Korean Drama

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.

Review – Doctor Stranger

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Review – Doctor Stranger

What an odd little show.  I have so many conflicting emotions about this drama – because there were so many things I really, really liked and quite a few things I wished I could have vetoed in the writer’s room.  But overall – it’s one of the few medical dramas I enjoyed.

Plot:  A brilliant surgeon and his young son are sent on a secret diplomatic mission to North Korea – only to be betrayed by their own country and kept by the North Koreans!  The young man grows up there, following the footsteps of his father to become a doctor, but due to the lack of equipment and technology, learns “old school.” His childhood sweetheart and fiance is taken by the secret police shortly after agreeing to marry him.  When he’s near graduation, he is taken by the government to a secret facility to perfect his craft of heart surgery, by devious and nefarious means.  He spends several years imprisoned in this nightmarish place – secretly searching for his fiance.  He finally finds her right when his opportunity to escape the country presents itself – and attempts to flee with his lady love only to lose her in the process.  Several years later, in South Korea, a series of events leads him to be hired as a new surgeon at a prestigious hospital.  There he meets a woman who looks identical to his fiance, but claims not to know him.  Who is this mysterious woman?  And will he ever find his lost love?  While all these burning questions linger, there is an awesome new woman in his life who vies for his heart… but can he ever escapes the secrets of his terrible past and get over his first love?

Overall Rating – 8/10.  Pyongyang Medical School is Not For The Faint of Heart.

More Discussion and Spoilers Follow….

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Review – Man to Man / ManXMan / Man 2 Man

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Review – Man to Man / ManXMan

A good summer drama with a lot of exciting action sequences, exotic locations, and hammy comedy.  It wasn’t perfect – and kinda tried to pack too many layers on its club sandwich, if you ask me, but I still had fun trying to eat it.  It’s not quite one genre or another, which I think was the only failing of this show – as I kept wanting it to lean left, into more exciting action/suspense, or just stay firmly right in the romantic comedy zone.  The constant shuffling between the two made me feel a little jet lagged.

Plotline:  A secret agent (played to perfection by Park Hae-Jin) goes undercover as a bodyguard to a goofy, middle aged actor (another ideal casting decision to choose Park Sung-Woong) – who, by the way, was hysterical – and gets romantically entangled with his over the top possessive female manager (Kim Min-Jung).  Missions to recover stolen artifacts, corrupt politicians, the extremely sexy Yeon Jeong-Hun, showbusiness shenanigans and more will entertain you for hours.

Sure, there are better shows.  But this one was fun trip with a huge cast of stars, tons of cameos, and… well… a little something of everything, really.  Unfortunately, that also meant it wasn’t a lot of one thing, which was ultimately its downfall.

*Quick Editor’s Note: Since posting this review, I have gone back to this show numerous times… and watched random episodes any time I wanted to laugh, enjoy Park Hae-Jin’s facial expressions, or just chill out and enjoy the show. It reminds me of Master’s Sun – in that you can just click on any random episode and have a good time watching it. Anyways, it’s 2021 now… and I’m going to have to bump up my viewer rating to reflect how fun this show is to rewatch.

Seriously, though, Park Hae-Jin’s facial expressions are the most enjoyable aspect of this show. Recently I reviewed Taxi Driver and said I didn’t think anyone else could pull off the action/comedy required for the main role, but thinking about it… Park Hae-Jin could have also nailed that role. 

Man2Man_1

Overall Rating – 9/10 (original rating: 7/10) – Undercover Romantic Tactics Will Be Used.

 

Review – In Need of Romance 3

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Review – In Need of Romance 3

The more I think about this show, the more I dislike it.  I will admit being biased, as I don’t care for Kim So-Yeon.  She’s one of my least favorite actresses in K-World.  She’s like Seth Rogan… krytonite to my viewing experience.  So, I should have known better going in… but I thought, Sung Joon might save it… or Namgung Min.  Nope.

The plot is basically about a young girl who was a nanny for a rich boy all through her childhood, watching this kid from infancy until he was about 10 or so.  For him it was all sunshine and roses, but for her it was hell.  Time jump about 17 years and she’s grown up to be a bitchy, successful producer of a home shopping network and he has grown up to be a naive, successful musician.  They have a ten second romance before his identity is revealed, and then they basically switch roles from their childhoods – with him acting as the caregiver and her as the busied dependent coming in and out without appreciating him.  And, you know, they slowly fall in love.  I guess.  You’ve also got all the coworkers at the home shopping network going through their own romances – none of which are very noteworthy.  They’re so cliche and one note, they’re basically wallpaper.

One of my pet peeves is tedious voice overs – especially when they’re trying to be poetic or introspective and it doesn’t seem to match the character at all.  This show was stock full of annoying voice overs of our two main character musing about life and love and blah, blah, blah.  Just, show NOT tell, please.  If you couldn’t get that message across in the drama, then it’s lazy writing to try to throw it on top as a voice over.  Yuck.  The voice overs were like those contrite memes with inspirational sayings.  Also, the dialogue was a mess.  There were too many instances of a character saying something that sounded way too measured and preachy for sporadic conversation.  What, did they memorize this speech before hand?  It felt so unnatural.  Our male lead calmly lecturing our female lead about her emotional state… “maybe you’re just a person who doesn’t recognize your own feelings” was ridiculous.  People don’t talk like that.  Even therapists don’t talk like that.  The whole show was like this.  Groan inducing.

