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.

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.

June, July, August 2021 Korean Drama Reviews August 11, 2021

The first drama that I watched was Youth Of May. This drama is based on true events the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980. It was a democratic movement that began with an assassination of the president in 1979 and when the next president Choi Kyu-Hah stepped in he had no dominant control over the government and military. The South Korean Army major general Chun Doo-Hwan seized military power through Coup d’etat of December Twelfth and tried to intervene in domestic issues. Students started creating democratization movements and protests of martial law. The Gwangju uprising was when Chonnam University Students were demonstrating against the martial law government were fired upon, raped, beaten, and killed by government troops and the citizens took up arms against the troops and around 600 people were killed.

So this is the backdrop of the story about Hee-Tae (Lee Do-Hyun) who is a medical student and has a lot of baggage and trauma but yet is still an optimist and believes in the good of people. Myung-Hee (Go Min-Si) is a nurse and had dreams of going abroad to go and study to be a doctor, she doesn’t want to get involved in a relationship before she leaves but she promises her friend to go on a blind date for her to get money for the plane ride.

I had not looked up the history of the uprising until about half way through the drama and realized that the terrible event was going to take place was when I realized that this was not going to be a happy ending for everyone and it turns out I was correct. Warning if you like happy endings then please do not torture yourself and watch this drama. Even though I was so sad at the end and cried more tears than I thought, I believe this was a timely drama to remember past events and how bad things can get. I think with the climate of this year with covid and governments 100% overstepping bounds and calling in emergency orders that are questionable is something to think about how badly things can get if we don’t remember the past. It actually scared me when I watching the shootings happen and that they would even shoot at doctors and nurses, how terrifying would that have been.

It is strange because it was such a sweet love story being told and yet it seemed sweeter due to the horrible things around them. Honestly I tear up just remembering the scenes from this drama, that is how sad the drama made me feel. It does an amazing job of showing the events and it really made me think and imagine how terrible the events that happened. The drama did a great job of showing the past and intertwining a compelling love story which made the events feel alive and real even though we didn’t live through the events.

I didn’t love the ending, I understand why they did the ending that way but it was just so sad. I don’t think I was bothered by much of the drama I thought they did a good job and it was a well-told story.

The second drama that I finished was Mine, it focuses on the main woman that have married into a rich chaebol family that runs the Hyowon Group. It follows Seo Hi-Soo (Lee Bo-Young) who is a retired actress that married the second son and adopted his son as hers. She is confident and tries to do the best for her son. Jung Seo-Hyun (Kim Seo-Hyung) is the main leader since she has married the first son of the Hyowon Group and nothing escapes her, she always knows what is going on and is intelligent and quick witted.

Obviously revenge among the wealthy and who is going to inherit the company seems to be a common theme right now in kdramas and Penthouse has become pretty famous even getting a second season. I have not watched Penthouse but I am assuming Mine is pretty close in the theme and style and probably even a bit of a rip off to a lot of people. I can’t say if that is really true but I can’t say I really love this style of drama and that is probably why I haven’t watched Penthouse either.

I thought it was an okay drama but it seemed to kinda turn boring and predictable half way through. I have to say that the representation of the wealthy family was somewhat disturbing and there was nothing about their lives that made me envious of them and their wealth. If anything I was completely turned off by this whole disturbing family. Basically all the men in this drama are garbage and they don’t deserve the opportunities that have been given to them. The only exception was Han Soo-Hyuk (Cha Hak-Yeon) the oldest grandson of the group, he was a decent person and didn’t want the money the family had. He still had a strange relationship with the maid and they start off exchanging bedrooms to sleep in at night, I can’t say I really was excited about their relationship either. I don’t know the atmosphere of the drama seemed very dark and disturbing.

It was an interesting plot for the first half when you don’t quite get what is happening but halfway through you kinda get what is going to happen and found that the plot just kinda fell flat for me at the end. Some plot twists but overall I found it a somewhat disappointing ending and with the usual who is going to take over the company and to what lengths will they go to accomplish their goals. It had some cliche elements that was predictable to me. Sometimes the secrets that the different characters had were kinda lame and did not really mean that in the overall plot and I thought were kinda lame at times. Also Hi-Soo’s obsession with protecting her son from everything seemed somewhat over the top. Kids aren’t dumb and you lying to them does more harm than just being honest with kids. You can’t just pretend something away, if anything that will drive your kid to not trust you at all if they know you lie to them about huge issues.

