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GU???
The beginning is the closest Kdrama I've ever seen to a Xianxia Cdrama. It's starts off with the love story of Kang Chi's parents, but their accompanying love theme English choral music is dreadful! Thank God it's only for the first two episodes! Lee Seung-Gi just keeps going from strength to strength. He gives a magnetic performance that helps suspend your disbelief as the man is so charming & talented. Suzy Bae is very well cast as his leading plucky lady as they have incredible chemistry together, and it is a joy to watch their love unfold...especially that really long first kiss!!! Choi Jin-hyuk , plays his dad and in reality is only one year older than him! I wonder if he got a taste for playing supernatural roles through this, as he does seem to like them and well...he's really good at it and....ummmm....he looks smoking hot!!!There are many memorable scenes & characters which make this drama so enjoyable. Despite the lightheartedness I actually find it to be quite a deep drama, in relation to how people react to the gumiho side of Kang Chi and you can put this into context in any modern hate crime and find solace from what they are saying.
The Turtle Ships & Admiral Yi are actually based on historical fact, which I found fascinating and a good intro into Korean history.
The Gu Family Book never actually makes an appearance and I wonder why it is actually the title, but it may just be a metaphor for love, as that's what keeps turning him back into his human form. Gu must stand for Gumiho, so it's their story which we are actually seeing that makes them human. As in the end when we see him in the future, he could have found the book in all those 422 yrs and kept it on standby for when he finally found Suzy, and then grown old with her. I have so many questions, but sadly no answers....there really should have been a Season 2 :(
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One more time...
This is a lot of fun and kept me entertained right until the end.I love Lee Min Ho's hair! This is his first & best role and it wouldn't have worked without that hair, he should re-perm it! The reason why this is so watchable, is that he loves the FL sooooo much and this love is unshakable. Now ladies, who wouldn't fall for a handsome, rich man with nothing else to do but adore you, and not only that but no matter what you say or do keeps on loving you. Sadly, in the real world this doesn't exist, he would have moved on in one red hot second, but hey that's why this drama is so successful, it's a pure wish fulfillment fantasy. I feel sorry for the F4 member that didn't get his own story line except for a brief mention of the mafia and suicide. Gosh, the female lead does get in an awful load of near death accidents just to draw out the story line and keep re-affirming the male leads love for her. There are times when the story looses it's thread, in search of new excitement, but suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the ride :)
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SOS
This is a nice mature romantic comedy. The 2 leads have sparkling chemistry and ping off each other as all great comedic pairings should! She's strong & feisty, he's sexy with a disability. Not the usual in Kdramas, here male & female are equals.It's so great that Hyperthyroidism is addressed in the show, as a fellow sufferer I can relate. Mr Sexy...SOS!!!
I can tell this series is written by a woman as there is a lot of wish fulfillment going on!
This series could have gone up to 12 episodes & worked. The last 3 eps are fluffy filler not much going on and waaaay too many flashbacks. The OST is top-notch! I'm loving that ringtone very catchy! There are some genuine LOL moments, more at the beginning. But ooh this pairing is too cute & funny.
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Was the best romantic comedy until...
The first episode immediately draws you in. It's the best romantic comedy you've ever seen up until the angst begins, then it becomes another beast. There are two episodes that are just two different conversations between the main characters, about why she lied about being a robot, and you feel the pain and then there is a lot of narcissism coming from the male lead... tell me about me, blah blah. Everyone seemed to be shouting and justifying their bad behaviour and after all that everything is forgiven and everyone is happy. I wish it had kept the brilliance of the beginning and continued with that before heading into melodrama territory and a saccharine ending which benefitted no one. There is no written law that a drama series has to be stretched to 16 episodes, this formula is not always for the best.On the plus side, all the characters were great and gave good performances. The male lead has a winning smile and has good chemistry with FL. I love the humour and story at the beginning. For some reason it reminded me of The Goonies & Ghostbusters!
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Hama hamaa
It's a story of two halves. I fell in love with the first part which was stronger. The ML always shows up when you want him to and protects FL, this is the most endearing part of the story that he loves her no matter what. It's highly doubtful this would happen in real life. There are a lot of inconsistencies, where at one moment it feels that if you are a woman and choose to prioritise your career you'll be dumped but if you act like a passive snail you'll be loved, but then it changes again in the second half, so that she's even more attractive now that she's a career woman! Poor Sera, she doesn't even get another love interest just her long lost bro, who is so underused! And what's up with the continuity, first noticed when she was wearing slippers in the hotel corridor and then he's pointing to her bare feet! It feels very disjointed, but the ML's performance is strong enough to pull it through.Was this review helpful to you?
Full Throttle!
This is one hell of a ride!You will never get bored. Every episode reveals new twists and turns right up until the end. It feels like a telenovela at times but you can see how intricately the story has been thought out, it's like being caught in a giant web that sometimes your brain will hurt from trying to work it all out! There is no pause in the mayhem to gather your thoughts, it's just non-stop! The lead actor is so gorgeous that you can't keep your eyes off him! And he's so funny to boot. There were some real laugh out loud moments. I feel that another leading lady would have been better cast in the role, as they don't seem to have enough believable chemistry, which is a shame. The ending felt like a let down, as it wanted to wrap the whole thing up in a pretty bow, but....hmmm it couldn't... too many unbelievable elements. This was my second viewing and it didn't disappoint as there is no way you could remember everything from one viewing, so it all felt fresh a year later.
