A Melo That Surprised Me

Just like the headline says, this melodrama surprised the crap out of me. (Hope I can say that in a review lol) In all seriousness though, it really, really did. I usually pass on melos, though there have been a few exceptions. I wasn't expecting this one to be added to that list at all. After the first two episodes, I even got on the feeds and asked if the whole drama was depressing with these main characters living their lives like zombies. I picked it up again a few days later, wanting to at least give it a fair try. I was, quite literally, suddenly hooked. I have not binged a drama in a very long time. I'd say the last drama that deprived me of sleep was Gu Family Book. I completed Call It Love in a day and half.

I found myself emphasizing so much with Dongjin. Usually, I do that with the female characters, being a female myself, but Dongjin's life was very similar to mine. I, too, had had my heart ripped out by someone I loved and trusted for years and just like him, I fell into a long, deep depression. (It was years ago and I am fine now, btw mostly thanks to dramas actually.) Also like him, I had an absent mother similar to his,that I only saw occasionally until I was an adult. So I knew the character's pain very well and understood why he was like the way he was.

The story is sad, yet there is always this tension there with both characters that give you hope. Also, Shim Woo Jin is usually so straight foward and harsh in her words, yet her actions and especially facial expressions, really betray her true feelings. Lee Sung-kyung was absolutely brilliant there with showing the character's emotions with her eyes. She was also excellent in one scene where she delivers a powerful outburst with perfect emotion and confusion. I won't spoil it, but that part alone had my rating skyrocket because it moved me so much.

I do want to take special note of Sung Joon in this. This is the first drama I have seen with him in a few years and OMG did he suddenly turn from a boy into a man! His acting has improved, too. I used to get annoyed by him in dramas but he was great here and I was very impressed.

This drama hooks you in with wondering when these two will confront their feelings for each other. You are left with cliffhangers making you watch just one more episode to see if that will be the one. Then, eventually you are in the exact same dilemma, needing to watch just one more to see if they stay together snd if they have a happy ending.


In conclusion I would reccommend this to melo lovers. I would also urge those of you that hate melos to give it a fair chance like I did. Watch beyond ep two and see if it moves your heart, too.

Read More

A Masterpiece

Wow! This drama was beautiful! It brought back so many memories of the '90's to me! It really captured that time period perfectly, even down to the little things, like the sudden switch from pagers to cell phones. As someone who lived in that era, I found no flaws at all and at times, it reminded me a lot of the Reply series, though the stories are very different. It was the nostalgia. I could relate so much because I was the same age as the main character during that time. (Yes, I am now an ahjumma lol!)

The music was great, too. It was original, but it had the late '90's vibe to it. I really notice that sort of thing. I also noticed it in Hit the Top. My rating always goes up at least half a point if they have modern music that sounds just like it belongs back in the '90's when I watch a drama set in that time period.

Acting wise, omg! Kim Tae Ri blew me away! She was perfect as Na Hee Do! She could be hilarious and awkward, just like a teenage girl, yet also serious and detetmined. She better get an award for this perfornance! I saw her in Mr. Sunshine and wasn't impressed, but she proved me wrong here. She is freaking 32 irl yet you can not tell at all! She looked and acted the part of an 18-19 year old perfectly.

I have never been a big fan of Nam Joo Hyuk, either. I didn't dislike him, but I wasn't ever impressed with him, either. Again, I was proven wrong. This is the best performance of his career so far. He was such a good actor here. For the first time, though this is only my opinion, he was able to really show emotion. I think he struggled before, but you can tell that he has really grown as an actor.

The other actors and actresses were awesome as well. The one that really stood out to me was the coach, played by Kim Hye Eun. She was great and I look forward to seeing her pop up in more dramas after this.

Before I end this review, though, I have to add something. I don't usually use spoilers in my reviews, but I have to make an exception due to the issue. I have read a lot of negativity from others about how 9/11 was included in the final episodes. I was expecting something quite different because of the comments I saw. As someone who was there during that time, I have to say that it was portrayed very seriously and respectfully and had a purpose. It was not a mere plot device. It was something Baek Yi Jin went through that made him grow as a person. It was, actually, perfectly added, as before, he was still very much an innocent kid, then after, he was suddenly an adult seeing the world through a different scope. For those of us who lived during that time, it was a jolting reminder of the innocence before and suddenly being thrust into a new and more somber world. I think many who were not born yet may not have been able to see and feel that, but I was there and I totally got the meaning those last two episodes were trying to convey.

Anyway, I HIGHLY reccommend this drama to everyone, especially if you are an ahjumma like me and were a teen in the '90's. You will fall in love with it!