I can’t say I really liked this drama it could be partly I don’t really care for this type of drama which is why I haven’t watched many of them like this style but I didn’t think this was a good drama. It was fine but I feel like people have been more loyal and excited about Penthouse and SkyCastle so I would question that this wasn’t as well done as other ones. Lately it has been hard finding more than one kdrama to watch at a time! I thought this was a weird, dark drama and I feel like their are better versions of this type genre. I feel like they are going to continue with this genre for a while since they seem to think if one is good many is better.

The third drama that I finished is Racket Boys which is about Yoon Hyeon-Jong (Kim Sang-Kyung) who is a badminton coach that takes a coaching job in the country. He brings his family and his teenage son Yoon Hae-Kang (Tang Joon-Sang) who is baseball fan and wants to do baseball but gets convinced to join his Dad’s badminton team to help them out because they are lacking players. This is a heartwarming story about friendship and family and badminton. I don’t think I would normally be interested in a sport drama but the writer is Jung Bo-Hoon who also wrote Prison Playbook and I knew that he would write a good drama, so I took the chance and decided to watch the drama and I wasn’t disappointed.

It was a well written drama with a lot of heartwarming and friendship feels! I love these kind of dramas with lots of characters where there is a lot of room for character development. There is nothing I love more in a drama where a character learns something and changes for the better. It is alright to fail because it means you have learned something. Surprisingly I found the badminton scenes actually interesting and was completely invested in the drama. I wouldn’t be surprised if Badminton gets more popular with school kids because of this drama which I hope will be true because it doesn’t get much attention in a worldwide scale. The drama had plenty of comedic scenes and sometimes it was pretty corny but not in a bad way. It also had many serious and sad scenes that could easily make me tear up. It was a fun ride and I wish they would have a second season, I feel like there is more story to be told. I also loved the village people and they added so much hear to the story.

The one thing I found lacking in the drama is the coaching, I feel like the coaches were lacking to me and seemed like they needed more character development as well. I actually felt annoyed by Hyeon-Jong throughout the drama and really felt like the story was lacking a strong parental leader that could lead the kids well and have a truly important role in the drama. I was craving a strong leader and I thought that the Head Coach Bae was going to step up and start to lead and be this really cool character but he kinda disappeared in the drama and didn’t really get the point and felt it could have been better. To me it seemed like the boys were better at leading each other than the adults. Even Ra Yeong-Ja Coach was super disappointing to me in how she acted at times and I get that there was supposed to be some character development even for the adults but I don’t feel like it really got there even for her. I was also super disappointed in how she acted toward Hae-Kang and didn’t even help him out and only looked out for her students and Han Se-Yoon. I think she did get better but wow Hae-Kang’s parents were really unlikable to me for most of the drama!

I would definitely recommend Racket Boys to everyone! It is a lovely drama that is hard not to enjoy and love. This was my favorite drama this time,if you only watch one drama, I would pick Racket Boys!

Upcoming Korean Dramas

You Are My Spring

A psychiatrist moves into a new building where a murder takes place and another tenant is a hotel concierge manager who has become a target to a man that is a CEO of an investment company and she wants to deny him but is swayed by him. They all become tied to the murderer. I am halfway through this drama and I thought at first this was going to be a fluff drama but definitely is grittier and full of plot twists.

Police University

A former detective who loved beating up criminals becomes a professor and has a student who is a genius hacker and another student who is righteous and honest. Seems like a good ensemble cast with friendships and romance.

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

It is a remake of a movie Mr. Hong and about a romance between a handyman and dentist in a seaside village.

Lost

It is about people that worked hard to see the spotlight and now realized that nothing has happened and everything is just downhill from there. Sounds like a midlife crisis, will check out but if it is overwhelmingly depressive I might not watch it.

Yumi’s Cells

Based on a webcomic and is about an ordinary office worker and the story switches from her real life to inside her mind where cells represents her emotions and will focus on her love cells as they have gone into a coma after a failed relationship. This seems quirky and fun.

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.

February 25, 2021

January and February 2021 Korean Dramas Review

The first drama that I finished watching was Please Don’t Date Him and is about a woman Seo-Ji-Sung who is a programmer at an appliance company. She is working on a AI fridge that can give people suggestions about the next meal they should make but somehow the fridge is able to dig up information and she helps women find out the truth about the men in their lives. She gets involved with a firefighter who is the exact opposite of her and doesn’t even use his cell phone. She has two friends that are also having issues with the men in their lives. One friend is unsure about her marriage and whether there is something wrong with her husband and the other friend gets in and out of relationships too easily.

