Reviews

I think the writers got a little too overboard with the story line towards the ending of the show. Everything was just hectic, so many skipping time frames, and problems alllll over the place. You would seriously have a "WTF JUST HAPPENED" moment with a blank face watching the last 5-6 episodes. The writers should have ended it after the 11th episode, then it wouldve been perfect. The actors/actress' saved the whole drama from it being a complete downer.THIS WAS THE MOST OBVIOUS PROBLEM IN THE WHOLE DRAMA! SO THIS IS THE ONLY THING IM WRITING ABOUT!



The rewatch value...Id ONLY watch it again only up to the 11th episode (or was it 10) where it shouldve ended. lol

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I was expecting to not like this movie, and I was right. However, my reasons for disliking 200 Pounds Beauty were different from what I had anticipated.



I'm always a bit weary of movies that play with the whole fat-to-skinny dynamic since they tend to lazily default to tasteless jokes around how disgusting and lazy overweight people are. To this movie's credit, apart from one awkward joke in the beginning, it navigated around that tension well, finding humor in both Hanna's post and pre-surgery appearance and focusing more on the absurd reactions of those around her as opposed to making her the butt of the jokes. Well done, film.



Where this movie lost me was in the writing and the characterization. The plot barely has such a haphazard framework that the scenes seemed to be just random occurrences with barely any connection between them. Worse, the characters were extremely 2-D. The main antagonist barely has any screen time, and her machinations occur off screen so tension never really develops between her and our heroine. In fact, she's not even the catalyst for the movie's climax: why have an antagonist at all? As for the main love interest... Well, don't watch this if you're looking for a love story. His flat performance and inability to garner any sympathy would have ruined it for you anyway.



The exception to the above is main actress Kim Ah Jung, who perfectly captured the artificiality and fragility of "plastic" women that I found myself wincing and worrying that her nose would just pop off mid-line. Her singing voice is also beautiful and saved the terrible Korean covers of various English songs from being too torturous to my ears. I expected better from a movie set in the music world. Unfortunately, Kim Jung Ah could not escape the terrible script, and her character also suffers from 2-dimensionality. I had no idea that she was suffering an identity crisis until the climax, and because of that, the ending seemed forced, insincere, and just plain cheesy. Once again, honest words and tears smooths over all problems, believability be darned.



I do think 200 Pounds Beauty had the potential to be a good film if it had more weight to it. There were laugh out loud moments, but there could have been more, especially given the unexpected dark turn the movie took toward the end. A drama adaptation, in which characters and back stories are explored in more depth, would be more than welcomed on my part in the perhaps misguided hope that this story can be done justice.

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Its one of the best Taiwanese Dramas that I have ever watched. MUST BE WARNED YOU MUST HAVE A BOX OF TISSUES NEAR YOU AT ALL TIME especially for the first few episode MAN I was an EMOTIONAL WRECK.

Its also fast pace as well and not draggy at all which I love. Van Ness Wu OMG man he is one gorgeous HUNK and An Ady she is soo pretty! The lil kid OMG is so adorable and so bloody mature for his age.

The music was just LOVE LOVE LOVE. Especially the theme song, its on repeat on my itunes. XD

The only reason why I didn't give it 10 out of 10 for the re-watching value is because I really don't wanna go all emo again.

Overall a great drama that is just visually appealing to watch.

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My ratings for this are all over the place, which isn't a surprise given that my thoughts on Baby-faced Beauty is equally as scattered. In an attempt to organize my opinion, I'll just run through the given categories.



Story: I gave this a 6 for story instead of the intended 5 because the story is what initially drew me to BFB. Age is an intrinsic part of how Koreans socialize with one another through their actions and communication. And so it was interesting to watch a 34 year old designer-wannabe struggle to play the role of the complacent youngster who's just a tad bit too opinionated when drunk. However, and this might be just cultural difference talking, her deference bordered on aggravating spinelessness. It didn't help that her immediate environment is populated with the most unlikeable people I've ever encountered both fictionally and non. These people were spiteful for the sake of spitefulness, including her own family, and although some characters are redeemed towards the end, I needed to tap into my reserve of perseverance to endure that long. The story towards the end begins to flag, hitting a rut in which actual narrative tension is replaced with design contest after contest after contest. This might have had to do with the extension given to BFB: it also seemed that during this extension the writer remembered that there was supposed to be a romance, and so decided to throw in as many rom-com cliches as possible to satisfy that aspect of the show. The extension did this show no favors.



