November and December Korean Drama Review 2021 January 22, 2022

November and December Korean Drama Review 2021

Jirisan

Jirisan is about the mountain Jiri Mountain National Park and the rangers that work there. It stars Seo Yi-Gang (Gianna Jun) who is a veteran ranger and grew up around the mountain and knows the mountain better than anyone around. She has a big chip on her shoulder because the mountain cost the lives of her parents but at the same time she loves the mountain and wants to protect it and the people visiting the mountain. It also stars Kang Hyun-Ju (Ju Ji-Hoon) who is new ranger and was once an army captain and he feels compelled to come to the mountain because he has been given a gift to see deaths that are happening on the mountain. He wants to help prevent them and calls upon Yi-Gang to trust him and help him stop the bad things happening.

I never really knew about rangers as I don’t live anywhere near a mountain and don’t know much on the subject. It seemed like the drama did a really good job on showing the realities of working as a ranger and the harsh conditions they have to work in. I am sure they did some embellishing because that was a lot of natural disasters within a year or two that they showed but I am sure that they did there best to be authentic. I thought the concept of a murderer using a mountain to kill was a really interesting idea and actually scary how someone could pull this off. The story was very compelling and kept you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out who the killer is and I was thrown off many times. The mountain as a backdrop was also very beautiful and the cinematography was lovely. Of course the acting was also very well done and with many sad parts it really hurt when something happened to one of the characters.

What I did not like was the whole spiritual/ghost story line. I thought it kinda cheapened the experience and was entirely unnecessary. I really hated it when they saw the sticks moving on their own that they caught on camera, it was kinda cheesy and I just cringed. The way they made it seem like the mountain was alive and a spirit and the religious stuff I would just skip over. I just wanted to get to the murderer and wanted to move on from the ghosts.

I did like the ending though I just wish they would have given more time to the ending and showing the story line with what happened and what the characters were doing now, it just seemed like they rushed the ending and it certainly left me wanting more. Also if you are expecting romance in this drama, don’t bother because there is none there to find. It is more about friendship and comradeship which is fine but you can’t help shipping characters together! Gianna Jun is a great actress and was one of the reasons that I decided to watch this drama but I still thinks she shines best in comedy! I really wish she would do another comedy because she is in another class when she does comedy!

I would recommend this drama if you like a good murder mystery with a mountain as the backdrop!

Inspector Koo

The second drama is Inspector Koo which is about Koo Kyung-Yi (Lee Young-Ae) who is working as an insurance investigator and private detective after she retired from being a police officer. She is a smart, suspicious and smelly woman who is obsessed with computer games. She had a nervous breakdown after her husband committed suicide and now struggles to live normally. She gets pulled into a case by her old friend Na Je-Hui (Kwak Sun-Young) who work for an insurance company and wants her to find the serial killer labelled “K”. This is reminiscent of a cat and mouse game that happens between Koo and K and they are both trying to outsmart each other.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this drama but the acting was very convincing and the characters were all interesting. This was very interesting to think about especially when it came to the way K made her own moral rules. If you are murdering a bad person and you are stopping them from doing the evil deeds does it make it okay to kill them? This was the dilemma that was the theme throughout the drama. I really made you think and question who really is the evil person in this drama, it almost makes you uncomfortable for a time.

Koo is also an interesting character and how she processes things and what makes her tick and you just feel compelled to keep watching this drama. Koo she honestly smelled bad through the screen, I think it was a turn off for a lot of people but it really gave her character. She was one of the most unique lead characters, she was really out of the box for what is expected from women in society. I thought it was great and it was really great having lots of female characters for the main lead characters and even though we are supposed to hate K, at times I found myself really enjoying her scenes. I thought it was an intelligent, interesting and compelling to watch and well done.

I feel like the ending wasn’t really finished and I am wondering if they left it hanging a bit because they want to do another second season. I have not seen anything about another season happening so if they don’t then I am really frustrated with how they ended Santa’s story line, we never get his backstory even though it has been hinted at something happening and Koo doesn’t get to the bottom of it. This drives me crazy because that is not her character at all, she is the most suspicious and she just lets it go? She never gets to the bottom of Santa’s past? That is why I think they are maybe leaving some room for a second season.