This is a fun lighthearted comedy drama that I thought was going to be somewhat cheesy but actually wasn’t that bad. It has a lot of fun and at times deals with very serious issues and somehow strikes a good balance. It has different side characters that keeps it fun and interesting and I was unexpectedly hooked on this drama.

The only thing that I thought there needed some improvement is the whole mystery of the computer chip in the fridge that appears and disappears it seemed silly that it would happen. The logic behind this was somewhat missing but the drama was supposed to be more of a comedy so it didn’t really bother me that much.

I would recommend this drama if you just want something lighthearted and just fun!

The second drama that I finished was True Beauty. This drama is based off of a webtoon with the same name and I have to say it is very loosely based off of the webtoon. I am currently reading the webtoon so I was excited for this drama but I knew that the drama would be different from the webtoon since it always seems to be changed quite a bit. I wasn’t expecting it to be changed to this extent though! It felt like a completely different story and I really didn’t know how things were going to happen. So if you have been reading the webtoon don’t expect the plot to be similar in the drama. I am still unsure if I like the webtoon or drama version better. Most often I would always say the webtoon or book is better but in this case I thought the drama actually did better.

The drama is about Im Ju-Kyung (Mun Ka-Young) is a high school student and who has a big heart but has been bullied because of her looks. So learns how to become beautiful through makeup so she reinvents herself when she move to a new high school. A boy at school Lee Soo-Ho (Cha Eun-Woo) learns of her secret and she begs him not to share her secret.

I was really shocked in how they portrayed Ju-Kyung as ugly, when obviously the actress is really pretty, they just gave her some fake acne and glasses. I was like if that is ugly then every regular person is going to be considered ugly. I thought it was a really poor portrayal of someone that struggles with their appearance. I let it go because I wanted to enjoy the drama but that really bothered me! Also Han Seo-Jun character really got the the raw end of the deal and was really disappointing to how he was portrayed in the webtoon. I have to say that this drama had many cheesy moments especially at the beginning when Ju-Kyung would fall into Soo-Ho’s arms and was so clumsy always falling on him. It got to be a lot and was worried that the drama was going to be too over the top. Eventually it calmed down but give it a couple of episodes before giving up because of the cheesiness, it does get better. It is funny though when you find out so many characters are in their late 20’s and 30’s playing high school characters! I know that is normal in acting but it still sometimes better not to look at their ages! lol

I really liked how Ju-Kyung was able to grow in the drama and I feel like the webtoon lacks the same feeling. I didn’t mind the love story in the drama as well even though it really sucked for Seo-Jun I could still appreciate the love story that was portrayed in the drama. I understand that sometimes they have to change things for the drama because the webtoon has more time to tell a story. Ju-Kyung is just a really endearing character in the drama and you can’t help but just think that she is lovely and kind. I really like the sweet moments that the drama showed and then balanced with the comedy scenes. I really like these kind of dramas and I thought it was really a fun ride. I was concerned about the ending because the webtoon hasn’t been completed at least into english and I don’t know the ending so I was worried they would leave it really open ended but thankfully they did a good job at properly ending the drama. The drama really satisfied me even though it did feel like parts that the webtoon had were missing but overall if I had never read the webtoon I would have thought nothing was really missing but I am good with it either way.

I would recommend this drama if you want a feel-good, cheesy, light-hearted drama.

The third drama that I completed was Royal Secret Agent/ Secret Royal Inspector: Joseon Secret. It is about Sung Yi-Gyeom (Kim Myung-Soo) is given the job of Royal Secret Inspector and he has to go investigate public officers and secretly find out their crimes with the help of his servant Park Chun-Sam (Lee Yi-Kyung) and with the help of Hong Da-In (Kwon Na-Ra) who is a female inspector. It is a drama about dealing with corruption of the officials and full of comedy as well.

Chun-Sam is 100% the comedic relief in this drama and I mainly wanted to watch this drama because of the actor Lee Yi-Kyung since I always like his work but it was sad that he wasn’t given the main role. I thought this drama was going to be boring since historical dramas always focus on the rich man that is full of corruption and stealing money from the poor and then taking over the court. Actually it is about this problem but it was more interesting because they would go to different areas of the country and see the different ways in which corruption was happening and how it ties in but is still a separate issue. I was surprised that it actually kept my attention but they have different backstories and they also meet Yi-Gyeom’s half brother and how he is involved. It had an full and interesting story to tell and all the pickles the characters get themselves into and how they get out of them was interesting. It also good comedic moments that kept it more light-hearted at times. Also when bad guys get punished it really feels satisfying. There is a lack of romance in this drama, it does happen but it feels somewhat unresolved in the drama. I am not sure if they want to save it for a second season or if they didn’t want that to be the focus of the drama, either way I was fine with it but the chemistry was a bit lacking because of it though.