Read More

Seriously. Where do I start with this drama? Honestly, when it's good, it's excellent. So much so that it keeps you glued to the screen in anticipation. However, when it's bad, it's downright ridiculous, illogical and frustrating. To the point where it was making me growl with the absurdity of it. Everytime I got over one frustrating new plot twist and started to really enjoy it again, here came another curveball from way out in left field that either made no sense, was pointless or was just generally stupid. I seriously think that the writers were all like, Uh oh. Looks like it's making some sense now and is getting really good. Time to mess that up with making the whole plot impossibly complicated and leaving a bunch of plot holes.

I placed all my hope on at least getting a satisfying ending that made sense. Instead I was left mouth agape and ended up more disappointed than I had feared being even at the height of the awful moments.

I will give it this. Never has there been another drama that has suceeded in keeping me hooked, while being both wonderfully awesome and epically terrible at the same time. I am left in sheer awe and wonder.

Read More

This drama started off really good. A cute story with great leads and funny and interesting side characters. Somewhere along the way, however, it took a wrong turn and became a trainwreck.

The plot was supposed to be about a girl who is very unlucky. Anything that can go wrong in a situation goes wrong for her. After being dumped by her boyfriend, she quits her job as a psychologist to begin a new career at a dating agency, so that she can help others find the true love she longs for. It just so happens, though, that a divorce agency opens up across the street. The boss of the divorce agency also happens to become enemies with her. Of course, that makes for a promising Asian drama, right? Especially when you throw in a kind, caring second male lead that keeps getting friend zoned and an ex girlfriend that just can't let go. Even though it was rather cliche, the first half was presented in a fresh way, devoting most of the time to the build up of the lead character's romance. We really got to see each step, the emotion, the reactions, the mental aspects. A great deal of time was spent on character dialogue and longer scenes, something most dramas do not do.

Then....

At first....


Nothing happens. You are waiting for the conflict to start. You know the signs, there is always a formula, right? It then happens and it's such a little blip in the story that you are left in disbelief. Instead, it is like the very distant roll of thunder right before a storm hits, except this storm is full of WTF, and I mean that in a bad way. Just a little after halfway through the episodes the story takes a big deviation. This is almost certainly due to very, very bad rewriting of the script. Suddenly, there is major conflict, but this major conflict makes zero sense, is stupid and DRRRRRAAAAAGGGGGSSS. Seriously drags on and on and on until the last episode, where it magically vanishes with a sudden epiphany and everyone lives happily ever after.

In conclusion, this drama had so much potential but just ended up being a huge, whopping disappointment.

I still heart Tang Danson though.

Read More

This movie is confusing! However, that is exactly what it's supposed to be. Real is a movie that will have you wondering just what the heck is going on, while at the same time have you thoroughly enjoying trying to figure out what it is, then just when you think you're a genius and solved it in your mind, the plot punches you in the face, laughs at you and tells you that you were wrong all along. :p The whole premise of the story is about reality vs. unreality. The real world on one side, dreamworld on the other. Just what lies inside a person's subconscious, hidden from our awake mind, perhaps only appearing in our dreams? This movie explores such notions and I, for one, couldn't tear myself away from the screen.

Read More

This drama is just, simply put, awesome. If my review could just be one sentence in fact, the above would be it. I was hooked from the very first episode, and never once did my attention wane. It is one of those dramas that stays with you, and even when I was out living my day, I was counting the minutes until I could continue watching.

Lee Jun Ki is just breathtaking in this. Not only in the looks department but his acting skills really shine. He is such a talented actor who can successfully portray a vast amount of emotions throughout and pulls it off effortlessly. Plus, we get to see his fighting skills too, in this and every action scene was intense and kept me on the edge of my seat.

I think the best thing about this drama, besides Lee Jun Ki as the lead, is the theme. It's not just your typical revenge drama. Not only does it take one of the biggest cliches in Asian drama and make it totally awesome that it's a serious part of the plot, it actually delves deep and confronts the moral aspects and dilemmas of seeking revenge.

The very, very best thing, though? (Again apart from Lee Jun Ki as the lead) It keeps you guessing. You may think you've figured something out, or expected a certain outcome, and instead, you get handed a surprise that you totally didn't expect.

I very highly recommend this drama to people. In fact, if you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing right now and start watching this drama! You will not regret it.

Read More

I have been a fan of zombie movies ever since I watched Romero's original Night Of the Living Dead in middle school. Any chance I get, I watch them. Some are good, but most are really cheesy. I still love them. Train To Busan is in a class all by itself, however. It reminds me of a mix of Romero's Day Of the Dead and the British zombie virus movie 28 Days Later, both of which are masterpieces. Except it surpasses both.

From the get go it keeps you on the edge of your seat and freaks you out with the gory and truly horrifying cinematography. It is is so lifelike that the hordes of zombies will give you chills down your spine!