I also am confused why they didn’t also get to the bottom of K’s past and what happened to her when she was lost in the woods? They allude to some supernatural events that someone is telling her to kill and when she has breakdown towards the end of the season she starts killing people for weird reasons and kinda goes back to the time she was lost. They don’t really explain it and honestly that was really weird and seems like a cop out when they use a supernatural approach because then logic gets to fly out of the window which I think is a lazy technique which is similar to how I feel with Jirisan. I would also warn you that this is not a romantic drama so don’t be disappointed if you think it is going to go in this direction.

The Red Sleeve

This drama is about Crown Prince Yi San (Lee Joon-Ho) and his struggle with trying to secure the crown from his grandfather. It also stars Sung Deok-Im (Lee Se-Young) who is his court lady since a child and does her best to serve the Crown Prince. Deok-Im is content with her life of being a court lady and having the freedom to be with her friends who are fellow court lady’s. The Crown Prince falls in love with Deok-Im and she struggles with the implications of his love and resists the change it could cause to her life.

I am still not over this drama, this caused a great emotional distress with watching this drama and I got pulled into the story to strongly. I have to remind you that this drama is based on history and I didn’t want to look up the history because I didn’t want to know what happened, but maybe I should have so I could have prepared myself for it. I know they have embellished the history and isn’t completely truth but I still find it distressing since it isn’t completely fiction. I first of all was excited to watch this drama since Joon-Ho was the the main lead and I have enjoyed him since Chief Kim, Just Between Lovers, and Wok of Love and he definitely didn’t disappoint. He played this character very well and really was the highlight of the drama for me!

I found really interesting about this drama was the fact this really felt like a feminist drama. The females were really in charge of this drama and were pulling the strings in front and behind the scenes. The women were the intelligent that seemed to hold the power in this drama and the power struggle continued until the end and it seemed unusual that the love between the leads didn’t seem to balance the power struggle. It almost was to the point of feeling uncomfortable and felt really bad for Yi-San and the sorrow was felt completely.

What I found frustrating was the character of Deok-Im and what was she really trying to do with her life. She was living as court lady to Yi-San and that already took away much of her freedom. She could never find someone to marry and start a family as that was not allowed and has to spend her life working at the palace which is not exactly a safe place either if someone sees her as their enemy. She somehow thought that she wanted to cling to her life as a court lady because she could have fun with her friends even though there is no guarantee for that to be the case in the future. It was so frustrating to watch her love the Crown Prince but then just hurt him over and over. To me the most logical thing is to be with him and at least she would get some love in her life and even be able to have a children and create love in her life. It wasn’t like she could leave the palace and then have all of her freedom again as she would always be a court lady her whole life. I found her way of thinking to be strange and at times really annoying. There wasn’t much else that I didn’t like about this drama just the ending it was really hard to watch but I did appreciate that the writer tried to soften the blow but it was still just so much emotional damage at this point.

I really thought it was a really well done palace drama that definitely had twists and turns that kept me on my toes and really a heart breaking love story that will really make you feel attached to these characters. So if you want a drama to move your heart with a compelling story I would highly recommend this drama.

Upcoming Korean Dramas

Moonshine

It is about the time of Joseon history where they had an alcohol prohibition law and a newly appointed inspector gets involved with a woman who makes alcohol unknowingly.

Snowdrop

It is set in 1987 during the Democracy Movement which was when there was a mass protest movement to stop the South Korean authoritarian government and demanding that they hold fair elections. It is about a graduate student that is being chased by the government and hides in a Women’s University dorm. A girl hides him because she thinks he is just a simple protester and wants to protect him and they start to develop feelings for each other.

Through the Darkness

It is about a criminal profiler who tries to read the minds of serial killers by digging up cases and trying to understand how their mind works and another profiler that struggles to understand the minds of criminals.