December-January 2016/2017 Korean Drama Reviews January 27, 2017

The First one was My Wife’s Having An Affair This Week. This drama was a remake of a Japanese drama. This story is about a producer for tv shows and he sees his wife’s text message about meeting at a hotel with a guy. The husband Do Hyun-Woo posts his problem in an online forum and he gets a lot of responses. He tries to work through the issues with the help of anonymous people online. This drama stars Lee Sun-Kyun as the husband and Song-Ji-Hyo as the wife.

I wanted to watch this drama mainly because it stars Song Ji-Hyo and since I love running man I like watching her dramas. I have to say this was a pretty well made drama, I was actually surprised that I started to enjoy the drama. At first I found the husband to be really whiny and I was frustrated with listening to his inner dialogue but I start to understand him better and I really wanted to know where the story is going.

I have never really thought much about affairs and how painful they can be and I think this drama really shows an honest and brutal picture of what affairs can be like. It really made me think and change my perspective on what divorce is like. There was also some interesting side characters that were funny and frustrating as well. If you are looking for a different kind of drama I would recommend this one, it highlighted different issues when it comes to being in relationships.

 

The second drama was Sweet Stranger and Me/ Man Living At My House. This drama is abed on a webcomic. It is about Hong Na-Ri a flight attendant who has lost her mother and when she goes to her hometown 10 months later to visit her mother’s grave she meets a younger looking man. The man tells her that she is her step-father and that he had married his mother and he runs a small dumpling restaurant her mother owned.

I really enjoyed the first 7 episodes or so with the whole hijinks that went with a younger man that she had to call stepfather. It was an interesting push and pull scenario going on but it seemed to all fizzle out after that. I started wishing that she was more interested in her neighborhood friend Kwon Duk-Bong!  I started becoming more interested in the side stories that the main story-line.

Hong Na- Ri and her stepfather relationship was always ambiguous, they were kinda together sometimes and then not. I didn’t really like Hong Na-Ri’s character I found her kinda annoying after a while. I did like parts of this drama but I didn’t really enjoy it as a whole, I wouldn’t really recommend this drama, as there are better ones out there.

 

The third drama that I finished was Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-Joo. This drama stars Lee Sung-Kyung as Kim Bok-Joo and I just have to say that she really doesn’t look like a weight lifter, like no way that her small frame could even be a weight lifter! She even has to gain weight at some point and she doesn’t look like she gained any weight. She is also supposed to be considered not that attractive and I don’t think it is even possible to make her look unattractive!!

She stars opposite Nam Joo-Hyuk as Joon-Hyung and I have loved him since Surplus Princess and he stars again as a swimmer just like Who Are You School 2015 and he of course suits that role perfectly! So the story line is that Bok-Joo is a weightlifter at college and she is happy being with her other weight lifting friends and she runs into Joon-Hyung and he recognizes her from his past and they reconnect. Meanwhile Bok-Joo meets someone else and starts to have feelings of love. To meet with this person could jeopardize her career as a weight lifter.

This was a really great romantic comedy drama, I think it was really made well and I enjoyed all the characters. Some parts did not seem that believable but I really enjoyed the story line with a naive girl falling in love for the first time and all the fun times that were involved. I don’t really have any complaints for this drama except that it was too short, I would have been happier with more episodes. I would recommend this drama, it was a light hearted fun drama that I think anyone would enjoy.

The fourth drama that I finished was Romantic Doctor, Teacher Kim. I guess no one would be surprised that I watched this drama since it is a medical drama! This drama is about doctors and the romantic ideals that doctors need to take with them. It starts with Dr. Kang Dong-Joo who is a doctor and he meets his sunbae Yoon Seo-Jung and they have feelings for each other. They meet a few years later at a run down hospital because Dong-Joo is being punished for unsuccessfully completing a VIP patient surgery. He meets a quirky, talented doctor Master Kim and it is far from smooth sailing with each other.

So this drama was apparently very popular in South Korea, which surprised me with other dramas going on but I really enjoyed this drama and it won a few SBS drama awards. It was a break from just having a romantic type drama. This drama tries to go deeper into the characters and try to make them think and test them about what they believe and why they are motivated to do what they do. It tries to push the boundaries on what is the correct way to handle a emergency situation. Master Kim is the head of the hospital and he pushes people but yet lets them make their own decisions, he has a very romantic ideals and sticks to them. I loved it when he smiled in the drama, it just warmed my heart.

All the characters and actors were really good in this drama and every episode had you hooked. I would recommend this drama to anyone who likes medical dramas and enjoys an exciting drama!

 

The fifth drama that I finished was Legend Of The Blue Sea which is about the fate between a man and a mermaid. The story line follows the love between a man and mermaid in the past and in the present. They are somehow interconnected and some characters become aware of the past. The man it follows is Joon-Jae(Lee Min Ho) and Sim Chung (Jun Ji-Hyun) as the mermaid. So there is a theme of reincarnation and it looks at the past and present.

I found this drama to be pleasant and fun to watch, it was lighthearted and I was so happy to see Jun Ji-Hyun back on the screen! She is hilarious. I wanted to watch this drama because I knew it would be popular if Lee Min-Ho was in it, but I didn’t really think that he was that great. I really think Jun Ji-Hyun completely stole the show with her humorous ways!! I would recommend this drama and found the ending to be satisfying and enjoyable!

