Review – White Christmas (A Tribute to 90’s Angst)

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Review – White Christmas (A Tribute to 90’s Angst)

In 2011, they gathered together all the young stars who could tear down a house with their acting abilities and threw them in a short, creepy drama together called White Christmas.  They set the entire thing to late 20th century indie music…  Primal Scream, Massive Attack, The Pixies, Alice in Chains, Velvet Underground… like a stolen mixed tape from my formative years.  The plot is simple – seven students receive a threatening, confusing anonymous letter saying they’re all cursed and someone will die over the Christmas break.  So they all stay behind, as the rest of their peers leave for the holidays.  These stragglers linger in a huge empty school building isolated on top of a snowy mountain… desperate to discover what role they have to play in this mystery.

And at its heart, the show is a mystery.  But it’s also an examination into a high pressure school system.  It’s social commentary.  It’s a therapy session.  It’s an exploration of natural violence.  It’s a story about people… and how they hurt and heal each other.  And it is DARK, people.

I’ve had it in my que for months… saving it.  Now that summer is coming to an end, I finally treated myself to dessert.  And it was exceptionally tasty.  Only eight episodes long but jam packed with mesmerizing performances, plot twists, and a startlingly original story.  It’s on Viki – go watch it now! (and please when you’re watching it take note of all the bizarre conceptual 90’s-style photoshop artwork all over the walls in every room… cause… wow… so eerie… remember the doll heads?)

Overall Rating – 10/10.  REDRUM!  REDRUM!!!

Discussion of characters and SPOILERS follow….

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Review – Thank You (…No Thank You)

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Review – Thank You (…No Thank You)

This drama is all about understatement (the picture above is very misleading… basically the little girl and grandpa are the only happy souls in the show).  It’s almost entirely set on a small island, the slow pace of life mirrored in the slow pace of the story unfolding.

Plot:  A young girl is desperately in love with her childhood sweetheart, who thwarts her to go off in pursuit of bigger ambitions.  But not before knocking her up, unbeknownst to him.  She raises the child the best she can, along with her elderly grandfather who suffers from dementia.  When her daughter is about eight years old, she’s in a car accident – and due to a mix up at the hospital, given contaminated blood and ends up with HIV.  The doctor responsible dies, but not before sending her doctor boyfriend off on a mission to apologize to the child and mother for her.  A series of events bring the doctor and the long-lost father of the child back to the island at the same time – and basically… it’s a slow, atmospheric WWIII of the Heart, with the adorable little girl at the center.

It’s a decent story about responsibilities and insecurities and families and communities.  You’ll come to know the small town and all the people in it as if you moved in, too.  I didn’t love it.  I’m not sure I even liked it.  The whole thing was a dreary mess, honestly… sort of washed out and pitiful instead of intense and heartbreaking.  I prefer my melodramas to be the latter.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Small Town Life is Highly Contagious, Take Precautions.

Just a little bit more… but not much…. light spoilers follow…

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Movie Reviews – Pure Love & My Annoying Brother

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Movie Reviews – Pure Love & My Annoying Brother

I was on a Do Kyung-Soo kick… or maybe just a crying kick, I’m not sure… but I ended up watching two Do Kyung-Soo tearjerkers back to back yesterday.  They were both lovely films – full of outstanding performances from all the actors involved.  Pure Love was a story about a group of teenage friends who are home for the summer in 1991, enjoying their beautiful coastal village and the pains and joys of growing up.  One of the girl’s has a genetic problem with her legs and struggles to walk – while secretly hoping for an operation that will cure her.  The boys in the group all love her, in their own ways, but in particular one sensitive young man who follows her around like a lost puppy.  It’s a gorgeous film… a thoughtful, nostalgic piece about youth and also about the betrayal of coming of age.  I ain’t gonna lie… I cried.  A lot.  They really did not intend for anyone to leave this movie with dry eyes and I’m sure succeeded…. cause a lot of it tore my heart out.

My Annoying Brother was, in my opinion, even better.  I’m a total sucker for redemption stories.  The youngest brother is a Judo champion who looses his sight during an accident.  The eldest brother is a petty criminal who uses his brother’s misfortune to get out of prison on parole early.  The two have been estranged for years – ever since the older brother ran away from home as a teenager.  And yet, slowly, wonderfully, these two are able to come back together… and restore hope and meaning to one another’s lives.  Cho Jung-Seok was genuine and hysterical as the unruly brother (seriously, I laughed a lot over this guy and his ridiculous behavior… I have an older brother, and let’s face it… they’re kind of jerks most of the time but also your heroes)… and Do Kyung-Soo was outstanding as the young man struggling to find the will to live with his new disability.  This is also a melodrama… and it’s pretty freakin’ sad, too.  But I also felt good at the end, hopeful even… my faith in humanity restored a little bit.

Anyways, check ’em out if you’re in the mood.  Quality stuff.