What the show DID have going for it was open mouth kissing.  And quite a bit of it.  And bed scenes (mainly “after” where there’s a dude without a shirt and the girl mysteriously sleeps in pajamas).  It was quite frank with its sexual tone.  If only I cared about whether any of them ever got laid, ever again in their lives.  But I didn’t.  I basically just enjoyed the eye candy and fast-forwarded through massive chunks of the eps towards the end.  Honestly, I should have just watched some kiss compilation videos on youtube… saved myself from the constant eye rolling.

Overall Rating – 4/10.  French Kissing Does Not Make Up For Bad Writing.

Review – Fight My Way

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Review – Fight My Way

There’s nothing spectacular about this drama – it’s middling at best – the plot isn’t intricate and the characters aren’t necessarily as developed as they could be – but it still manages to be charming.  Simple and charming.  A straight forward love story with light obstacles and people overcoming their hardships rather easily.  Not that I didn’t still enjoy it – cause I did.  Park Seo-Jun is a great actor and really killed it as a mixed martial arts badass with a tender heart.  And Kim Ji-Won was lovable as the country girl with big ambitions to be an announcer that just needed to find her place.  They had great chemistry and it was delightful to watch them come together, moving from long time platonic best friends into lovers.  Also, the second romance of the second leads was equally engaging – the long time couple who were struggling with their relationship and status as they moved through life.  It felt very real and believable and my heart was genuinely moved by both of their stories.

But this show is popcorn.  A tasty snack.  It didn’t try too hard.  And I didn’t try too hard either.  I just enjoyed it, as a delicious treat but not a real meal.  I think after viewing a lot of K-Dramas you get spoiled on the potential of what 16 hours of storytelling can actually provide a viewer.  I mean… that’s a lot of time.  A LOT can happen.  Or a little can happen, and it can still be fun, if it’s done right.  I had fun watching this show, but it didn’t challenge me or make me think or offer me any new insights into humanity or relationships.  So in a way, I’m a little disappointed in it.  Cause the story line could have been so much more than it was.  But as it was… I still wouldn’t skip it.  Check it out.  It’s pretty freakin’ adorable.  And it was cool to explore a little more of the professional fighting world, even though honestly I feel even that could have been done better, too.  There were a lot of funny moments and a lot of cutesy “rescue” scenes that I loved.  The little vignette stories at the end of each episode were particularly fun to watch.  The coach, in particular, was my favorite side character… gah, what a cutie!

Plot:  Four teenagers with big dreams become young adults who have settled for lower expectations due to varying circumstances.  They each try to find their way back to their passions as their relationships further develop.

Overall Rating – 8/10.  Mixed Martial Arts Means More Shirtless Men.

Review – Beautiful Gong Shim / Dear Fair Lady Kong Shim

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Review – Beautiful Gong Shim / Dear Fair Lady Kong Shim

So, apparently it’s just been a really good year for dramas.  Especially romantic comedies.  I have fallen in love over and over and over this year.  And here we go again, with Beautiful Gong Shim… which is not only romantic, but hysterical!  I don’t even know where to begin to explain how awesome the main two characters are.  Gong Shim and Ahn Dan-Tae are such a bizarre, adorably weird, memorable couple.

Gong Shim wears a plain cut wig because her hair’s been falling out in chunks due to stress.  She has a beautiful, successful older sister, her mother is a former Miss Korea, and she is the black sheep of the family – the less attractive, invisible, oddball artist who can’t get a job.  She’s also hysterical, over dramatic, feisty and fearless.   On a personal note, I absolutely loved her style… everything she wore was so perfect on her.

Ahn Dan-Tae is the bum who lives in the upstairs roof room, wandering the streets in flip flops and capri pants, eating all his meals from the convenient store.  Though he’s a lawyer, he rarely charges his clients so he works as a driver at night to pay his rent.  He’s incredibly goofy, carefree, good natured, and honestly… totally adorable.  This is the same actor, Namgung Min, that just scared the pants off me in Remember with his mesmerizing performance as a psychopath, so it was awesome to see him turn his acting skills to this offbeat lovable performance.

The plot is about Gong Shim finding her footing in the world and falling in love, but it’s also got a great birth secret mystery with rich family shenanigans going on in the background.  There are so many great characters and never a dull moment… but I’m too charmed by the lead couple right now to properly review the actual storyline.  You can trust me, the story is great.  Everything about this drama is great.  It’s a winner.

The romance is… atypical, to say the least.  These two run around like crazed teenagers half the time and it’s really fun to watch.  There’s a lot of physicality in their performances – and you could tell they had a blast making this show.  They also both have extremely expressive faces and it’s a nonstop play of growls and frowns and pouts and smirks and smiles with them.  Gah, they were so ridiculously wild and cute!

