Review – Emergency Couple

/ Lady Divine / 1 Comment

Review – Emergency Couple

Why did I wait so long to watch you???

This show was awesome!  True, I think it would have been better as a 16 episode drama instead of a 21 episode drama… as it definitely suffered from a drag down towards the end… but who cares?  It was fun.  It was funny.  It was romantic.  It was pissy and playful and interesting and enjoyable.

A young couple gets married, despite parental objections, only to have their marriage fall apart within the year.   He can’t see her side of things, she can’t see his side of things, they are both 19 and fully immersed in their own perspectives.  A few years pass, and both end up getting their medical degrees after the divorce.  Fate brings them back together when they both get assigned the same intern positions, in the ER, and are forced to meet again.  They’ve both grown up… but how long will it take them to realize it?

Overall Rating – 8/10.  Resuscitating a Relationship Requires Two Medical Degrees.

More humor, musings, spoilers, and giggles follow….

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Review – On The Way To The Airport

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Review – On The Way To The Airport

Though this drama had a strong cast, it failed to impress me.  The lead male was lovable, kind, and generous.  The lead female sweet, nice, and sincere.  It was clear from the first episode that they were perfect for each other.  Only problem was, they were both married to jerks.  He was married to a manipulative, cruel beauty (whom he insists repeatedly that he fell in love with despite no evidence of such feelings between them).  She was married to a self-centered pilot who neglected and disrespected her (they hooked up drunk one night and one unexpected pregnancy later, were married).

I am single, dear reader.  So I have trouble with a drama like this one.  What kind of fools are these people to stay in such horrible, soul crushing relationships for so long?  It’s like they went on autopilot, like a horse stuck on a routine circuit with blinders on.  Both of these unhappy people just put all their love and energy into their children, so much so that they both disappeared, more or less.  They didn’t notice the unhappiness or indifference of their families, their inlaws, their friends and their spouses.  It was all about their children – which is great, except their children weren’t wearing blinders.  Their children were unhappy and noticed the one person who cared about them most were vulnerable fools wearing blinders – so the children in this show were forced to grow up quickly, to deceive their parents, and play a pawn between them more often than not.  Especially the man’s daughter, but also our lead female’s daughter.

Both families had already sent their kids to boarding schools in foreign countries.  They obsessively worked.  They came home to empty, cold houses.  They basically lived alone, though under the pretense of marriage.

There is more to life than this.  And that’s the plot of the show.  The two nice people find each other and fall in love.  It’s slow and it’s beautiful and I really felt like I was watching two strangers fall in love.  (The cinematography was also lovely in this show)

But I didn’t love it.  I found myself annoyed 50% of the program.  I can mull things over with the best of the introverts, but when it’s time to make a decision – I am like a butcher who will sever one half of a body from the other if need be.  So I found myself annoyed and rather bored quite often.  This drama was purely a drama (with the tiniest pinch of mystery just for taste) and I prefer melodramas, because… honestly… I would have loved to watch these people scream and freak out and tear each other to pieces.  It would have been deeply satisfying.  I would have liked the “evil” spouses to be more evil.  I would have liked to take the drama volume and turned it waaaaaay up.  Because their domestic, domestic problems were tedious and almost entirely self inflicted.  Just rip that band aid, you pussies.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Check Your Baggage, People.

Best Line:  “The maternal instinct isn’t a natural instinct.”

Review – Tomorrow’s Cantabile / Naeil’s Cantabile

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Review – Tomorrow’s Cantabile / Naeil’s Cantabile

Surprisingly odd, funny and enduring drama about a bunch of talented young musicians.  It’s a drama filled with a big cast of memorable characters – each with their own instruments and problems – but each with a common goal:  To Get Better, To Succeed.  The friendships and struggles make this show shine.  I thought this might be a mindless throw-away show, which is why I popped it in this week… as I’ve been extremely tired after work and wasn’t in the mood to think much.  I was just looking for a feather light diversion, but instead got a quality gem of entertainment.  I laughed, I worried, I got emotionally involved, and I wondered what would happen to ALL OF THE CHARACTERS as the show moved from episode to episode.  It starts off quite silly but quickly settles into more structure and higher stakes as the plotlines establish themselves.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10.  Brainwashed Into Loving Classical Music Through Adorable Characters.

Much More About Everything and Everyone – Spoilers too….