 

Review – Queen for Seven Days

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Review – Queen for Seven Days

Did you order some tears with your romantic salad?  This was a good show… that I’ve been watching unfold over the summer.  Not quite great, but definitely on par with most quality sageuks.  As you can tell from the name, it will not have a happy ending.  But until then, it does manage to be shockingly romantic – more so than any other sageuk I can think of.  Or least, more overtly romantic, in a modern contemporary way, as opposed to the subtle, slow burn romances we generally get in these historical shows.  Our lead couple was charming – in particular, her overt nature compared to his reserve.  Especially when they were older, her understanding of his introverted tendencies showed a level of maturity rarely seen in dramas – with her always knowing when she needed to go back to him first after an argument, or infer all the things he left unsaid.  And like Romeo & Juliet, their romance was all the more delicious as everyone was actively trying to tear it apart or come between them.  Nothing like opposition to make things exciting, eh?

I’ve seen a real shift lately in understanding the power of a strong psychotic character to make any drama more interesting.  The crazed king motif never gets old, frankly, and Lee Dong Gun’s performance as the seriously unstable, yet strangely sympathetic/pathetic ruler was outstanding.  Plus he had the best wardrobe of any royalty I have seen in a saguek to date – the man encouraged color and variety in his kingly robes, thank you.  Scheming adults, lovable sidekicks, secret identities, and a variety of palace drama and violence kept the pace in each episode.  This is a good drama to watch when you’re in the mood for a flagrantly emotional rollercoaster, as the emotional aspect of show is definitely its strength.  The plot is not overly complicated, nor are the characters, really.  At it’s heart, it’s an uber-romantic-romance (it’s not all tears, either, there are some very fluffy care-free episodes and cheeky romance moments before the melodrama sinks in).

There’s also a surprisingly modern soundtrack, yet it worked well with the show, which was sort of a hybrid anyway (there was definitely a lot of modern elements covertly woven in).

Overall Rating – 8.5/10 – If There Is A Prophesy Dooming Your Relationship… You Might Wanna Reconsider Your Choices.

Review – I Remember You / Hello Monster

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Review – I Remember You / Hello Monster

I will remember this show… until I’m dead. I am a sucker for sympathetic villains and this drama featured not one but TWO.

Plot:  Basically, two young brothers are separated in childhood after one is kidnapped by a teenage serial killer.  The story is what happens when they are reunited in adulthood… including the reunion with the serial killer.

To say that I loved this show is an understatement.  I love a lot of dramas.  If I didn’t love K-dramas, I wouldn’t bother with this blog.  There are tons of great K-dramas.  And for every K-drama, there is one that seems made… if you can find it… just for you.  As if K-World read your diary and said, “Oh, you like this, eh?” Then created a drama that matched your secret wish list, wrapped it up like a present, tied it with a bow, and put your name on it.

This drama HAUNTED ME.  I loved it so much! I loved everything about it. The romance, the cop shenanigans, the mystery plot lines – everything was perfection. But the center of this story is about nature vs nurture. Do we create monsters or are they born? Can they change? Can they learn? Can a monster evolve into a human being?

I’m not even using poetic license when I say I had dreams about this show.  I literally had dreams about this show.  

Overall Rating – 12/10.  Monsters Make Their Own Families.

Much Much Much Rambling, Character Explorations, Themes, And Massive SPOILERS follow… so, you know, you have been warned.

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Review – My Beautiful Bride

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Review – My Beautiful Bride

Basic Plot – a banker proposes to his pretty young girlfriend and a few days later, she disappears.  As he tries to find her, everyone is dragged into the secret vortex of these people’s lives and the criminal underworld – including you, dear viewer.

I loved this show from the first episode.  It had a strange vibe.  A uniqueness.  It reminded me, in a way, of Heartless City… which also lives by itself in a universe of its own genre.  Not quite this, not quite that.  Violent, bloody, scary, romantic, sentimental, intimate, intense… with action galore and these nice old school thriller shots (you know, the kind were you just follow someone down a dark alley and the tension just grows and grows until you’ve chewed your nails to bits and are jumping at every shadow wondering when something is going to happen).  It jumps back and forth in time.  It reveals the plot slowly, in layers.  You think you know the show in episode two?  Nope.  Episode four?  Nope.  It just keeps changing, morphing, becoming more brilliant.

And then… mysteriously… horribly… I lost interest in it entirely around episode 9 and no longer cared what happened to anyone.  I had to force myself to finish it – but I’m glad I did.  Part 2 had an entirely different tone, but it was still interesting… just not in the same awesome way as Part 1.  It’s like going on a date with someone who got up suddenly in the middle of dinner, went to the bathroom, put on a wig, changed clothes, and sat back down sporting a foreign accent.  What?  What’s happening?!  This was not the show I asked out to dinner… but I still wanted to know what would happen.  I can’t help but think this would have been a 10/10 drama if it were 10  episodes long instead of 16.

Overall Rating – 10/10 First Half, 6/10 Second Half…. so 8/10 Average.  What Happens When Your Fiance Falls Into A Dark Rabbit Hole And You Go Chasing After.

