TaraLynch
USA
The alternate title sounds racier than this show actually is. It's a music industry story line with a girl in a high school band (think 19 years old) named Yoon So Rim (played by Idol Actor Joy from Red Velvet) and the superstar kpop producer Kang Han Kyeol AKA K of Crude Play (played by Lee Hyun Woo) who meet coincidentally several times and end up falling in love. There's also the base player from the fictional group Crude Play, Seo Chan Yeong (played by Lee Seo Won) who ends up being the producer for So Rim's group. There's some minor love triangle plotting going on, but mostly it ends up about being the trials and tribulations of the musicians - conniving music company execs, dating scandals, and industry scandals galore. Since it is technically a high school drama, it remains pretty firmly on the chaste side of things romance-wise. I feel like the story lost a bit of focus as it picked up various subplots and then dropped them just as quickly in several instances, but it remained cute and entertaining throughout. Even with several hardships thrown in for various characters, it never really loses its upbeat rhythm. Special shout out to UNIQ's Kim Sung Joo as Yoo Shi Hyun, the lead vocalist of Crude Play, and Jang Ki Yong as Crude Play's drummer Ji In Ho. There was never a point when I was watching where I felt like I was wasting my time, but there was also not really a point in the drama where I was overjoyed. This one's pretty middle of the line.
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This show just finished airing and I just watched the last episode. It stars Go Ah Sung as Eun Ho Won, a young woman who has applied and been rejected for office work 100 times, and Ha Suk Jin as Seo Woo Jin, the rigid Chief at the company where she finally manages to get hired as a contractor. Eun Ho Won is hired as a contractor at the request of the son of the company's CEO (Seo Hyun played by Kim Dong Wook (who was in Coffee Prince!)) along with two fellows (Hoya as Jang Kang Ho, a timid man from a rich family whose lack of confidence has plagued his job searching efforts, and Lee Dong Hwi as Do Ki Taek, a caring man who was dumped by his long time girlfriend because of his inability to get a corporate job) that she met in the hospital after all three attempted suicide.
This show is very much about office dynamics. Seo Hyun transitions from being a doctor to trying to take over his father's company and pulls strings to get the three job seekers hired as part of his machinations to do just that. Seo Woo Jin is a follow the rules kind of guy who hates nepotism, and his arc is very much about him finding humanity in the workplace and striking a balance between his rigid desire for following the rules and doing the right thing and understanding that his subordinates are human beings with all that entails. There is a mild romance subplot between Eun Ho Won and Seo Hyun, but it's really only flavoring and not the main focus of the show itself. There are a fair number of both likable and unlikable characters in this show. The story was a little bit slow - the pacing feels a bit off - but the actors were engaging and it was an enjoyable run.
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This was one of the first K-dramas that I watched (and just finished re-watching for probably the fourth or fifth time). It's a noona romance, with the main character Kim Sam Soon, played by Kim Sun Ah, as a 30 year old patisserie, and Hyun Jin Heon, played by Hyun Bin, as the restaurateur and chaebol heir who is three years younger than her. This drama has a lot of silly "imagination scenes" where the characters (though Mostly Sam Soon) have flights of fantasy about what they would /like/ to do but don't. There's a secondary female lead character, Yoo Hee Jin (played by Jung Ryeo Won), who is Jin Heon's lost first love, and her friend from the U.S., Dr. Henry Kim (played by Henney Daniel). I had forgotten how very, very much I hate the second female lead character. I hate the character so much that I actually feel bad towards her actress for having to play her. People spend a lot of time in this drama telling Sam Soon that she is fat and ugly (though, neither is really an appropriate descriptor for her) and even Sam Soon is pretty hard on herself. That said, she doesn't let that stop her from living her life. This is an older drama (from 2005), so the production quality is quite dated, but it's worth watching even with that.