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Error! Error!
Wow! What a ride! I binged it. Very addictive like the first. I love the continuity. The only thing that annoyed me was her preference for Babi. I just can't warm up to the guy and his kissing is very forced! I'm unapologetically team Woong! She did him wrong on so many levels. He's a hundred times more handsome, sweeter & move lovable! Babi seems to be a manipulator.Red flag city! There was more delving into side characters with this season. I especially liked the editor's cells that were extremely handsome and hilarious, and with Control Z & Ruby's coupling. I must say it was pretty routine in the beginning, was not enjoying Yumi & Babi's relationship up until Woong showed up, and then it got really fun all of a sudden, but you have to wait a while. I can't believe they sidelined him into a clown role after his made his main entrance, it's really unfair. Yumi has terrible judgement. She says towards the end that she didn't know she could continue the connection after break-up, yeah why lady? It's because men won't hang around you if their not interested, and if they had girlfriends there sure as hell wouldn't be any contact, remember she wasn't that keen on their female friends. I find it really hard to believe that they didn't date anyone else after she broke-up with them. They're men, they're not going to hang around waiting, but this is written to fulfil female fantasy after all. Let's face it, it's usually the other way round and one man usually having two women fighting over him in reality. Women would be lucky to even get one to love them so much. Ah, such a waste! Anyway roll on season 3... Let's see what hunk she's reeled in this time...
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Time of Death...
With the third season just out and the drought going on in Kdramaland due to overpopularity I thought hmmm...this series is due a rewatch. I remember at first being put off by the animation, but it won me over big style. The cells humour is off the charts they're adorably cute. On repeat viewing, it really struck home. I kept thinking God that's exactly what it's like.... God this series is soooo clever. The person that must have come up with this concept must be a genius in effect! The acting was phenomenal, very emotive. This is what kdramas did best, resonate with your emotional core and form a connection, but now it's joined the West's superficiality! Romance is out! Ego is in! Personally, that last scene when the relationship was declared dead like the time of death, yes that's exactly what it's like. Nice to have reality portrayed for once because in real life this is the majority of cases and the minority are in the "happy ever after" category. Both people are nice, they love each other, so why did they break up? There's no precise reason, it's just an accumulation of small events as seen with the gourd metaphor.Ps. I don't like that Babi he's a sneaky snake and not half as good as Woong!
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Cause and Effect
Ok, everything that needs to be said has been said about Goblin so this is just me throwing my hat into the ring...- Gong Yoo & Kim Go-Eun have ZERO chemistry together, like NADA! So, if you are expecting an epic love story you aren't going to get it with these two. In reality, he is actually 12 years older than her, but that's still no excuse. I think that they were cast because they are magnificent actors that are really serious about their craft and this shows in their succinct and selective CV's. But they are so busy concentrating on their acting that they kind of forgot to be human! But I don't think there was much choice of actors at the time. They needed this level of acting to pull off the concept of the show.
Gong Yoo is acting like he's bipolar. One minute he is the war-torn philosopical general from a bygone age the next he's a goofy kid.
Kim Go-Eun, I just find this actress annoying...in everything. Here she is just a 19 yrs old hyperactive schoolgirl and then convincingly a 29 yrs old woman ...I mean kudos for pulling it off, but still no...
Basically, she's looking for a father figure and he behaves like one towards her.
-Lee Dong-wook & Yoo In-na on the other hand do have chemistry and even went on to star in another series 'Touch Your Heart' based on this chemistry. Sadly, nothing I've seen them in after Goblin has been as good. It really did bring out their best performances and you can't imagine anyone else in their parts, but still they are doing better in their careers than the main leads. I think this show set the bar too high!
The couple I ship is:
-Gong Yoo & Lee Dong-wook who win the award for best chemistry in Gobin :) They must have had a great time filming it together. I love their witty repartee.
- I have to give a special mention to Lee El, aka Red Halmoni, as she has also been in 2 of my favourite Kdramas: 'Black' & ' A Korean Odyssey'. Both made after 'Goblin' (talk about typecasting!) Anyway, she totally rocks in this!
-There are quite a lot of similarities between 'Goblin' & 'A Korean Odyssey'.
1. Both female leads can see ghosts.
2. Both female leads end up being sacrificed in the end.
3. Both female leads will only end up with the male lead through reincarnation.
4. One of the leads gets amnesia towards the end, but this is just a plot device to recap and fall in love with their love story all over again. But, not to worry they usually recover their memories within 1 episode!
-Another similarity I noticed was between 'My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho' when Gu Mi-ho starts crying it rains. There is a direct link between supernatural beings & the weather, must be in the mythology somewhere. I find this really poetic.
-Strangely, I get a 'Friends' vibe off the series. It is so knowing, like post-modern playing off the supernatural that makes it such a unique concept, which is not easily achieved. It also makes for such great comedy. There are so many funny scenes. that are just gems. Example: When main couple go to the cinema and goblin is terrified watching 'Train to Busan' a film he starred in just before Goblin!
-However the real star of the show isn't the actors, it is the hauntingly, instantly catchy OST. One of the best, if not the best I've ever heard. It really moved me and was utilised like an actor. Powerful stuff music!
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