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Review – Cheer Up / Sassy Go Go

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Review – Cheer Up / Sassy Go Go

Plotline:  The top 5% of an elite high school belong to the Cheerleading Club, but in name only… these kids just use the club space to further their studies.  Next door, the bottom 5% dance their pants off in a Hip Hop Club, annoying the nerds who share a wall with them.  When one of the top students worries her extracurriculars aren’t meeting Ivy League standards, it is suggested they turn their fake cheer club into a real one and try to win Regionals.  Unfortunately, none of the nerds can dance… so the school officials help them blackmail the Hip Hop Club into joining their team, increasing their chances of success.  Love, anger, friendship, betrayal, and lots of lost sleep over exams follow.

This show was a joy ride.  Just… a bunch of fun, from start to finish.  The problems of these students at their high pressure school were interesting to watch.  All the parents, officials, teachers, and outside pressure illustrated how complicated and stressful the system was.  But overall, it was just fluffy feel good fun.  Nothing too deep, nothing too serious, nothing too overdramatic.  The characters were cute and likable, even the unlikable ones (shout out to Chae Soo-Bin who killed it as the near nervous breakdown #2 in the school desperate to climb to the top at any cost), and the plotlines moved quickly through the 12 episode series.

I had just finished the book Revival by Stephen King… the ending of which left me slightly traumatized… so I needed something light weight and heart warming to ward off the nightmares.  This show as perfect for that.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10 – Bring It On, Elite Boarding School Style.

Review – Sungkyunkwan Scandal

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Review – Sungkyunkwan Scandal

I recently rewatched Sungkyunkwan Scandal, for… what?  Maybe the sixth time?  It’s an adorable romantic comedy.  It is, in my opinion, the best historical romantic comedy.  Still standing strong since 2010.  It has it all.  The best of all the tropes.  All your favorite things.  All the things you hope to see in a romantic comedy.  All the tricks of the trade done just right.  And for some reason, it’s impossible for me to write a review about it.  Every time I try, I just end up wanting to watch it again.  Sometimes you just have a to watch it.  When everyone agrees that it’s awesome – how many reviews do you need to read, anyways?  Trust the crowd.  It’s true.  It’s really, really freaking good.

The cast is perfect.  The lead male is the most delightful stick in the mud nerd… and let’s face it, how often is the main character an uptight, mega nerd?  But it works!  It works because they paired him off with a equally smart lady disguised as a man, who has a sense of humor and a flair for drama.  It works because they balanced him off with polar opposite friends – a carefree, socialite who is interested in fashion and flirting (Yeorim!  Oh, how I love him!) and a misfit, rebel who is interested in fighting and social justice won through actions over words.  They’re all awesome.  I wanted to be bestie with all these besties.

Just watch it.  You won’t be sorry.  You’ll laugh and be entertained and smitten and charmed.  It’s unavoidable.  It’s so well written – the cast is large and memorable.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  Nerds in Love.

K-Drama Awards

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It’s time for a little K-Drama Awards Show!

I’m currently watching Save Me as it airs and rewatching Goblin inbetween… so in my down time, decided to make a few lists to amuse myself.  And possibly you.

Funniest Drama – Winner:  GREATEST LOVE.  Other nominees:  Master’s Sun, Strong Woman Do Bong-Soon, Beautiful Gong Shim, & The Sound of Your Heart.

Scariest Psycho – Winner:  Namgung Min in REMEMBER.  Other nominees:  Song Yoon-A in The K2, Park Ki-Woong in Bridal Mask, Yeon Jeong-Hun in Mask, Shin Sung-Rok in Liar Game

  

Psychopaths You Love – Winner:  Kim Nam Gil in QUEEN SEON DUK.  Other nominees:  Choi Won-Young & Park Bo-Gum in I Remember You/Hello Monster, Park Hae-Jin in Bad Guys, Park Hae-Jin in Cheese in the Trap, & Sung Joon in White Christmas

Characters Who Need Meds – Winner:  Eric Moon in ANOTHER MISS OH.  Other nominees:  Kim Jae-Wook in Bad Guy, Lee Jong-Hyeok in Dr. Khang, Yoona in The K2, Yoon Eun-Hye in I Miss You, Everyone in Que Sera Sera.

