little bad for not watching it… so I sat down and let it roll.  I am glad I stuck it out, cause… even though a bit of a bore, seeing our prince and princess finally come together was cuter than a basket of puppies.

Overall Rating 6.5/10.  The Monarchy… When Living Is What You Do For A Living.