Acting/Cast: Really, this rating belongs to Daniel Choi. This show belongs to Daniel Choi. This goofy smile that spread across my face every time he was onscreen belongs to Daniel Choi. My heart belongs to Daniel Choi. The number one reason why I didn't drop Baby-faced Beauty was because I couldn't bear to drop Daniel Choi, who was delightfully immature yet sincere as Choi Jin Wook.



Overall: I wouldn't say that this drama is bad, and there were many moments that I thought were downright great. I finished the last episode with a smile on my face and the happy warmth that usually indicates my love for a show. However, taking into account the MANY times I wanted to give up on this show and how I had to force myself to trudge through for just one more hit of Daniel Choi, the best I can say is that Baby-faced Beauty for me was just watchable.

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The Hong sisters well done for creating another awesome drama!

Mi Ho played by beautiful Shin Min A was just SO FRIGGIN CUTE and so innocent. I love how she was simple minded in terms of "I really really like him" and she never gave up on him and he slowly falls for her!

And man, Dong Joo aka NO MIN WOO. I am IN LOVE with him! He was just OMG he was like a bad ass who was in pain for a thousand years because he killed the love of his life. I just wanted to jump into the drama to hug him and never let him go. Did I tell you how GORGEOUS he is. ALL his airing time made me drool.

The ending of the drama was a tad disappointing, I mean that was so FAKE. Have they just decided to go cheap because it was the end of the drama?



If your into some Rom-com with a bit of fantasy mixed into it. Well here's your drama!

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If you are very, very into politics than you'll like Dae Mul. If you are not, you may not like it. But I liked it a lot and felt it was a pretty good drama. It had a well thought out story with a solid trajectory that shows the progression of a woman who goes from wanna-be reporter/housewife to the President of The Republic of Korea. I found it had enough drama and included enough comic relief to keep me interested and entertained. The politics are mostly believable. There is a healthy dose of political intrigue and sometimes fascinating machinations of politicians both corrupt and hmmm...only slightly corrupt. Along with the politics, there is a background friendship and long standing love that is lovely and sweet.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Kwon Sang Woo before this but I enjoyed his character a lot. He plays an honorable son, prosecutor and a loyal, steadfast friend. He's hot headed, prone to fight and often very funny. Go Hyun Jung is wonderful, as always. I like her so much. She has such range; from What's Up Fox to Queen Seon Duk (Evil Misil!) to Dae Mul, she is an undeniably great actress.

This is one drama that uses its side characters well. They all orbit around the leads in believable ways. They are necessary to the story and not distractions, which if you have ever read any of my reviews, you'll know this kicks up a drama's rating for me.

At 24 episodes, I felt the pacing was just fine. It took me a long time to finish this but I blame the springtime glut of obsessive fare like Greatest Love and others for stalling me on this and not a lagging storyline. This drama is worth your time if you are into politics and more adult storylines. It's written well, directed well and most of all, acted well. There is some strange editing at the end/beginning of some episodes but they always clean up the story during the hour.

I'm giving it an 8 over-all. My Re-watch value is low. Not because I didn't like it but because I'm more apt to watch light romantic fare over and over rather than a long political drama.

Again, this drama is worth it if you like political stories or if you are a fan of the leads. They do a great job in this drama.

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Of course I love the story b/c I have made it a point to watch all versions of this story. Cronologically this one is very different. The history of the characters is not the same as in the other versions. The acting (IMAO) is much better than the Japanese version, even though it is still kinda weak. The dorky laughing is what killed most of this for me. I was never a giggler and hate it when girls do that to act cute. It makes me sick. Watching this drama was almost like watching a Soap Opera here in America (really bad acting) only w/o the continuous relationship changes. I really hated the mother in this one. She was like pure evil in human form. How can a mother lie to her child and not feel guilt. I have an 11 yr old and there is nothing that she could ever do that would make me lie to her like that. I just don't understand her characters pov. She wants what is best for her son yet she does everything she can to hurt him b/c it is not what she wants him to do. As a parent u have to let ur children learn from their own mistakes, not force them to do as u want them to. That is not how they learn or grow. The fact that the father let her do these things make me really mad b/c he should have done something to stop his wife from being such a biatch. I mean really dude grow a pair and deal w/ ur psycho of a wife.



There is obviously a 2nd season to this, and I really want to finish out the story, but I may wait a while b/c this part took so long to get through. I just really hate to leave things unfinished. Which is y I will prolly go and watch the 2nd season of the Japanese version; even though I really hated it. Damn my inablity to leave things unfinished. I will suffer through it just b/c I can't leave the story like it is in my head. Yeah I even make myself finish crappy books too. Stupid OCD.