Weirdest Lovable Character – Winner:  Jang Hyuk in FATED TO LOVE YOU.  Other nominees:  Kim Beom in Padam Padam, Yoon Si-Yoon in Flower Boy Next Door, Chun Jung-Myung in Heart to Heart, Hyun Bin in Secret Garden, Choi Si-Won in She Was Pretty, Kong Hyo-Jin in Master’s Sun

Best Cinematography – Winner:  SHARK.  Other nominees:  Lucifer,  Resurrection,  Goblin, Six Flying Dragons, & Mask

Characters That I Thought Were Hot Together & Should Have Hooked Up (even if it was a deleted scene where they got drunk and made out and neither remembered it the next day) – Winner:   Ji Chang-Wook & Yoon So-Yi in WARRIOR BAEK DONG SOO (to this day I still think they got it wrong by not putting these two together).  Other nominees: Moon Geun-Young &  Moon Chae-Won in Painter in the Wind (totally),  Lee Soo-Hyuk & Lee Joon-Gi in Scholar Who Walks the Night (some bloodsucking/hickies would have rocked), Hwang Jung-Eum & Choi Si-Won in She Was Pretty (at least once!), & Song Joong-Ki & Yoo Ah-In in Sungkyunkwan Scandal (gah, that would have been awesome!)

 

 

Review – (Suffering Through) The Bride of the Water God

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Review – (Suffering Through) The Bride of the Water God

I am a sucker for supernatural stories, so of course I signed up for this show the minute it started.  Even though the first episode was lame.  Even though the second episode was lame.  Even though it never got better… it just… middled around towards the bottom.  But I kept watching it.  Every Tuesday.  Two new eps at a time.  Like an idiot.  Because I kept expecting something to happen… which is ridiculous, because after a certain point, you just know nothing is going to happen because if the writers knew how to make a good story, they would have been giving you one the entire time.

So, idiot me, watched this entire dumb show.  About the most boring, lifeless, and dreadfully uninspired divinities EVER.  Have there ever been more boring gods?  NO.  They have zero personality.  They don’t really do anything, apparently – they were as boring in the Realm of the Gods as they were in the Human World.  Just… dreadful.

As was our lead female.  What a low key bitch, right?  And her annoying habit of rambling out her self autobiography showed a sad lack of insight for a therapist.  I mean… didn’t she have a degree in psychology?  No wonder she didn’t have any clients.

Did the actors not read the script first?  I honestly can’t believe this show got the green light.  It’s so bad!  Plot holes, pointless characters, storylines that go no where, seemingly important things that turn out to be utterly meaningless, and bad fashion.  The romance was stupid, too.  Childish, annoying, insipid, awkward.  Eck.  I hated it.

Overall Rating – 2/10.  Drowning In A Plate of Water.

Review – Chicago Typewriter

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Review – Chicago Typewriter

Stop the press!  This show gets the award for best use of books as decor.  Bookshelves galore – and all of them packed.  I’m talking… books, books, books!  Anyways, this was a fun and strange little drama about reincarnation and writers.  A group of independence fighters from the 1930’s end up reunited again in 2016… trying to solve the mystery of their past lives and their current situations.  Though I really liked this show, I thought it could have been better – so it’s not a perfect story.  But it’s such an unusual tale… with ghosts and shamans and snipers and book thieves and stalkers and quirky side characters… that it definitely stands out.

It’s no spoiler that all our characters had to die at some point to be reincarnated, and I’m not gonna lie… it was sentimental and gloriously patriotic and heartbreaking and awesome when it’s finally revealed at the end and I wept openly.  Before the tears, thankfully, there’s quite a bit of comedy and romance and screwball situations to amuse the viewing audience.  And did I mention mansions full of bookshelves?  It’s like the Beast’s castle, I swear.

For a drama about writers, I think they got a lot of things right.  Including the literary jokes (Stephen King references anyone?)!  Writing is tough.  My mother is a published author and it’s work, people… it’s not glamorous most of the time, it’s a lot of sitting in front of a computer typing until you’re fingers are numb.  And then doing the same thing the next day.  It’s deadlines and rewrites and editors and then, at some point, a finished product… followed by publicity tours which are also less glamorous than they seem.  Cause work is work.  And if writing is your profession, then it’s what you put 8 to 10 hours of you day into.  Just like other professions, 99% of the people in it aren’t amazingly successful and living in mansions filled with 40 foot bookshelves.

