March, April and May 2021 Korean Drama Review May 25, 2021

The first drama that I finished was Sisyphus: The Myth. It is a time travel drama and it stars Han Tae-Sul (Cho Seung-Woo) who is a genius founder of a innovative company called Quantum and Time Company. He is struggling with his mental health after the suspicious death of his brother and he starts to question the death after finding a mysterious suitcase. It also stars Gang Seo-Hae (Park Shin-Hye) who is a trained warrior, she is skilled in surviving in a hostile world. She time travels to because she has an important mission to save the country and she needs Tae-Sul to accomplish this mission.

Okay I fell for another time travel drama, I don’t know why I keep watching them thinking that they will do a good job. The logic of the drama always gets skewed and this drama wasn’t any different. The motives and reasons why the characters are choosing these decisions gets murky as the rules of the world seem to change with the wind. I honestly don’t even understand what the ending was, it seemed like it was almost a happy ending but it doesn’t make sense, so it must be their imagination. One thing that bothered me was they really don’t explain what the brother was doing and how he really fit into the story, I thought they would explain what he was doing behind the scenes but its like they forgot about his plot.

There are parts of this drama that made me feel really uncomfortable, such as the team of secret operatives that are coming and taking these time traveler and it just seems creepy with the climate of the world and how people’s rights seem to be nonexistent at this time. A small group of people that can wreck the world and they get away with it and live like Kings, seeing how there seems to be only a few companies that are taking over the free market and not much choice, I could see something like this happening in reality. The post apocalyptic time that Seo-Hae grows up in is very disturbing and pretty violent. Overall this is a pretty dark drama in my opinion and yet it still made me curious.

I have to say although I didn’t like how they ended it, they had some interesting ideas about time travel and there are lots of twists and turns that made you think and kept you on your toes and trying to guess what happens next. I really liked the actors and they did a good job in playing their roles, even if the age difference was a bit off to me, I was still buying the chemistry between them. This drama had a lot of characters and their own stories which kept it more interesting. I am sad that they couldn’t wrap it up better with the main characters getting a proper ending especially since Seo-Hae had such a crappy life. It was exciting, entertaining and frustrating but it was at least an interesting ride of a drama.

The second drama that I watched was Hello, Me!/ Hello? It’s Me. It stars Ban Ha-Ni (Choi Gang-Hee) who is a miserable single woman without a stable job or really anything going for her in her life. She keeps getting into unnecessary trouble and at her lowest point she meets a 17-year-old Ban Ha-Ni (Lee Re) who has come from the past to set things right. The younger version of herself is bright and hopeful and is the exact opposite of the current version and they need to work together to try to fix what has happened. It also stars HanYu-Hyeon (Kim Young-Kwang) who comes from a rich family that has indulged in his hobbies and now his father wants him to grow up so they cut him off from money and he needs to prove himself.

I guess this is another type of time travel drama but the focus is not really on the subject. They aren’t trying to change anything in the past or make sure something happens for the future. It was more about a sentimental type feel of a drama. It’s focus is on how we can change or circumstances can affect who we are and taint us but we need to remind ourselves of how we all at one time was an innocent child that had dreams and ambitions that we had without fear. How interesting would it be if we got to meet our younger selves and the idea that they could help us become who we would like to be without all the responsibilities and guilt of being considered selfish for having dreams. I thought it was interesting concept to explore and I thought it was a decent drama and was pretty satisfied by the drama.

They have some fortune telling magic aspect which I pretty much skipped over which I felt was unnecessary for the drama. I find Gang-Hee the actor playing Ha-Ni has a very unique voice and thought that the teenager version was not very similar to each other. Their voices did not sound alike at all and I think it would be very hard to find someone with a similar voice to Gang-Hee. So I found it hard to buy that they were actually a younger and older version of each other. By teenage years you don’t change that much so I thought it was an odd choice of actors. I wish they could have picked out more of a doppelganger match for the actors. We know that many actors can look similar so that was disappointing to me.

Overall I thought the story was pretty good and nothing bothered me that much in the logic of the drama. I liked the story and the changes of the characters. I would recommend this drama if you like watching a fantasy/romcom type of drama that is pretty lighthearted.

The third drama that I watched was Oh! Master/ Oh My Ladylord. It stars Han Bi-Soo (Lee Min-Ki) who is a popular drama writer that only writes thrillers. It also stars Oh Joo-In (Nana) who is a rising actress who wants to star in one of Bi-Soo’s dramas but he turns her down arrogantly. Bi-Soo then has to convince Joo-In to let him live in her house to write his script and convince her to star in his drama or else he won’t be able to get his drama onto TV.

Only the first couple of episodes are good and it just goes downhill from there. I thought the actors and their acting skills were good it was just a shame that this drama was a flop. The writer really messed it up for them, it could have been a decent drama with the actors but it was just not good.

This drama was okay for awhile and I honestly thought it only had 12 episodes from the way the story was going but I realized it had 16 episodes and I really wanted to drop this drama. They should have wrapped it up in 12 episodes it would have been much better but instead they painfully continued on and the ratings really dipped and was probably one of the lowest rated dramas. I thought it was going to be a lighthearted drama where they are forced to live with each other eventually fall in love and it had that but then they had to create this supernatural weirdness of him disappearing and it just was so terrible. Also they both had awfully tragic pasts and then it continued into their futures, it was just so bizarre. I really wanted to stop around the 7/8 episode when I realized where it was heading.

The character of Bi-Soo and his actions were actually atrocious that I would have dumped him so hard and kicked him out of Nana’s house and would have moved on with the second lead who was clingy and annoying but at least wasn’t abusive. I don’t care what you are going through or dying the way Bi-Soo treated Nana was abusive and I was annoyed at her character for putting up with his mood swings and would have had more respect for her as a character if she would have left him. I was actually watched the drama from the 10 episode on with 2x the speed so I could skip through the drama quicker but at least finish it. The logic of the drama with Bi-Soo disappearing was also so bizarre and we don’t even really know what happened to him, did he die or he stuck in this invisible state which sounds so horrible to me.

Also the ending extremely disturbed me that Nana was acting like he went on a trip and people around her believe that he is still alive, like how long can you keep that charade going. She is just going to keep that lie going, at some point you have to say that he is missing and she will seem utterly insane. I get frustrated even thinking about this drama, this is probably the worst drama of the whole year. Please don’t bother with this drama you will be annoyed, angry, disappointed, and depressed if you attempt to watch this drama!

Upcoming Dramas

I was going to watch Dear M., it seems to be cancelled or at least postponed so not sure if this drama will be aired. It was cancelled because of the school violence allegations made against the actress Park Hye Su and she has denied these allegations.

Youth of May

It is about the turbulent times of the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980. A medical student falls in love with a nurse that he meets at a blind date. She wants to leave to study abroad and he suggests dating for the month of may.

Mine

It is about a rich family that lives in another world then regular people. A star actress gave up her career to join this family and take care of her stepson and find her place without losing herself. Another daughter-in-law is married to the first son and she manipulates the family in a way that no one notices what she is doing. There is a mysterious death that is slowly being unraveled in each episode. There is a maid that is being drawn into an unusual relationship with the oldest grandchild.

Racket Boys

It is about the badminton team in a rural middle school that dream of becoming stars. A legendary badminton player becomes the coach and she helps them grow to be able to take part in a junior athletic competition.

Hospital Playlist 2

This is the second season of hospital playlist and will continue with the same characters.