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 So after the first two episodes I felt confused by the characters intentions and the reasons for their choices. It was really explained why Sim Chung decided to surface from the ocean and wander into a random villa. I couldn’t really understand her motivation was it because she found this bracelet and it compelled her to surface? I am not sure and why was she had to erase Joon-Jae’s memories when she saved him the first time. She could have discussed it with him first and if she didn’t like the answers she gave him she could have erased his memories again. Well really she could have just erased the part where he saw her as a mermaid and then continue on as if nothing happened. So I found some inconsistencies with just some of the reasons and story lines. I know there was a director’s cut with some extras that apparently explained it better but I don’t really feel like watching the same episode twice with some extras, really who has got time for that!

 

 

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I really did enjoy the drama, it has some great side stories with all the characters! I really love the house that Joon-Jae had, it created such a fun atmosphere for the drama!! It had some touching moments, funny moments and scary moments! It had everything that made a great drama!!

 

 

The sixth drama I finished watching was Goblin The Lonely and Great God. Well this was an intense drama, the kind of drama that made you really feel things! It is about Kim Shin (Gong-Yoo) who was an unbeatable General in ancient times, he is killed by having a sword through his chest by the King.  But because of his sins he becomes a Goblin with an immortal life and lives with a sword through his chest and the only way he can die is by finding the Goblin’s bride who is the only with the power to remove his sword. The goblin lives many years watching his servants die of old age and always feels the weight of life. Ji Eun-Tak (Kim Go-Eun) who a high schooler that sees ghosts and other things. She meets the Grim Reaper (Lee Dong-Wook) who is trying to find her because she is considered a lost soul. Ji Eun-Tak makes a wish on her birthday to the Goblin and when she blows out the candles he appears.

So first of all, again this drama is about reincarnation which I really don’t like! I am against this belief but I didn’t take it seriously but I don’t like how they portray the idea of deities, it reminds me more of the temperamental Greek Gods. Also the rules of their world are sometimes hard to follow and I am not sure they always make sense. It just seems like the idea of reincarnation has been overdone this season with Legend of the Blue Sea on air at the same time. I mean I loved the acting in this drama, I love Gong-Yoo and really I have to watch Lee Dong-Wook and the two of them and their bromance was really the best. I would watch this drama again to see the two of them together!

I also thought that Go-Eun was good and it took me an episode to recognize her from Cheese In The Trap because she looks so different in this drama! I thought she did really good playing opposite Gong-Yoo considering she seems a lot younger and more inexperienced them her counterpart.
This drama has many funny, sad, and heart wrenching moments and sometimes I was bawling so hard!! so warning if you are an emotional person this drama may break your heart a few times. I for the most part enjoyed the drama and it kept me thinking all the time about what was going to happen to the characters. It was more out of the box thinking drama which I did enjoy. I would recommend this drama if you like fantasy and romantic drama because for the most part I really did enjoy this drama!

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So one thing that I don’t quite get about the logics of this drama is that first of all when Kim Shin dies he wanders the desert but when Eun-Tak calls him out he is still a goblin. I thought that him being a goblin was a punishment or maybe having the sword gone is what the reward was for him. I don’t really get how he could still keep those powers after dying. Secondly if he never ages does that mean that Eun-Tak is going to get old and he will stay young, because that would still be sad for Kim Shin! To me what would make more sense is that when they die they would spend eternity together instead of trying to be reincarnated all the time. What happens when Eun-Tak has used up all of her 4 lives? Kim Shin will just be left alone on the earth alone forever? Also at the end when she comes back she looks exactly the same, but yet the Grim Reaper and Sunny both came back with different faces? Those were some things that bothered me with this drama. Also the memory forgetting tea, for the most part people have memories they want to retain so it doesn’t make sense to have to forget their lives.

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The first drama that I am watching is Hwarang: The Beginning. The drama is about the Kingdom of Silla and it follows Dog Bird(Park Seo Joon) as a peasant that through extraordinary circumstances becomes a part of the Queen’s men the Hwarang and it is full of influential young men and they compete with each other and are tested. I have watched a few episodes and it is full of good looking men!! so there is a lot of eye candy in this drama which is fun. Seo-Joon is a really good actor and I enjoy his acting in the drama. This seems like a more fun historical drama and I think it will be interesting.

The second drama that I am watching is Introverted Boss. This drama is about a mysterious CEO Eun Hwan Ki who is in charge of the top public relations agency. He voids eye contact and doesn’t like to be seen and keeps out of the public. Chae Ro Woon begins working at Hwan Ki’s company and she has plans to reveal the problems with Hwan Ki. I have watched a couple of episodes and I think it has potential but I don’t know if there will be enough of a storyline for 20 episodes. I feel like it can be frustrating when the CEO keeps running away from people all the time. I feel like this drama may be only interesting for the first 10 episodes and then it may not interest me long enough.

The third drama I plan to watch is Missing Nine. This drama is about 9 survivors of a plane crash on an island. There is a variety of people that end up on the island, boy band member, a girl group, an actor, bodyguard, entertainment reporter, and flight attendant. The group tries to survive after the plane crash. This looks like it could be interesting but I really hope that they don’t turn this into another LOST version. I don’t feel very convinced about this drama but I will still check it out.

The fourth drama that I am going to check out is Chief Kim it is about Kim Sung Ryong (Nam Goong Min) is a skilled accountant for gangsters and he plans to embezzle money from another company but somehow along the way with working with other people at the business he starts to change his mind about embezzling. I don’t know if this will be a good drama but it looks like they have some fun characters. It looks like it could be fun even though I am not a huge fan of business politics but I will check it out