The three principal actors carried the show – drawing you into their past and present story lines with ease.  They all had a natural camaraderie that was believable.  Yoo Ah-In was perfectly cast as the neurotic, obsessive, serious author – he’s really quite a talent.  Ko Gyung-Pyo continues to shine by finding roles that are well suited for him – in other words, roles that don’t require too much besides a sensitive face and a calm demeanor.  Lim Soo-Jung, our wide eyed lady, was charming and a perfect balance between the two.  None of the side characters were interesting enough for me to bother writing about but all of them were fun enough that I was entertained by their presence.  Though it was great to see Yang Jin-sun playing the best friend/newly awakened shamen… I honestly think she’s leading lady material and hope she’ll get headline status again soon.

Overall Rating – 8/10.  When Ghostwriters are Actual Ghosts.

P.S.  It should be mentioned there is a few quality smooches in this drama… one with the same preamble used in Grease 2 “Let’s do it for our country!” and the other, my favorite, off a crowded street… meow!

Review- The Best Hit

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Review – The Best Hit

Where to even begin with this odd, nonsensical, messy yet… strangely… kinda fun show?  Here’s the premise:  In 1994, a pop duo J2 ruled the charts until its front man went missing, mysteriously… leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend.  In 1993, that same front man actually traveled through time, 20 plus years into the future, via a typhoon/staircase incident (don’t ask)… and apparently this split him into two people – the one who will stay behind and continue on route to disappearing in 1994… and the one who now roams around in the future.  Time traveling rock star hangs out with his own son (who is struggling to become a pop idol via some training program), and his two best friends – who all share a rooftop room together.  Meanwhile time traveler’s best friend and baby-mamma live downstairs, now middle aged.  From there it is a bizarre mix of flashbacks and strange relationships and strained relationships, as everyone deals with this time warp business.

It was honestly a disaster, but Yoon Si-Yoon is so good at playing these cheesy, over the top, lovable goofball rolls that he makes even the most preposterous convoluted story lines enjoyable.  I wasn’t overly impressed with anyone else – or their stories – but I stuck around.  I admit I did fast forward quite a bit.  This was another one of those annoying “short” episode shows where they’d literally just cut a normal episode in two for no conceivable reason – so the pacing always felt off.  It wasn’t quite about family.  It wasn’t quite about the entertainment industry.  It wasn’t quite a time travel mystery.  It wasn’t quite a romance or a bromance.  It was a little of everything and thus not quite much of anything.

The love triangle was more interesting than most, though, as it mirrored the infamous Pretty In Pink storyline… where you have two best friends who mean everything to each other, but one of them is secretly in love.  The key to this is making the person with the one sided love very charming and sympathetic… thus leading to “Duckie Syndrome,” where the majority of the audience likes that guy more than the lead guy and seem annoyed the girl doesn’t return his affections.  In this show, the son of the time traveling pop star has been in love with his best friend for years – and finally decides to confess once he notices her falling for his time traveling father.

So… there were pros and cons.  Probably more cons… and yet… and yet… it so freakin’ weird and unexpected that I did enjoy watching it.  The first 10 eps were incredibly hammy and nonsensical, but once it found it’s place, the story did improve drastically.

Overall Rating – 7/10.   Yoon Si-Yoon Is Fun In Every Decade.

Movie Review – Alice: Boy From Wonderland

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Movie Review – Alice: Boy From Wonderland

What a surreal, moody, broody, twisted little movie.  I adored it, as I have always been a fan of ghost stories and haunted houses.  Especially with tragic tales (but aren’t they always?) as back stories.  This was a strange piece of work… definitely not a mainstream film.  It reminded me of Werewolf Boy (which is far, far superior in every way), in that it’s so odd, so touching, so horrible, that I know it will stick with me for a long time.  It’s basically about a young woman whose nightmares have become so thick they’re blurring into reality – and threaten to take her, and her family, to the grave.  With the help of her aunts, she goes to an inbetween-world, Wonderland, an estate that burnt to the ground but is, mystically, available to our Alice for a few precious days while she sorts out her past and the souls lost that are still pulling at her life.

Jung So-Min plays our lead female – and she was perfect as the surreal, beautiful, dreamy girl caught between worlds.  Hong Jong-Hyun was lovely as the tragic soul who clings to her side, helping her navigate the strange world she now inhabits.

Eerie.  Romantic.  Bloody.  Confusing.  A dream within a dream in a dream world.  Not a bad way to spend an evening.  If you liked movies such as… The Others, The Girl In A Swing, or Skeleton Key or even something like Virgin Suicides or The Dreamers, you’ll probably like this one.