Light spoilers follow…

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Review – Six Flying Dragons

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Review – Six Flying Dragons

This drama was outstanding.  It’s about the end of the Goryeo period and the beginning of the Joseon period – in particular, the revolution leading from one to another.  And it’s the best historical Korean Drama I have ever seen.  Ever.  After the second episode, I was pretty sure it was surpassing my favorites.  And after the epic 3-Prong Rescue Sequence from the Biguk Temple in Episode 6… I was hooked.  By the end of the loop to the opening scene in Ep 1 closing in Ep 10, I thought… wow… holy crap… that’s extremely good writing.  It’s by the same writing team that brought us Queen Seonduk and Tree with Deep Roots… this male/female team, Kim Young-Hyun and Park Sang-Yeon, know their stuff.  And they have been perfecting their craft.  Tightly woven plots in each episode, building on each other throughout yet changing enough to keep you enthralled, extremely complicated but fulfilling character development, action, historical significance, and even some romance.

Seriously.  BEST HISTORICAL DRAMA I HAVE EVER SEEN.  Just… mesmerizing.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  The View Is Only Better From the Moral High Ground If You Don’t Look Down.

More about characters – spoilers spoilers spoilers – thoughts and more…. please watch the show before treading into these waters, you don’t need to muddy up your experience by reading details first.

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Review – Which Star Are You From?

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Review – Which Star Are You From?

I stumbled across this romantic comedy from 2006 by chance… and what a charmer!  It had everything you want from a romantic comedy – or at least, everything I want – nonstop focus on the main couple.

The plot is simple:  A successful filmmaker falls in love with an elegant, rich beauty – but doesn’t measure up to her family’s standards.  In a tragic accident, she dies – leaving him heartbroken.  Several years later, he stumbles across this backwoods hillbilly girl who looks just like his departed lost love – and follows her to her mountain home.  She’s crass, rude, wild, honest, and basically the exact opposite of everything his first love was… yet they find themselves having a blast together, fighting and bickering and playing and falling in love.  Can he open his heart his again to this unexpected girl?

Though it was a simple show, it had enough twists in the road to keep me highly entertained all sixteen episodes.  It was also incredibly romantic.  The two leads had great chemistry – Kim Rae-Won and Jung Ryeo-Won have no trouble convincing us they are star crossed – and the female lead, in particular, was fantastic at playing dual roles – of the mysterious, lovely first love and the plucky, gregarious hillbilly with her childish braids and hair barrettes.  Classic romantic K-Drama.  I loved it!

Overall Rating – 9/10.  Lolita of the Back Woods.

Review – Cinderella and the Four Knights

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Review – Cinderella and the Four Knights

I love Korean fairy tale dramas.  Shining Inheritance, anyone?  They always follow the same rules – basically some good-hearted young lady is brought in to “save” rich people from their own miserable natures.  Unhappy rich people become happy rich people, and as a reward… the young lady gets married off to one of the rich boys and becomes rich too.  Happy Ever After.  This show didn’t even try to deny it… just look at the title!

Unlike most Korean drama fairy tales, however, this show differentiated itself by focusing on character development, almost exclusively as a plot device (through various missions our Cinderella is tasked to accomplish), so that our knights became real people instead of cliches.  Cute and romantic, it’s a feel-good drama that’s perfect when you’re in the mood for some cheesy charm.  Lots of laughs and heart.  Highly recommended.

Overall Rating – 8.5/10.  Prince Charming’s Castle Courtesy of Mass Studies Architecture.

Discussion of Characters and Spoilers Follow….

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Review – Suspicious Partner / Love in Trouble

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Review – Suspicious Partner / Love in Trouble

What happens when you take a pretty good plot for a standard 16 episode drama and try to pull it apart like taffy into a drawn out short format series that goes on for 40 long (yet annoyingly short and empty) episodes? You ruin a perfectly good show, that’s what happens. Can we just stop making these 35 minute format shows? They’re so annoying! This drama was just a big mess – and I blame the formatting for 90% of the problem.

The cast was stellar and had great chemistry – all of them – though it felt more like “playing” than “acting”… as if they were all enjoying a nice vacation from serious work for a while and just goofing off for an easy paycheck. So it wasn’t an unpleasant waste of my time – I enjoyed watching them enjoy themselves, I guess. I am a huge Ji Chang-Wook fan, but this role required very little of him.  He just had to show up, basically, and be adorable… which he can do in his sleep, I imagine. Sigh.

With the exception of the villain, played to absolute perfection by Dong Ha (someone just give him an award immediately, cause he brought his acting chops to the table while everyone else came empty handed).

It’s basically about lawyers and prosecutors and the challenge of trying to determine the guilt and innocence of people when all these external and internal factors are messing with the evidence (watch Remember, if you want a damned fine drama on this subject).

The two main leads fall in love, so lots of flirting and kissing. These two actors have excellent chemistry so it is definitely swoon worthy – and why my original low rating had to be replaced with a higher one later cause I admit I find myself rewatching this show occasionally.

Everyone is charming and cute, but other than that… there’s not a lot going on with their characters. As mentioned, the only character who really mesmerized me was the villain – and the cool plot twist at the end could not save this long, rambling story line or this show. It will forever be good… but not great.

Overall Rating – 8/10.  Ji Chang-Wook’s Star Power Trying to Survive a Needlessly Drawn Out Show.