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This is a "second chance at love" show. The premise is a divorced couple meet again as interns in the same Emergency Room. Sparks fly. The primary couple is Oh Jin Hee, played by Song Ji Hyo, and Oh Chang Min, played by Choi Jin Hyuk. I'll be honest. Choi Jin Hyuk flips my switch, so I'm inclined to love anything that I see him in because, yeah. Ahem. Anyway. They are a couple that married young and against the wishes of his family and then broke up spectacularly after a year. Six (I think) years later, they meet up again when they are both assigned as interns to the same team in the emergency department of their hospital. What follows is a couple re-learning what it was that attracted them in the first place, and also what ways they had to grow before they could really be successful together. The show does hit a point where it starts to drag a bit when some tragic things happen and Oh Chang Min spends two or three episodes kind of back sliding and wallowing, but once you get through that, you're rewarded with a couple of wrap up episodes that tie everything up neatly and satisfactorily. The secondary couple are really fun to watch together and have just as satisfying, though less delved, story as the main couple. The supporting cast is fun. I've already watched this drama twice and will probably watch it again at some point in the future because, as mentioned, Choi Jin Hyuk, damn. That voice, that smile. Mmph.
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This is a short little drama centered on a family of four men (three brothers and their uncle) who are in their 9th years of their various decades (9, 19, 29, and 39). Apparently, according to the wikipedia page for the show, there is a common Korean belief that the ninth year of a decade will bring more hardships than usual. In this show, there are basically four couples - the uncle, Gu Kwang Su (played by Oh Jung Se), who is a television producer who was once dramatically denied during a marriage proposal ten years earlier. His love interest is Ju Da In, played by Yoo Da In, who was the woman who left him and is now a divorced single mother with a five year old daughter. The oldest brother is Kan Jin Gu, played by Kim Young Kwang, a travel agency employee who has been something of a playboy, and the woman who has been his best friend that he's now fallen in love with, Ma Se Young (played by Kyung Soo Jin). The middle brother is Kang Min Gu, played by Yook Sung Jae, who is a high school student and competative Judo athlete, who falls for an older girl, Han Su Ah (played by Park Cho Rong). The youngest brother is Kang Dong Gu, played by Choi Ro Woon, who is a child actor well known for a very popular role when he was younger, but who has found acting awkward as he's gotten older. There's a little girlfriend for him, as well, named Jang Baek Ji (played by Lee Chae Mi), but his story line is much more about his struggle with his acting than his relationship with her.
This is a very bitter sweet show, as well as being on the short side (it's only 14 episodes long). The love stories are nicely romantic and each one has it's own distinct flavor. Unfortunately, the pacing in this show is uneven, which makes it sometimes feel really draggy, which is surprising considering how much ground they have to cover with just 14 episodes to cover it. My favorite couple was probably Jin Gu and Se Yeong.
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Oh man, this was a great show. I can see why it's breaking records for JTBC. It stars Park Bo Young as the titular character, Do Bong Soon, a young woman with superhuman strength, and Park Hyung Shik as Ahn Min Hyeok, the CEO of a gaming company. Ji Soo plays In Gook Doo, the second lead, who is a cop and Bong Soon's childhood friend (and her crush). Much of the story is the pursuit of the killer and serial kidnapper terrorizing the neighborhood in which Do Bong Soon lives, and that plot line does admirably well at being creepy and challenging for the protagonists, but is largely just back drop for the truly delightful interactions between Bong Soon and Min Hyeok. There's a love triangle, but really only sort of (I'm ready for Ji Soo to actually play a character who gets the girl, though I'm not at all unhappy with his character /not/ getting to be with Bong Soon) because one of the three spent most of his life with his head in the sand. I love that Min Hyeok is intrigued by Bong Soon from the beginning and doesn't spend really any time at all trying to change her. I love that he embraces her strength and treasures it, and that he wants to protect her and keep her from harm, but also doesn't stop her from being an active participant in her life and in facing the various challenges that cross her path. The chemistry in this cast is just amazing.
Minus .5 on story only because some of the story lines get dropped so fast that there's not much satisfaction (and at least one semi-major one doesn't even have a resolution). The music in this show is catchy and delightful.