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The Recipe is laid out almost like a treasure hunt; with the treasure being a woman who makes the most delicious Doenjang Stew. The search for her yields clues to the recipe for the stew and the story of the woman, both being intertwined. It also uncovers a love story within.

Almost the whole first half is the reporter looking for and discovering clues that lead to her, step by step, person by person that touched her life. Once he gets close enough, you get a glimpse of her life and her love and the story of how her delicious recipe came to be. It's a little slow going at first but don't let that stop you.

This movie has an ethereal, magical quality to it and it made me want to eat Doenjang Stew really bad...even though I've never had it in my life.

The story is beautifully written and very well acted. The Ume tree forests, the soybean fields and the mountains are all shot beautifully. Once again, Lee Yo Won does a great job and Lee Dong Wook is wonderful. Ryu Seong Ryong plays the reporter and I really like him in this. (He played the gay art gallery owner in Personal Taste) This is a very different role. I didn't recognize him at first.

This is a small, quiet movie but it's a lovely story. I wasn't bored at all but I think you have to be in the mood for quiet.

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There are many things about Full House that are appealing. Rain and Song Hye Go are very charming. Watching their budding romance can be great fun at times. I found myself watching for their angsty and sometimes comedic interactions to turn to love.

Full House has a typical Kdrama set up that puts the OTP in place to live together, bringing on plenty of antagonism, angst and lots of opportunity for cute moments together.

It's a cute story. I liked it. But I didn't love it like a lot of people who watched it. For me, there were a lot of things that made this drama average. There was not enough plot for me. There came a point where I noticed a lot of house cleaning, lame misunderstandings and not enough reason for these two not to just get together already! What I felt was, even at 16 episodes, it seemed to drag on too long.

But I'm giving this a 7 (great) because the interactions of the OTP entertained me a lot of the time. There were a lot of cute moments and some good chemistry between the couple.

This is pretty light fare. There are some laughs and sweetness that I think might make a good rainy day drama for a lot of people.

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I really really enjoyed watching Asuko March! Heck I love the fact that she was one of the very VERY rare girls who attended the school which was brimming with bad boys. Man there were two guys that caught my eyes out of all the guys, Matsuzaka Tori and Kaku Kento they are GORGEOUS! Especially Matsuzaka. I really enjoyed seeing the developments of each and characters in this drama. And I applaud Takei Emi aka Nao in the drama for basically single-handedly changing them all into better people and through helping them she learned some life lessons and made friendship that would last forever.

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Out of the 3 versions of this story, again this was the last one that I got around to watching. The japanese version being my first, will always be my favorite because it's the one that hooked me onto the series to begin with (as well as Arashi / MatsuJun (: ). The Korean version I watched after I read the manga, and although I thought it was a good series by itself, I felt it drifted far off from the manga, and even the main characters seemed to be separate characters. After watching Meteor Garden, I would say I liked this one better than the Korean version.



In the earlier episodes I felt MG did a terrific job on basing it off of the manga. It's expected that there has to be some variation, but most of it, I felt, was right on. As the show progressed, MG started to develop into it's own story. Not to say that it drifted far off, but events were done differently. Through it all, I felt the actors did a good job as the characters. Dao Ming Si's character acted like the original Domyouji, with minor differences. Shan Cai's character was bull headed like the original Tsukushi, hiding her own true feelings even from herself. The rest of F4 was portrayed well.



When I first started watching this show and saw F4 I wasn't sure how I was going to like them. Dao Ming Si and Hua Ze Lei fit Domyouji and Rui well, but I wasn't sure about the other 2. Mei Zuo as Mimasaka even fit, but Xing Men took me a while to get used to. As Nishikado, he looked different. But at the end I found myself liking him as his character. True I liked the japanese F4 better, and even Kim Bum as Nishikado better, but for the Taiwan version he played his part well.



They only had 2 songs in this drama, the opening and the ending. The opening song "Qing Fei Te Yi" (Can't Help Falling In Love With You) they played throughout the drama. It might just be me, but the song didn't get on my nerves.



For a drama that came out in 2OO1, I thought it was really good. You have to keep in mind while watching it that it came out 1O years ago, so of course fashion and technology is going to be different. The cell phones aren't as advanced as they are now. The filming for the show isn't as high quality as it is for new shows. That aside, I think it's a show worth watching. I really think that if I hadn't of seen the Japanese and Korean version I would've liked this drama a lot more. Because this was the last one that I watched, and I'd already read the manga, I found a lot of it predictable. The ending I felt was cute. I'm not sure if I'll watch the 2nd season yet, I'm still debating.



Ohh another thing I liked about this drama was how it included characters such as QingHe (Kazuya in the manga) who were eliminated in the other dramas.

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