September and October 2021 November 21, 2021

September, October 2021 Korean Drama Reviews

The first drama that I finished was Hospital Playlist 2. So it continues on with the story from the first season, so to enjoy the second season you need to watch the first season. It picks up where things were left off with the different relationships and of course the classic friendships of the doctors. This drama always makes me so sad that I don’t have a group of friends where you have this unbreakable connection. Although in one episode Kim Jun-Wan and Yang Seok-Hyeong are alone together on a trip and they are so awkward and don’t mesh well together which seemed really realistic when it comes to friend groups, not everyone is comfortable being alone with certain members of groups. I feel like I would be the awkward one! Each episode was filled with different patients and story lines mixed with the friendships of the group.

I have to say I was pretty satisfied with the second season even though I know it wasn’t as good as the first season but it definitely filled my heart with warmth watching the characters come together again and just eat, share troubles, and play music together. It just felt like this was a nice comfortable feeling that soothed me. Not all dramas are able to achieve this warm feeling and I really enjoyed each episode.

The only problems that I saw was that at times it felt like it was going slow in some of the relationships and found the patient story lines more boring this season. I think there was a lack of character development for the doctors and I wished they paid more attention to developing their characters instead of riding on the coattails of the first season. It was like the character worked in the first season so we aren’t going to change much for them in the second season.

Overall I really did enjoy getting to have a second season of Hospital Playlist and I am sad that the story is now concluded. I really am a sucker for the friendship dramas!

The second drama that I completed was You are My Spring. It is about Kang Da-Jeong (Seo Hyun-Jin) who had a tough childhood and she is working at a hotel and moves into a new building that her friends dad own and they work in the building running a cafe. Ju Young-Do (Kim Dong-Wook) is a psychiatrist and also works in the same building and is very good at reading people. It also stars Chae Jun (Yoon Park) who is a CEO of an investment company and has been expressing his feelings towards Da-Jeong for a while and she doesn’t know if she can trust him because she has only dated jerks.

I think this was a really interesting drama that was keeping me on the edge of my seat. It is a bit dark and I wasn’t really expecting that from the look of the drama. I thought I would try watching it but was hoping it wasn’t a fluff piece that was not complex enough. I was really wrong this was a intricate and emotionally charged drama that was very compelling. I really like when they mix psychology into the dramas and make the characters more dimensional because humans are interesting and also very complex and it feels more authentic when the characters have interesting sides to them. The acting was also really good I really liked Yoon Park’s acting, I was really impressed with his acting. I love having a mystery in the drama, it always keeps me more engaged in the drama and it was pretty compelling throughout the whole drama.

What I didn’t like was the back and forth in the romantic relationship it was somewhat unnecessary to be breaking up and getting back together that much. It just felt a bit overdone and I thought it was a bit redundant and was tiring. I also thought Da-Jeong was going to have more of a journey with counselling and that she would need more fixing that what they did, I wished they would have focused more on inner healing. The way they just addressed some of her past and how simple and easy it was to get over her past felt ridiculous and really did not do justice to those who are actually suffering with these problems. I just thought they made counseling seem to simplistic and I think they could have focused more on these issues instead of the whole breaking up aspect. Actually they needed to deal with inner problems with more characters but it felt like they are telling people just sweep those emotions under the rug and ignore it and overcome it on your own and if not sharing your past with someone will be enough to make the problem go away which is clearly not true. I get it was just a drama but I wish they would have tried a little harder in that area.

It was a really interesting drama that I feel was underrated and is really not expected from the summary and it would say it is pretty edgy and yet would hit you in all the feels.

The third drama that I finished was Police University. This drama is about Yoo Dong-Man (Cha Tae-Hyun) who is a former detective and got in trouble after not being able to solve cyber crime involving illegal gambling and now has to work as professor at the police university. It also stars Kang Sun-Ho (Jin Young) who is a rookie at the university and excels at hacking and gets involved with Dong-Man’s continued investigation into the illegal gambling. It also stars Oh Kang-Hee (Krystal) who is doing her best to become a honest and righteous police officer despite her family background.

I was concerned watching a drama with Krystal as one of the leads because I don’t think she is very good at acting but I thought I can’t go wrong with Tae-Hyun as one of the leads since he is pretty humorous but I was let down. I did not like this drama and it wasn’t necessarily that Krystal had terrible acting it was the script. It was just boring and I did not feel much of anything for any of the characters. I was expecting a funny and exciting drama filled with great friendship moments but it was just so disappointing. I though Jin Young did a really good job with his acting and he probably was the only reason that I completed the drama but it was not compelling and even though there was interesting mystery to solve it just did not play on my emotions or feelings at all. I watched the drama sped up so I could get through each episode faster. I know it is bad if I speed it up and the sound gets all weird but I am so bored! The ending was not that great either just kinda weird.

I would stay away from this drama, it is really lacking but if you like an okay police drama then go for it!

The fourth drama I finished was Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. It stars Yoon Hye-Jin (Shin Min-A) who is a black listed dentist and finds herself in the small seaside village of Gongjin and an offer to set up a clinic comes her way and she reluctantly agrees to set up her own practice. It also stars Hong Du-Sik (Kim Sun-Ho) who is considered the handyman of the village and does all kinds of jobs around the village without being officially employed and lives a more carefree life and is content helping those that need help.