What I didn’t like was the corruption aspect got a little old hat after a while and I lost interest especially towards the end. I didn’t really like the last two episodes with the corruption problem it just felt tiring but it still ended well. Also I have never heard of the Secret Royal Inspector job before and thought it was kinda funny when they would announce it and these men would always appear to apprehend the bad guy.

I thought it was decent drama dealing with the corruption of officials even though the topic has been overused a lot, this drama still had an interesting story to tell and I found it was fun!

The last drama that I finished was Run On. This drama starred Ki Seon-Gyeom (Im Si-Wan) who is a runner and is a national sprinter and due to the unfairness happening within the team he retires from running despite his father’s disapproval. It also stars Oh Mi-Joo (Shin Se-Kyung) who is a subtitle translator for movies but also works as a translator. She meets Seon-Gyeom and is drawn to him but also feels she needs to help him. It also about Seo Dan-A (Sooyoung) a CEO of a sports agency that also is a part of the family that runs the Seomyung Group and feels she needs to be strong and always be in competition within her family especially because of her gender. Lee Young-Hwa (Kang Tae-Oh) is a university student that is studying art and Dan-A sees his art and wants him to paint for her and is drawn to his art.

I was a little worried that this drama may be boring and just be about running and sports and I was also worried because of Shin Se-Kyung because some of her dramas were not as good as I wished. I have to say this was a lot more interesting than what I thought. The dialogue was different with the characters and the way they acted seemed different than the average drama. It wasn’t really I need a man to complete me but it would be nice to have a partner to just make our lives better or fuller. It was also about growing as a character and admitting you were wrong and taking steps to becoming better. I was kinda drawn to these characters and especially to Seon-Gyeom, he didn’t really know what he wanted or who he was but it was okay to slowly find out with some encouragement. I think parents and the world have definitely told us we need to be obedient all the time that we push ourselves down and try to always be concerned with others and their needs but you can’t figure out who you are when you live that way. I also thought he was interesting because he was very blunt and honest with what he said but at the same time he was very kind and concerned about others. I think that is a good combo of a person they are honest but they aren’t mean so even when they are blunt it is to never be mean. It was just a refreshing type of character in a drama.

Oh Mi-Joo wasn’t a damsel in distress that needed to be rescued she does need help but it isn’t a one-way kind of help and she is fully capable of taking care of herself. She isn’t annoying type character and is able to keep her cool but I think Seon-Gyeom is the star of this drama. I also really like Dan-A’s character she is strong and honestly I love that she always wore runners, I wish that was normalized in society. I really hate heels and the idea that you are only pretty or trendy if you wear them just feels wrong and I like that she wore normal shoes. The men show more vulnerability in this drama and the women were more fierce, it seemed they were trying to flip the roles a bit but it did feel refreshing to have more variety of types of characters.

What I didn’t like was the chemistry was a bit lacking in the drama when the Seon-Gyeom and Mi-Joo were together it felt like there was a bit of disconnect. For example when he picks her up after running the marathon I was expecting a bigger reaction and something more romantic but I found it lacking. They do have moments where I can see the chemistry but at times I was expecting more and just didn’t feel like I was buying the romance between them. I feel like they didn’t always act like a couple but they did have their moments that I did think were good like when he came to her when she was sick. Another thing I thought was weird was in the last episode when Yeong-Hwa and Dan-A can’t be together but then later then it was fine they were together. I don’t know if she just needed some time to accomplish her job and getting the title that it was okay but it wasn’t really clear. They focused a lot of time on their relationship and then they just rushed it at the end, I thought they could have done a better job of telling that story. Also Seon-Gyeom’s dad was horrible I don’t think he deserved to be forgiven that easily at the end, he should have suffered some more!

I thought this was an interesting drama, good ending and pretty satisfying overall.

UPCOMING DRAMAS

Hello? It’s Me

A single woman who is struggling in life to work and romance gets a visit from her 17 year old self who is the opposite of her currently and helps her in her current state.

Sisyphus: The Myth

A genius engineer who wants to uncover the truth behind his brother’s death and the help of time traveler who travels back in time to help him. I guess they are still doing time traveler dramas, I guess I will check this one out too!

Dear. M

University students lives are affected when anonymous person M confesses on a student forum and everyone tries to find them. It seems to be about friendship and youth.