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I just re-watched this little web-drama. There's a fair amount of Problematic Patriarchy inherent in some of the common tropes in k-dramas and this web-drama is chock full of it. I remember being much more enamored of the drama the first time I watched it, but this time around, I was much more aware of how off-putting (and even alarming) the controlling behavior of the main lead would be if this was "real life" and not a drama. That said, I still enjoyed watching this show. It has Sung Hoon as Lee Kang Hoon, an arrogant and closed off CEO type who falls for Kim Jae Kyung's character, Cha Yoon Seo, a poor but stubborn and plucky Veterinarian who saves his life. There's a contract relationship - I'm a sucker for a contract relationship story-line - and sparks fly. Because of the web-drama format (episodes are short, typically between 12 and 20 minutes in a web-drama), this show is almost like what would happen if you stripped out only the main love-line story from a full length drama and tacked it all together without any of the side plots or secondary character lines. Because of that format, character development suffers a bit here. When I first watched this show, I rated it as 8 out of 10. On re-watching, I would rate it 7.5 out of 10, because the controlling behavior and jealousy of the main lead was more off-putting this time around. (There's a hint of a back story as to why he is that way, but since it is never fleshed out or really explored, he doesn't get to hit that satisfying "humanizing" arc that full length k-dramas with this type of lead get to have.)
Still, I'd recommend this if you're looking for something light and quick (assuming you can get over the Problematic Patriarchy). (Not to fear! The presence of Problematic Patriarchy does not, in fact, cheat you out of your moments of Feminine Gaze and Sung Hoon shirtless for Very Important Plot Reasons and not just gratuitously - okay, sometimes gratuitously.)
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Oh Namgoong Min. What can I say? I love this man. He's a delightful actor. In Chief Kim, he plays Kim Sung Ryong, a former accountant for mobster types sort of turning over a new leaf. His character is smarmy and over the top and utterly lovable. This show is very much about corporate politics and corruption and the redemption of two men. I was a little bit worried that they were going to make it into a basic love triangle, but was actually really satisfied when that ended up not becoming the case. The second lead in this show is really Lee Jun Ho as Seo Yool, who starts out pretty darn despicable and rotten and is the foil for Namgoong Min's Chief Kim. Nam Sang Mi plays Yoon Ha Kyung, who thankfully ends up not being paired off with anyone. The plot lines and evil corporate shenanigans in this show are very often over the top in an almost makjang way, but just when it seems like this show is going to jump the shark, they reel it back in to the final, satisfying, rush to the finish line where the evil are punished, the good are rewarded, and the somewhat grey move forward with turning their lives around. It wraps up very satisfyingly and I was actually really pleased that it pretty much lacked a romance plot line. It didn't need one.
Even smarmy and over the top, Namgoong Min is pure joy to watch. I'm pretty sure he'd be on my list of actors that I'd pay to watch read the phone book.
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I just finished re-watching this k-drama that stars the vastly entertaining Hwang Jung Eum as Kim Hye Jin, a woman who was the beautiful, popular girl who became "plain" when she got older, and the vastly adorable Park Seo Joon as Ji Seong Jun, the man who was the tubby outcast boy who fell in love with her but is now attractive, fit, and successful. This show is, really, the reward for the Second Lead Syndrome caused by Kill Me, Heal Me - where Park Seo Joon's character does not get Hwang Jung Eum's character as a romantic partner. As wish fulfillment for Second Lead Syndrome it suffers a bit early on by just how awful a human being the adult Ji Seong Jun has become. It takes a little bit overly long for him to turn into a human being again - during which time, one gets the chance to absolutely fall in love with Choi Shi Won, who plays Kim Shin Hyeok, a goofy and good natured writer who loves the "ugly" Hye Jin just the way she is. (In fact, when she has the inevitable make-over mid season, his reaction is shock and dismay 'But you were so pretty just as you were!') Luckily, Seong Jun does become human eventually and the wrap up of the romance is charming, sweet, and satisfying.
And almost secondary to the real shining relationship in this drama, which is the womance between Kim Hye Jin and her roommate/best friend Min Ha Ri, who is played by the stunningly beautiful and doll-like Go Joon Hee. Very often in k-dramas, the two women who fall for the main guy are catty and awful to each other. Even when they have otherwise been friends, introducing a guy to the mix often ends up with at least one of them turning to Leona Helmsley levels of evil. Not She Was Pretty. The love these two friends have for each other shines through from beginning to end in this show and is the real reward for watching. The love and support they show for each other is envy- and awe-inspiring. And worth every single moment of screen time. There's more than one moment in the show, especially early on, where I think that these two could just go off and leave all the guys behind and it would be one of the most satisfying love stories. :) I would seriously watch it again and again just for their story lines.
I do love the interactions between Park Seo Joon and Choi Shi Won, too.
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