In terms of acting, it really didn't feel like anyone needed to strain themselves too much. Mostly it was all about showing the overwhelming terror and I feel like everyone did their job there. I was especially impressed by the child actress who played Gong Yoo's daughter. She played the sad and serious little girl to perfection. Her character was written differently than most children are written. Instead of being the cute and helpless little kid, she was an earnest and quiet one, brave and wise for her years.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of zombies and horror. It stands out from other Asian horror movies and can rival even the most acclaimed Western horror movie. I will most assuredly rewatch it, probably many times over. 10/10

Read More

I truly liked this drama. It was extremely addicting! The acting, by everyone, was simply brilliant and supurb. However, it did have flaws, which is why I couldn't, in all honesty, rate it above an 8.5.

Flaw #1.- There were times I thought the characters' thought process did not make sense.
Flaw #2- I was able to guess what was going to happen very early on. However, it was probably because I have seen so many dramas, but the plot seeemed to really mimic Gap Dong at times, which is what I kept thinking.
Flaw #3- There was one inconsistency that really bothered me, though I can see how it would be missed by some, especially if they watched it while it was airing. In the very first episode, a certain object is shone in one location. However, later on, it is changed to be in a completely different location, which changes the story.
Flaw #4- The ending does not really explain itself. You are left wondering what happened for it to end that particular way. It could have been on purpose, but I think that the writers could have done a better job at explaining.

Besides those flaws mentioned above, it was a really good watch. I would still highly recommend it to fellow drama watchers.

Read More

This was a fun little watch. It's an episode of Drama City, and starts Lee Joon Gi back when he was first starting out. He plays a young man who is basically a slacker and spends his time goofing off instead of studying. His mother is very sick in the hospital and his father is always disappointed in him. He ends up travelling back to 1979 where he meets his parents as teenagers.

Acting wise, it's not that great. You can tell just how incrediably far Lee Joon Gi as come since then, but I still really enjoyed watching him in this. The other actors are about the same. There are no stellar performances here, but that's to be expected. The music is eh, except for the '70's music, like The Animals and the Bee Gees. Also, as an added bonus, I got to see Lee Joong Gi disco dancing to Staying Alive. That alone made watching this worth it! :p

I actually watched this with my kid and he really liked it. It's only an hour long, so I could even see myself watching it again, perhaps. I do recommend it to others, especially other Lee Joon Gi fans, just so you can see how he was back in the day. Overall, I give it a 7.5.

Read More

I had seen Flower Boy Ramyun Shop and was not too terribly impressed with it, so I wasn't in a real big hurry to watch the next new Flower Boy drama. However, the synopsis interested me and knowing that Park Shin Hye was in it, I eventually decided to give it a try.

It was not like I expected it to be at all. I had started it thinking it was going to be another light hearted, cute and somewhat cheesy rom-com. What I got instead was a truly sweet, heartwarming story about a young woman who, slowly, thanks to her neighbors and especially one very special neighbor, learns to let go of her insecurities and traumatic past and face the world once more.

There were definite hilarious moments that cracked me up, such as the scene at the end of episode one and the start of episode two where Enrique storms over to Mi Dok's apartment without any pants and starts banging on her door. There were also a lot of sweet, touching moments, too, such as the scene where he sings in the last episode and then what Mi Dok says after. It could be very sweet and light, but it also could become serious and portray such subject matter as bullying and depression quite realistically without just glossing over them.

One of the best things about this drama is that conflicts that end up arising pretty much get handled rather quickly. Unlike many dramas, it doesn't drag out a misunderstanding over countless episodes. If something happens, it is resolved pretty much by the next episode.

I think all the actors did a great job in this, especially Park Shin Hye. She is one of my favorite actresses and extremely talented. She pulls off this quiet, serious and extremely self conscious young woman who has shut out the world very well. I had seen her in Tree of Heaven, so I know how capable of an actress she is when it comes to the more reserved, serious role. She did not disappoint.

In conclusion, I would recommend this drama to everyone. It's definitely a 10.

Read More

This movie was bad. Not just kind of bad, but like, horrendously bad. The acting was bad, the music was bad, the fashion was bad. Pretty much every single thing about this movie was, you guessed it. Bad.

HOWEVER. I knew it was going to be bad going in, having read other reviews. I watched it anyway because it's Hana Yori Dango, after all. Word of advice, though to all my fellow HYD fans. Skip this movie. Read the manga, watch the anime, watch all the different dramas. Pretend this bit just doesn't exist, because it's an hour and twenty minutes of your life you can never get back.

That being said, I can at least say that it was hilarious. Stupidly, embarrassingly hilarious. I was literally either shaking my head or laughing out loud the entire movie at the absurdity. Also, FYI. Domyouji in a speedo. >_< There are no words.

Read More

I was pleasantly surprised by this drama. I started watching because it did sound interesting, about two people that can see ghosts helping shinigami with fulfilling the recently deceased's final wishes. I didn't have high hopes, though. The few supernatural J dramas I have seen have been underwhelming so you could say that I went in with this one with low expectations.