Overall Rating – 10/10.  Maturity is Highly Over Rated.

A new all-time favorite.

Review – Legend of the Blue Sea

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Review – Legend of the Blue Sea

A profoundly unspecial fantasy romance.  Oh, how I wanted to love this show!  But every little thing about it was so enormously contrived and flat.  The “romance” was just a nonstop series of cliches and ridiculousness.  Just like in the show Tomorrow With You, the writers and director seemed to think that putting two attractive people opposite each other is all it takes for everyone around the world to collectively sigh.  Well, this gal groaned.  Loudly.  And because I wanted to like it, it just made it worse.  It was like forcing yourself to enjoy a treat way past its expiration date… it was just dry and a bitter reminder of all the other dramas that have done this better in the past.  You know, the fresh ones.

Plotline, basic version:  A mermaid comes to land following her one true love… but if she doesn’t win his affection in return, she will die.

Overall Rating – 5/10.  A Can Of Anchovies When You Ordered Fresh Salmon.

More Grumbling and Ranting and Spoilers follow….

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Review – Remember

/ Lady Divine / 2 Comments

Review – Remember

Wow.

Seriously.

One of the best shows I have ever watched, ever.  Anywhere.  And it seemed kinda “eh” starting out, but a few episodes in and I was hooked and then… I just ate it up.  The characters!  The plot!  Honestly, the last episode was so emotionally draining (good and bad) that I think it may be a while until I can write up a decent review.  So for now… I just wanted to put this placeholder in, saying:  WATCH IT.

This is a finely crafted work of art.

Plot Basics:  A young man’s father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, is accused of murder and sentenced to death row.  The young man, who has incredible photographic memory, dedicates his life to clearing his father’s name.  Add to the mix one of the most memorable villains of all time, and you have this amazing show… that just keeps getting better as it goes.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  The Truth Does Not Speak For Itself.

More about the characters and mild spoilers follow

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Review – Jealousy Incarnate

/ Lady Divine / 4 Comments

Review – Jealousy Incarnate

This show really shouldn’t have been as entertaining as it was.  The plot was kinda lame, the territory worn… but due to the amazing cast, it somehow managed to still be an enjoyable show for 20 something long episodes.  I think the reason this show appeals to people is because the premise is appealing.  Who hasn’t had a crush on someone who just didn’t feel the same way?  And how awesome would it be if they suddenly changed their mind – at the exact time someone as equally awesome came along and also liked you?  And… let’s shoot for the stars… how incredible would it be to date them both, with their permission, and even set up house together while they generously allow you to figure out your feelings?  Geesh.  It’s so ridiculous! It’s the realm of fantasy generally reserved for fan fiction, which is exactly why it was entertaining for twenty episodes.

The love triangle is really the only reason to watch it.  There are better shows about broadcasting (Pinocchio) and there are better shows about cancer (Padam Padam), though I will admit the male breast cancer angle was interesting.  The side story about the warring moms was funny and I enjoyed their love triangle as well.  The side story about the teenagers, eh.  I have a serious crush on Choi Hwa-Jung, who played the rich guy’s mom, Madam Kim, so I loved watching her prance around,trying to reign in her empire and heir… oh my God, she was rockin’ in this show.  Her stylist deserves a special award for fitting those curves to perfection.  Damn.

Overall Rating – 7/10.  Two Boyfriends Are Better Than One.

More musings…

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Review – Angel Eyes

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Review – Angel Eyes

A perfect, classic romantic melodrama!  I say classic in that it got everything right – the pacing, the tropes, the love triangles, the side characters, the mysteries, the music (was stellar, great soundtrack), and the sigh inducing love story.  Just…  Achingly romantic story of first love… overcoming an obscene amount of obstacles – just thrown at them one by one.  Oh, the drama!  Oh, the tears!  Oh, the ridiculous joyously fun circles of coincidence and fate and connections.  God, I love melodramas.  It’s my favorite genre, so when I find a great melodrama it’s like a gift addressed to me.  Romantic melodramas are my favorite of course, because then you have the painful separations, the smoldering, the aching between two people as they are yanked apart over and over.  Sigh.  I ate that mess up.  Plus this drama balanced out all the sadness with lots of light hearted moments, comedy, exciting work stories, side stories, and more.  It was so well rounded!  I adored it!

This drama had two attractive leads:  Lee Sang Yoon was mesmerizing as the die hard for love… it was impossible not to fall head over heels in love with this guy… and Gu Hye Sun was adorable, plucky, and proved she could also bring it to the melodrama table with some outstanding emotional performances.  I also loved the teen versions of these two, whose story took place in the first two episodes.  Kang Ha-Neul and Nam Ji-Hyun were sooo cute together.

Overall Rating – 10/10.  Organ Donors Are Confidential For A Reason.

More About Angel Eyes and Why It Is Amazing (with spoilers spoilers)

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