This is a very lovable drama with all the village characters along with the main characters it seems so filled with love and friendship. I think it is so heart warming because now a days it feels like we are really disconnected from the people around us and we struggle to have relationships with family never mind a community. I think this drama just feels really nice to imagine a place where you can find help and have a sense of pride and connection and purpose in a community and this is really reflected through Chief Hong’s character. I really like all the villagers and characters and how they had true character development and even if you mess up, it really is the best to learn from and how to become better. Everyone was giving second, third or fourth chances and sometimes people need time to become a better person. I thought it was really a lovely drama and deserved the hype that it got. It was a really good story.

The only thing that bothered me was of course Yoon Hye-Jin’s personality at the beginning, but that was okay in the end because she needed to grow and stop putting up walls to protect herself. Also not sure if this is a spoiler but dramas need to stop adding childhood connections into the love story. It has been so overdone for years that I am annoyed already. The more I think about it who remembers random moments from childhood with a person it does not make the connection deeper or better. As a child you are not thinking romantic stuff like that it is honestly just weird when I think about it. The only other thing that I thought didn’t really work was Chief Hong’s secret and that the whole scenario that happened was portrayed as his fault when clearly that was not the case. I think it wasn’t very believable that everyone would have believed that to be the case.

Also it was all in the news that Kim Sun-Ho had apparently forced his ex girlfriend to have an abortion and then dumped her and this came out from the girlfriend and so it seemed like everyone was trying to cancel him and he had to leave his variety show. Honestly all I could think about was the case of Kim Hyun-Joong and his girlfriend tried to smear him and said that he assaulted her and caused her to miscarry. In the end she was the one that was found to have lied and sued for defamation and it caused so much damage to his career. So I find it super suspicious that when Kim Sun-Ho got really famous that she would start releasing all these allegations against him the timing is super suspicious! I think when one gets famous the crazies come out of the woodwork and would never trust these allegations that come out. My first reaction is to be reminded of Kim Hyun-Joong’s case and understand that people can try to damage others especially if they are jealous which celebrity has the tendency to do. You should never treat someone like a criminal until they are proven guilty!

I think this was a really sweet, funny and lovable drama and definitely recommend Hometown Cha Cha Cha.

The last drama was Yumi’s Cells which is based on the Webtoon with the same name. It is about Yu-Mi (Kim Go-Eun) who is single and is interested in getting in a new relationship since she has been single for a long time after a bad relationship in her last one. The story exists on the outside of Yumi and on the inside of Yumi’s head with her cells. There is a town of cells in Yumi that help deal with her emotions and problems. They all have a purpose and personality and we see exactly what is going on inside Yumi’s head. Part of the drama with the cells is animation in her head and outside of her head is live action. It has an Inside Out feel to it but is still very different and this is for a more mature audience. Just to say it, I don’t think this webtoon came out after Inside Out so no one is copying each other. There is a season 2 already confirmed because the story is far from over after the first season.

I read the webtoon before watching the drama and I thought that might be problematic but also they usually change so much from the webtoon I didn’t think it really mattered. In this case they are sticking very close to the webtoon which I really am happy about since I think it doesn’t need to be changed. I really wish other dramas would take the time to tell the story the way the webtoon or book told it, sometimes it is the small things that really make a drama/story great. I know for some people that the animation might be a turn off in a drama but if you have read the webtoon it actually really fits perfectly fine into the story.

I really like how all the cells have different purposes and just having different jobs and to help explain the human condition was interesting. It really gives depths to how our brain works and gives an interesting way of explaining the differences in people’s minds and why sometimes you can’t get on the same page. It just gives you a different perspective to how people’s brains work even if it fictitious, I think we can all see ourselves or parts of ourselves in the different cells and how we deal with life. I didn’t mind the changes that they did make from the webtoon and honestly I can’t always remember if what happened was in the webtoon or not because I think the overall message portrayed is accurate. I also like how when Yumi is dealing with tough social situations and you want to be mad at someone and just the little things that go through your head when dealing with it, so many situations feel relatable. I think that this drama really gets you feeling that you can relate to these different circumstances and shows the little details that you maybe even never noticed. It shows you the little things that can happen in relationships that you can’t always put into words and how your feelings can change. It really feels like a unique drama even though it is a typical story line of getting into a relationship but it just seems deeper and more intricate.

Although I don’t really like how they did the ending of the first season, I felt the webtoon made it more dramatic and it didn’t seem so weak of a reason for what happened. They didn’t really sell me on the reason that it had to happen but I mean I am excited to see a second season and I hope they can finish the webtoon in that amount of time since there is a part three in the webtoon. I can’t really complain about this drama I really liked it and it seemed really short but that is okay because we know we are getting another season.

I would really recommend this drama if you like a quirky, romantic story.

Upcoming Dramas

Jirisan

It is drama about park rangers that are working on Jiri Mountain and they focus on trying to save people. It turns into a serial killer on the lose on the mountain and one park ranger that has been given a gift of sight of seeing the murders happen beforehand.

Inspector Koo

It is about a retired police officer who works as a personal detective and is contracting work with an insurance company on a team that her friend is in charge of, she starts off with insurance fraud mystery cases and then starts to realize there is a serial killer mystery she needs to solve.

Red Sleeve

It is about a girl who has been a court lady since a child and has no where else to go and enjoys being a storyteller and a King of Joseon who is serious about his duties and doesn’t want to think about love.