I wasn't impressed with the first couple of episodes, honestly. However, I could feel something was there. Though it seemed episodic, like most J dramas, there was always a continuous, underlying plot that was always there. The more it built, the better the drama became, until epsisode 8 which was wonderful! I was a little disappointed with the final episode and how things ended, which is why I docked .5 from my score, otherwise, it would have ended up being an 8.5.

The acting didn't wow me at first. This is the first drama I have seen with Fukushi Sota and at first I thought he was stiff and awkward. That impression totally changed as I continued to watch. What I had at first assumed was an awkward and stiff actor is actually the character of Madoka. In fact, I am pretty certain that the character has Asperger's Syndrome, for everything about his character traits points to it. It is never said in the drama, but as a parent of a child with Asperger's, I could recognize it. Even if the character isn't initially supposed to be that way, Fukushi does an absolute brilliant job in portraying him that way. I am being very serious here in my praise of him. I was deeply impressed.

I was impressed with all the actors except Tsuchiya Tao. I thought she acted like a cookie cutter type. I have seen dozens of J actresses that talk, walk, laugh and over act in the exact same fashion. She did not bring anything original to the drama acting wise though I didn't particularly dislike her character or anything like that. The character herself was ok, though I just could never see any romantic chemistry between her and Madoka at all. I could see they were friends and co workers, but I just never felt any real romance between them.

I recommend this to anyone looking for a cute and fun J drama to watch. It's also a drama that I could maybe see myself rewatching at some point, which is rare for me. (^_^)

Read More

Ever since Triangle, I have been a fan of Kim Jae Joong. He really proved he was more than a pretty face in that drama. He blew me away with his acting. I started SPY expecting to see it again. Action, romance, drama and JaeJoong. I was super excited. Unfortunately, it never, ever delivered.

The story seemed like it would be action packed, what with the spy theme and all. It wasn't. Yeah, there was fighting and shooting in most of the episodes, but how it was managed to make them so boring and uninteresting is beyond me. I literally caught myself yawning more than once while I watched this drama.

The story is supposed to be suspeseful. I never found it so. I found it repetitive and extremely predictable from episode 1. There for a while, around ep 4 or 5, I did start hoping for it to pick up and get more interesting, which it seemed to do, but only barely and then it fizzled. Also, the ending was, again, predictable and anti-climatic.

Now, I rated this a 7, which means that I did find some good qualities to redeem it a bit. #1. JaeJoong. It's not his fault the writing sucked. While he was not at his Triangle caliber, he pulled his part off very well and his performance was more than decent. #2. The music. I really enjoyed the OST for this drama, especially Reuby's Key To Her Heart. It fit the theme well. #3. Short episodes. I liked how each episode was only about 45min. each. Any longer and it would have been even more drawn out.

I would only recommend this drama to other JaeJoong fans. Like I said, his acting is decent in this. However, if you are looking to watch a well written, suspenseful, action packed spy drama, you'd do well to skip this one.

Read More

This web drama was pretty bad. Bad story, bad acting, bad everything. Poor Jo Dong Hyeok looked like he was forced under duress to be there in every episode. Nam Joo cannot act herself outoif a paper bag and her character was seriously the stupidest female character I have ever seen in a drama. How did she get her job at the FDA when she is so dumb? Also, the ending is confusing. Are they planning a season 2? Dear God I hope not.

The one and only interesting part of the whole drama is that a lot is explained about cleanliness and how to protect your food from bacteria. I at least felt I learned something despite how awful the plot was.

Read More

A Pretty Good Korean Version of Dangerous Liasions

I'm a sucker for this story. I've seen so many versions. Even though I always know how it ends, and they *always* end the same way, I will watch. This Korean version is pretty darn good. It follows the story fauthfully, while staying authentically Korean. Yet, there a subtle little nods to the original French novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The time period, for one, as well as the 18th century score. To stay authentically Korean, however, some parts were changed, such as the Korean Marquise de Merteuil (Here Lady Cho) being the barren wife of an aging nobleman, and the Korean Cecile (So Ok) being the young, virginal new concubine. Those are only a couple of examples. There are a few more, but ultimately none of the changes made ruin the plot nor deviate from the original story.

I won't give anything away, if you have never seen any of the versions. I will say that it's beautifully made and plesant to watch. There is nudity and sex, but I have seen way more graphic. It is all artfully done, which plays into the story, actually. If you watch it, you will see what I mean. Still, I wouldn't reccommend it to younger viewers. It is a very sexually charged story, after all.

All in all, though, I think it's a great version and was really impressed how they adapted it to make it uniquiely Korean story wise. 8.5.

P.S. Watch until the end of the credits. ;)

Read More